American Valor

Dominating geopolitics is about controlling who gets the oil. Jack Miles has a great article in the Asia Times about how the Bush Administration’s gamble in Iraq is just about done. Looks like the pres’ lost this game of Texas Hold’em.

A fantastic episode of Frontline was aired this week. Cheney’s Law

Here’s a breakdown:

• 9/11 created a crisis that everyone wanted to respond to.
• Cheney argues that in order to “protect the country” the president had to be given complete unchecked power.
• Cheney found like minded executive power fundamentalists
• Cheney placed them throughout the beaurecracy to help him push it through.
• Justice department yes-men lawyers made up justifications for the power grab.
• They cowed people by saying, If you try to stop us “American Blood will be on your hands.”
• A president, who wanted to show everybody how tough he was, liked the idea.
• A Republican Congress agreed.
• The President of the United States is now above the law.
• The President of the United States is now able to choose, on his own, which laws he will follow.

There couldn’t be a better Op/Ed to talk about with our first post than this one
“Good Germans Among Us” by Frank Rich.

Frank Rich has called us out and it’s about time. As even more details continue to become public about the Bush administration’s illegal activities to “protect us” Rich is asking – what price are we willing to pay for that protection?

• Being spied on without cause?
• Being denied the right to face our accusers in a court of law?
• Placing some Americans above the law?

All these things have already happened using the excuse of “protecting us from terrorists” – BOO! Are you scared yet? Rich is asking what are you going to do as the rights and laws that make America what it is are given away for the false promise of “protecting us” from the boogeyman. Were you hiding under the bed crying “Please don’t let the terrorists get me!”? Were you afraid to fly on a plane? Afraid to visit a foreign country? Well stop it. Act like a real American. Stop being afraid. The United States of America is The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. If you want to be free you have to be brave. GTFU!

If I have to be a victim of the next mass murder in NYC to protect these rights – so be it. I’d rather die that way than being crushed by a decaying bridge, trapped in a sub-standard mine or from a toothache.

Sow the question is, will you be remembered as a Good American or a coward?