YOU, TOO, CAN BE AN ENEMY COMBATANT!

How will history judge the 109th congress? The other day, the president of the United States signed into law a piece of legislation which - quite literally - gave him despotic powers. It all boils down to this: A disgusting, murderous, half-witted little thug named George W. Bush now has the authority to declare anyone he sees fit as an "enemy combatant". That includes American citizens, folks. This means that any one of us can be arrested and detained indefinitely without any charges being made against us. One could, in theory anyway, be grabbed off the street and thrown into Gitmo or where ever without his or her family ever even being notified. A person could just disappear! If that isn't bad enough for you, chew on this unpleasant fact for a minute or two: It is now legal to use the same methods of torture that the government of Harry S Truman prosecuted Japanese war criminals for at the end of World War Two. Now doesn't that just make you feel warm and fuzzy all over?

"Excuse me while I disappear"
Frank Sinatra 1958

Which brings us to this nasty question: Just what in the hell do they mean by the term, "enemy combatant"? It's a tad too vague for comfort, if you ask me. According to people in the know, it can mean anybody who inadvertently made an innocent contribution to an organization with suspected ties to terrorist organizations. Back in 1995, without even knowing it, I made a twenty-five dollar contribution to the Irish Republican Army under the guise of an orphan's charity. Had they been at odds with our government at that particular moment, with George W. Bush at the helm, who knows where I would have ended up! Can you imagine?

Here's another question: Just what, in the mind of the First Fool, constitutes a terrorist organization? Well, heck! That could mean any person or organization whose singular purpose is not only the impeachment but the imprisonment of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney for the rest of their lives for their crimes against humanity. Uh oh! That means me....That might even very well mean you! Are you an enemy combatant? Am I? Apparently we are, according to these fools.

Welcome to Hitler country.

Twenty-five years ago, I would roll my eyes whenever someone compared Ronald Reagan to Adolf Hitler. As incompetent and feeble-minded as Ronnie no doubt was, the Hitler juxtaposition was a bit of a stretch, I thought. All of that has changed. Is it an extreme example to compare the Bush Mob to the Nazi regime of seventy years ago? Not at all. You must remember that der fuhrer was able to take total control of that government via an entirely legal process. He demanded of the German parliament absolute power and the German parliament caved in absolutely. While all this was happening, the voters of Germany looked away in utter indifference. Before they knew it, all political opposition to Hitler was brutally crushed by means of intimidation and murder; Germany was on the road to catastrophe. Within little more than a decade, his beloved fatherland lay in smoldering ruins. Millions of its people were dead.

Do you doubt, for a minute, that your country is now heading down that same catastrophic road? If you do, then, by all means, vote republican on 7 November. For months I've been "ranting" about the number of Iraqi men, women and little children who have died as a result of the obscenity that you and I, as taxpayers, have been funding in that tormented country. Judging by all I had read (and I've read an awful lot on the subject, so help me, Mitch Miller, I have!) I had previously estimated the death toll at being, at the very least, one-hundred thousand. Stop the presses! According to a recent study by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the actual body count is around six-hundred and sixty-five thousand. My mistake. When pressed with these figures at a press conference on October 11th, Bush summarily dismissed them as nonsense. It's just much more convenient for him to stick to his December 2005 figure of thirty thousand. How does this evil bastard even sleep at night? From this day forward my estimate of the Iraqi dead will be "at least half a million". So sue me.

In the meantime, Dick Cheney's Halliburton is now involved in the construction of two "detainment facilities" that are able to house up to forty-thousand people ("enemy combatants") that your government has commissioned in the event of any "national emergency". Here's another question for you to munch on, kids: Are you naive enough to believe that the hideous little piece of shit in the oval office doesn't plan on using those - let's call a spade a spade - concentration camps to imprison innocent American citizens whose only crime is invoking their right to a "redress of grievances" that is guaranteed to them by the First Amendment? Do you seriously believe that this administration's unparalleled constitutional recklessness is not doing serious damage to the framework of our nation's laws that were put in place by the Founding Fathers over two centuries ago? James Madison once remarked that the system of checks and balances did not have to rely on the "good intentions" of the people in power and that our constitution could even withstand the machinations of the devil. But what happens when the devil, himself, seeks to destroy those very same constitutional foundations with the willing aid of a corrupt and incompetent congress? What happens when the citizens of a country are lulled into inaction, distracted by the celebrity scandal du jour? History has proven that the results are always disastrous. Make no mistake about it, we've arrived at that very point.

The seventh of November will prove to be one of the most fateful - or fatal - election days in American history. The choice is ours. Of this you can be absolutely sure: The administration of George W. Bush will stop at nothing to make sure the republicans take or steal both houses of congress next month. Count on them orchestrating some kind of hideous "October Surprise", even something that gets people killed, that will frighten the masses into staying with the GOP. If you don't think they're capable of pulling off something as despicable as that, you obviously haven't been paying attention.

The election is less than three weeks away and it's up to all of us to get out the vote. Do everything humanly possible: Call your local talk radio programs; Call C-SPAN's Washington Journal! It's easier to get on the air than you might think - Of the thirty or so attempts I've made to get through, I've been successful more than nine out of ten times (The secret is "speed dialing"!); Write a letter to the editor of your local paper - It's not too late to get two or even three pieces published; Volunteer to drive an elderly or handicapped neighbor to the polls; Explain to your less politically astute friends exactly what is at stake. If they are faithful viewers of FOX and Friends, tell them they might do well by tuning into the politically centrist (and registered republican) Don Imus for a week or so; If they are avid Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity listeners, tell them to give Air America a try - if only for a day or so. Hell, they might even learn a thing or two! This could very well be our last chance to have our votes counted. If you think everything I've written here this morning are merely the ramblings of a sick, malcontented fanatic, then please vote republican next month. You'll deserve everything that happens to you. Think I'm kidding?

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net