What Price Liberty – The Vice

It was Patrick Henry who said "Give me Liberty of Give me Death."  I remember throughout my twenty seven year military career that that phrase was constantly resonating in my very core.   I may be naïve but I still believe in the essence of that phrase and the speech that it was part of.  I have often, in this blog, referred to my patriot ancestors and family and the sacrifices they made for liberty and our country.   Well these are the things that I fought for also.  This is what I served my nation for and this was and is what I was willing to and would die for.
 
Our nation was founded on the protection of those liberties laid out by the founding fathers in our Constitution and its amendments.   And our founding fathers were also wise enough to carefully place a system of checks and balances on all the branches of government so as to insure that no one branch or individual would become so powerful as to misuse or in more colloquial terms hijack our republic.   I do not believe that these great men ever imagined that one ideologically radical group of people would be able to hijack and control one party which would then take control of our entire government.   I don't believe that they thought that one person or group of people could be so ideologically and morally corrupt that they could, through the use of money and power actually take complete control of the whole of our system of government.
 
I believe that this is occurring today within the Republican Party and all the branches of our government.  I believe it is being manifested in two specific ways.  First it is metastasizing in the executive branch with the slow, methodical, and certain erosion of our liberties as the president bypasses the judicial branch in multiple ways.   Specifically he is denying our constitutionally guaranteed liberties by not just allowing but directing the intelligence community to monitor the activities of American citizens without due process and a warrant as is required by the 4 th amendment to the constitution and further delineated by Congress in the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.  I concur that one could possibly argue this point but the simple reality is that the constitution and FISA require it and the president is not adhering to either.
 
Along this same vein our constitutional rights are being further corrupted by the fact that the president continues to implement "signing statements" in order to conduct activities that he believes he should have the ability to authorize but that the constitution prohibits and Congress has in someway further limited through law or prohibited in some other manner.   The most recent example, which I pointed out in an earlier post, was the anti-torture law recently passed and signed by the president himself.  Immediately after praising and signing the law the president executed a "signing statement" which indicated he believes he still has the authority to override the law and international treaty.   It is my opinion that these are flagrant acts that demonstrate this president disdain for law and the congress and which takes us ever closer to authoritarian government.
 
I mentioned earlier that there were two ways in which this hijacking of the government is occurring.  The second dynamic is graft and corruption of our lawmakers.   As soon as the Republican Party came to power in Congress they launched a project known as the K Street project which basically said that if your lobbying business was employing anyone who was not a Republican then you would not gain access to Congress.   This is a direct assault on the constitution because the constitution guarantees citizens the right to petition Congress.  The constitution guarantees this right to all citizens and not to members of specific parties.   It is my contention then that this plan, instigated by Tom Delay, therefore is a traitorous act and should be investigated as a treasonous act against the United States.   The fruits of this project are now being exposed in the case of Jack Abramoff and the web of graft and corruption surrounding him and his associates.  Through this crack in an otherwise united front we see just how deep this prostituting of our government goes.   We are beginning to see just how absolutely corrupt this leadership is.
 
So, we see through all of this that as the executive branch garners more and more power through a twisting of the law in order to give more power to the executive branch the leadership in the Congress and Senate are funneling money and favors to their political partners in order to insure that they remain in power by doing favors for their corporate sponsors which insures future funds to assist them in remaining in power.   So we see a tight little circle that keeps the rich rich and the powerful powerful and the American taxpayer picks up the tab.
 
I believe that if the citizens of this great nation do not voice their concerns through their elected representatives those who now control all of the branches of government will continue to corrupt our government beyond anything we could have ever imagined.   We must insist, no demand, that our elected representatives hold these people accountable for their actions.  The web of money and bought favors of Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay and all of those associated with them must be thoroughly investigated.   Congress must not let the president continue to ignore and flagrantly violate the constitution and laws of the land.
 
 Let me close with this.  It was Benjamin Franklin who said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  It is obvious that Mr. Bush doesn’t get it.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.