First they came for the Jews...

My wife and I were at our friend's house this weekend to play cards and relax after a too-busy Saturday. During a break, sitting outside on the patio having some drinks, I was thinking about the bill, the "Military Commissions Act of 2006", approved by the Senate by a vote of 65-34 that would suspend habeas corpus for anyone labeled as, and I quote from the bill, an "unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities or having supported hostilities against the United States".

I looked around at my friends and asked them all out of the blue, "does anyone here know what "habeas corpus" is?" At best I got blank stares. At worse I got chuckles because old Brent was spooling up to say something again. Heh. Ah, well. It was too important to not say. I needed for my friends to understand what was going on.

So, I attempted to explain it. I said, "The concept of 'habeas corpus' means that when you get arrested, the government has to either charge you with a crime, or release you. It was first conceived of in the year 1215 in the document called the 'Magna Carta'. It was the only civil right deemed important enough to be added to the main body of the Constitution by our Founding Fathers." I then went on to explain that our other civil rights were added to the constitution later, in the Bill of Rights. "It has been the foundation of English Common Law, the system that our own system is based on," I continued, "for more than 800 years."

Ack. More blank stares. One of our friends piped up, "Isn't that one of those court things?"

Dammit. This is why we are losing our civil rights. These are ostensibly educated, adult citizens. My friends are funny, good at their jobs, kind to their children and pets, able to drive a car without killing themselves or others, helpful to strangers, able to buy a home...

...and abysmally, sadly, HUGELY ignorant about our country and the Constitution which makes our country even possible.

Let's recap what has happened just in the last two years:

• Our First Amendment civil rights have been dealt a body blow by the "Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005". This would bar the recovery of attorneys' fees to those who win lawsuits asserting their fundamental constitutional and civil rights in cases brought under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Basically, this means that only filthy rich people could take the government to court and fight for their First Amendment rights because regular folks like us couldn't afford it, and even if we won the case, couldn't recover our costs.
• Now, the "Military Commissions Act of 2006" tanks the only civil right explicitly spelled out in the main body of the Constitution, habeus corpus, which now can be suspended by our President at any time simply by identifying someone, anyone, as "an enemy combatant".

More below the fold...

Anyone familiar with tyranny? The word "tyrant"? No? Well, these two bills passed by our wonderful, conservative robots in the house and senate, and passed at the direction of the current administration, have given our theocratically-inclined President the tools to become one of the most powerful tyrants the world has ever known.

Aren't you happy? The terrorists have won without even having to put together another attack on American soil. We did it to ourselves willingly, in a sense, because your average citizen doesn't give a shit as long as they can buy beer at the Safeway whenever they want to, read about Brad and Jen and Angelina and Tom and Katie in line, while they Tivo the latest American Idol.

"Isn't that one of those court things?"

Jebus. Sometimes I think we're doomed.

Vote Democrat in November, folks. If our President doesn't do something stupid like declare martial law and suspend the 27th Amendment and cause a bloody rebellion in the streets, then at least we can get someone who has a little sense and a little respect for our Constitution and our civil rights. Democrats aren't perfect, but at this point they are our only hope - because if we elect another Republican President, I believe this country, the America I love, will be dead in ten years.

And so will I, probably. What I've written on the internet is more than enough to have me declared as an "enemy combatant" by a paranoid, tyrannical, megalomaniac dictator.

Thanks to The Ridger over at The Greenbelt. I have stolen her excellent, well-chosen quotes to illustrate the absurdity and the insane, wrong-headed actions that have been performed in our name by our elected representatives.

[link] We cannot defend freedom abroad by abandoning it at home.
—Edward R. Murrow

Constitutions are chains with which men bind themselves in their sane moments that they may not die by a suicidal hand in the day of their frenzy.
—Sen. John Stockton

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
—Thomas Paine

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
—James Madison

I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens.
—Abraham Lincoln

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller