Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Then there is the issue of launching searches without the necessity of obtaining a warrant from a magistrate.  Who needs Thomas Jefferson, the author of the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution known as the Bill of Rights, when we have Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales assuring us that all is well?  

The answer is simple.  All one needs to do is brand any of these detainees an "enemy combatant," the magic word of Bushies under the Patriot Act, and the government can search without warrant, arrest and detain indefinitely, and if you object then you are endangering America since "we are at war."  

The Constitution is clear about war declarations.  Since going to war is a serious matter involving loss of human life and great expenditures of funds the document is clear on what fits the definition.  

Such an act involves a specific reference to a nation.  Just as Bushies love to use a loose definition of "enemy combatants" they employ the same tactic with the act of war.

According to Bushies this vast residuum of power is accorded to the executive through the "war on terror," which has never been defined.  War and war powers rest on whatever Cheney and Bush ordain at a given moment in time.  

Because "we are at war" fighting a never defined "war on terror" then Cheney and Bush, along with Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of the war cabinet can legitimately do whatever it takes to fight the forces pitted against us with a specific nation never being mentioned.  

After the 9/11 Twin Towers tragedies many thought that the enemy was al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but Cheney and Bush had a surprise for veteran State Department and CIA hands.  

The enemy we needed to immediately confront in the war on terror was Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the same cutthroat killer dictator that Cheney and Rumsfeld helped arm during the Reagan years.  

This happened after our own CIA helped to bring this ruthless killer to power while being well aware of his blood-soaked track record of death, destruction, and torture, supporting him in a successful coup.

During the earlier Cheney-Rumsfeld years, Saddam Hussein used poison gas America helped him acquire to destroy Kurds in Northern Iraq during the regimes of Ronald Reagan and George Bush the Elder.  We kept supplying him as long as we in turn were provided with abundant access to Iraqi oil.  

Then suddenly a change of heart occurred following 9/11.  All of a sudden those killings on Saddam's part that did not seem to bother those earlier Republican administrations, or loyal spear-carriers Cheney and Rumsfeld, enraged a suddenly moral band of Republicans that immediate action was needed to redress those wrongs.

In addition to the moral argument, there was that giant mushroom cloud that Condoleezza Rice asked us to take as an article of faith was headed in our direction from Saddam Hussein's potent nuclear arsenal.  

When Hans Blix and a UN inspection team began looking for those awesome weapons of mass destruction the launching of Donald Rumsfeld's "shock and awe" was stepped up in time to resolve any dispute since those meddlesome inspectors were not finding the arsenal that we were being assured by the Cheney-Bush Administration existed.

Some Americans became confused and asked why we were so intent on attacking Iraq and linking it to the war on terror when we had been earlier told that the culprit behind the 9/11 attacks was Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist organization.  "Don't you get it?" Bushies answered with angry self-righteousness.  "They're one and the same!  Can't you see that we are at war?"  

When Joseph Wilson clearly demonstrated that there was no link in the case of the false claim concerning Saddam Hussein seeking to acquire yellow cake for the enrichment of Uranium from Niger, was he saluted as a devoted patriot searching for the truth?  

Not quite.  Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA agent and Wilson was blasted by the Karl Rove propaganda brigade for being a political opportunist vying for a position in a prospective John Kerry Administration.  So much for the truth, a major casualty in any Cheney-Bush-Rove onslaught.

So a tragic war continues along with continuing loss of life, all brought about through a rush to conflict based on a tissue of lies.  

The cost of this bloody conflict along with the tax cuts to enrich Cheney and Bush's wealthy benefactors has now pushed America from a surplus when the team of destroyers arrived in office to a debt that has now reached over $8.4 trillion, the largest in the history of the planet.  Is this a conservative spending record?

Meanwhile do not dare to question the motives or conduct of this Administration.  To do so is unpatriotic since "we are at war" and criticism of the Administration gives "aid and comfort to our enemy."

We should ask one more time if Administration spokespersons can define just who that enemy is.  Bush had his chance to articulate his position during the 9/11 Hearings.  We recall what happened.  He chose to testify in executive session with Cheney at his side.  

In another period perhaps Cheney and Bush would be taken to task through impeachment proceedings.  Despite the fact that the Republicans are the majority party in both houses of Congress we know how low Bush's current poll levels are registering.  

If this gang were forced to confront reality in the form of impeachment hearings certain Republicans desiring to remain in office would jump ship post haste.

Instead we have a Republican Administration trashing the U.S. Constitution with impunity and a timid opposition fearful of doing what the Constitution mandates, namely confronting and impugning the loyalties of those who criticize those so-called public servants who violate its stated principles.