While
America Was Sleeping
#133,
January 7, 2004
There are
two reasons why doctors give you anesthesia before major surgery. Reason one:
for *your* comfort-- that should be painfully obvious. Reason two: for *their*
comfort. Your body’s instinctive reaction to getting sliced open is to fight
back. The O.R. is not a safe place for a brawl. It’s better that you are
knocked out when they remove those tonsils or tumors, because the doctor’s
safety equals your health.
Unless the
doctor is a non-elected President performing non-elective surgery.
So it was,
following a familiar plan, that Americans slumbered while President Bush carved
out another piece of our Constitutional Freedoms. On Saturday, December 13th,
the President signed a stealth version of Patriot Act 2, legislation granting
the FBI sweeping new surveillance power under the guise of the war on terrorism.
When I heard about this surprise surgery from KGO talk show host Karel two
weeks later, I was too numb to believe it. But after reading the internet news
stories (collected by local webscanner and civil rights activist Elaine Lucia),
the painful hollow feeling set in.
Why wasn’t
this on the front page of the newspaper? Let’s look back. Remember the USA
PATRIOT Act, John Ashcroft’s infamous piece of 9-11 legislative opportunism?
Its 342 pages were rammed through Congress without hearings, debate, or reports
in the fear-filled weeks following the terrorist attack. Since then it has prompted repeal request
resolutions from several states and hundreds of counties, cities, and towns
across the country (see http://icujp.org/repeal.shtml).
If PATRIOT 1 was before Congress today, it wouldn’t have a chance.
But Dr.
Bushcroft wasn’t satisfied with this *partial* “First Amendment-ectomy.” His
team drafted a Domestic Security Enhancement Act (aka Patriot 2), which would
have empowered the federal government to conduct secret arrests, collect DNA
samples from anyone "suspected" of terrorism and allow the government
to take away an American's citizenship. Dr. Bushcroft apparently was waiting for
the start of the Iraq war to introduce Patriot 2, and then exploit the
anesthetic effect of the crisis to shove it through Congress without the pain
of public outrage. But the Center for Public Integrity outed a draft of Patriot
2, and the ensuing uproar forced them to change their strategy. They broke it
up and snuck pieces into large, non-controversial bills, like the FY2004
Intelligence Authorization Act, which Bush signed on December 13th.
The legislation was approved by Congress in November, by only a voice vote in
the Senate (with no record of who actually voted for it.)
President
Bush waited until December 13th, a Saturday, to sign the bill. If you want to
avoid the light of public accountability, do your dirty work late at night, on
the weekend. Bush was taking a lesson from House Republicans, who choose the
wee hours of Friday mornings, after the newspapers’ Friday deadlines. Friday,
March 21, 2:54 AM, they cut veterans benefits by three votes while publicly
heralding support for our troops. In April, 2:39 AM, they slashed education and
health care by five votes. In May, 1:56 AM, the House passed the “Leave No
Millionaire Behind” tax cut by a handful of votes. And late last month, the
most sweeping changes to Medicare in its 38-year history were forced through
the House at 5:55 on a Saturday morning.
Oh, one
more thing about Saturday, December 13th. That was the day we dug Saddam out of
his hiding hole. Haliburton could have carted off the contents of Fort Knox and
it wouldn’t have made the front page.
Why, if the
President enjoys the support of the American people, would he resort to this
kind of stealth? Why wouldn’t he rally the public behind these measures with
honest and direct appeals? Why does he resort to fiction, like the alleged
imminent danger from Saddam’s WMD or his alleged connection with Al Quaida? The
fact is, the President has far less mandate for his attacks on the First
Amendment, our planet, and the social safety net than he ever had to occupy the
White House. This year, truth be told, American’s will fully awake to the
undercover “operations” of the Bush neo-cons, and cast them from power.
Sources
http://www.sacurrent.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10705756&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=482778&rfi=6
http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1088002p-7599591c.html
http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60129,00.html
http://rwor.org/a/v24/1181-1190/1188/patriotact.htm
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/taxbill_05-09-03.html