King George

Time for a coronation? -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

Today's blog is authored by one of my coworkers. Be sure to check out Kelly and Craig's blog for other timely topics: http://governanceimperative.blogspot.com/

by Kelly
Not only has the administration decided that they don't need the moral high-ground, they have shown that they don't care to even maintain a thin veneer of fairness. All it takes to be denied your rights is for one person, holding supreme power, to label you as an "unlawful enemy combatant", no due process, no appeal, and no reprieve.

Do I want the country to be attacked by terrorists? Absolutely not! But when there is a greater chance of dying in a traffic-accident than a terrorist attack, it seems foolish to spend billions on expensive toys and promises to protect us from the boogie-man when tens of thousands of people die every year in preventable deaths, for the lack of money.

Let's examine our forefathers complaints against the English King. From the Declaration of Independence we have:

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." and "He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers." Signing statements anyone?

"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:", the Attorney General of the United States has the audacity to argue in front of a Congressional hearing that the 'Habeas Corpus' clause doesn't really apply to the President.

"For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:" extraordinary Renditions were just rumors but have become frighteningly real.

"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:" Read more about this at Slate.

"He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us." How better to describe our own Congress passing a bill that allows the President to declare a U.S. citizen to be beyond the protection of the Constitution? If you think this is just the ranting of a madman and could never happen here, just ask Jose Pedilla.

"In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." Whenever criticism is raised, the answer is, 'I'm doing it for your own good' or 'Do you want the Terrorists to win?" He has become blind to injustice and deaf to reason. His logic is starkly, to protect America it is necessary to use any means, at any cost. I say to you, at what cost to our credibility? At what cost to our principles?

The Founding Fathers believed so strongly in their cause that they put it in writing, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

What has our President pledged? Invasion of privacy? Protection of the Constitution on his whim?

It can not be stated any simpler than, would you trade your liberty for safety? Despots can do a great job of keeping you safe. There was no crime under Stalin, Hitler; or more currently Kim Jung Il. What they can not do is make you free. They stoke the patriotic blaze by feeding your fears with tales of untold crime and violence and then assuage those fears with soothing words and pretty baubles. They desire your trust, willingly given in trade for the offer of safety from shadows, the calm complacency that comes from letting others do the dirty work. Secrecy is their watch-word, for theirs is a bargain of illusions, cooks willing to make sausage as long as you don't ask from whence comes the meat.

The Republican party has been duplicitous in setting up an American Monarch, while the Democrats have stood silent as our rights were sent to the gallows. When there is no one left in Congress to defend our rights when the President comes for them, who will defend you when His men come for you?

All hail King George.

You can also see the latest edit of this particular article at http://governanceimperative.blogspot.com/2007/01/king-george.html

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