When is enough enough?

So, we have a tax cut that gives no help to those who need it most and would therefore spend it immediately and give at least some of the stimulus promised.

And the reason those who need it most were left out was because the Senate wouldn't let the Republican extremists give as much to the wealthy as they wanted.

And after Democrats insisted on (and the Republican extremists resisted against) a coordinated Homeland Defense, not enough money can be made available to cities and states at risk.

A risk increased by the hostility generated by a ham-handed foreign policy.

A risk increased by failure to realize securing nuclear facilities in Iraq is more important to the safety of the USofA… the safety of the world… than securing Iraq's oil fields.

A risk increased by the need to spend ever more in Iraq because slighted nations, naturally, do not choose to pay for an occupation they opposed from the beginning.

An occupation we were promised would not be necessary for an extended period of time.

An occupation that followed a war that the world rejected.

A war that was sold to the American people with lies about immediate threats to our safety.

We have a death a day, after the war has ended.

And as the economy gets worse (from the point of view of the people)…

As "productivity gains" mean fewer people work longer and harder, and profits increase the wealth of only five percent of the population…

As jobs become the major American export…

And the only people paying taxes become the people in the military because only their jobs are truly necessary in the worldwide anti-American climate created by a ham-handed foreign policy…

You will find yourself, as an American, at risk where ever you are.

At risk at home, at work (as the Department of Homeland Security).

At risk when you travel overseas (ask the State Department).

At risk when you travel at home (check the no-fly list).

At risk if you voice disapproval too, where a sensitive bureaucrat can see you.

At risk from your own government

They want to know what you read. They want to know what you buy, where you buy it, when, why and with credit or cash. They want to know how you walk, for pity's sake!

They can already arrest you on the mere suspicion you may know someone connected with the possibility of what they choose to define as terrorism today. Like blocking traffic in a protest.

And they don't have to tell you why.

And they don't have to tell you when you'll be released. Or even questioned.

In the year and a half since giving themselves the right to override your rights

• Hundreds of secret search warrants have been issued
• 50 people had been detained without charges as material witnesses—half for more than 30 days
• Justice Department sought 248 times to delay having to notify the target of an investigation that a warrant had been executed, sometimes amounted to 90 days or more and, was never turned down by a court
• The new powers of the PATRIOT Act have been used for non-terrorism cases
• The new powers of the PATRIOT Act have been used to seize millions of dollars from foreign banks that do business in the United States

posted by Prometheus 6 at 5/31/2003 09:09:52 AM |