Independence Day - remember what we are celebrating
John Wesley Hall recommends that we all read Thomas Paine's Common Sense and then the Declaration of Independence.
A public defender gives us the president's speech from the movie Independence Day.
Joseph Galloway at McClatchy newspapers writes about how both presidential candidates are celebrating Independence Day by gutting the Fourth Amendment and voting to extend the FISA Act complete with amendments granting immunity to "the telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love."
Sentencing Law and Policy points out the irony of celebrating liberty in the country that leads the world in incarceration rates.
Mark Bennett notes the significance of the Declaration of Independence on current events; the indictment of King George in the Declaration could easily describe the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Simple Justice is less than sanguine about the coming year; and
Jon Katz reminds us that "July 4 is meaningless without an ongoing struggle for civil liberties. Now is the time to join that struggle."
