The White Rose

And so it begins. Yesterday, the House essentially passed a bill eliminating habeas corpus. As William Pitt put it Underneath all this is the definition of "enemy combatant" that has been established by this legislation. An "enemy combatant" is now no longer just someone captured "during an armed conflict" against our forces. Thanks to this legislation, George W. Bush is now able to designate as an "enemy combatant" anyone who has "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." Consider that language a moment. "Purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" is in the eye of the beholder, and this administration has proven itself to be astonishingly impatient with criticism of any kind. The broad powers given to Bush by this legislation allow him to capture, indefinitely detain, and refuse a hearing to any American citizen who speaks out against Iraq or any other part of the so-called "War on Terror." Still sound unlikely? Far-fetched? Dare I say - shrill? Not at all. As the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports: President Bush asserted Friday that critics who claim the Iraq war has made America less safe embrace "the enemy's propaganda." Whether meant that way or not, I'm afraid that 9/11 has become our Reichstag fire. Must the rest truly follow? What will you do when the gays, the browns, the blacks, the Catholics, the evangelicals, the Jews, the poor, the disabled start disappearing?