The Bush administration and some members of the media have been equating public dissent against the war with Iraq as un-American.  Are there so few who remember the last time this rhetoric entered the U.S. political arena?  A friend of mine, Tom Prasada-Rao, wrote a song entitled, "Richard Nixon's Still Alive."  I hope he is licking his pencil tip and putting to song and lyric the same theme for Joe McCarthy.  John Ashcroft is either old Joe returned or he must have found Joe McCarthy's speech writer in a nursing home.

"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists," John Ashcroft said. "They erode our national unity and diminish our resolve." 

"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of rampant terrorism within America, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists,"

"Charges of kangaroo courts and shredding the Constitution give new meaning to the term 'the fog of war,'" Ashcroft said.

Dissenting views are the core of our Republic.  Opposing the policies of the present Administration is not seditious or unpatriotic but your right and, if your conscience votes so, your duty.  Who paid for these rights?  The blood of patriots and it wasn't blood with names like Rumsfeld, Chaney or Bush.

To restrict the rights of the citizenry, to march to war without an express and formal Declaration Of War by  Congress and to repeatedly lie to and misinform the American people is un-American.  I don't think I am peering through the "fog of war" when I see the basic civil rights guaranteed by our Constitution being tread under.  I would equate declaring war without Congress as un-American.  I view Congress' kowtowing to the administration as bordering on traitorous.  It appears that there are no longer the checks and balances that our Constitution provided for between the different arms of government.

The whole Bush administration world view is diametrically opposed to the American Way.  If you look at what is perceived to be Bin Laden's end run goal - the tearing down of the concepts of Western individual liberties and freedom of thought, Ashcroft looks more like he's on Bin Laden's team than ours.  Bin Laden's victory will be consummated not by Fundamentalist Islamic madmen but our own government.  

The war on Iraq is being put forward by Cold War era Cold Warriors. They are back from the sidelines with a vengeance.  There appears to be a current shortage of domestic "Commie Rats" to point the finger of our ailing society at.  So now its terrorists.  If there aren't enough "terrorists" around, they may have to stoop to "supporters," or "sympathizers."  But don't worry regardless of what they call it (and they will stick to "terrorists") what they mean is us. You. Me. Us.

If there is a God, Joe McCarthy is roasting in Hell,  I hope that John Ashcroft's political career ends just like McCarthy's - in shame and humiliation.  A bitter disillusioned old fart who can't get a phone call returned. 

Remember that the last time Ashcroft ran for office trying to get a public mandate for his vision, he was beaten at the polls by a dead guy.  Like the rest of the administration he feels proud of a public mandate he doesn't have.  There is a guideline to American Activities Mr. Ashcroft - it's called the Constitution - you should try reading it.

March 14, 2003
Slacker Manor