Electric Monkey Pants

Yes, the elections went pretty well — better than we might have expected, but we’re still stuck with two factions of the Business Party. At least now there’s some hope — a fool’s hope, but we have nothing else.

We’re gonna need all the help we can get given what Bush has in store for us. If we don’t lean on the Democrats and make them demand accountability from the Bush Regime and the 109th Congress we can kiss our freedom and our future goodbye.

In an excellent article on Yahoo write Ted Rall lays out the terrifying anti-Constitutional laws that the 109th passed (and Bush signed) shortly before the election:

On October 17, 2006 Bush signed the Military Commissions Act. The new law, scarcely mentioned in the media, is breathtaking for the breadth of its attack on basic rights. Under the MCA either the president or the secretary of defense may declare you an “enemy combatant”–as usual, without proof. Under that designation you may be jailed, without the right to an attorney, for the rest of your life. You can even be tortured. Your U.S. citizenship can’t protect you. And it’s all “legal.”

The Military Commissions Act got all the press for taking away Habeas Corpus:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUzUljH8EHU]

But the John Warner Defense Authorization Act might be even more onerous.

About a week ago some left-wing bloggers began circulating rumors that Bush had secretly signed something called the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007” that “allows the president to declare a ‘public emergency’ and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to ‘suppress public disorder.'” I couldn’t find the text of the law at the time, formerly H.R. 5122, or a reliable media account, so I decided not to report on it.

I can now confirm the bloggers’ account. Bush signed the JWDAA hours after the MCA, in a furtive closed-door White House ceremony. There is, buried deep down in Title V, Subtitle B, Part II, Section 525(a) of the JWDAA, a coup. The Bush Administration has quietly stolen the National Guard away from the states.

Oh great. Bush has a standing army at his disposal. We can only guess what he’ll do with that power. If it’s like anything else he’s done he’ll fuck it up. But that could mean anything from invading Iran with our National Guard to… well, enslaving America under his fascist tyranny.

Given the way Bush has ruled for the last 6 years which do you think is most likely?

What can you do about it? Well, you can start by educating yourself about the underlying causes of our current bout of fascism.