I Served Serial Joe a Slushie

I listen to the news these days and wonder how the US could have let its country come to such a state. A supposed democracy, the champion of ``freedom'' in the world, and what has its government done in the past four years?

• Attacked another country without provocation
• Held human beings without trial, without access to humane condtions (for now four years)
• Secretly listened in on conversations of its own citizens
• Tortued human beings at various locations around the world
  

The first three the government readily admits to doing, if you don't believe the fourth, please take at the look at the following: exhibits a, b, c, d, e.

It's incredible how much we've become accustomed to this. Almost daily we hear new reports of torture and abuses of power by the government, and yet it all comes in such small incremements nothing is done. Where is the call to impeach the president? There seem to be talks of ``investigations'', but always the blame falls on someone else, not the government.

And the rationale, the justification for all this, is too incredible to be believed. It actually, honestly, reads like something out of 1984. From speeches/press briefings of Bush:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/14/bush.transcript/

The work ahead will also require continued sacrifice. Yet, we can be confident, because history has shown the power of freedom to overcome tyranny. And we can be confident, because we have on our side the greatest force for freedom in human history, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113000667.html

Your service is needed because our nation is engaged in a war that is being fought on many fronts...This war is going to take many turns. And the enemy must be defeated on every battlefield...This is an enemy without conscience, and they cannot be appeased.

Against this adversary there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sns-ap-bush-text,0,4736385.story?page=2&coll=sfla-home-headlines

I've reauthorized [secret wire taps] more than 30 times since September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill our American citizens.

In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without [the patriot act] for a single moment.

There's a process that goes on inside the Justice Department about leaks, and I presume that process is moving forward. My personal opinion is it was a shameful act, for someone to disclose this very important program in time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy. You've got to understand, and I hope the American people understand, there is still an enemy that would like to strike the United States of America, and they're very dangerous.

And without revealing the operating details of our program, I just want to assure the American people that, one, I've got the authority to do this; two, it is a necessary part of my job to protect you; and three, we're guarding your civil liberties.

In other words, it is up to the government to fight a war that is not against any particular person or place in whatever way it sees fit to protect its citizens. I literally cannot believe that the US has come to this. May I never have to live there all my life.