9/11 has been a windfall for social conservatives. With a timid, frightened, and confused American public, Ashcroft has made significant policy changes all in the name of fighting terrorism. All are objectionable. Many measures, like those within the anti-terrorism bill, were accepted as the price of freedom against an enemy with nothing to lose. The rest of the measures are just sneaky and ridiculous.
With critics already grumbling about how dangerously close the new police powers included in the anti-terrorism law bring this nation to fascism, Ashcroft decided that the right-to-die law in Oregon is morally wrong and should be banned by the federal government. Of course, it does not matter that the Bush Administration forswore violating states’ rights. Nor does it matter that 60% of Oregon voters chose to grant their citizens the right to die under very restrictive circumstances. It also doesn’t matter that there is a preponderance of case law in Oregon favoring a person’s right to die.
Only the laws of God, not those of mere man, count when you are the chief enforcer of U.S. law at the Department of Justice.
The second favorite policy change of this recount winning Administration is it the ability, the encouragement actually, of federal prosecutors to bring sedition charges against those believed to be subversive or those believed to desire war against the United States. For the moment, the target group is obvious. Arab-Americans have been dealing with the virtual internment that this policy have brought to bear since long before it was officially announced.
And just in case those diabolical liberal lawyers at the ACLU figure out how to dismantle the anti-terrorism law and restore democratic rule to the state of Oregon, the United States can now try people in military court without the hassle of publicity or the Constitution. Military courts will allow the trial and imprisonment of anyone from any country at any spot on the planet.
For the overwhelming majority of people that cannot think ahead of the next foot while walking, these are great ideas because they have nothing to fear and it “Teaches a lesson “–or something equally asinine–to potential terrorists.
The government has made much fanfare about how their policy will protect the people. Unfortunately, corrupt governments do not change overnight. You are as safe as you were at 8:44 a.m. on September 11th. You are still on your own.
