No excuses. This is the best I’ve got, that’s all.
It took less than a week following the attempted car bombing in Times Square for us to start tossing our constitutional rights out the window. This is, in some ways, an even more extreme response than the one that followed the catastrophe of 9/11. A failed attempted bombing has got people discussing legislation that would strip citizenship and all of its attendant constitutional rights from U.S. citizens accused of giving material support to terrorist organizations. That’s right… accused. No trial by peers. No due process. Just deny people their basic rights as a U.S. citizen on the basis of an accusation or indictment alone. W.t.f. Sounds like a Lieberman idea.
Well, it is a Lieberman idea. He and retired male model Scott Brown have put this piece of garbage forward rather proudly, despite the fact that it is a.) almost certainly unconstitutional and b.) such a rabid overreaction to what has occurred that it can only be understood as a political stunt rather than any matter of conviction. What is it with these people, anyway? Where do they get this deep-seated hostility towards our legal system and our traditions regarding the rights of the accused? Are they originally from authoritarian countries and just homesick? It’s like the people in my neighborhood who chop down all of their trees – if they want to live in Kansas, why don’t they MOVE to Kansas? And if Lieberman wants to live in North Korea or Mexico, they’ve certainly got room for him there.
It’s hard for me to imagine anything more cowardly than throwing our rights over the side every time someone tries to take a shot at us. Beyond cowardly, people who take that tack are, in effect, aiding the terrorists. They want to make us miserable, right? They want to strip us of our rights and freedoms, as tin-pot politicians here are fond of saying, right? Well… why make it so goddamned easy for them to do so? I swear, this feels like terrorist jiu-jitsu to me. Sure, they’d like to set of a major bomb in a major city. But I’m sure they’re just fine with simply provoking political overreaction that turns us more and more into a dysfunctional garrison state at war with itself. What a victory for their side? And all it takes is a maladroit with some cheap fireworks, a couple of bottles of propane, and lousy instructions.
On 9/11, they turned our screwed up air travel industry against us. This is just the next step.
luv u,
jp