The day it really changed?

Sayonara to Checks and Balances?

There must be thousands of links which could serve as today's headline, so the above piece at AlterNat is just one of many that I'm reading.

It has fo course been a horrendous few days. Midweek I was in a optimistic mood and what would have been the previous posts here morphed into an article published at Op Ed News. There seems to have been an editorial glitch in the formatting, so I reprint it in full in the Undercuurent blog (see left) next week.

I was remarking on the increasing transparency of the Bush regime. Sadly, what I perceived then as a facade exposed and corruption revealed has taken on an entire new light. Or rather - a darkness!

As of Thursday, I and you, everyone on the planet, can be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" at the whim of the Bush administration. With the right of Habeas Corpus now revoked, we have returned to pre "Magna Carta" times where one can be detained not just without charge but without the right to know why. We can all, under Amerikan law, effectively disappear without a trace and with no questions asked. Amerikan law is assumed to supercede and over-ride any other laws and the interpretation of international law is now at the sole discretion of the Amerikan president. He himself, together with his administration, are now constitutionally exempt from international law (Including the Geneva Conventions) and can pretty much do as they want with inpunity. Disclosures about the true nature of what the neo-Empire is up to are of lesser consequence - the masquerade has been replaced by imperial decree.

How this happened I'm not wholly sure. The moves to exempt Bush and pals from future war crimes prosecution were under way but contentious. The revisions to both the torture bill (and its definition) and the wiretapping provisions were being debated and looked set for a slight favourable compromise. The trap seems to have lain in the combination of legislation and the fact that some Democrats turned "traitor" and backed Bush with their votes. Some commentators are remarking that after only 6 years, Bush has effectively managed to "trash the constitution" and most are horrified it was done with such stealth.

Where this leaves Amerika's electoral process is anyone's guess. Polling will take place using electronic voting machines with known software faults that appear to exhibit a bias in favour of the Republican Party. A new "false flag" event could additionally swing a public living in fear toward a nationalistic figurehead of false benevolence. A, possibly nuclear, strike against Iran could do a similar trick. Even if Democrats made inroads into the parliaments they can effect little while Bush holds the White House. Beyond that, Bush has made changes and appointments which cannot be undone by a simple change of government.

Seeing Democrats switch sides and vote for such draconian legislation is distressing in itself, but almost worse is considering how such people would behave even if there were a change in the "flavour" of government. Bush's latest accumilated legislation could I gather be revoked by a future government - whether there's anyone left in the existing political system that could be trusted to deny themselves such absolute powers is another matter.

The world itself will probably not tolerate this for long, anymore than they did the Nazi Reich and Hitler's Europe. With the exception of their nuclear capacity, Amerika's forces are all fully deployed and the country technically bankrupt with huge debts. Defaulting on the latter and bringing back the draft could change this, but only with time. Sanctions could hit hard if applied at a time when the bully-boy remains impotent. Yet all this depends on the world waking up and seeing clearly what's going on.

The problem is here in Britain, in Australia and in the other nations that consider themselves allies of the Empire. Our own governments are blindly following Amerika's propaganda little realising its administration will betray friendships and agreements at a whim. The American people have been duped and we are becoming stupidly gullible.

For more check out OpEd News and Amy Goodman on the left. Also the "Latest Clicks" button as always.

Later. I promise. Unless I disappear!