05 October 2006

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Perhaps I'm heading down the slippery slope that will eventually turn me into the old, gout-ridden man who spouts conspiracy theories to the neighborhood children. Or perhaps the party in power has simply earned my distrust. But one has to wonder...

Is it at all possible that Mark Foley is a sacrificial lamb for the gutting of the constitution? I heard John Yoo on the radio the other day, very matter of factly stating that the US - the richest country in the history of the world - could not afford to grant habeas corpus because it was too expensive. He says this with the same calm manner that Bill Kristol uses when he casually suggests that we should trigger World War 3. The Bush administration is deciding who does and who does not qualify for constitutional rights - as if this were something that they could decide. Meanwhile, Mark Foley decides to IM a page and is busted - a story that conveniently breaks the very day that Congress passes legislation enabling Bush's decision to parse out constitutional rights like food stamps, deciding who is worthy.

Is it the Republican Party that is using this sex-less sex scandal to distract us from the real issue of constitutional rights or is it the media? Is it just a coincidence that the network (ABC) that decided to rewrite the 9-11 report to shift blame towards Clinton in the national consciousness is the network that broke the story on Foley?

Kids! Kids! Don't just ride your bike over my petunias! Stop and listen. I have a story to tell you about life in a country that believed that individual rights were more important than state-sponsored paranoia. It was a wonderful country and then that drunken frat boy drove it into the ditch.

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