by Allen Snyder
BushCo has battered, bludgeoned, and brutalized our Bill of Rights. They're in the ICU with tubes sticking out of them - desperately in need of medical attention before the Neocons at BushCo end their suffering by pulling the plug or giving them a lethal injection.
Consider this a Bill of Rights Health Update.
For almost three years now, illegitimately installed BushCo has been mishandling everything. In this short time, their witless CEO and fascist Attorney General (AG) have made a mockery of our most sacrosanct rights and liberties.
BushCo's routine use of Ten Amendments Toilet Paper is proof positive of their constitutional contempt. Dubya's general ignorance and non-curious-George nature are well-documented, so we know he's never studied them. His handlers know them, but live only to manipulate and subvert them for short-term political gain. In short, the Bill of Rights has rarely been in the kind of immediate danger it's in today.
The First Amendment (freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly) has taken a boatload of BushCo's abuse. Free Speech is anathema to their neocon agenda. Stifling dissent at every opportunity, they sophomorically label any opposition un-American, Communist, traitorous, or worse. Their forcible relegation of protesters to Free Speech Zones far away from the action guarantees Dubya won't be disturbed by enraged citizens toppling him in effigy or (gasp!) carrying signs and repetitively shouting about BushCo's bottomed-out domestic corruption, endless Middle Eastern killing spree, and corporate cash giveaways.
Admittedly, you can't hold BushCo totally responsible for the corporate media's spinelessness in trading every ounce of its journalistic integrity for higher ratings and a bigger slice of the pie (just being good little capitalists, eh, guys?). I just never thought they'd sink to completely ignoring the heinous realities of this Administration's orchestrated dismantling of American democracy. While we're saturated with shitty 24-hour infotainment coverage, BushCo lies merrily onward, its FOX minions leading the intellectually challenged, the judgment impaired, and our democratic ideals, Pied Piper-like, to the brink of extinction.
Of course, you can assemble, providing your top priorities are joyously validating BushCo's atrocious policies and blindly dismissing the daily 'transfer tubes' deplaning at Andrews (oh wait, we don't get to see those). If you're dumb enough to dissent, be prepared for riot squads armed with pepper spray, rubber bullets, and paddy wagons all authorized by trumped-up 'quickie' laws passed specifically for the occasion and sunsetting before their constitutionality can be challenged and exposed.
That BushCo's insecurity demands robot-like confirmation says something about the depths of its cowardice. If they don't see or hear dissent, there mustn't be any. Ergo, everyone supports them. Nothing like a little willful ignorance and logical revisionism to assuage the guilt of thousands of dead/maimed/mutilated abroad and a tragically polarized (and increasingly poor) homeland.
And finally, we all know what a righteous, self-professed Christian company BushCo is. If they didn't already have a savior in Jesus, wingnuts would have the Supreme Embarrassment appoint Dubya to the post. They're born-again, fundamentalist wackos, convinced of their religious purity, moral correctness, and honorable mission. Typically, they have no clue what the First Amendment means when it forbids establishment or endorsement of a particular religion. Their obvious Judeo-Christian sympathies and thinly veiled pro-Church initiatives (do 'faith-based' organizations scare no-one?) are continually punching holes in the church/state wall.
Thanks to BushCo's relentless attacks, the First Amendment's on life support.
Sadly, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments aren't doing too well, either. They're the ones preventing unreasonable searches and seizures, requiring officials to have search warrants, providing privacy from governmental intrusion (4), requiring a Grand Jury and due process (5), and mandating a speedy trial and advice of counsel (6).
These have been ignored, subverted, and undermined over and again by John Ashcroft and his goose-stepping henchmen in the name of freedom, national security, and the ever-threatening boogeyman of domestic and international 'terrorism'.
Herr Injustice-Fuehrer is forever lobbying for warrant-less searches, ever more intrusive wiretap and eavesdrop authority, the power to infiltrate 'undesirable' groups, and to strip dangerous natural-born American 'enemy combatants' of their birthright. All this courtesy of Patriot Act II:
Ashcroft's Revenge. Fourth Amendment, take the cot next to Free Speech and Press. These days, Due Process seems almost passe'. The disappearances and indefinite detentions of dozens for unspecified charges is well-known. These detainees are denied bail, an attorney, never arraigned, never brought to trial , forbidden to see relatives, and shipped off to secure locations.
Thanks to real patriots, it's all legal. Goodbye, Fifth Amendment.
In addition, Ashcroft despises leniency (read: compassion) in sentencing. He's monitoring and punishing 'soft' judges, disallowing plea bargains, and forcing more trials on an already overburdened system. See ya, Sixth Amendment.
BushCo has battered, bludgeoned, and brutalized our Bill of Rights. They're in the ICU with tubes sticking out of them - desperately in need of medical attention before the Neocons at BushCo end their suffering by pulling the plug or giving them a lethal injection.
Is there a Dr. Dean in the house?
