Monday, October 20, 2008
[1803 - Senate ratifies Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling size of the country]
[1859 - John Dewey, psychologist, philosopher, born in Burlington, Vermont]
[1874 - Charles Ives, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, born in Danbury, Connecticut]
[1882 - Bela Lugosi (Blasko), actor, born in Lugos, Transylvania, Hungary]
[1890 - Ferdinand 'Jelly Roll' Morton, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer, piano player, bandleader, born in New Orleans]
[1905 - Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay), author, born in Brooklyn]
[1907 - Arlene Francis (Kazanjian), actress, born in Boston, Massachusetts]
[1923 - Herschel Bernardi, actor, born in New York City]
[1925 - Art Buchwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, born in New York City]
[1931 - Mickey (Charles) Mantle, Baseball Hall of Famer, born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma]
[1947 - Red Scare - House Un-American Activities Committee opens investigation into communist infiltration of American movie industry]
[1965 - Last PV544 driven off Volvo assembly line]
[1973 - Sydney Opera House opens]
Plain Scared
On this anniversary of the Red Scare of the '40s and '50s it seems appropriate to take note of the many scare tactics exploited by President Bush and Vice President Cheney to advance their political agenda.
The greatly increased surveillance of citizens, secret searches of telephone logs, email, and library records, sweeping police powers under the "Patriot" act, and other unknown repressive measures we have yet to learn of perpetrated by the federal government made a mockery of our Constitutional rights to privacy in the name of the War on Terrorism. When the Attorney General (Chief law enforcement officer in the nation) made an open appeal for US citizens to spy on one another, you knew that our rights and freedoms were in serious jeopardy. Add to this a mentality in the White House, Pentagon, and Department of Justice that put the President and his Cabinet above the law when they claimed to be combating the terrorist threat, and you had the makings of a police state.
Our spineless representatives in Congress were neither a check nor a balance on the excesses of the Executive Branch. In fear of being painted as soft on terrorism in the next election they rubber stamped or caved-in to whatever the President sent them. The only bulwark against the attack on our freedoms has been the federal judiciary, but the President tried to remove this impediment by packing the courts with loyal right wing ideologues.
Osama Bin Laden should now declare victory. With the help of our government he has succeeded in converting the USA into a Christian Fundamentalist Society that could prove every bit as repressive as the Muslim Fundamentalist Society he espouses.
William's Whimsical Words:
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave . . .
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