The Home of the Free Got Foreclosed
On Wednesday’s Gitmo anniversary, Jonathan Turley had a WaPo column listing 10 reasons why the US was no longer the “land of the free.” I thoroughly endorse his list:
Assassination of US citizens
Indefinite detention
Arbitrary justice
Warrantless searches
Secret evidence
War crimes (impunity for torture)
Secret court
Immunity from judicial review
Continual monitoring of citizens
Extraordinary renditions
But I do think the list skews (not surprisingly, given that it was a GItmo anniversary piece) to ways the war on terror have circumscribed our civil rights and rule of law generally.
It’s worth noting that the same things have been happening domestically, with at best only a tangential tie to “security.” For example, where Turley describes renditions and indefinite detention, he might as well have included the immigration deportation system, which like the terrorism one operates with a great deal of arbitrariness, but which also rounds up more American citizens. Turley discusses surveillance generally, but we should note that some of that war on terror surveillance–National Security Letters and drones, for example–are being used increasingly in criminal law enforcement. Add in the increasing militarization of the police–some of which came directly from the drug war, some of which has been reapplied generally in the name of national security.
And then there’s the courts. Even putting the defunding of legal aid aside, even putting aside the broad push to force consumers and employees into privatized arbitration rather than courts, even our legal system itself is showing signs of failure. Most spectacularly, that failure shows in efforts to let banks steal homes so as to pass all the losses of the banks’ own failures onto homeowners.
Turley is right that the war on terror has chipped away at fundamental freedoms. But so has increased corporate power and related efforts to coerce the 99%.
It’s not just that Al Qaeda bombed the land of the brave; so, too, did America’s own corporations foreclose on the home of the free.
Amen, EW.
Just a few years ago, I often used the future tense and conditional clauses about losing our democracy, rule of law, etc. For the last few months I have used the present tense, i.e., we have lost our democracy. It often takes people by surprise when I do it, but they don’t often argue that I’m wrong.
“They hate us for our Freedoms”
George W. Bush
The most perfect way to bring about the destruction of America and hose in their dreams of the New World Order, helped by the Banksters of the World.
Too true, too true.
And so continues the slide towards fascism.
In my family, most are Democrats, but few realize how much is at stake.
Bob in AZ
Yep, while they keep up the great scary stories the cycle-o-paths that run this nation have taken away citizens rights at a faster rate than any bad guy could. When I talk with people they are coming around to the fact that the govt./corp. is the problem and not other nations.
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/4/30/globalizing_democracy_manifesto_for_a_new
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_for_the_New_American_Century
You can call me a conspiracy theorist if you like, just don’t call me poorly informed.
@PeasantParty:
Not all conspiracies are merely theories.
I can only ponder what MLK would think,today, of his dream for this nation.
Over at the Great Orange Satan, the Dog is taking apart Knapp’s WaPoo story about how much better the middle class is doing these days. Knapp doesn’t seem to understand median income, or a lot of other stuff.
@PeasantParty:
Problem solved. They don’t have to hate us for those anymore.
A story that might be called the roots of OccupyDC at MacPherson Square. A biographical note on John Francis Cook, an important civic and church leader and black abolitionist of the 1840s and 50s. His Presbyterian church and many other activities were on and around the square.
@shekissesfrogs: And not one of the ten reasons is on the “If we _______, the terrorists will have won!”
@MaryCh: …list.