July 18, 2002
Slouching Toward The Gulag
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Bush is after more power, using "Homeland Security" as an anvil of fear in order to pressure Congress to give him unprecedented powers to deny us our liberties and freedom. Now he is proposing more secrecy and the right to use the military to intervene in domestic affairs.
The Bush administration grab for Soviet style powers is abhorrent and should be a non-starter for any freedom loving American.
Note this passage from an article about Bush's announcement this week that he wants to possibly expand his "homeland security" powers to include the use of the military for domestic purposes:
"Before Monday, senior Pentagon officials had repeatedly said that they had no plans to ask Congress to revamp the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which sharply restricts the military's ability to participate in domestic defense. The law is seen as an impediment to military participation in homeland defense.
In a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee in May, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld whether the Bush administration was hoping to make changes in the act. "No, senator, we're not," Rumsfeld replied. "We're not looking for any long-term or short-term change with respect to Posse Comitatus."
But in the plan, the administration argues that "the threat of catastrophic terrorism requires a thorough review of the laws permitting the military to act within the United States in order to determine whether domestic preparedness and response efforts would benefit from greater involvement of military personnel and, if so how.""
(See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/showcase/chi-0207160166jul16.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed, also see: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&
ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20020717/ap_on_go_pr_wh/homeland_security_14)
Unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress have given "little Guido"
pretty much whatever he's wanted to put in his loot bag when it comes
to stealing rights from the American Constitution.
It takes a Democrat not currently in Congress, along with a former FBI and CIA director, to warn us of the totalitarian road that the Bush cartel is trotting down:
"Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and former FBI and CIA chief William Webster challenged administration policies dealing with terrorism suspects Tuesday, and Christopher warned that secrecy threatens to lead America down a path to repression."
(See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/16/state2022EDT0216.DTL)
All too often, the Democratic leadership gives its GOP opponents the benefit of the doubt, thinking the best of human nature. The right wing, knowing the darkness of their own inner hearts, has nothing but contempt for this perspective, based on their own determination to attain and retain power through any means and at any costs. The cynicism and greed of the right wing hold liberals in disdain, because, quite simply, they believe that liberals will not fight back hard enough -- and count on them to eventually give in.
While the Senate leadership wins an occasional vote on "bread and butter" issues, for the most part it has rolled over again and again on the major votes that have given the Bush administration the authority to trample on our Constitutional rights and advance in the direction of a police state. Who ever thought that the Republican Party, with its clichéd, politically packaged praise of democracy and freedom, would move so quickly in the direction of Joe Stalin?
Now we have the Bush regime TIPS program coming down the pike. The TIPS program will recruit one million American workers who have daily access to American homes and businesses. Their role will be, let's not mince words, to spy on their fellow Americans. So if a UPS delivery person drops off a package and sees a poster that labels Bush a terrorist, you might expect a visit from the FBI. Yes, this has already happened in America, even before the launch of the East German Secret Police Inspired TIPS program:
"But it's not just government and industry that are needed. The plan calls for beefing up the Citizen Corps, a group of security-conscious volunteers. It's one of the several times in the strategy that the president mentions either local or civilian support.
One dramatic citizen-action plan that's reportedly been discussed is the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, a Department of Justice project. TIPS volunteers are reportedly being recruited from among people who have access to homes, businesses, and delivery systems - like postmen, utility services personnel, and truck drivers. They would alert authorities to any suspicious activities."
This will lead, despite Tom Ridge's unconvincing denial, to a network of Americans spying on other Americans. It will be the American Stasi. Look what has already happened without one million Bush cartel spies within our midst:
"- Agents from the FBI and Secret Service went to Houston's "Car Art Museum" after a tipster complained the tiny gallery was involved in "anti-American activity." An exhibit entitled "Secret Wars" that dealt with covert operations and government secrets provoked the complaint.
- Secret Service Agents and a local police officer questioned North Carolina college student A.J. Brown in the doorway of her home in response to a report she had displayed "un-American material" in her dorm room - in this case a poster critical of President Bush's stance on the death penalty.
- Two FBI agents quizzed San Francisco's Barry Reingold on his front doorstep in late October. The retired 60-year-old was amazed to discover that they were responding to comments made during a workout at a local gym that were critical of Bush. "Some fellow weightlifters called Reingold a disloyal American," reported the Monitor. "One, apparently, called the government."
(See http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=13491)
Don't expect the Senate Democrats to come to our rescue, as we slip toward an American gulag and police state. Their pollsters have convinced them that they can only win in November on healthcare, social security and unemployment. They are dreadfully fearful of standing up to the Bush steamroller that is paving over our civil liberties. Heck, you haven't heard a peep from a leading Democratic senator about arrests and threats of arrest if you protest a Bush speech in the presence of the un-elected one. We've heard only the faintest of murmuring about Americans being detained without being charged or having access to legal defense and the American court system.
And even when you hear words of outrage, they are fleeting and are not accompanied by any serious action or investigation on the part of the Democrats who control the Senate.
You can be held in detention out of reach of our court system; you can be spied upon by your neighbor; you can have your library book records investigated by the FBI; you can have your phones tapped; you can have your Internet activity spied upon; and now Bush is proposing to use the military for domestic needs. And this list is just for starters.
Terrorism is ending up triumphant. We are becoming a country different than the one that was founded upon life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Inch by inch, we are moving toward something we always reviled in our freedom-loving guts: think Joe Stalin, think Francisco Franco, think Fidel Castro, think the Tory government American patriots rebelled against. Think of them and you are thinking about the Bush cartel.
Anyone who believes that this is some sort of exaggerated left-wing paranoia, need only return to December 2000, when a Supreme Court Justice (Scalia) stopped a recount of votes by Americans because he, essentially argued, a recount might end in Al Gore winning the Florida vote and, therefore, ruining the reputation of the "presumptive winner," George W. Bush. Yes, he wrote this, more or less, in the order to stop the recount.
Does anyone have any doubt that the Bush administration, with its insatiable appetite for secrecy and consolidation of power within the Executive Branch (the Congress be damned) would hesitate to use dictatorial powers if it had such powers within its grasp? We don't.
Yet, the Democrats somehow believe they can concede the "big picture" issues of freedom and liberty -- and win on a campaign of subsidized drugs for seniors. That's a highly risky proposition, when we might end up on the other side of the election with a Republican House and Senate. Then you might as well start getting ready to be sent to the Bush Gulag. We suspect BuzzFlash is at the head of the list for the "disappeared-to-be."
The Democrats make the mistake of thinking that the best in human nature and the best qualities in America will triumph in the end -- and so they don't have to risk fighting for our Constitutional Rights. Having already occupied the White House by stealing an election, the Bush cartel has demonstrated it doesn't really care how it attains and stays in power, since holding power, by whatever means, is proof, in and of itself, of their superiority to Democrats.
The Democrats get kicked again and again, then get up and extend their hands in forgiveness to the Republicans, thinking that this time it will be different. This time there will not be the personal attacks, no sleazy whispering campaigns, no leaks about the personal lives of Democrats to the press, no manipulation of the vote, no use of the judiciary system to obtain power for the Republicans, no backhanded legislative undercutting, no extremist nominations, no multi-year hijacking of the judicial branch of government to try and entrap and impeach a president, no Newt Gingrich-inspired "investigations" of a Democratic House Speaker (resulting in his unseating) and the Democratic Head of the Ways and Means Committee, no frivolous investigations of Democrats by Dan "Watermelon Brain" Burton, and so on.
But for not fighting, all the Senate Democrats do is earn the contempt of the Republicans and the Bush cartel. This is a group of thugs that only knows and respects the willingness to fight -- and win.
This is the bottom line: the Senate leadership needs to stand up and fight for the preservation of our Constitutional rights. Our democracy depends upon it.
A Reagan appointed Federal judge from Seattle, who is appalled at how our Constitution is being put through a shredder by the Bush administration, is wondering why the Democrats aren't speaking out:
"The basics of American democracy -- the right to trial, the right to counsel, the rule of law -- need defenders these days."
A man put on the bench by Republicans, Coughenour wonders when Congress' loyal opposition will find a voice.
"In my view, the Democratic Party has a responsibility to speak up on these issues," he said. "It isn't happening. Why aren't they speaking out? I don't understand it."
(See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/78507_joel15.shtml)
We are all for prescription drug benefits for seniors, but not at the cost of losing our freedoms as Americans.
The leaders in the Democratic Senate need to somehow instill in themselves the passion of Patrick Henry, the fighting spirit of George Washington, and the call to action of Paul Revere. The Bush bullies have taken the measure of the Democrats and are counting on them to look the other way as the Bush Administration leads us, inch by inch, into the Gulag. History would indicate that the Bush Administration, ruling like thugs who know that intimidation succeeds against their opponents, will succeed in destroying our Constitutional rights under the claim, ironically, of protecting our freedoms.
Can the Democrats finally find their voice, the strategy, and the passion to force the demagogues in the White House to stand down before it's too late?
Already, William Rehnquist has signaled that in "a time of war," the Supreme Court tends to side with "the government" (which is to say the Bush White House) over the preservation of civil liberties. The Bush Administration is putting maximum pressure on Senators Daschle and Leahy to vote on more federal judges who are picked more for their loyalty to the Bush cartel than even their right wing, Federalist ideologies.
The Supreme Court ruling of 2000 -- and various Reagan and Bush I appointee rulings that helped grease the wheels for the Ken Starr impeachment/entrapment express -- should be a chilling reminder to the Democrats of what they are up against.
Either they fight for America -- and fight to win -- or they shouldn't bother at all. Mild words of protest mean nothing to the Republican attack machine.
Trench fighting may not come naturally to the Democrats in the Senate. It's a rather clubby place, after all. But if they want to remain the third branch of government, they better start engaging in hand-to-hand combat pretty soon. Otherwise, they might become irrelevant in a Soviet style government run out of the White House by a dimwitted, but cunning, front man for the Bush Cartel.
Some things are worth fighting for. Democracy is one of them.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
