Liberty For All

by Jessi Winchester, author of From Bordello to Ballot Box

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

- James Madison, 4th Pres. of U.S., spoken while a United States Congressman

Not a day goes by that we aren’t given some sign of impending dictatorship.  Freedoms we used to have that are no longer available to us since George W. Bush took office.  From presidential executive orders that allow the suspension of an election and retention of the current Oval Office occupant during a “national emergency,” to sections of the ill-named Patriot Act that virtually strip innocent citizens of their very freedom and civil rights, to arresting demonstrators who disagree with Bush’s policies, to permitting coverage by only journalists who will report Bush’s propaganda approved view of the war, to Secret Service agents prowling parking lots of establishments where Bush is appearing and removing anyone from the building who has a bumper sticker critical of the president, and now … the citation of a woman driver near Atlanta who had an anti-Bush bumper sticker a cop deemed lewd even though the only ‘offensive’ word was s**t.  Yup, our taxpayer dollars in action all right.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Bush enacted The Military Commissions Act of 2006 which gives the president carte blanche’ to declare anyone he wants to as an “enemy combatant and gives the president huge leeway, without any protective oversight, in deciding what type of interrogation will be dispensed.

On October 17, 2006, Bush smugly signed legislation claiming what he sees as his entitlement to declare the terms of torture administered during interrogations.  He is candid about the fact detainees can be arrested simply on assumption or on the word, however biased, of “intelligence officials” who may or may not have the right person in their crosshairs.  Pretty damn scary stuff.

Once a person is whisked off to indefinite incommunicado detention without benefit of judicial intervention, this new law allows interrogation from which most rational people would recoil.  Not this president.  He called signing the bill “a privilege.”  While he arrogantly smirked about the fact this bill eliminates representation by legal counsel and bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions to challenge their detention … those protesting the bill outside the White House were arrested for shouting, “Bush is the terrorist.”  So much for First Amendment rights.

While Bush calls this nation “decent and fair,” protesters and folks with unfavorable bumper stickers … not to mention detainees who simply ‘disappear’ from the streets of America … would surely view his extremism in a different light.

The writing is on the wall, folks.  Where is our line in the sand?

Copyright © Jessi Winchester 2006 All Rights Reserved