No excuses. This is the best I’ve got, that’s all.
It took less than a week following the attempted car bombing in Times Square for us to start tossing our constitutional rights out the window. This is, in some ways, an even more extreme response than the one that followed the catastrophe of 9/11. A failed attempted bombing has got people discussing legislation that would strip citizenship and all of its attendant constitutional rights from U.S. citizens accused of giving material support to terrorist organizations. That’s right… accused. No trial by peers. No due process. Just deny people their basic rights as a U.S. citizen on the basis of an accusation or indictment alone. W.t.f. Sounds like a Lieberman idea.
Well, it is a Lieberman idea. He and retired male model Scott Brown have put this piece of garbage forward rather proudly, despite the fact that it is a.) almost certainly unconstitutional and b.) such a rabid overreaction to what has occurred that it can only be understood as a political stunt rather than any matter of conviction. What is it with these people, anyway? Where do they get this deep-seated hostility towards our legal system and our traditions regarding the rights of the accused? Are they originally from authoritarian countries and just homesick? It’s like the people in my neighborhood who chop down all of their trees – if they want to live in Kansas, why don’t they MOVE to Kansas? And if Lieberman wants to live in North Korea or Mexico, they’ve certainly got room for him there.
It’s hard for me to imagine anything more cowardly than throwing our rights over the side every time someone tries to take a shot at us. Beyond cowardly, people who take that tack are, in effect, aiding the terrorists. They want to make us miserable, right? They want to strip us of our rights and freedoms, as tin-pot politicians here are fond of saying, right? Well… why make it so goddamned easy for them to do so? I swear, this feels like terrorist jiu-jitsu to me. Sure, they’d like to set of a major bomb in a major city. But I’m sure they’re just fine with simply provoking political overreaction that turns us more and more into a dysfunctional garrison state at war with itself. What a victory for their side? And all it takes is a maladroit with some cheap fireworks, a couple of bottles of propane, and lousy instructions.
On 9/11, they turned our screwed up air travel industry against us. This is just the next step.
luv u,
jp
Oh, yeah – he’s done it again. Our mad science advisor Mitch Macaphee is the “he” I mean, and he’s … well .. cracked like any good mad scientist would be. I told him a dozen times that building underground tunnels to other countries is just not a very good idea. I warned him that there would be perhaps dire consequences to attempting such a project. Why… just tell me, why do mad scientists NEVER LISTEN TO REASON? WHY MUST THEY DESTROY THEMSELVES AND ALL THAT THEY LOVE?
What is his motivation here? The most capitalistic of reasons, Colonel Austin. He wants to set up what he calls an underground “choo choo” and charge people for the privilege of riding down the hole and out the other side of this increasingly raggedy planet. Fantastic scheme, to be sure… except convincing people to ride on the freaking thing will take even more engineering prowess than actually constructing it. (You DON’T want to see the men’s room – it’s …well… substandard.) I know he means well (I think), that he’s trying to bring in some badly needed revenue at this critical juncture when yours truly is about to be ejected from the Cheney Hammer Mill by the department of health. (They take issue with all of the mongooses. What the hell – so do I! Thing is, so do the mongooses.) It’s just the method, Mitch, the method.
Also… this is threatening some of the most sensitive, most biodiverse wetland areas in the United States. Perhaps 40% of the nation’s wetlands lie along that coastline, home to god knows how many species of birds, etc. Ecologically speaking it’s the soft underbelly of the nation – the fact that makes drilling in the gulf such a reckless choice. What the hell is this going to mean for this amazingly rich national environmental endowment? Disaster. Fucking disaster.