The End of America Act

The End of America Act, known by its perpetrators as the Military Commissions Act of 2006, is the death knell of the American experiment in democracy. It was passed by a conference committee of the Congress on September 28, 2006, and signed into law by George W. Bush on October 17, 2006.

What does it do? Here are some answers to that question:

• From the American Civil Liberties Union
• From Amnesty International
• From Wikipedia
• From Znet

October 11, 2006

"The Death of Habeas Corpus"

October 17, 2006

"National Yawn as Our Rights Evaporate"

October 18, 2006

"Beginning of the End of America"

The Military Commissions Act is this nation's version of Hitler's Enabling Act. That act, passed overwhelmningly by the German Reichstag, conveyed unprecedented power to Adolph Hitler, just as the Military Commissions Act conveys unprecedented power to George Bush. The Nazis used the Reichstag fire as an excuse to convince the German people to give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, just as the neo-con men now in power have used the excuse of the 9/11 attacks to convince the American people to give up their liberty for a little temporary safety. Ask the Germans how temporary their safety was.

When I received my commission as an officer in the United States Army, I took an oath "to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Not the President, not the Congress, not the courts - the Constitution. That Constituion is under attack today by "enemies ... domestic," and those enemies are this nation's own government - and their shadowy bosses, whom we never see.

That same oath is taken by every member of the United States military and every law enforcement officer in the country. We have all, in essence, sworn an oath to protect the Constitution against the very people who are now running our country - and if you think there's a problem with this, or that the President is somehow "above criticism," consider this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt:

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." - Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, 1918, in his essay "Lincoln and Free Speech".