Justice and Liberty For All? (The New America Part One)

In last week's "Comments" section it was suggested to me that I write a column about how our personal liberties have strayed from the founding fathers original vision of our country and have eroded over the last five years. I thought that might make an interesting column but it needed a spark....something a bit more.

I found the "bit more."

I recently had the opportunity to view a film called Why We Fight. It is the most extraordinary documentary I have ever seen. Quite frankly, it puts Fahrenheit 9-11 to shame. I have included a link here and I urge all of you to go and watch some clips of the movie on the official web site, particularly the clip of President Eisenhower. It is an insightful, unbiased view of our country that will change your perception of the little rose colored reality we have created.

The film's basic premise is the main point behind President Eisenhower's farewell address: our country's economy is based around feeding the military industrial complex. We have to constantly be in a state of war to survive. The narrative unfolds to show an unholy alliance between the military, Congress, Lobbyists, and the corporations of this country who are all making billions of dollars off of war and thus, "create" enemies for us to fight.

The film has had a profound impact on me and I can't stop thinking about it. And one of the reasons why I am stuck on it has to do with personal liberties and, in particular, how they have been removed from us in the last five years.

One section of the film in particular struck me with it's starkness. On Oct 10, 2002 Congress signed resolution #114 which effectively ended the way our country was supposed to work; they gave President Bush the power to attack Iraq without approval from them or the UN, relinquishing the power that they and they alone were supposed to have. The elected officials that represent US and our interests essentially gave away our rights to be adequately represented. Now we are represented by one man who is essentially beholden to corporations and lobbyists who helped get him elected.

And the founding fathers rolled in their graves for the great Republic they created was truly dead....

The people who started this country did not intend for the President to have this much power. They installed a system of checks and balances by having Congress and the Supreme Court round out our governing body. And they certainly did not intend to have unelected officials wielding so much power behind the president.

This resolution provided cover for the president to take "all necessary steps" to protect the American people from Iraq. Taken with the Patriot Act, this new resolution essentially gave carte blanche to the president to wiretap anyone he wanted to without a warrant. It was around this time that the program began. Oddly, President Bush spent the summer of 2004 giving speeches saying that the "government needs warrants to perform any sort of wiretapping....so personal liberties would not be eroded." This was a lie. Bush Co had been doing it for nearly two years.

The NSA program was underway and the "liberal rag" the New York Times knew about it and sat on the story until nearly a year after the election. Gee, I wonder why.

Apparently the Patriot Act, even with its ability to seize guns and property without warrants, was not enough. Resolution #114 and the Patriot Act together have made our country a place where people can be halled off and tortured, without a warrant, and without anything other than perhaps a questionable phone call.

All this and yet the 9-11 commission says we are still doing a horrible job fighting the war on terror and that is what really ticks me off about this. As if the erosion of personal liberty weren't enough, certain people in this country are using the fear of another terrorist attack to get away with whatever they want while all the while completely ignoring Al Qaeda and the warnings of hundreds of experts.




The Alliance of Four (military, corporations, Congress and lobbyists) have pushed the average American citizen into a corner where the only choice she or he has is to go along with....whatever....for freedom.

Don't like war? Well, if there weren't a war then your city or county would lose 2000 jobs. And your Congressmen that you like so much won't get re-elected and will be replaced by someone more Alliance of Four friendly. Made a phone call to Gaza lately? See you at Gitmo. Now that there is a war on, we need to hear stuff cuz bad people are doing bad stuff and stuff. Do you want to know what is really going on? Can't....national security....which leads us to our last little tidbit of personal liberty erosion.

Our government....YOUR government....has decided to re-classify thousands of documents, that have been unclassified for years, as highly secret and essential to national security. I have read stories of historians and academics researching in the National Archives only to have documents taken away on the grounds of national security. The program started in 1999 but stepped up as soon as President Bush got elected. It is my opinion that the current administration would like us to have less information rather than more. And they would like whatever information that does get out to be filtered through their PR firm, Fox News.

The more information we have the more we know what they are really up to....and that just wouldn't do....

Whose it to blame? Us? Maybe. We have become a nation of lazy, fat morons that have given away our rights and allowed this sort of system to flourish. We have an Imperial Presidency. Unless something insanely ridiculous comes along like the Dubai Ports Deal, there are now like minded people in all three branches of government that have been placed there, on purpose, to carry out an agenda of much greater control of the citizenry than our founding fathers intended. They all just go along with whatever the president wants to do, which explains why President Bush has never used a veto yet....all the bills that come to him are all hand crafted to fit his vision!

So, we have these four groups that are flicking their bic lighters at the Constitution. There is a fifth group, however, whose power and influence are growing everyday.....along with their paranoia. The film does not mention them but I think they are every bit as integral as the other four to the erosion of our liberties . And every bit as dangerous.

Stay tuned for who they are and their agenda in Part Two of The New America......next week!