Trying to keep up with all the rights we lost this week.

[readmoreoften]

Can you folks help me out. I'm trying to keep a running count.

1) Abortion about to be banned in SD.
2) Persons involved in civil disobedience may be wiretapped, assets forfeited, and possible loss of citizenship. (Patriot Act.)
3) Government may withhold information about environmental safety from the population after terrorist attack (does 9-11 still count?) (Patriot Act)
4) Government now monitoring Hollywood sex scenes same as porn.
5) Overturned 200 protections on safe food and drinking water.
6) A Religious Arm of the Department of Homeland Security has been created.

Anyone want to chime in? I'm sure I forgot a thing or twenty.

[MikeNY]

1. As far as I am concerned

As long as the US has occupying forces in Iraq and Afghanistan we are no longer a republic, but an empire... this administration is a disaster. I am skeptical as to whether any kind of election can clean up our politics at this point. I am not so worried about what Bush or this Congress will do while they are in power now. The gateway to corruption, abuse, and ultimately a descent into fascism is now open to future leadership. The precedent for "pre-emptive war", which is really a blatant act of war/aggression without cause by the way, on a wide scale, has been opened for future generations.

Imagine a world where every nation in the world has a cause for war because they brand their enemies as terrorists.

Imagine a world where you formally declare war on an idea (e.g. terrorism). When does that war end?

We are in big trouble. It is going to take a big smack in the face for people to realize this and I feel it is coming soon - IN A BAD WAY

[readmoreoften]

5. When you say "descent into fascism is now open"

do you mean that it's not fascism yet? I've sort of lost the understanding of what fascism means.

We seem to have controlled elections, sweeping government controls, not much freedom of the press, civil disobedience now results in arrest, asset seizure, and loss of citizenship. We have secret prisons where we use torture on our enemies, who (as you pointed out) are more like a concept than actual enemies.

This seems to me to be fascism.

But then again, there's always this feeling that maybe it's not so bad, that this can't be what fascism feels like. Birds are singing, the sun is shining, kids are playing in the park. None of my friends have been disappeared. I am still allowed to protest, so long as I stay in the animal pen.

Will it not be fascism until all your friends are in camps, or you yourself are in a camp, or a certain portion of the population are in camps. Seems to me it'll be too late then.

I really hope it's not too late already.

[Joyce]

7) Journalists

who are critical of the Bush policies or actions will be investigated by the Office of the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. Bush has ordered Gonzales to "use every means at your disposal" to prosecute journalists critical of the Administration.

[readmoreoften]

4. thanks, let's add that one.

Freedom of the Press

[Joyce]

2. 7) Journalists

who are critical of the Bush policies or actions will be investigated by the Office of the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. Bush has ordered Gonzales to "use every means at your disposal" to prosecute journalists critical of the Administration.

[Skidmore]

3. Is there a comprehensive list like this somewhere of

rights lost since * came into office in 2000? Seems like it would be a valuable tool to use in the election.

[Peter Frank]

6. On the Bright Side...

Bush pardoned a game bird last Thanksgiving, before Cheney mistook one for a lawyer.

[Virginia Dare]

7. Here in Virginia...

they're working on a bill so that private property owners will not have the right to ban guns on their own property, it infringes on the rights of "law-abiding gun owners". Explain the logic of that one to me???

[benEzra]

8. I think the real issue is whether or not an owner of a publicly accessible

parking lot has the right to search MY property (the trunk of my car) without a warrant.

Do you think mall security should have the right to rummage through everything in your trunk and glove compartment just because they think you fit a profile they don't like?

Property owners can already ban the carrying of guns on their property. The issue in the case you refer to (the Weyerhauser incident) involved a company trying to control the behavior of employees off the clock, by staging a warrantless, unannounced search of employees' cars in a public lot on the first day of hunting season...and firing the employees who refused to let Weyerhauser rummage through their cars, or those who had unloaded firearms locked securely in the trunks of their vehicles.

That's not a pro-civil-liberties position, IMHO. If you want to let corporate CEO's search cars in public lots for lawfully owned and transported guns, you can't object when they search for anything else.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

9. Just how do they keep getting away with this crap?

Oh, that's right! We LET them!

Persons involved in civil disobedience may be wiretapped, assets forfeited, and possible loss of citizenship.

Well, that's certainly right in line with the Constitution, isn't it?

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.

Note that assert forfeiture started with the War on Some Drugs. There's that slippery slope people scoff at in action right before your eyes.