[extropy-chat] Tyranny in place

[Samantha Atkins]

On Sep 30, 2006, at 2:26 PM, spike wrote:

>> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
>> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Tyranny in place
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 11:18:48PM +0200, Amara Graps wrote:
>>
>>> There should be massive demonstrations over this. Why isn't there?!
> ...
>> Those who don't care about impeaching a criminal don't care
>> about their country turned into a dictatorship...
>
>
> My understanding is that it was congress that did this, not the  
> executive
> branch.

What, you missed that the executive has been pushing hard for this?   
Every administration attempts to get Congress to play ball with its  
wishes.



> I would interpret it as empty electioneering: the congressmonsters
> do not want to appear soft on terrorism right before the election.

Sorry but these laws will remain long after the election even if they  
are eventually successfully challenged.  And this is hardly the  
point.  The point is that so-called public servants sworn to uphold  
the Constitution and supposedly in office to protect the rights of the  
people are violating that oath and putting the people in far more  
jeopardy than we ever faced from the extremely unlikely scenario of  
dying at the hands of a terrorist.   Much of the population is very  
tired of the whole "war on terrorism" thing in the ways it is playing  
out anyway.  This administration is at an all time (well since 9/11)  
low in public approval.  It is certainly not unpopular to stand up  
against Bush and company getting out of hand rr to stand for the  
people for a change.   So this is a pretty lame attempt to explain  
this away.

> Legislative branch grandstanding is done all the time, but it is still
> meaningless.  What counts is if the supreme court upholds it.  I  
> predict
> that the court will knock it down without a second thought.
>

Guess again.  The court is being loaded.  And again the people should  
never stand for a Congress that would pass such an affront in the  
first place.


> Regarding massive demonstrations, we have congressional elections in  
> a few
> weeks.  We will see what happens there.
>

So what will it take for you to consider doing something more than  
"wait and see"?

- samantha