Reflecting on 9/11, nine years, later was damn depressing—almost as bad as reading our submissions this week. Did you really think a bunch of radical yahoos could defeat America (and I don’t mean the Discord staff)? Of course not, they were betting on our own stupidity, and that bet paid off far beyond their wildest expectations.
Al Qaeda can officially declare victory in the War on Terror. In a six to five ruling last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sealed our fate. This ruling will forever protect George Bush, or any future president for that matter, from even being subject to a judicial review. Another Watergate may never happen, well, the president is less likely to be brought to justice at any rate. The ruling said that claims of torture will not even be investigated, as they are deemed “state secrets” not subject to court room adjudication.
Since 9/11, Americans have systematically dismantled their own freedom by granting unprecedented powers to the executive branch, the FBI, and the CIA, powers that have been used to surveil the citizenry without probable cause or due process, torture prisoners in illegally run overseas secret prisons, and also to wage unfettered, unjustified war on a global scale. Cheney said that Obama would one day thank him for the expansion of power. As a citizen of our once great nation, I would like to take the time to say, “Fuck you, Mr. Cheney.”
Freedom of religion and equal treatment under law have been revoked, as Americans are too scared to allow the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan, and have declared the Muslim religion evil due to the actions of a radical minority who hate us for political reasons, not religious ones. I mean really, as if Al Quaeda would be stupid enough to put their terrorist headquarters in downtown Manhattan. Um, Hello? They operate out of Pakistan (assuming Osama hasn’t moved on). You remember? Our ally in the war on terror? The ones sucking down billions in aid which is being funneled into the Afghani insurgency? But I digress…
The mainstream media, well, OK, Fox News is very successfully fostering hatred, prejudice and fear, and building Nazi-esque nationalism by, ironically, repeatedly comparing our democratically elected government to Nazi Germany. Joseph Goebbels would be proud. Meanwhile, the Koch brothers, Texas gazillionaires, are secretly funding the Tea Party, because they’re such big Glenn beck fans. (Hah! Fools.) How ironic that the second largest stockholder in Fox News’ parent company, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the very Manhattan mosque project they so fear. Am I the only one that sees the hypocrisy here? This guy is providing both the fire and the gasoline (literally) causing us to fear them and them to hate us. Why don’t we solve the whole problem by rounding up all of the Muslims and putting them into concentration camps, um, I mean resort colonies; a “final solution” if you will. Where have you heard that before?
The American economy is flying apart. Joblessness is near an 80 year high, and bankruptcies, crime rates and homelessness are following suit. For a more hard hitting example, I am about to lay off Zano for a third time. He is single handedly increasing both our unemployment numbers as well our nation’s under employment numbers.
Americans no longer travel because they are too scared, too poor, or do not want to deal with the hassles of air travel security restrictions or exploding underpants.
Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, somewhere (Pakistan?!?!?), orchestrating terrorist activity all over the world. He moves around, at will, sowing the seeds of anti-American sentiment, and we are watering those seeds by protesting at Mosques, burning copies of the Koran, and garroting cab drivers.
The other day, Andrew Sullivan was actually channeling Zano, instead of the other way around:
There are legitimate trade-offs between national security and liberty. But the protection of war criminals where no secrets are at stake except the scandal of torture itself is not one of them. Alas, there are few such citizens around. And, most tragic of all, those who say they care about liberty above all – the tea-partiers who invoke the founders – seem only too willing to surrender every liberty for the prize of a security against a threat we cannot even measure, and to bow down before a new king (and probably warrior-queen) rather than elect a new president.
—Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, September 9, 2010
We need to change Know Hope to No Hope, but not for the reasons the wing nuts out there think. I would like to end this post on a high note…this is all going to end December 21, 2012, and I will be laying off Zano again this week.
