Sept 11 - Sept 12 - Today - The Future

There are some who are trying to make Sept 12 a day to divide America along ideological lines. I suppose by making it Sept 12, they think they are avoiding charges of trying to exploit Sept 11. And they pretend their Sept 12 events are about uniting 'patriotic' Americans, as opposed to the rest of us slobs who support our elected president.

Funny, I remember how the same folks were foaming at the mouth with charges of 'treason' when anyone dared criticize George W. Bush for anything -- including starting a war based on lies; spying on Americans; torture; and outing our own intelligence officers for political purposes, thereby endangering not only their lives, but the lives of all those in their networks and threatening to undo years of hard work at preventing future terrorist attacks -- small stuff like that.

But we should not be trying to make the infamous day of Sept 11, 2001 about Sept 12th, or today, or any other day. Remembering that tragic day should be about the future -- who do we want to be. Do we want to be a paranoid society that codifies into law the taking of our liberties -- liberties enshrined in the constitution, upon which this nation was built? This is what the Orwellian "Patriot Act" was about, and that's why it's important to pressure Congress to let those provisions expire when they come up for renewal at the end of this year.

Or do we want to be a nation of sane laws, laws that protect our precious liberties, laws that protect our fragile democracy and the most vulnerable among us, laws no man can be above, no matter how rich or what office they hold?

The News That Didn’t Make the News: Project Censored

Project Censored came out with their latest, and while they're all doosies, it was the story they ranked #5 that blew me away. The ones before it may well deserve their rankings, but they weren't surprises to me. (Although they would be to a majority of Americans, unfortunately -- thus the name, "Project Censored.") This one, thought, did surprise -- and sicken -- me.

# 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets (Excerpts:)

President Bush signed two executive orders that would allow the US Treasury Department to seize the property of any person perceived to, directly or indirectly, pose a threat to US operations in the Middle East.

The first of these executive orders, titled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq,” signed by Bush on July 17, 2007, authorizes the Secretary of Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, to confiscate the assets of US citizens and organizations who “directly or indirectly” pose a risk to US operations in Iraq...

The act further authorizes freezing the assets of “a spouse or dependent child” of any person whose property is frozen. The executive order on Lebanon also bans providing food, shelter, medicine, or any humanitarian aid to those whose assets have been seized—including the “dependent children” referred to above.

Vaguely written and dangerously open to broad interpretation, this unconstitutional order allows for the arbitrary targeting of any American for dispossession of all belongings and demands ostracism from society...

In an editorial for the Washington Times, Fein states, “The person subject to an asset freeze is reduced to a leper. The secretary’s financial death sentences are imposed without notice or an opportunity to respond, the core of due process. They hit like a bolt of lightning. Any person whose assets are frozen immediately confronts a comprehensive quarantine. He may not receive and benefactors may not provide funds, goods, or services of any sort. A lawyer cannot provide legal services to challenge the secretary’s blocking order. A doctor cannot provide medical services in response to a cardiac arrest.”

G.W., and his enablers, seem to think he's king. He thinks he can pick any person opposing his war, and not only take everything that person and his family own, he can make it illegal for anyone to help him.

And I can't decide which is worse: the unconstitutional behavior of a leader gone mad, or the press that didn't think it was important enough to let us know about it!