The Ugly - Early, 2010
1) Writer David Freed put together an article for The Atlantic that was summarized in the April 30, 2010 edition of The Week magazine. It covered the trials and tribulations of Steven Hatfill who the FBI initially thought was behind the 2001 anthrax letters case. For seven years the FBI hounded him as their prime suspect in the attacks. They leaked his name to the press which caused most of his friends to turn away and resulted in his being blackballed for every job he applied for. The FBI never brought charges even though they constantly followed him in a vain attempt to force him to slip up. However, the FBI eventually turned their attention to another suspect who committed suicide before he could come to trial.
As a result of the harassment, Hatfill filed and won a settlement for the harassment for $5.8 million. Thus, not only did the FBI waste seven years of resources hounding the wrong suspect, they ended up paying almost six million taxpayer dollars to try and make it right. Even worse, were the ominous words from Mr. Hatfill: "Don't kid yourself. This is a police state. The government can pretty much do whatever they want...I was a guy who trusted the government. Now I don't trust a damn thing they do." Totally in line with the philosophy of "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." When those running the government can get away with acts of unlawfulness without any respect for due process, we are all in danger of losing our freedom.
2) While Mr. Hatfill is a sympathetic American citizen that was wrongly persecuted by the government, Anwar al-Awlaki is not a sympathetic American citizen. According to another article in the same edition of The Week, al-Awlaki is a radical Muslim cleric that was born in New Mexico and who lived for a long while in the United States before moving to Yemen. The U.S. government believes that he has been involved in many terror plots planned against the United States and has placed him on a list of terrorists authorized to be killed.
Now there is probably no doubt that this is a very bad dude. However, he is an American citizen and the Constitution says "that no American shall be deprived of life without due process of law." It appears that Mr. al-Awlaki has not yet received due process of law, just the National Security Council designation to be killed without a trial, legal council, etc. This sounds very Bush-like when we can kill someone on sight because the politicians in power want them dead. The really serious concern is once you kill one American without due process, it becomes easier to kill the next one and the next one, etc. All you need is someone in the position of power to override the Constitution in the name of "national security." Where does it stop and who makes it stop once the extermination of Americans with a different view becomes easier to do?
3) The Florida state legislature has just passed two bills, one of which would theoretically protect anyone in the state who does not want to purchase health care insurance as mandated by Obama Care and the second bill demands that the Federal government balance its budget. Arizona just enacted a law that would try to deal with the overwhelming illegal immigrant problem that has beset that state in defiance of the Federal government. Idaho and over thirty other states are working on or have already passed laws that resist the mandates of Obama Care. The Montana state government has passed a law that exempts in-state gun purchases made by in-state gun manufacturers from all Federal gun laws, claiming that the Feds have no jurisdiction over in-state activity. Several years ago when the Federal government demanded that all state issued identification documents conform to a national standard (the Real ID law), many states just ignored the law without repercussions. For several years it has been legal to possess and use marijuana for medical purposes in California which is in direct defiance of national drug laws.
What does all of this mean? Possibly nothing but possibly, just possibly, we are starting to see the onset of the country starting to fray apart. It may be that the center, i.e. the Federal government, will not hold, and we will end up with a conflicting set of laws that are at odds with each other at the state government vs. Federal government level. It could be that the political class in Washington is so out of touch with the needs, views, and feelings of the rest of America, that the chasm between what Washington does and what America wants and needs will become so great that the states will start to act on their own in compliance with what their citizens want and defiance of what Washington deigns. That will put us in uncharted waters from both a freedom perspective and a governance perspective. What happens if Washington passes a law and no one obeys it, both individual citizens and local state governments? Some would call it a revolution, some would call it anarchy, all would agree it is unprecedented and would get very ugly.
4) This past week an ex-executive of the defunct ACORN organization likened the Tea Party Movement to a nasty bodily function that I will not describe here. Again, what passes for intelligent political dialog in this country remains at the level of a first grader. We have become a nation of name callers rather than problem solvers. We sign up for Facebook groups and think we are making a difference. We encourage the name calling when it is directed at others who have a different viewpoint and get outraged when those same people react angrily when called a name. And as always, we get no leadership from our politicians. In fact, they are often the name callers when disparaging those Americans citizens that disagree with them:
- House Speaker Pelosi called those Americans that disagree with Obama Care as being unpatriotic for having a differing view.
- Senate Majority Leader Reid said American citizens visiting DC in the summer on vacation physically smell.
- An Obama czar called Republicans a%$holes.
- A Florida Democratic Congressman called Republicans knuckle dragging Neanderthals.
- A Texas Congresswoman likened those that have a legitimate concern about Obama Care to the racists that fought against the Civil Rights laws.
- A New York Congressman likened those that have a legitimate concern about Obama Care to the racists that fought against the Civil Rights laws.
In all cases, President Obama allowed the name calling of American citizens to go unpunished, in effect condoning it. This is what passes for leadership in this country today, first grade playground taunts. Its no wonder that no national issues ever, ever get resolved, Without leadership from the politicians running this government, the center will not hold and heaven help us. For we all know that The Good we are getting from the American political class is being overwhelmed by both The Bad and The Ugly.
P.S. I did not mention the precariously Ugly position the country is in financially and economically, that would be too much Ugly for one day. We will cover that in the next few posts, assuming that Greek, Portugal, Spain, Italy and the rest of the international financial system is still functioning.
Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
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