Read "Brickbats" and "Balance Sheet" and other parts of Reason Magazine, in the back issues. You'll see all sorts of stories just as bad going back long before Bush.
While I would oppose the idea of banning people from a plane because of what a t-shirt says, that's a far cry from real tyranny or oppression. A real police state doesn't say "you can't get on the plane with that t-shirt", it roughs up the wearer or sends him to a jail cell or a gulag.
I said it before......we are not there yet. However when tyrants enter office without a revolt, the increase in tyranny is gradual and starts in small ways and then builds.
Huh? The Senate just tried to pass a bill banning the burning of the American flag.
An empty symbolic gesture that will never become active law.
It is not an empty gesture. The burning of the flag is an expression of free speech which is one of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. By trying to stop the burning of the flag, the right is trying to stop free speech.
rarely noticed, and if noticed often has no consequences.
And many of the accusations against this administration amount more to a battle between the executive and the legislature as to defined limits of power rather than any clear violation of or circumvention of laws.
That too is not a minor battle. Checks and balances is an integral part of this gov't
And they would be under the ideas the Bush administration proposes to, they would just be shifted a bit. I'm not saying I support the shift. You might even convince me to directly oppose it, but there is a difference between the normal tension between the branches of government and their battle of spheres of influence in the constitutionally gray areas on one hand, and an outright and clear violation of the constitution on the other.
Whenever Bush doesn't like a law that Congress has passed, he signs a signing statement that says he will not support the law. This is not a gray area nor is it part of some "normal tension". Bush is trying to neutralize the authority of Congress by ignoring the legislation that Congress passes. Specter and other senators are suing him in a court of law over this issue, or are getting ready to sue him.
And if you don't think this issue is important that you don't understand the checks and balances system very well.
Huh? Think Muslims and gays.
Neither has been called an unacceptable minority by Bush or by our federal government in general. Neither is subject to the type of actions typically directed by a fascist government against some minorities. Neither has had any new restrictions placed specifically on them by the Bush administration or our current congress that don't apply to the population at large.
In terms of gays, the GOP has made attempts that have failed. For an example, they pressed for a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Even before that attempt, gays did not have the rights that other American citizens have....they can not marry, they can not get a deductions on their income taxes other than their own, they are not protecting by inheritance laws when one of them dies etc.
As for Muslims, the man who was wearing the t-shirt and forced to get off the plance was Muslim. Bush and company are calling Muslims fascists and comparing them to Hitler and the nazis. How do you think that's impacting on the American public? People are chomping at the bit to discriminate against Muslims. That's how Hitler did it. Before laws were passed against the Jews, he began a campaign of hate against Judaism. What do you think Bush is doing? Why do you think Muslims are being mistreated throughout this country?
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