Defend Our Constitution
This is wending its way across the net via email, and is well worth a read and look.  Provided by Therese Jansen of Lesbian Worlds

I'm really upset about the way Attorney General Ashcroft has been riding roughshod over our traditional Constitutional and civil rights in his effort to look tough on terrorists.  Please join me in speaking up about it, at:

http://www.moveon.org/constitution/

Did you know that in the past two months this administration has:

• Announced that it would permit monitoring of conversations between  attorneys and their clients if suspected of terrorism;
• Abolished civilian jury trials for non-citizen residents accused of  terrorism;
• Permitted the secret detention of suspects accused of terrorism;
• Asked to use secret evidence to prosecute deportation hearings  without providing that evidence to the defense.

This blatant disregard of our legal processes doesn't just upset lawyers and judges.  True conservatives (with a small 'c') are equally upset.  William Safire, the conservative columnist, has called the

Administration's moves "a dismaying departure from due process" and an assumption of "dictatorial power."  Not since the internment during World War II of thousands of patriotic Americans of German or Japanese descent has there been such a willful disregard of the protections accorded us all by the Constitution.

Will you join me in asking that our Representatives and Senators show a little more backbone in dealing with the Administration?  Go to:

http://www.moveon.org/constitution/

Sinclair Lewis wrote a book in 1935 called It Can't Happen Here.  Well, it can happen here if you and I and others who care sit on our hands. The freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights didn't come to us easily - we fought a revolution for them.  We won't keep them easily either. 

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

We all felt under attack when Al Qaeda terrorists attacked us in New York and Washington.  The last thing we need is an attack on our fundamental rights by members of this administration.  So let's get back to basics.  Let's ask our representatives in Congress to uphold their oath of office, to "support and defend the Constitution," at:

http://www.moveon.org/constitution/

Let's do this together.  Thank you.