The Republicans in Congress have just given themselves away.
They want to make the new Arbitrary Search and Seizure Act permanent.
Permanent.
Forever.
The current legislation, the so-called Patriot Act, which was passed as an emergency response to the World Trade Centre attacks, expires in two years (in 2005). If you were a reasonable person, would you think that the crisis is going to continue beyond two years? Well, it might, if George Walker Bush is still in office. He’s obviously incompetent. Let’s be fair and judge the man only by the results: according to the Bush Administration itself, we are not safer. Get out there and buy some duct tape. Let’s lock some people up without due process. Let’s prevent Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins from appearing at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
But a reasonable person might be justified in asking if two more years is not enough to have made the world safe for Enron.
Permanent. Forever.
Why? Why would a lawmaker decide that we should make these draconian, unconstitutional laws permanent?
It’s really quite simple. And it’s now clear. Because the goal is not really to make the world safe. The goal is to keep all citizens in a perpetual state of fear, while the treasury of the United States Government is looted (with tax cuts for the rich), world markets are made safe for genetically modified foods and patented pharmaceutical products, and serious dissidents are arrested and locked up. The goal is to sustain the incredible level of spending on military toys by convincing most Americans that the world is full of deadly threats that we must be prepared to face.
The goal is to keep in power the petty, small-minded, paranoid white men of the Bush Administration, until they have completed their real agenda.
Hero: Senator Russ Feingold
The co-sponsor (with John McCain) of campaign finance reform, stood all alone in opposition to the “Patriot” Act. My only question is, when does he run for president? And if he does, will Joe Lieberman do to him, in the primaries, what another “good”, “decent” man, George Bush, did to John McCain in North Carolina?
[2022-04-28 Update: he didn’t have to. Feingold was defeated in 2010 by Ron Johnson 52 to 47%.]