Time For One More Pre-Election Rant

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. -Sinclair Lewis

Just about a lifetime ago one of our greatest Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Today the worst President ever tossed up by the electoral process has said "All we have is fear." The only thing he and his Party have to run on is fear of terrorists, fear of homosexuals, fear of women, fear of Mexicans, fear of sex, fear of non-Christians.

We've seen the USA PATRIOT Act which dealt body blows to our civil liberties.

We got no-fly lists.

We got a war which we are losing at a cost that would pay for gold-plated health care for every American for the next ten years. It's trashed readiness and America's stock of military materiel to an extent not seen since the end of the Vietnam War.

We've seen American prestige put in a hole it will take a lifetime to dig itself out of.

We've seen corruption on an unprecedented scale where the Vice President's company gets billions in no-bid unaccountable contracts and personal supporters of the President are given unfettered access to the White House and the public purse.

On October 17th a craven, cowardly, treasonous Congress gave the Executive the right to declare anyone an "enemy combatant" with no rights, no habeas corpus, no trial by jury, no access to lawyers or the courts. Any one of us can be disappeared - tortured, sent to a third country to be abused or worse - if the President so decrees. Yes, yes, yes. The Military Commissions Act forbids torture. But it lets the President decide what is and isn't torture with no Congressional or Judicial review. The very same day we got the John Warner Defense Act which lets the President, again at his whim and with no checks or balances, declare martial law, rule by decree take over the National Guard and put "potential terrorists" and "undesirables" into camps. There is no appeal. They have no rights and no recourse. Congress and the Courts have no power to stop him. Oddly enough the camps are being built by Kellogg, Brown and Root a Halliburton subsidiary.

This is the same Administration which claims the power to crush the testicles of an innocent child to make his parents talk and says that no law can stop it.

Now our right to travel is on the verge of becoming a privilege. The Department of Homeland Security proposes that no citizens be allowed to enter or leave the country without official permission.

George W. Bush now has powers equal to Stalin or Hitler. How much worse does it have to get before people realize what we have lost? Do they care? Even old line conservatives like the editors of American Conservative Magazine are calling for a repudiation of the Bush doctrine.

We have a chance to reclaim some of what we gave up. The mid-term election gives us one more chance to set things right. The Democrats aren't great. Many are spineless consultant-ridden triangulators. They are the only real force opposing our slide into authoritarianism and totalitarianism.

Get out there and vote. Throw the bastards out.