Joint Terrorism Task Force debate captures Portland's idiosyncratic attitude
March 10, 2011
by Brad Schmidt, The Oregonian

Protesters stormed into Portland City Hall on Thursday to deliver petitions to policymakers' offices opposing involvement in the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force. When the group couldn't get beyond a lobby security point, protesters began shouting "City Council, Come on Down!" Only Commissioner Randy Leonard appeared, helping a representative deliver the petitions and talking the group into moving back outside, where the demonstration began.

For confirmation of "Keep Portland Weird"-ness, look no further than the decade-old debate about the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Nowhere else have city leaders limited their relationship with the FBI over civil liberties.

Nowhere else have activists protested involvement of a handful of police officers.

Nowhere else have discussions come up again and again, with packed City Hall galleries, flipflopping politicians and onlookers who jeer cooperative agreements with the feds.

And now the debate is back.

by Dan Meek

As I predicted in early January 2011 (see the videos below in this blog), the U.S. Senate refused to reform the filibuster. The crucial decision was that of the Democratic Leadership not to challenge the absurd and unconstitutional "Senate rule" that requires a 2/3 vote of all members in order to change any Senate rule, even at the beginning of a new session.

Knowing that any reform would require 67 votes, Senators then voted on 3 reforms, knowing that all would fail anyway. The reform with the best showing was the Merkley-Udall proposal to require all filibusters to be "talking"--that is, Senators would actually have to hold the floor during the filibuster instead of merely sending a message saying "I filibuster." The current system allows literally thousands of filibusters to be happening at any time, and the Senate refused to change it.

Even the Merkley-Udall bill received only 46 votes, with 4 Democrats voting against it (Baucus, Pryor, Reid, Levin) and 3 not voting (Feinstein, Inouye, Kerry). Even the 46 voting "yes" to this limited reform knew that the vote did not matter, because the Democratic Leadership refused to allow them a majority vote to abrogate the 2/3 vote rule (which would have resulted if the President of the Senate (VP Joe Biden) had ruled in favor of a point of order that the 2/3 vote rule was invalid). The reformer Democrats failed even to offer that point of order.

So the Democrats failed to reform the filibuster. This is consistent with my belief that the filibuster serves them well. It allows them to claim to be progressive on issues and then consistently fail to achieve progressive policies, while blaming "the process." For example, nearly every one of the Democrats in the Senate last December claimed to be against extending the Bush tax cut on incomes over $250,000 per year (and certainly on incomes over $1 million per year). Yet, despite their 59-41 majority in the Senate (including Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman), plus the Presidency and a similar majority in the House of Representatives), they "failed."

At least that is the conventional wisdom: "They tried to stop the tax cuts for the wealthy and super-wealthy, but they failed." The conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, they did not want to stop the tax cuts and so they extended them. They want progressive voters to believe, however, that they wanted to stop the tax cuts, so they blamed the filibuster (under which they claim to need 60 votes to do anything).

Without the filibuster, the majority Democrats in the Senate would be far more accountable to the voters. With the filibuster, they can continue to advance Republican causes (and thus continue to get big campaign contributions from corporate executives) while blaming "the process" for their predictable "failures" that are not actually failures at all.

Filibuster reform goes bust, by Manu Raju on Politito

March 10 RALLY OUTSIDE CITY HALL DAY OF JTTF VOTE!

Say No to Portland Joining the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).
Say Yes to Civil Rights!

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!
If your group wants to co-sponsor this event please contact civilrights@progparty.org

DATE:  Thursday March 10
RALLY:  12:30 pm    
SPEAKERS:  1:00 pm
CITY COUNCIL VOTE:  2:00 pm (public testimony will be taken)
LOCATION:  Outside City Hall Council Chambers 1221 SW 4th Ave, Portland, OR 97204

On March 10 the Portland City Council will be voting on whether the City of Portland should re-enter the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

We strongly oppose Portland joining the JTTF, because we value our civil rights.  We don't want roving wiretaps, secret access and domestic spying on non-violent activists & community groups.

Further, Portland police officers cannot comply with Oregon law (ORS 181.575) and at the same time operate as deputized FBI JTTF agents. The most recent FBI 2008 Guidelines--as well as documented abuses uncovered by the ACLU across the country--show that FBI monitoring of individuals and organizations engaged in lawful First Amendment activity has only increased since 2005, when the City of Portland left the JTTF.

The City of Portland has a shameful history of spying on civic organizations, activists, and concerned citizens.  As written by Ben Jacklet in the Portland Tribune (Sept 12, 2002; updated Oct 30, 2009), the Portland Police engaged in political spying for 3 decades (that we know about): 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

The Secret Watchers:  How the police bureau spied for decades on the people of Portland

[The Portland] police kept watch over a broad range of harmless political and civic organizations. Intelligence officers built files on the People’s Food Store co-op, the Northwest Oregon Voter Registration Project and the Women’s Rights Coalition -- even the Bicycle Repair Collective, a city program offering a $24 course on how to fix flat tires and adjust brakes.

The files obtained by the Tribune focus on organizations, not individual Portlanders. But in the files appear the names of at least 3,000 people from 576 organizations. The names are presented in formal intelligence reports, appear on lists of participants in meetings and groups, are highlighted on posters that advertise events and are underlined in newspaper clippings.

Along with militants and activists are hundreds of regular citizens who were included simply for practicing everyday democracy -- writing letters, signing petitions, joining organizations and attending lectures or school board meetings.

Let's not revert to the Portland Police as political spies.  We said NO in 2005 and we say NO now!

CO-SPONSORS:  Oregon Progressive Party, Oregon Jericho, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, NW Student Coalition, Portland Central American Solidarity Committee, the Portland Coalition Opposing Political Repression, Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, International Socialist Organization and you...

For more information visit:
Oregon ACLU:  aclu-or.org/content/fbis-joint-terrorism-task-force-0
Committee to Stop FBI Repression: StopFBI.net
Oregon Progressive Party:  ProgParty.org/repression

contact:  civilrights@progparty.org or pdxcopr@gmail.com

CONTACT CITY COUNCIL and TELL THEM WHY WE DON'T WANT the JTTF in PORTLAND

They are elected officials.  If they vote for the JTTF, then we won't vote for them!
 
Sam Adams
Mayor, Commissioner of Finance and Administration
(503) 823-4120
Samadams@portlandoregon.gov
 
Amanda Fritz
Commissioner of Public Utilities, Position Number 1
(503) 823-3008
amanda@portlandoregon.gov  
 
Nick Fish
Commissioner of Public Works, Position Number 2
(503) 823-3589
Nick@portlandoregon.gov
 
Dan Saltzman
Commissioner of Public Affairs, Position Number 3
(503) 823-4151  
dan@portlandoregon.gov   
 
Randy Leonard
Commissioner of Public Safety, Position Number 4
(503) 823-4682
randy@portlandoregon.gov
 
LaVonne Griffin-Valade
City Auditor
(503) 823-4078
lavonne.griffin-valade@portlandoregon.gov

Suppose you had a country that invades other countries because they think they may be in some danger. This strong country just happens to be the biggest arms dealer in the world, the runner up not even close. This country has over 800 military bases, (maybe as many as 1000) around the world and 0 foreign bases on its territory. This is a rich country that got its start by slaughtering the inhabitants and taking control of the vast lands. This country tortures its prisoners, jails more citizens per capita than any other nation.  This country will lock up those who cry for peace but honor those who lie, cheat and try to destroy all its freedoms. This country makes millionaires out of scoundrels and liars and the press is bought and paid for. The leaders say that we must go to war but stay back in their air conditioned halls of government and watch as millions of poor people are murdered or injured beyond belief. This country is not Germany of the 1930s or the U.S.S.R. of the 60s; not even Italy of the 20s; this is the United States of America of 2011. My country! I did not serve in the US Navy for this!