Boston Strong

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Some things anger me so much that I can't talk about it for a while. America's disgustingly orchestrated  response to two improvised bombs is one of those things and it continues to "trend" as the anti-literati at CNN like to say. The ongoing war against liberty is one of those things and as the brief manhunt for the two amateur saboteurs enfolded, we were quickly and steadily told how lucky we were that we gave up our civil rights after 9/11 "when everything changed."

The inevitable mountains of teddy bears are growing on Boston streets like some newly erupted volcano, the mourning, sobbing, narcissistic self-pitying league of lachrymose losers  are wandering about looking for healing and the media are wallowing in the sticky effluent like pigs, squealing for ratings.  Boston Strong, they're writing on shoes and stuffed animals and bits of colored paper.  What they mean is American Weak. The British response to the Blitz was strong, our response to an amateur bomb is embarrassing but worse -- a windfall for the authoritarians.  How much more obvious could it be that the agenda for pseudo-Libertarian authoritarianism does not include what we used to call the Natural Rights of Man?

The breathless posturing of one Republican after another and one media puppet after another reminds us that this is TERROR, that Americans who blow up things are not criminals, but TERRORISTS and  we are AT WAR as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tells us again and again with priapic intensity. We must therefore  not, in our abject terror, adhere to the  Bill of Rights but rather allow politicians to pretend that the 5th amendment right to silence does not pertain in this "time of War or public danger;"   Is a one in a million chance of being killed the kind of  danger the 5th amendment talks about?  Is a homemade bomb a war? What about the far, far greater chance of being murdered by a thief, a madman, a drunk driver, a corporation yearning to be free of OSHA?

Read the 5th amendment carefully.  Does it allow for it to be scrapped in time of war or does it only exclude people in the US military in time of war?  I'm not a lawyer, but I'm going with the latter. Perhaps Senator Graham should stop pretending that the Constitution is optional at his discretion and does not pertain to anyone deemed an outlaw or enemy combatant for the convenience of  power.


Yes, we're AT WAR  because many hundreds of millions of people resent the actions and attitudes of the United States of America and even though no war has been declared these are desperately dangerous times that require us to be TERRIFIED to the degree that due process and reason itself must be dispensed with.  Jury of our peers?  Right to confront our accusers, right to know the charges against us -- right to see the evidence?  Ridiculous -- remember, as a patriot, you're scared half to death and fear justifies all. 

Habeas Corpus my Republican ass, we can and will  keep you in a cage for the rest of your life without trial and torture you either quickly or slowly and perpetually and the hell with your namby-pamby rights. Hell with Geneva conventions, the hell with morality, decency, courage or anything else because Terror Vincit Omnia and thank God for that!


We've already nullified the right to be secure in our persons and papers against searches and seizures without probable cause -- because of the danger. We're being prompted to dispense with the protection against self-incrimination because of the danger that  anyone the Fascists Republicans don't like just might have important information we need to torture out of them and now Senator Graham wants the Feds to "confront" anyone looking at "Islamist" websites.  Sure, we have a free press -- just don't read it, you traitor!   In our proposed government of fear rather than of laws, who is to say what constitutes subversive, anti-American reading?

I've long answered the demand that we call any act of sabotage TERROR by saying that it isn't terror if we are not cowards, that there is no land of the free in any home of the brave, but it's strobe light and Da-Glo obvious that people like Senator Graham have more to gain from fear mongering than the disparate and disorganized haters of Western culture around the world.  The only way the Republicans can defeat that Liberal Manifesto, the US Constitution is by TERROR.