serum114

ACLU Says Membership Has Doubled — Thanks To Bush Presidency
by Matthew D. LaPlante
Surveillance. Rendition. Torture.

By many measures, the Bush administration has been bad for civil liberties.

Yet the past seven years have been particularly good for the American Civil Liberties Union. National membership in the organization, which fights for freedom of speech and religion, equal protection, due process and privacy, has doubled since Bush took office in 2001 - an extraordinary spurt of growth for the 88-year-old institution.

“I think it’s very much a reflection of the fact that there was a very aggressive assault on civil liberties,” said ACLU national deputy executive director Dorothy Ehrlich. “Over the past seven years, many Americans felt their own cherished values were under attack, and they didn’t want to sit by.”

The ACLU counted about 250,000 members in the final year of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Today, the organization has about 500,000 card-carriers, 2,500 of them in Utah.

Fundraising has increased in kind. According the IRS, the nonprofit had about $44 million in annual revenues in the 2000 fiscal year. In the fiscal year ending in March of 2007, it collected more than $80 million.

That’s on top of what independent chapters throughout the country collected from their members. For instance, the organization’s Northern California chapter - one of the nation’s largest and most active - doubled its revenues, from $4.8 million to $9.1 million, between 2000 to 2006.

But it wasn’t only in left-leaning locales like San Francisco, where the Northern California chapter is headquartered, that people flocked to support the ACLU. Five-hundred miles to the right - both geographically and politically - in Utah, ACLU membership nearly doubled, up from from about 1,300 at the start of the Bush administration, according to chapter officials.

Dani Eyer took the helm of the Utah chapter in 2002 and led the organization until late 2006, through a period in which Americans were increasingly becoming aware that the Bush administration’s response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 would include some rather un-libertarian measures.

From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay and from wiretapping to waterboarding, Eyers said Americans of many political persuasions were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the Bush administration’s policies.

“I gave a lot of presentations,” Eyer said of meetings with students, civic groups, attorneys and others. “I kept thinking we’d heard the worst of it, and then something new would come out. I had to change every presentation I gave because something new would happen.”

The revelations were frightening and saddening, said Carole Gnade, who was the Utah chapter’s executive director when Bush took office - and during the months following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But, “it was really was reinvigorating,” she said.

Gnade said many Americans had not thought much about civil liberty issues during the Clinton years, “but the truth of the matter is, there was a downhill slide with Clinton, too.”

As such, Ehrlich said, Americans would be making a mistake if they assumed that under a new administration, the work of the ACLU will be easier. She noted that although many think of the organization as aligned with the political left, it is officially nonpartisan.

And no matter which party assumes control of the executive branch come November, she said, “We’ve still got to fix the damage that has been done.”

By the numbers

* 500,000 people are members of the ACLU today, double the membership of 2001.
* 2,500 Utahns are ACLU members.
* $80 million was collected by the group in the fiscal year ending March 2007, up from $44 million in fiscal year 2000.

© 2008 Salt Lake CityTribune

__________________

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Hunter S. Thompson

babylonDon

Good. They're easier to spy on when they clump up like that.

__________________
http://action.credomobile.com/comics...ing_obama.html

McCain '08: 'He'll Get Those Kids Off Your Lawn'

“Ahh, Cat Juggling. The sport of kings. Crazy, crazy kings.”- Oscar Wilde

Kanadesaga

While I support their efforts, I never join any organization.


For just that reason.

__________________
"..., because hope don't park the motherfucking car.

okpfloyd

I can't belong to any organization that would have someone like me as a member (Shout out to Grouch for that gem)....but yet another indicator of how much the * regime has harmed civil liberties.

For the fresh meat here: "*" represents this asshole (I can't bare to write his name anymore)....

__________________
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”.

George Orwell

PursuitOfHappinessParty

They're great. I've been a supporter of their efforts for years. I love how the corporate MSM tries to spin-cycle the ACLU's efforts into some group of Liberal hack lawyers helping the 'enemy'.

You can bet your ass that the first thing said when the Patriot Act was brought up was "You know the ACLU's gonna come after us".

__________________
Its like a finger pointing at the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you'll miss all that heavenly glory. - Bruce Lee in 'Enter The Dragon'

Kana

Liberal hack lawyers like Bob Barr.

I support the ACLU, too. I was a member of the college chapter at my university. State-worshippers hate the ACLU, which means they must be doing good work.

__________________
Groovyville

Kanadesaga

he is now and will always be "the retard". maybe enhanced to that "retard from texas", "...from crawford", but always, retard.

__________________
"..., because hope don't park the motherfucking car.

okpfloyd

Yeah but I think that would be an insult to "retards" everywhere...he does not deserve to be associated with them.....and BTW he's a from Connecticut T....he's even a yankee...lol.

__________________
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”.

George Orwell

Kanadesaga

I do apologize to retards everywhere. Born, but he was raised in Texas. Eastern "educated" and forever brain damaged. A prime example in favor of Estate Taxes.

__________________
"..., because hope don't park the motherfucking car.

babylonDon

The second thing was, "now we can go after them."

__________________
http://action.credomobile.com/comics...ing_obama.html

McCain '08: 'He'll Get Those Kids Off Your Lawn'

“Ahh, Cat Juggling. The sport of kings. Crazy, crazy kings.”- Oscar Wilde