babbling blue

Well it’s been awhile since the last ill-fated presidential election took place. Just over a month now. But it hasn’t been forgotten. Last night I went to the holiday party in my apartment building, and people were still talking about it. This could be because of all the cabinet changes announced in the last couple weeks.

In my last entry in I said “The worst thing that can happen is 4 more years of the Bush presidency.” As much as I hate being wrong normally, I really hope I am in this case. While it might feel good in a few years to rub some noses in Bush’s fuck ups and say “I told you so” I’d rather have to admit Bush isn’t so terrible than have the country (education, civil rights, economy, jobs, etc) in the toilet.

So now we wait and see. And try to fight the things that need to be fought. One idea seems to be that those of in cities, for the most part “blue” strongholds, tell the rest of the country to go fuck themselves. Here is one take on this idea:

The Urban Archipelago

The article is interesting, if a bit overly bitter. But they forgot to mention something that I believe is of the utmost importance; the degradation of freedom in America. The Republicans are actively trying to expand the scope of the USA PATRIOT Act (passed overwhelmingly by both parties in a blind Post-9/11 patriotic fervor) further eroding the premise of due process and making the country even less hospitable for non-citizens; Democrats, on the other hand are trying to rollback some of the heavy-handedness in PATRIOT. Legislation is in the works to add 23 new federal death penalties for terrorism crimes, make it easier for the Justice Department to get information about people without showing just cause or going through the courts (and sealing their request with a gag order), allow the government to detain a person without having to show they are dangerous or likely to flee–the burden would be placed on the suspect to prove they are NOT dangerous, permit removal of non-citizens who at the determination of the government) have ever belonged to a political group that has ever used violence to a country where their “life or freedom would be threatened”, etc. The list goes on, and it’s scary.

And why is all this happening? In the name of security. It’s happening because people are afraid of terrorists. But who is it that wants to give Big Brother all of this power to “protect” us? That’s right. . . the “Red’s”. The people who, for the most part, live in areas highly unlikely ever to be struck by a terrorist attack. Those of us who live in the cities (I’m in Chicago) and are therefore at a higher risk would rather we keep the freedoms that make us Americans than go overboard in order to be “safer”.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60129,00.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0928-07.htm

http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=17185

Don’t give up your freedom for the false promise of security.