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Letter to Rush Limbaugh

February 3, 2009
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January 30, 2009Dear Mr. Limbaugh,The Associated Press reports your new contract with Premiere Radio Networks will enrich you with at least $38 million a year over the next eight years. You are making this money on the public property of the American people for which you pay no rent. You, Rush Limbaugh, are on welfare.As…

Wither Wall Street

January 31, 2009
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Soon after the passage in 1999 of the Clinton-Rubin-Summers-P. Graham deregulation of the financial industry, I boarded a US Air flight to Boston and discovered none other than then-Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers a few seats away. He was speaking loudly and constantly on his cell phone. When the plane took off he invited…

Open Letter to President Obama on Consumer Protection

January 23, 2009
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Dear President Obama: Underneath many of our country’s economic problems is the thirty-year collapse of consumer protection—both of the regulatory kind and of the self-help kind known as proper access to justice. Last month major consumer groups sent you a letter proposing action to rein in exploitation of consumers as debtors, as buyers of oil,…

Letter to President Obama on UN Convention Against Torture

January 21, 2009
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Dear Mr. President: We are writing to urge you to avoid the disregard for international legal obligations that condemned your predecessor. The issue concerns investigating or prosecuting torture. The United States ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 1994. Article 12 of the CAT provides: “Each State Party shall ensure that its competent…

Open Letter to George W. Bush In The Final Days of His Presidency

January 21, 2009
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January 14, 2009 Dear George W. Bush: You may have had your last softball news conference at the White House, but judging by the many people in our country who have serious criticisms of your eight year tenure, there are additional numerous unanswered questions which should be addressed to you for the record and for…

Punishing the Palestinians

January 17, 2009
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In the long sixty-year tortured history of the Palestinian expulsion from their lands, Congress has maintained that it is always the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, and now Hamas who are to blame for all hostilities and their consequences with the Israeli government. The latest illustration of this Washington puppet show, backed by the most modern…

Don’t Abuse Presidential Pardons

January 12, 2009
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Dear Mr. President: We strongly urge you to demonstrate a devotion to the rule of law by refraining from presidential pardons for any current or former White House, Cabinet or agency official in your administration for torture, illegal surveillance, unconstitutional imprisonments, obstruction of justice, perjury, violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, or…

Open Letter to President-Elect Obama

January 9, 2009
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Dear President-Elect Obama: You have been receiving a great deal of advice since November 4, 2008 from people and groups who either want you to advance policies not covered in your campaign or who want you to be more specific about initiatives you emphasized. There are two suggestions which may not be among your store…

Letter to Bush on Gaza Crisis

December 31, 2008
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Dear George W. Bush— Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama’s declaration that “there is only one president at a time” over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being massacred…

Government Without Law

December 26, 2008
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Government Without Law By Ralph Nader Over thirty years ago, a book came out titled “How the Government Breaks the Law”, by Jethro K. Lieberman.” Even then it was old news and the examples cited seemed small compared to today’s chronic law-breakers in the White House and at many federal departments and agencies. Many recent…