Editor of the Reformer (a version of this may or may not appear in the reformer--we'll see):
On Friday congress approved yet another nail in the coffin of democracy when they passed a last minute
bill okaying warrantless wiretapping of international emails and phone calls of U.S. citizens. Prior to that
were such notables as the revocation of habeus corpus--the right to know why you're imprisioned--and
posse commitus act, enacted after the civil war to prevent the government from using the military on its own people. Both of these moves by Bush are of course indispensible in the "War on Terror," if by "indispensible" you mean "irrelevant." Then we have the July 17 executive order by Bush in which he gives himself the right to seize the assets of anyone against the war. Is this news to you, and if so, does it seem to horrible to be true?
I now fully expect everyone with a New Hampshire licence plate to start committing suicide. And for the rest of us: if we just let another day go by with just business as usual, consuming our over-large share of earth resouces and sedative "news" while these arrogant tyrants drop turd after turd on our hard-won
constitution--well, our founding fathers who are currently spinning in their graves will be waiting to
haunt us for eternity after we die in detention centers built by Haliburton using our tax dollars.
Whoever thinks al-Qaeda ceased calling internationally because of Bush's surveillance is--to quote an alternet.org poster--dumb enough to be a republican. They won't because they never have--they've always assumed their calls could be monitored. That's why 911 attacker Mohammed Atta travelled overseas for face-to-face meetings with his handlers. Meanwhile, the really interesting stuff like
F.B.I reports of al-Qaeda operatives taking flight lessons are ignored by an out-to-lunch "president" on
his month-long vacation. The real reason Bush needs to monitor us is straight out of 1984--because it will be useful building dossiers against anti-war activists and blackmailing political opponents. Um, that's not
freedom.
The people who started this country picked up muskets and pitchforks and stormed the capitol when they
didn't like exactly the same kind of tyranny we are suffering now. Just consider these excerpts from the Declaration of Independance:
"The history of the present King [George] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for
establishing Judiciary powers. ?He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone.?He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their
substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our
legislatures. ?He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. ?He
has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For depriving us, in
many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences:For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein
an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit
instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters,
abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: ?For
suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in
all cases whatsoever. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms
against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by
their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the
inhabitants of our frontiers.A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define
a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
We've got to do something. Is anyone else as freaked out as me? Can we start a support group or something?