America is Dead

"Dear Citizen: You have been declared a 'Terrorist' by order of the President of the United States. As a result, you will be detained without due process of the law, tortured until you confess your crimes against the state, and/or extra-judicially executed. You have no right to an attorney, or a trial by your peers, you have no 'civil rights'. The United States government does not have to prove its case against you in a court of law. Your citizenship is hereby revoked. Sincerely, Sheryl Goldberg, Administrative Assistant to the Executive Branch."

America used to have a Bill of Rights to protect the fundamental freedoms of its citizens, as well as a system of 'checks' and 'balances' to prevent the government from assuming dictatorial powers. But, all that ended with the 9/11 'Terrorist Attack' and the resulting 'Patriot Act' legislation. Now the government is free to do whatever it wants, without constraint of the law.

Even before 9/11 there were countless violations by the government of the United States against its citizens... assassinations, violations of civil rights, Waco, Ruby Ridge, the attacks against the Black Panther Party, etc., etc. 

"The man who took the hostages committed suicide - he shot himself fifty-three times in the head."

The United States government even allowed agents of foreign governments to engage in operations against US citizens on American soil (i.e., the Mossad).

American citizens can now be illegally detained, even within America's own borders, as was illustrated in the case of Abdullah al-Kidd, who, despite never being charged with a crime, was held for more than two weeks in high security cells and repeatedly strip-searched and shackled.  In addition, American citizens like Bradley Manning and Jose Padilla were tortured in American military prisons, and now American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was deliberately marked for death.

Interestingly enough, America's federal judicial system, the branch of government best positioned to halt these abuses, has done everything in its power to ensure that government-sanctioned kidnappers, torturers and murderers evade any semblance of justice.

President Obama and his cronies have also done everything in their power to promote illegal detentions, torture and the extra-judicial executions of American citizens.  Attorney General Eric Holder, a self-professed paradigm of "integrity" who demonstrates far too little of it, refused to prosecute corrupt CIA officials who, in defiance of a court order, destroyed videotapes that depicted the torture of detainees.  And, in a revelation exposed by Wikileaks, it was discovered that Obama strong-armed foreign governments to prevent them from filing torture and/or war crimes charges against Bush and/or his minions.

George W. Bush once said that terrorists hate America because of its freedoms.  But it was Bush and his minions, not the terrorists, who did the most to undermine human rights, democracy and freedom in America.  Yet as Obama continues to morph into a dictator there has scarcely been a whimper of protest.

What are the reasons behind this deafening silence as America's most basic rights and freedoms are being eroded by the very people sworn to protect them?  Why, in a nation that professes to fear the intrusiveness and overreaching of "big" government, aren't the streets overrun with protesters enraged about the unchecked and unconstitutional powers the President of the United States has usurped?  Why isn't there commensurate outrage directed against the corrupt legal system, who are not only enabling governmental abuses of power, but incessantly dismantling democracy and fundamental freedoms as well?  Why are Americans so comfortable with the fact that torturers, war criminals, and murderers can not only evade justice, but also live freely among them?

One possible reason is that freedom to most Americans simply means the ability to conspicuously consume.  Almost all the recent protests over health care reform and government spending are really about one thing:  The desire to pay less in taxes, because paying less tax means having more disposable income to purchase that bigger house, fancier car, and whatever new trinkets modern technology offers.  And as long as one is watching that big screen television, playing with that IPad, or "tweeting" that celebrity, it's easy to remain oblivious to the fact that your countrymen are being tortured and killed by their own government, your freedoms are being decimated, and your politicians are being bought and paid for by billionaires and corporate dollars.

Arrogant, militarily powerful, and lacking a viable foe to curb its contempt for international law, the United States government now feels "superior" to every other country in the world, and, as a result, has become a lawless, rogue nation operating under the clandestine philosophy that "might makes right" while openly (and hypocritically) cloaking itself in the garments of "freedom," "justice" and "human rights."

America is dead, and within its maggot-ridden body lurks a country little different than the third-world dictatorships it claims to abhor - a country controlled by a plethora of sadistic, amoral, venal and ruthless reprobates who relentlessly manipulate the fear of terrorism to promote their own agendas and propagate their own brand of terror throughout the world.

Wake up America - before it is too late!