10,000 Posts And Two Birthdays (Hi Everyone & Please Read)By coincidence (and a little self-restraint on my part in posting over the last few days), this is my 10,000th post here at Democratic Underground and it falls on my 44th birthday. My birthday is not of too much particular significance to anyone but myself, but it happens that I share that date with a birthday of sorts that is of great significance to us all and all human beings.
On September 25, 1789, Congress sent to the state legislatures twelve proposed amendments. The ten of these that were later ratified became known as the Bill of Rights. They would not be ratified effective until December 1791, but, in effect, they were brought into this world, so to speak, the same day of the year as I was. I didn't show up until 1962; in the intervening years, it can be said that the Bill of Rights sustained the rest of the Constitution and experiment in social self-governance that was called the United States of America - the Constitution was not enough by itself, a recognition of the principles of "inalienable" human rights was needed for the structure of the rule of law layed out in the Constitution to not only fail to collapse but stand and stand as example.
For my 10,000th post, I give you the text of the Bill of Rights, and follow it with a a column by Ken Grandlund from a couple of months ago, "The Incredible Shrinking Bill of Rights," detailing the myriad abuses of of the Bush Administration against the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights, and a couple of otehr columns, too. It is true other presidents have abused and placed under attack, intentionally and less-than-intentionally, these concepts ingrained in the Constitution, a document and it's concepts that any American president takes an oath to uphold, but I would argue that this presidency, illegitimate from the start, holds these rules in unprecedented scorn and disdain:
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
http://www.blogtemps.com/2006/06/26/the-incredible-shrinking-bill-of-rights/The Incredible Shrinking Bill of RightsProgressives like me make a point of hammering the Bush administration for every misstep it takes. And to be fair, they make it pretty easy for us, what with banner moments like the Medicare prescription plan, the Katrina response, and the Heckuva Job in Iraq®. But how often do we get the chance to remark when they do something with such acumen that it makes David Copperfield blush? It is with this in mind that I offer congratulations to the Bush administration, and more specifically to the president himself, for succeeding where no other president has succeeded before. For in the short span of just 5 years, George Bush has managed to reverse the course of American history by expanding governmental power to its largest size ever while shrinking the protections of the Bill of Rights. Never has this feat been attempted, let alone achieved. Golf clap, please, for the president. He may be the most cunning man alive. Or at least the most agreeable puppet.
Oh, I know what you in the far right ‘majority’ are saying right now. (Yes, all 37% of you.) “What are you talking about? No one has taken my rights away.” This, it seems, is the most common retort from the right when a discussion of the Incredible Shrinking Bill of Rights takes place between the left and the right. (Second place is “I don’t have anything to hide anyway. What do I care?”) Remember, the loss of rights is incremental and often unnoticed. Kind of like a roll of toilet paper, in that you never notice it getting smaller. But when you’re staring a an empty cardboard tube with your pants around you ankle, you understand that you’re in a bit of a bind. So, to fully appreciate the significance of this impressive accomplishment, I offer this brief analysis.
Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Under Attack: Taken piece by piece; true, no national religion has yet been established, but there is a remarkable concentration of Christian Evangelicism amongst the upper ranks of government, including a president who operates on direct orders from God; and true that all religions can pretty much practice freely in America. But do expect some derision if your religion is Islam or anything else that sounds like lunch meat; we still retain our freedom to speak too, but if we do say anything against the president or his brilliant ideas, we are of course, traitors; a free press is now a myth, having been seen as such a good bargain (being free after all) that all of the news outlets have been homogenized into about a handful of really rich info barons, who of course return the favor of a deregulated media by teaching all their reporters the time honored ‘copy, paste’ technique of information dissemination; the freedom to assemble is spotty too, unless you are willing to sign a loyalty note or hold your rally in upper Montana in the winter. You can gather all you want, but we’re watching you and we’ll be moving you out soon. And of course that pesky petition the government deal is simply ridiculous. Petition all you want, but all their stuff is top secret, and the laws don’t apply to them anyhow.
Analysis: While nearly 4 in ten Americans think the 1st Amendment ‘goes too far’, the First Amendment is still technically intact, but a mere shell of it’s original self, weak and mostly for show.
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http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory10.htmlBush’s War on the Bill of Rights- snip -
Nevertheless, Bush did swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, and he has shirked that duty considerably. We should not hold him to the standard of past American tyrants, but rather to the finest of America’s founding principles. It is useful, though perhaps depressing, to see the many ways in which president Bush has trashed the most noble and inspiring of all attempts to limit government through law, the Bill of Rights. Even as he advocates a new amendment to the Constitution to set national standards on marriage, the most important amendments already in place have each fallen prey to the ravages of his government.
Amendment ICongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
George W. Bush has shown an outright hostility to freedom of speech. In the name of combating "indecency," the FCC under Bush has raised its punitive fines to outrageous new levels, wasted money on an "investigation" of Janet Jackson’s breast, and pressured Clear Channel to drop the Howard Stern Show. Bush has applied and maintained draconian restrictions on the press in Iraq, even forbidding the photography of flag-draped caskets returning home.
- snip -
As a result of Bush’s policies, the government has even attacked freedom of assembly, creating "free speech zones" and keeping war protesters away when Bush appears on camera. At the outset of the Iraq War, Oakland police injured several war protesters by assaulting them with wooden bullets and concussion grenades, even as they ran away. Some have argued that the protesters, interfering with war commerce, got what they deserved, but the "collateral damage" suffered by the dockworkers probably disrupted the flow of trade that day more than the protests.1
One could feasibly list examples of how Bush has compromised the right of Americans to "petition the government for a redress of grievances," but the single following statement from Bush to Bob Woodward captures the president’s feelings about his responsibility to answer to the people: "I'm the commander, see. I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/printer_070803D.shtmlBush, Media, and the Bill of Rights By Jennifer Van Bergen
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 09 July 2003
In May 2002, Broward County, Florida became the largest community to pass a resolution protesting the Patriot Act and affirming its commitment to the Bill of Rights. No local or national newspaper found this sufficiently newsworthy to report except in passing in a column in the Miami Herald by Beth Reinhard, who wrote: "It's a toothless resolution passed by a predominantly Democratic panel that wields just a tad more influence in Republican-led Washington than the Inverrary Democratic Club."
- snip -
The Broward Commission, on which sit several staunch conservatives, is the 100th community to have passed such a resolution -- and the largest yet - 1.6 million people, more populous than the state of Hawaii or Alaska, whose legislatures have also passed such resolutions. This is no mere symbolic gesture without teeth. It is a grass roots effort that is spreading across this nation, a monumental and massive peaceful protest against outrageously illegal activities of this Administration.
It is sad that the new media does not think it newsworthy that the Bush Administration is violating the United States Constitution, the United Nations Charter, and international treaties to which we are signatories, or that people are rising up everywhere in protest against these practices.
- snip -
Human Rights Watch reported last August that the Attorney General has subjected non-citizens "to arbitrary detention, violated due process in legal proceedings against them, and run roughshod over the presumption of innocence."
The Center for Constitutional Rights and other organizations obtained a judgment from the Inter-American Court of Justice against the United States for detaining purported combatants in Guantanamo in violation of the Third Geneva Convention and other treaties. In March 2002, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights adopted precautionary measures that asked the United States to "take the urgent measures necessary to have the legal status of the detainees of Guantanamo Bay determined by a competent tribunal." The United States ignored the judgment and refused to take any measures, as it ignores protests of our friends and allies against these illegal detentions. (Geneva requires a status hearing by a competent tribunal for each and every detainee. A mere statement by those in power that these men are "unlawful enemy combatants" is insufficient under Geneva.)
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