Tags: (Editorial, Controversial, Goverment)                          If you like this editoral... why not Digg It!

This editorial considers the idea of an uprising of the people against the United States government. Because the very nature of the idea is controversial, this article is hereby labeled as such. This idea is not isolated in the thoughts of Americans, if you dig deep into the history and doctrine of our country you find that this idea is one of the founding principals of all liberty bestowed upon us. The following statement is the working thesis for this editorial: "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ". I applaud this statement, and every single American should too. This statement was not uttered by some anti-American terrorists plotting the next attack on our homeland, but by the third president of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson.

The motivation for this discourse was the recent passing of a Military Commissions Act (MCA) of October 17th, 2006 by President Bush. The MCA allows the United States government to suspend the writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum. In common law, the writ of habeas corpus is the ability to challenge the legality of imprisonment, especially cases without charges being filled. This is one of the founding freedoms laid out in our constitution, bill of rights, and the laws of the United States.

The new media friendly "War on Terror" cites that suspending these rights are necessary for the protection of citizens, and that the passing of this act allows the United States to help obtain information to protect us. President Bush claims that the Military Commissions Act is to detain non-citizens that have illegally engaged in combat against the United States. Here is the excerpt from the act:

Except as provided in section 1005 of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination." ?1005(e)(1), 119 Stat. 2742.

The government and President Bush claim this is only to be used against non-citizens of the United States. But who makes this determination? A government appointed military tribunal. (outlined in section 1005) This act disallows any access to the courts by someone accused and held. Here is the wording of a limited habeas corpus act as provided in section 1005:

"The jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on any claims with respect to an alien under this paragraph shall be limited to the consideration of whether the status determination ... was consistent with the standards and procedures specified by the Secretary of Defense for Combatant Status Review Tribunals (including the requirement that the conclusion of the Tribunal be supported by a preponderance of the evidence and allowing a rebuttable presumption in favor of the Government's evidence), and to the extent the Constitution and laws of the United States are applicable, whether the use of such standards and procedures to make the determination is consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." ?1005(e)(2), 119 Stat. 2742."

The moral and ethical violations to human rights and civil liberties are innumerable, and even the limited statute of habeas corpus in section 1005 does nothing to rid these violations. This act stands in violation of the Third Geneva Convention, to which the United States is a signed member. In reality this statue provides no legal time frame for a review of citizen status by the tribunal, and is always in favor of government evidence. The act also limits access to lawyers and evidence of the accused thereby reducing them to prisoners in a United States run internment camp.

Can anyone outside of the government see the realization of thetyrannical dictatorship bred by fear of a subjected and disenchanted public that is lied too and misinformed at every opportunity? Adolf did it in 1939, now Bush is following suit in 2006. The reality of the Military Commission Act is for the pacification of all resistance to the government, not just from terrorists or other established countries, but also from you and me walking the streets misinformed by the lies broadcast into our media. There is nothing to stop the government from wielding the power of this act against anyone of us legal citizens in the United States.

The truth of this law is that anyone can be declared an "unlawful combatant" and instantly jailed under this act. The prisoner therefor has no access to lawyers or the ability to file a writ of habeas corpus to challenge the imprisonment. The act provides no legal time limit for a review of the evidence and legal citizenship status review of individual imprisoned under the act. It is a blank check for pacification and imprisonment.

These outcries are meant with the "tag-line" response from the government, that it will only be used on non-citizens. It is still a violation of human rights no matter who it is wielded against. Can we believe that this act will not be used against us? No we can't! For too long the administration has lied to us. Too long has the administration given us false information and passed laws to strip our freedom by exploiting fear of terrorist attack. I fear we may underestimate the damages, dangers, and loss of freedom we have now allowed. Has our society become too dependent on being told what to do and to have all its needs handed to it by the government?

Thomas Jefferson said, "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.". I fear that we soon will understand the grim reality of this statement in fear controlled society.

Are we too complacent, isolated, and insulated as modern Americans to understand the six years of damage caused by Bush and the Republican party that is reversing the very principals of liberty and freedom we stand upon? Are we blinded in the cold serene light of our TV's now flicking mindless speeches of lies and surreal illusions of fear into the conscience of America? Are we so complacent in our media controlled ignorance that the isolation of government control becomes blankets of warmth and safety? Has the history of our country taught us Americans nothing? Have we forgotten that we have descended from honorable and fearless men who sought to make a free society? I hold a deep fear that we American's have.

The TV screens are flickering now as the minds of the people erode into the dark abyss of compliance, complacence, and isolation as the words from the surreal images hang in the blue light of the forgotten freedoms now existing only in the fading memory of the flickering screen. The sights and sounds serve to comfort the masses content to display their love of democracy by voting on American Idol or amuse in the misleading and distracting words of the media pundits like Bill O'Reilly. Will the masses wallow in the sensationalism of surreal illusions or the false ideals driven by a distracted culture while all our liberties are slowly dissolved around them? In my fear, I see our society answering the stolen liberties and promises of maintaining the security of our isolated society with a silent plead of the fifth. Because the erosion of our rights will soon prevent pleading the first.

In the words of Edward R. Murrow, "Do not confuse dissent with disloyalty." The principals laid out in the doctrine of our country shows that dissent leads to liberty and freedom. Is that not loyalty? Is the erosion of basic human rights helping to stop terrorism? Or is it abandoning the very principles of liberty, freedom, and democracy we as American's should hold high. With the passing of the "Military Commissions Act" law, the basic freedom and protection of the Writ of Habeas Corpus falls into the control and decision of the government and thus further taking away rights and liberties of all persons.

Suspending Habeas Corpus is only a stepping stone to the realization of a dictatorship. How long until the total erosion of freedom of speech, the bill of rights, or freedom from tyrannical control in general? For the moment, this discourse is protected speech. Why? Because the fore thinking founders of this country understood the necessity for the people to speak against the government. It's fundamental for change and fundamental for "we the people" to remain in control. The Bill of Rights is a document that I happen to absolutely fucking believe in... yet the complacence and the fear of the people allow those in power to take all these rights away in the name of security from terrorists. Benjamin Franklin said, "They who would give up essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.", or in essence... exactly what the terrorists want.

The United States is under terrorist attack, not from al-Qaeda but from the "so-called" leadership of our country. The erosion of rights, the loss of freedom, and the removal of liberties is not how you defeat the terrorists in this "War on Terror". Because the loss of rights means that the terrorists have already won this war and the leaders in power that sought to exploit this situation of fear, isolation, complaisance, and ordered compliance have become rulers of a new dictatorship. As the people sit quietly insulated, it is now revealed that the war on terror was never with Osama or Saddam, but was a distraction for the leaders of this country to exact their version of homeland terrorism quietly under the guise of protecting us.

If this administration has shown us one thing, it is the desperate need for all American citizen's to stand-up and resist these erosions of rights. This is no time to keep silent in the shadow of terrorist induced fear. If we keep our silence, the endless legislation destroying our rights will not stop. The administration has shown that the constitution has no meaning and its application is optional. Thomas Jefferson recommended a violent revolution every twenty years to maintain freedom from a tyrannical government. I fear American's have lost the spirit of America, and my children will bear the inequities of my generation's silent acceptance of terrorist fear. We must all stand up and resist, for today the sun still sets on "We the People", but if we allow more of these laws to be passed the sun will soon set on "We the Government". I hope I have opened your minds today and I leave you with the following quote:

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -Thomas Jefferson November 13, 1787 (letter to William Stephens Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy)