the gloves need to come off

It's time has long been tradition in the United States that former presidents keep their counsel and do not speak publicly of their opinions of the jobs their successors are doing. That is a good policy under normal circumstances.

We are no longer in normal circumstances. Today, the government of the United States, under the direction of our president, George W. Bush, is seeing fit to undermine the very principles of freedom and rule of law upon which this nation was founded.

The president has proudly and combatively defended his unprecedented violations of the Bill of Rights, the country is now involved in an illegal occupation of a sovereign nation, American citizens are being held without warrant and with no recourses to courts, people are being tortured and killed around the globe, all in the name of freedom. Few seem to grasp the irony, and those who do are marginalized as kooks and tin-foil hat wearers.

It is time for President Bill Clinton and President Jimmy Carter to step forward and publicly speak out on the atrocities of which their successor is guilty. They don't have to say much, and they only have to say it once, but it is time for them to go on record and do what they are STILL sworn to do, to defend the Constitution of the United States.

Please, sirs, speak up. We need you, and we need you now.