Let’s thank those who made it happen

I just sent this out to all the people I thought needed to hear my thoughts — give me yours.

The people who state that the Constitution under George W. Bush hasn’t been eviscerated haven’t been paying attention.  On January 14, 2009, the Fourth Amendment took another beating when the Supreme Court reversed years of precedent on what evidence was admissible in court when that evidence was obtained during an illegal search.  In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court held that, “When police mistakes leading to an unlawful search are the result of isolated negligence attenuated from the search, rather than systemic error or reckless disregard of constitutional requirements,the exclusionary rule does not apply. Pp. 4-13.”  The case involved officers executing a warrant that had been recalled months prior to the search, but, had never been removed from their system.  Upon execution of the then invalid warrant, making the search an illegal search, the officers arrested the individual for possession of guns and drugs found during the search.  This is called the “fruit of the poison tree” doctrine that applies to the exclusionary rule of evidence.  The exclusionary rule mandates that evidence obtained from an illegal arrest, unreasonable search, or coercive interrogation must be excluded from trial.  That doctrine is now gone.  It is now, by judicial ruling, incumbent upon the defense to prove that the unlawful search was due to systemic error or reckless disregard of Constitutional requirements instead of a case of isolated negligence.  (link to Court ruling http://www.supremecourtus.gov/…

The torture apologists who believe that a fictional television character, Jack Bauer of 24, personifies how to fight terrorism haven’t been paying attention.  Pentagon official Susan Crawford stated on January 14, 2009, that terror suspect Mohammed al-Qahtani may never be prosecuted because he was, in fact, tortured.  She is quoted as saying, “We tortured Qahtani.  His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case for prosecution.”  Susan Crawford is the convening authority of the military commissions tribunals established to try the unlawful enemy combatants.  The war crimes charges against Qahtani were dismissed in May 2008.  CIA officials are now scared that they will be prosecuted for torturing people using waterboarding because Mr. Yoo, a Bush hack, wrote a memo stating that they could do it legally when waterboarding has been deemed to be torture for centuries.

Those who voted for George Bush were the people who gave us Bradley Schlozman and John Tanner.  The emails just made public that circulated through the Department of Justice show the ideological perversion and racism that permeated the agency during the Bush administration.  Schlozman wrote, “I can assure you that [applicant] is a good American. [We] made up a four-member Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy at my former law firm.”  He also wrote, “I have an interview at 1 with some lefty who we’ll never hire but I’m extending a courtesy interview as a favor.”  He also wrote, “We hired another member of ‘the team’ yesterday. And still another ideological comrade will be starting in one month.”  Schlozman wrote of one applicant who was African-American, “an idiot … an affirmative action thing … wrote in ebonics.”  This is the same Mr. Scholzman who swore, under oath, during a congressional hearing that he never used a political litmus test in hiring for the Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division, ie, he lied under oath to Congress and the evidence is now concrete that he lied.  

These actions were wrought upon our country because people voted for bigots, racists, liars, torturers and those that value power at the expense of our very constitution.  All it took was bringing out, time and again, God, Guns, Gays, Abortion, and Ilegal Immigrants are invading our country.  People ran to the polls to vote these men into power in 2000 and again in 2004.  Now, eight years later, we are reaping what these people wanted — a devasted economy, being known around the world as a nation who tortures, our leaders proven to be bigots, racists, liars, and a constitution that no longer protects us from abuses from our own government.

As you wonder how you are going to feed your family with the rising cost of inflation while your own salary stagnates, as you wonder how you will afford health care while the insurance companies raise your premiums while giving you less coverage, as you wonder how you’ll pay for your childs college education as your representatives vote against raising grant levels to match rising tuition costs, just remember, you voted to hurt yourself, your family, and your own children.  So, I would like, as a veteran, to thank every person who still believes that the GOP holds the corner on God, who still believes that the evil “liberals” want to take your guns away, who still believes that a woman shouldn’t have the right to decide for herself if an abortion is right for her, who still thinks that there is a gay man under your bed just waiting to turn your children gay, and who still believes that an African-American is 3/5 of a person, for the state of our nation after eight years of President Bush.  

They couldn’t have done it without you.