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December 17, 2005

Update on Fascism in the Homeland

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Lets see, the fascist dictatorship has had an excellent week. Despite concerted efforts by John McCain, our preminent torture victim, the administration essentially won the right to torture, since anyone charged with torture now can be excused, if a "reasonable" person could conclude that they were following an order. Of course it will be the impartial and fairminded folk of the CIA who will decide if torturerers have acted "reasonably". What a comfort.

The president also announced that he has been authorizing surveillence of American citizens without a warrant. For some puzzling reason. this seems to have upset people, and landed on the front page of the newspapers unlike the GAO election report. The New York Times, "breaking" this story, announced that it had been sitting on this information for an entire year-- wouldn't have wanted anything like this to be disclosed before an election, it seems. Here's the quote:

"The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it said the N.S.A. eavesdropped without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time. The list changes as some names are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this country may have reached into the thousands over the past three years, several officials said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time, according to those officials." ....

"But some of the administration's antiterrorism initiatives have provoked an outcry from members of Congress, watchdog groups, immigrants and others who argue that the measures erode protections for civil liberties and intrude on Americans' privacy. Opponents have challenged provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the focus of contentious debate on Capitol Hill this week, that expand domestic surveillance by giving the Federal Bureau of Investigation more power to collect information like library lending lists or Internet use. Military and F.B.I. officials have drawn criticism for monitoring what were largely peaceful antiwar protests. The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security were forced to retreat on plans to use public and private databases to hunt for possible terrorists. And last year, the Supreme Court rejected the administration's claim that those labeled "enemy combatants" were not entitled to judicial review of their open-ended detention."

One wonders what else the New York Times chose not to report for Patriotic Reasons.

To finish off an the excellent week, they've hauled off our first activist. We can begin to see the potential of placing right wing judges in the lower courts. I had better learn to shut my big trap.


Photo note: Ivy over bricks and mortar -- it looks attractive, and covers structures, while slowly eating away at them. Oh! Could be a metaphorophoto for the slow erosion of democracy, brick by brick, or simply an excuse to publish a nice picture? -- love those deep shadows.

Posted by Dakota at December 17, 2005 07:49 AM