poligirl gets Karita Hummer's Golden Pen award for "Government's New American Manifesto"

Winner of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award



Cross-posted from EENR Blog

http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=622

Government's New American Manifesto (+)
by: poligirl
Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:31:05 AM EDT

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(posted from an earlier rendition, but it is, in this political climate, timeless, unfortunately for us...)

I have been thinking lately about that old quote from Nobel prizewinning author Sinclair Lewis: "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Thinking in terms of the past several years of the Bush 43 Administration, I can't help but draw many parallels; from the claims of "compassionate conservatism" to Bush consistently trotting out his faith, as a way to reassure that we're on the side of the angels and being led by a guy who is a really devotedly religious fellow. And we all know about the patriotism, or lack thereof, that has been regularly employed in an attempt to stifle any dissent. "Wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." How easy it would be to take over this country simply equipped with well-crafted and sellable rhetoric...

Like several of my fellow citizens, many Democrat or Libertarian, but Republican as well, I worry that what began in the name of "protection" of our "homeland" has evolved, blatantly and more rapidly as time goes on, into a raw power grab consolidating ultimate power in a "unitary executive," which is essentially a fancy name for a king.
poligirl :: Government's New American Manifesto
So have we come full circle as a country? From throwing off the chains of oppression by a monarch and attempting our experiment of a free republic to letting a new "monarch" take over our republic just a mere 231 years later? What does that say about us? What does that say about our fear, which seems to be guiding our reactions to this usurpation? What does that say about how much we've let the terrorists (both constitutional and otherwise) take from us?

I would be forced to conclude that perhaps we are coming full circle; there is still some time left to stop the procession towards monarchy again (and by using "monarchy" I am using the nicer word, even though tyranny may be a more apt description at this point.) It is also clear to me that the citizens in this great country don't care to exercise the advanced citizenship we are afforded; we simply don't care; as long as we are getting ours, we have a collective "it doesn't affect me" attitude. Most people won't realize that anything is different until they are told that they can't do or have something. But by the time this happens, it will be too late to rectify without some sort of coup or revolution.

By letting our government have carte blanche because of our own indoctrination that the downfall of the country can ONLY come in the form of violence and physical destruction, we have given them tacit approval to remake the fabric of this country that the founding fathers so carefully wove for their grand experiment. The reason for the separation of powers was specifically to prevent one branch from becoming the main power branch. The theory of the "unitary executive" is a theory proposed by conservatives who clearly don't truly buy into the "strict constructionist" ideal, though many of them do claim to be proponents of so-called "original intent." Being a proponent of a "unitary executive" and a subscribing to "original intent" or "strict constructionist" views are contradictory at best and hypocritical and nefarious at worst.

Even the theory of "original intent" is conclusive that the framers put all into the constitution that they (in collective agreement) thought suitable and necessary to guide the nation. Nowhere in there is anything close to a "unitary executive." That is unless you are a judicial "activist." And it would be the height of hypocrisy for those who have so vocally claimed that they are "original constructionists" and have railed against judicial "activism" to back such a brazenly "activist" reading of the constitution. If they do, they are simply political opportunists, and not worthy of leadership positions, including positions on the Supreme Court.

Clearly, to me, the terrorists are winning and must be laughing as we not only make just about every mistake we possibly can regarding the Middle East, but as we sit silently by while the powers that be attack, surreptitiously, the very fabric of our nation. The million dollar questions are how much damage has been irreversibly done already and how much more will be done before the citizens of this country WAKE UP!

Like the quote from Sinclair Lewis at the beginning: "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

We need to WAKE UP!

Bush's latest Executive Order is a doozy!!

user icon Karita Hummer in Action Feed of
8/04/2007 at 9:26 PM EST

Respectfully request Congress to return to Washington and overturn Bush's latest dangerous, vaguely worded, Executive Orders

Where are these guys coming from? Have the two Unitary Executives gone mad?

Every time you turn around, there is a new Executive Order - on top of the latest wiretapping agreement that has unbelievably passed Congress!

This time the Executive Order, apparently modeled after the last horrendous one for reputed obstruction in Iraq, pertains to the ability of the US Treasury to freeze property of anyone deemed to be undermining the "sovereignty of Lebanon or its Democratic processes and institutions."

Writing for the Progressive, Matthew Rothschild decries both of these Executive orders and calls them "astonishing and alarming" and says, "Such power imperils our liberties and our democratic system of government."

"Bush's Executive Order on Lebanon Even Worse than the One on Iraq", by Matthew Rothschild, Published on Saturday, August 4, 2007 by The Progressive

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/04/2981/

This actual new Executive Order to which Matthew Rothschild alerts us, is entitled:

"Executive Order: Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/ 2007/08/20070802-1.html

Read it; seeing it is believing it.

I say to Congresswoman Nancy Pilosi and Senator Harry Reid to call all vacationing representatives back to Washington to check this crazy, wanton power grab in its tracks. Come on, you don't go on vacation, and let the demise of our way of government take even stronger hold.

I implore you, Senator Edwards, too, speak up against the terrible abuse of our government by two Unitary Executives, who are literally undermining our way of governance. We can not countenance this behavior.

Does anybody feel heartbroken to see this disaster or dissembling of our form of government unfolding?

Like Wesley Clark suggests, they have to be stopped.

Enough, start impeachment proceedings and start with Cheney!

They have gone too far. Please, Everyone, I urge you, speak up and ask good questions about what is going on.

Karita Hummer
San Jose, cA

Unitary Executive Theory

A Letter to the Editor on the Unitary Executive Theory

Karita Hummer in Diaries
7/23/2007 at 2:01 AM EST

Share your concerns about Executive Branch Power Grab with a letter to the editor of your local paper.

My husband and I wrote this letter to the Editor of our local paper, the San Jose Mercury News:

"The Unitary Executive Theory is obviously now in practice in the White House, and the result is increasingly looking like a Monarchy. Under this theory, it is perfectly alright for the Executive Branch to operate unilaterally, with little restraint and little transparency.

With the Administration's defiance of Congress, repeated assertions of executive privilege, signings, refusal to reign in abuses of the Department of Justice, and wanton corruption, and much more, we are seeing before us a horrible convergence of machismo and raw power and authoritarianism in the White House, seldom, if ever, seen in previous administrations. This usurpation of power is a threat to our way of governance and to our system of democracy. It should not be tolerated.

Karita and Paul Hummer"

San Jose, CA