A Republic, If We Can Keep It.

This is something I just put up on my blog. Thought I would share.

http://imperialism-inc.livejournal.com

Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Ben Franklin was approached and asked a question about what kind of government had been created. His response was "A republic, if you can keep it." His statement was intended to indicate the necessity of citizens being involved in their government, lest it fall to corrupt men looking out for their own power and interests. Today we are closer to that danger than ever before.

The Bush administration, and their dwindling number of supporters, are a serious danger to all this country is supposed to stand for. At one point I might have put forward a milder view. That perhaps they were just uninformed, gullible fools or too blinded by "my country right or wrong" type thinking. Now it has gone way beyond that. Now they are a true and serious danger to our future. I hesitate to use such strong language, because I know what it feels like to be on the other end. I know from the Bush administration's use of similar statements about "liberals" in their advertising campaign leading up to the Iraq war. But, now the dangers are just too great to ignore and whether their support comes from ignorance or malice no longer matters.

Lets review what the Bush administration has done in the last 5 years to destroy the very foundations of this country.

They have created a tyrannical court system. In the United States of America, the President can now imprison anyone he wants, including American citizens, on his say so alone. All he has to do is declare someone an "enemy combatant" and that person has no right to trial, no right to counsel, indeed, no right to even have charges leveled against him. Though it should be noted that the lap-dog Congress has enabled such a situation the idea did not come from them, and there is much more.

They have abandoned the Geneva Conventions. Despite the fact that, according to the Constitution, all foreign treaties are to have the force of law, the Bush administration has claimed they can get around it, again, by using a new designation called "enemy combatant". Outside of the administration and the GOP, legal scholars are nearly unanimous in their rejection of the idea that you can "get around" the Geneva Conventions. And yet , they have continued to act as if they can. Bush has ordered his lawyers to come up with justifications for why it is OK to use psychological and physical torture on people. To send them to other countries to be tortured.

They have also suppressed dissent by many means. The two famous cases are the Plame case and the secret wire tapping and spying. In the Plame case the Bush administration outed a CIA agent because her husband was providing the public with information that made their case for war weaker. Joseph Wilson told the world that the administration claims that Iraq had sought nuclear materials was a bogus fraud and that they knew so when they said it. So they went after him by outing his wife. It has now come out that she was a CIA NOC (no-official cover) working for a company that was tracking weapons of mass destruction proliferation. The very subject that they claim to care so much about!!

In the case of the illegal wire taps and spying is the frightening example of the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice. The FBI has been watching them for years now simply because they were handing out some anti-war leaflets! And , lets be clear about something: the wire taps are indeed illegal and were not necessary. There is already a process in place for the case where the government feels that the information is too sensitive to be presented in open court and where time is of the essence. There is a special court called the FISA court where just such information can be presented. In addition, the executive can apply for a warrant through this court up to 3 days after they begin their surveillance (for the case where time is of the essence)! That the Bush administration did not go to the court ever on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American citizens, and the information above about spying on dissenting organizations, should tell anyone with a couple of functioning brain cells that they were up to no good. Hell, the FISA court is basically a rubber stamp court. They approve something like 90% of all warrant requests brought before them. So if they didn't bother to bring it before them it must be because they knew there was no justification for their request.

This is all in addition to the intimidation tactics that have been going on with regards to things like the no fly list. There have been several reports of environmental advocates and Green party members, who have never been in any kind of trouble, showing up on no fly lists. And even worse, back in June of 2002 there was a story of several people going to a protest in Georgia. The group, Peace Action Milwaukee, was going to protest a place called "The School of the Americas". They were stopped and detained for no apparent reason other than their political leanings and kept from participating in much of the protest. Ironically the group included a priest , a nun and a 16 year old girl who was going to learn about how to exercise her Constitutional rights and "petition her Government for a redress of grievances".

To top it all off the Bush administration has repeatedly and specifically stated it has an inherent right to do these things. That the President of the United States is completely above the law. They call it the Unitary Executive Theory but scholars just call it horse shit. And ,really , do you need to be a scholar to know it is horse shit? I mean isn't this pretty much elementary school American history we are talking about? That no one, including the President is above the law? The courts have surely always held to that idea. That the President works for us , not vice-versa , and that he is bound by the legal contract called the Constitution. That there is a balance of powers, of which the President is only one.

And tell me, if the President can really do all these things, if there really is no law he has to follow, then what the fuck is the difference between that and a dictatorship? That we get to elect a new dictator every four years? Give me a break.


That they claim they are doing it protect us is irrelevant. I don't believe it for a second myself, but that is neither here nor there. For what is it they are protecting if they have demolished the very thing worth protecting?!! Liberty and freedom are not just empty words to use as one justifies the next massacre of civilians. They mean something. If they are worthing fighting for, dying for, then they are worth living. Which brings up a good point. Why are conservatives and Bush supporters such pussies? You know, we used to have people in this country that said things like, "Give me liberty or give me death." Now we have a bunch of conservative wimps who start quaking in their panties at the first sign of trouble and want to throw it all right out the window. It is pathetic. Especially from a group that claim to care so much about such things. If they don't have the balls to say it, I will. Give me liberty or give me death.

It is far past time that we removed these dangerous, incompetent fools from office. As for their few remaining supporters, well, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Deeply.

Thank you!

Whew. That felt good to get off my chest. :)

:)

undisputable clarity of your post and will check out your blog.

Thanks it was really refreshing to read.

for now. Some foundational stuff.

I plan on much more politics in the future, so check back.

Though that might mean that in order to keep our integrity and be internally consistent--we might actually have to take some kind of action (beyond writing notes, signing petitions, making a donation now and again). Such a commitment might indeed actually require extraordinary action if things continue their slide towards totalitarianism... all the more reason to redouble whatever efforts one can discover to convince others to join the resistance, vote appropriately, become involved and seek to sway ever more people.

If we can get enough people to actively seek to get enough people to actively seek to--and so on, we stand a real chance, but this takes dedicated effort to approach others and engage them with our best efforts at persuasion. As the situation deteriorates and more people suffer, the easier this will become--but unless we want to face the worst version of that eventuality, we have to persuade enough people before the November elections.

So, to swear or not to swear, whatever you do is fine, but go talk to your friends and neighbors as soon as possible (if you need inspiration, take a copy of the Bill of Rights and just review it)!

They planned for it, they alerted us what to watch out for, and they warned us. They are surely spinning in their graves right now over what they see going on in the country they loved so much.

It's a shame that we haven't taken better care of it for them, and had more respect for the protections they provided us.

You're right; they're not doing anything to "protect" us.

he had sworn to "keep us safe" I was ready to scream. Doesn't the President swear the same oath as everyone who enters the military?

It's the Constitution that must be kept safe... If we have that, we can take care of the rest, thank you very much..........