Article: From the Slippery Slope into the Abyss

IT is with great sadness that I must report the death of the once great United States of America. It was a country ruled by law and by a Constitution and Bill of Rights that was a model and inspiration for many lands and emerging nations. Its death knell has been sounded by HR 6166, passed yesterday in the House and its companion bill in the Senate, hurriedly voted on before they adjourn to go campaigning. It is all over, now. Its place is taken by a new nation whose philosophy is as old as Ancient Rome, Macedonia, perhaps as old as time itself.

With the exception of a handful of courageous legislators, its demise was overseen by the wealthy, greedy cravens who have replaced the once courageous American statesmen who would stand up to tyranny and oppression. These cravens, who received hundreds of thousands of letters, phone calls and e-mails entreating them to represent the people and not destroy both the spirit and letter of our Constitution were told by the Bush regime that, if they upheld the Law, the Constitution, and the international conventions against torture and ill treatment of prisoners, they were promoting terrorism, so instead they voted for state terrorism. No captive, foreign or domestic, now has the right to confront his accusers; he has no right to see the evidence against him; he has no right to protest being held for years, perhaps for life, with no charges brought against him.

Read the bills carefully, Bush and his minions now have the right to declare anyone an enemy combatant, for any reason, even for protesting lawlessness and brutality, or writing to the media, or speaking out. That person can be disappeared. A knock on the door at two in the morning, a hood strapped over the person's head, handcuffed, dragged out to a black SUV, and that is the last you see of him or her. The family has no right to inquire as to their whereabouts. The person may be taken to an undisclosed location, to be beaten, tortured and raped at the will of his or her captors, for years, with no recourse unless he or she is clever enough to suicide.

This is the fate of hundreds, or thousands, of people who were picked up after 9/11. The Bush regime offered a bounty on Al Qaeda terrorists. The War Lords of Afghanistan and Pakistan responded quickly, grabbing young men off the street and people who had been thorns in their sides. They were turned in for the bounty and disappeared into Bush's gulags. Some have been cleared of any complicity, but since their freed presence would be an embarrassment to the regime, they are still held, years later, with no hope of release. With the passage of today's bill, that same fate is reserved to also be meted out to any American who is a thorn in the side of the Bush regime.

Bush and his minions in the Senate and the House have now formally trashed the Constitution and Bill of Rights that this nation was founded upon and that they swore to protect and defend when they took office. The people of the United States, and the people of the world if they have oil or anything else coveted by the regime, now have the same rights as the German people had in the 1930's and 40's. The right to agree, to not question, to do as they are told, or to look out through the razor wire until they die of starvation, disease, or are executed. The Reichstag House and Senate have served notice that they have no will of their own, no duty to the people they are supposed to serve. Just one duty, to do the will of the new Fuhrer of the 21st Century.

As they said in Germany, "Ein volk, ein fuhrer, ein vaterland." Heil Bush.