Changes are a comin'...

If the U.S. government (a.k.a Bush Administration) gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States.

Read more <a href="http://liberalcandy.blogspot.com/2006/11/us-citizens-to-be-required-clearance-to.html">here.</A>

By now, you've probably heard Kerry's statement: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." What's wrong with this statement? Kerry was too nice. Our political culture hates pointing fingers and naming names. This whole (very intentional) misunderstanding by other veterans and conservatives would have been moot if Democrats would say the truth: "If George Bush had done his home work and made an effort to be smart, we could have done well. Since he didn't, we got stuck in Iraq."

What constitution?

An anonymous reader writes to point us to an article on the meaning of a new law that President Bush signed on Oct. 17. It seems to allow the President to impose martial law on any state or territory, using federal troops and/or the state's own, or other states', National Guard troops.

There comes a time when enough is enough.

How America Changed Yesterday

The provisions of Bush's new torture law mean that Americans have lost the key, constitutional right on which Anglo-American criminal law (and criminal-law procedures in true democracies in general) is founded; that's the basic right of an individual to know why he or she is being apprehended and detained. Now, technically, as in Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Mao's China or Pol Pot's Cambodia, anyone labeled an "enemy combatant" - again, by whom; by Bush? - can be whisked away and never heard from again. That kind of authority, in the hands of corrupt or untruthful politicians, may or may not be an effective tool in some kind of "war on terror," but it certainly can be a useful tool when it comes to silencing their opponents.

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?

Surprise!: Bush reasons for Iraq War Not True

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein rejected pleas for assistance from Osama bin Laden and tried to capture terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi when he was in Iraq, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report released Friday, casting further doubt on the Bush administration's rationale for invading the country. Read more of Study: Saddam rejected al Qaeda

The first reaction, of course, of Hezbollah and its supporters is, declare victory. I guess I would have done the same thing if I were them. -G.W. Bush