"PLEASE call your Senator to support the filibuster" -Shahid

An urgent message from CounterHegemony Podcast friend, Shahid Buttar:

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I don't send many mass emails, because they clog the internet and usually annoy the hell out of me. However, I'm willing to set that aside given the profound threat to the nation looming next week. And if you want to skip my diatribe below, just hit this link and be done with me:

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For the past six years, I've devoted myself to the struggle against facism in this country, and the prospect of Sam Alito being confirmed to the Supreme Court chills my spine. There's little I can say that I haven't already about Alito, except perhaps to sum up the future history: at the moment of its political collapse, besieged by scandals around Congressional ethics, arbitrary abduction & torture, domestic spying, disaster preparedness, and hijacking Congress to transform medicare and victimize seniors, the right-wing forces that have seized all three branches of our federal government has thrown a hail mary -- and unless Democratic Senators mount a successful filibuster, it will be caught on Tuesday, when Alito will be confirmed and appointed to a lifetime seat on the nation's highest court.

If the Supreme Court falls to the right-wing, the country's policy framework will be increasingly dictated by the president and the courts -- the two branches over which "We the People" have the least control. This could be a travesty of the highest historical order, reversing the 1930s showdown between FDR and a right-wing Court that ranks among the most significant turning points in U.S. history. In retrospect, a stolen presidential election (or two) will pale(s) in comparison. And don't just take my word for it -- see what Bill Moyers and Howard Zinn have to say, and if you want to dig deeper, http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/alito.php links to several exhaustive research reports at the end.

I feel like Moshe the Beadle. Read the first few pages of Eli Weizel's "Night" (depicting the slow encroachment of Nazi oppression on Jews in eastern europe, ultimately culminating in the Holocaust) if the reference escapes you. For the love of whatever you hold dear (e.g., God, this nation, your children's future), PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATORS and demand their support for a filibuster. I'd recommend saying that you will contribute no money to any further campaigns unless they do everything possible to defend the Court.

Please also forward this to anyone you know who might care at all about freedom, liberty, equality or justice.

Shahid

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CounterHegemony Podcast 15 - Shahid Buttar on The Rule of Law

Download it directly
or subscribe to the podcast by pasting this URL into your podcatcher software (itunes, ipodder, etc.) : http://counterhegemony.libsyn.org/rss

1st note: I noticed the last episode has had more than 4 times the number of downloads than previous one. It could be a particularly good show, or it could mean that I can leave each episode on top for more than a week before they 'saturate' (so to speak). I'll follow the numbers for this one and will produce the next episode when it makes sense (I don't want to undermine wide distribution by over-producing).

2nd note: I strongly recommend downloading and listening to "MLK Against Viet Nam Mashup" which is a podcast of MLK's famous anti-war speech, with a pretty hip groove in the background.

3rd note: This podcast is the second from my interview with Shahid Buttar back in October. Here, he describes his understanding of 'The Rule of Law," some historical moments in the development of "Rule of Law" legal theory, and some critical issues around the debate. I still have a significant amount of that interview to distribute, so stay tuned if you like...

Music:
I Fought the Law, The Clash
Moving Cities [Cinematic Orchestra Remix], Faze Action
Fuck This Shit, Belle and Sebastian
Jayjayanthi (Mixed By Kingsuk Biswas), Jolly Mukherjee With The Madras Cinematic Orchestra
Chain Of Fools, Aretha Franklin

www.counterhegemony.org