Frustration 2003-03-05

"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." --George Washington at the Treaty of Tripoli, 1796

So I was visiting The Center for Constitutional Rights the other day. Seems that they're pretty damn pissed at the federal government for trampling on the Constitution.
"If the U.S. government truly wants its people to be safer and wants terrorist threats to diminish, it must make fundamental changes in its foreign policies. Without going into these questions in detail, the terrible events of April 2002 in Israel and Palestine should demonstrate the folly of repressive 'anti-terrorist' measures as a way to ensure peace. The United States� actions in the Middle East, particularly its unqualified support for Israel, and its embargo of Iraq, its bombing of Afghanistan and its actions in Saudi Arabia continue to anger people throughout the region, and to fertilize the ground where terrorists of the future will take root."
"On September 14, 2001, the U.S. Congress in its resolution entitled �Authorization for Use of United States Military Force� gave the President unbridled power to go to war. He was authorized to attack any nation, organization or person involved directly or indirectly in the September 11 attacks. The resolution did not name any particular nation, organization or person, but left the designation of guilty parties to the President alone. Congress, basically, gave the president a blank check to make war upon whomever he wants anywhere in the world, even inside the United States. This war has been conceptualized as a permanent war abroad. It is a war that the president has repeatedly stated will take many years; it is a war without end. Vice President Cheney said the United States may take military action against 'forty to fifty countries' and that the war could last half a century or more."

Think about that for a second. The Middle East already doesn't like us. North Korea aint pleased either. Congress gave the President the right to be permanently at war with these countries. Do you really think that this will make them start liking us? Or do you think it will create a breeding ground for hate and retaliation?

"Overall, the new anti-terrorist laws represent a tremendous expansion of executive power. The President can now make war on anyone without additional congressional authority, can wiretap attorneys and their clients without a court order, can jail non-citizens permanently on the word of the Attorney General--even if they have committed no crimes--and can set up military tribunals which can mete out the death penalty without appeal. The United States� system of checks and balances, made up of the courts, Congress and the executive, and purportedly the pride of the U.S. constitutional system, is in jeopardy."
"Since September 11, enforcement of the new laws against non-citizens, mostly those from the Middle East, has included incommunicado detentions, the questioning of thousands by FBI agents, and widespread racial, ethnic and religious profiling. The government�s campaign against non-citizens, particularly Muslims, has at times flowered into explicit religious bigotry, as expressed in this remarkable quote from Attorney General Ashcroft: Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you."

I could go on and on... but I'm not gonna. I've read it. Hopefully you'll read it too. But you don't have to.

Naturally.