Fitzmas Is Over, Boys and Girls.
Today, those in power in America who identify with the "right," with the conservative movement, are more or less running the country. Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and now the Supreme Court. One of their widely-used tactics to gain support is "fear-mongering" - they invoke terror into the minds of American citizens through the use of recent nightmarish attacks (9/11) and the threat of a possible future that may or may not involve Iraqis ruling the Planet Earth.
One of their absolute favorite ways of getting this point across is with the phrase, 'You're either with us, or you're against us.' You're either with America or you're against it. You must rally with this administration, or you rally on the side of the terrorists, whomever that may be. Just today, Georgia Representative Charles Norwood, in an election-year War-on-Terror dialogue, said, "Is it al-Qaida or is it America? Let the voters take note of this debate." He then "[attacked] war critics as defeatists who do not deserve re-election." (CNN).
Clearly, for Norwood the battle is sharply-contrasted black-and-white. There is no gray. There is no 'support America, but not the war' option. According to this ideology, to be 'with America' entails that you be in support of the war, along with this administration and its policies. To shun Operation: Iraqi Freedom is to hate America itself; to go against Bush's policies is to side with Osama. You or I might as well be part of al-Qaida.
With this kind of attack against our personal ideologies ("Of course I'm not a terrorist!") it's no wonder they have gained control of our government. They have scared the majority of America into believing that the price of safety is our right to privacy. Now we pass laws such as the PATRIOT Act (actually written before 9/11 and re-written the night before it was to be voted on, disallowing Congress to actually read what they were signing), and today's Supreme Court ruling that strikes door-knocking from police officers' list of things-to-do.
Yesterday, Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case, let Karl Rove off the hook after Rove was speculated to have leaked the undercover CIA agent's name to either reporters Bob Novak or Matthew Cooper. Rove was a major person-of-interest in a federal offense. Not to mention, the monkey man he made president managed to go to war without the consent of the UN. The NSA wire-tapping your phone call to Granny Faye is just icing on the corporate-crime cake. It seems that some laws are just re-written (or completely neglected) when it comes to BushCo.
How have we let them scare us into submission for the last six years? We are handing over our "God-given" rights to these theoretical (wanna-be) gun-slingers. We are sitting down and just taking it. 'What? You want to install video cameras in every home so you can monitor our every word and movement? If we don't, then the terrorists win?'
Fear-mongoring. Sounds like terrorism to me.
One of their absolute favorite ways of getting this point across is with the phrase, 'You're either with us, or you're against us.' You're either with America or you're against it. You must rally with this administration, or you rally on the side of the terrorists, whomever that may be. Just today, Georgia Representative Charles Norwood, in an election-year War-on-Terror dialogue, said, "Is it al-Qaida or is it America? Let the voters take note of this debate." He then "[attacked] war critics as defeatists who do not deserve re-election." (CNN).
Clearly, for Norwood the battle is sharply-contrasted black-and-white. There is no gray. There is no 'support America, but not the war' option. According to this ideology, to be 'with America' entails that you be in support of the war, along with this administration and its policies. To shun Operation: Iraqi Freedom is to hate America itself; to go against Bush's policies is to side with Osama. You or I might as well be part of al-Qaida.
With this kind of attack against our personal ideologies ("Of course I'm not a terrorist!") it's no wonder they have gained control of our government. They have scared the majority of America into believing that the price of safety is our right to privacy. Now we pass laws such as the PATRIOT Act (actually written before 9/11 and re-written the night before it was to be voted on, disallowing Congress to actually read what they were signing), and today's Supreme Court ruling that strikes door-knocking from police officers' list of things-to-do.
Yesterday, Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case, let Karl Rove off the hook after Rove was speculated to have leaked the undercover CIA agent's name to either reporters Bob Novak or Matthew Cooper. Rove was a major person-of-interest in a federal offense. Not to mention, the monkey man he made president managed to go to war without the consent of the UN. The NSA wire-tapping your phone call to Granny Faye is just icing on the corporate-crime cake. It seems that some laws are just re-written (or completely neglected) when it comes to BushCo.
How have we let them scare us into submission for the last six years? We are handing over our "God-given" rights to these theoretical (wanna-be) gun-slingers. We are sitting down and just taking it. 'What? You want to install video cameras in every home so you can monitor our every word and movement? If we don't, then the terrorists win?'
Fear-mongoring. Sounds like terrorism to me.