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Sep. 29th, 2006 10:34 amBlatantly stolen from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
twistedchick:
Most people in this country may not realize the difference. Most may not understand that the world they live in changed in a deep and serious manner yesterday, and they no longer possess the rights that were written into law by James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and the authors of the Bill of Rights. Avedon Carol had it right when she published yesterday a list of the Bill of Rights with all of them crossed out except the third one, because we have not yet been told to quarter foreign or domestic troops in our spare bedrooms.
Bush has been termed a rogue president, a Radical Republican whose desire for control and power is limitless. He is being enabled in his desires by neoCon Republicans who have wanted to overthrow the government for thirty years while filling their pockets with whatever they can take, and so-called 'moderate' Republicans whose sole purpose is to do what he and they want in a way that doesn't alarm the population.
They have abridged the Constitution. They have removed your Constitutional rights and strangled your civil liberties.
You may not speak freely without being overheard by government agents who listen to you and watch you without warrant or notice, who have government permission to enter your home and take what they want without notifying you and without judicial oversight. If you gather peaceably to protest, you may be beaten, handcuffed, jailed without being charged. If you borrow a book from the library, the government may request your reading list from the library and the library is not allowed to tell you that you're being spied upon. (Many libraries have taken the step of wiping the records of patrons after books are returned. Bless them.)
You may pray, but your religious group's application for government money for a faith-based social program will only be awarded if it adheres to specific varieties of Christianity. Otherwise it will not.
You may keep and bear licensed weapons. (I don't think that's changed except for requiring more licensing; perhaps Avedon has seen something I have not.)
You are no longer protected against unreasonable searches and seizures. If in some way you appear to be associated with someone the Administration does not like, you may be arrested without warrant, held indefinitely without charges, and denied admission to your own trial -- if you get a trial, for some have been held for years without one. You may have an attorney, but his meetings with you may be overseen and overheard by officials, and you may not be allowed to see the evidence against you. If you appear to be associated with someone the Administration considers to be a terrorist, all of the above apply; further, you will be tried before a military commission, not a civil or criminal court, and you will have no recourse to civil suit for damages then or afterward.
If the President or his Administration wish it , you may be tortured by your own government's soldiers or information officers.
This state of affairs will continue until the current Administration and all of its adherents are removed from office and the laws they have enacted are rescinded.
There is a strong temptation, in this circumstance, to either despair or the consumption of Kool-Ade; I urge you to resist both of these. Neither will help. This is Tom Paine's Crisis, the time the tries thoughtful men's and women's souls. I urge you to stay awake, to stay aware, to do what you can to remove from office those who have stolen your liberties and your rights. I urge you to be the real Americans that those in office have ceased to be.
The darkness is upon us. Be you the light in it.
twistedchick:Most people in this country may not realize the difference. Most may not understand that the world they live in changed in a deep and serious manner yesterday, and they no longer possess the rights that were written into law by James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and the authors of the Bill of Rights. Avedon Carol had it right when she published yesterday a list of the Bill of Rights with all of them crossed out except the third one, because we have not yet been told to quarter foreign or domestic troops in our spare bedrooms.
Bush has been termed a rogue president, a Radical Republican whose desire for control and power is limitless. He is being enabled in his desires by neoCon Republicans who have wanted to overthrow the government for thirty years while filling their pockets with whatever they can take, and so-called 'moderate' Republicans whose sole purpose is to do what he and they want in a way that doesn't alarm the population.
They have abridged the Constitution. They have removed your Constitutional rights and strangled your civil liberties.
You may not speak freely without being overheard by government agents who listen to you and watch you without warrant or notice, who have government permission to enter your home and take what they want without notifying you and without judicial oversight. If you gather peaceably to protest, you may be beaten, handcuffed, jailed without being charged. If you borrow a book from the library, the government may request your reading list from the library and the library is not allowed to tell you that you're being spied upon. (Many libraries have taken the step of wiping the records of patrons after books are returned. Bless them.)
You may pray, but your religious group's application for government money for a faith-based social program will only be awarded if it adheres to specific varieties of Christianity. Otherwise it will not.
You may keep and bear licensed weapons. (I don't think that's changed except for requiring more licensing; perhaps Avedon has seen something I have not.)
You are no longer protected against unreasonable searches and seizures. If in some way you appear to be associated with someone the Administration does not like, you may be arrested without warrant, held indefinitely without charges, and denied admission to your own trial -- if you get a trial, for some have been held for years without one. You may have an attorney, but his meetings with you may be overseen and overheard by officials, and you may not be allowed to see the evidence against you. If you appear to be associated with someone the Administration considers to be a terrorist, all of the above apply; further, you will be tried before a military commission, not a civil or criminal court, and you will have no recourse to civil suit for damages then or afterward.
If the President or his Administration wish it , you may be tortured by your own government's soldiers or information officers.
This state of affairs will continue until the current Administration and all of its adherents are removed from office and the laws they have enacted are rescinded.
There is a strong temptation, in this circumstance, to either despair or the consumption of Kool-Ade; I urge you to resist both of these. Neither will help. This is Tom Paine's Crisis, the time the tries thoughtful men's and women's souls. I urge you to stay awake, to stay aware, to do what you can to remove from office those who have stolen your liberties and your rights. I urge you to be the real Americans that those in office have ceased to be.
The darkness is upon us. Be you the light in it.
