04/15/08 - Richard Duffee: "No, Jim Himes is much better; Chris Shays is a true believer in the war and the imperial presidency."

County Fair: Impeach and a Pair

fairfieldweekly.com, CT

In 2006, Richard Duffee, the Green Party candidate for Connecticut's fourth congressional district, dropped out and endorsed Democrat Diane FarrellChris Shays. This year, Duffee says he's running again and has no plans to back likely Democratic nominee Jim Himes since he won't run on a promise to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Impeachment, says Duffee is more vital in post-Bush 2009 than it was in 2007....

....But back to the issue at hand: The impeachment of the president (which all of a sudden seems reasonable and doable). Himes, the former chair of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee, says "as a matter of principle, we should hold any officials who've broken the law to task. God knows, Chris Shays has taken no action. But for a guy like me who won't have Bush and Cheney leaving office by the time I get to Washington, I don't see it as a worthy use of time."....

....Himes, hoping to throw that knock-out blow Farrell almost delivered twice to the 15-full-term congressman (she got 48 percent of the vote in 2004 and 2006), doesn't see Duffee as a potential spoiler. "I think the people in this district can see that there is a clear choice between me, someone who cares deeply about the Constitution, and Chris Shays, someone who's voted to help destroy it."

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03/21/08 - Opinion - Congress should pass a federal shield law and guarantee protections for a journalist's sources

Protection of news sources is vital

The Constitution ought to be enough. The guarantee of a free press enumerated in the Bill of Rights should be sufficient to protect journalists from government interference. Too often, it's not.

Congress has the power to pass a federal shield law that would increase protections for reporters. In the face of an increasingly hostile judicial climate, it's the right move. A free press is too important to this country to take lightly.

Confidentiality is often a necessity for potential whistleblowers. If a person's anonymity will not be protected, putting jobs and livelihoods at stake, there is little incentive for people with valuable information to come forward. When insiders with knowledge of malfeasance -- corporate, government or otherwise -- want to tell their stories, they must be promised protections. When the government chips away at those protections, the nation suffers. Imprisoning journalists for failing to disclose sources, forcing such reporters to pay contempt fees in an effort to bankrupt them into speaking -- these are actions that undermine a free press.....

Via Greenwich Time

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"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
	Eric Arthur Blair or George ORWELL British novelist and essayist (1903-1950)