I can only reach but so many people with email and my blog, and I know that we do not see eye to eye on every occasion-however, it is necessary for the truth to be told.
As it stands now, an anonymous accuser may point a finger at any upstanding citizen of the United States of America and call him or her a terrorist; and if this claim is heard, that citizen may very well be taken into custody and interrogated with no probable cause beyond the word of the accuser. The accusers themselves may remain anonymous, and never be confronted by the accused. In direct violation of Habeas Corpus, even if no claim is filed and no charges brought to court, the accused may be held indefinetly, anywhere in the world, without proof or due process. There are no guarantees that the accusers are truthful, with good intention, or accusing with the hope of providing a safer community.
If this congressional act allows those with malicious intent or personal vendetta a chance to unlawfully and unconstitutionally imprison their enemies - and/or those who would speak against the totalitarian administration that has gripped our once-free nation - we as a people have no choice but to fight for our freedoms, as granted by our founding fathers. I have read the Constitution personally; I can speak with full confidence to the fact that it needs no interpretation. Anyone who tries to dictate our freedoms to us is most likely attempting to shield our freedoms from us. The only answer to this situation is to read the Constitution for ourselves, and to assert our rights as free American citizens.
A basic overview of the new bill:
The Cheney-Specter Bill (S. 2453) will make warrantless domestic spying permanently legal!Bill Includes warrantless eavesdropping of all communications, and the data mining and profiling of every U.S. citizen.If war is declared, warrantless searches of all homes and businesses will be legal.In effect, the legal concept of "probable cause" will be eliminated from the Constitution.Call and fax your Senators now, and tell them "NO" on S. 2453.
After Pat's Birthday
By KEVIN TILLMAN
It is Pat's birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice... until we get out.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice: Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military. Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.
Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.
Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated.
Somehow nobody is accountable for this. In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don't be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that "somehow" was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy.
People still have a voice.
People still can take action.
It can start after Pat's birthday.
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman
To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths of the past.
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