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Here it is. I've posted it here already in another thread. This whole thing is even more remarkable due to the fact that this is "Republican Central".
drip. drip. drip.
One hundred forty years ago, our great nation was torn in two in a war that threatened the very foundation of the United States. Nearly a million people were killed, their blood soaking the soil and sand of Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland. With ongoing battles and bloodshed on U.S. soil, the presidential elections of 1864 seemed particularly at risk. But this is America, a democracy. It is a government that, as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, derives its "just powers from the consent of the governed." And it is by elections that we give consent to that government. During a bloody war on American soil, elections proceeded.
On June 25, a Detroit paper reported that the Bush-appointed head of the federal voting commission said that the "government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again." Not even two weeks later, on July 8, Tom Ridge of the Department of Homeland Security indicated that he was looking into legalities and the constitutionality of suspending or postponing the presidential elections in the event of a terrorist attack.
Government actions have restricted our right to free speech and assembly with ironically named "Free Speech Zones" that separate Bush protesters from Bush supporters and quarantine them well away from Bush and the media. The Patriot Act infringes upon our freedom of privacy, the Fourth Amendment right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The government has been fighting our freedom of information by being excessively secretive in its actions and working to prevent people from performing an overview of their government. Recently, the government fought the Fifth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens being held prisoner in military brigs and prisons -- the right to speedy trials, the right to a jury, the right to an attorney, the right to hear the charges against them, the right to call witnesses.
Now the government is setting into motion a plan that seeks to rob us of the most basic freedom a democracy provides -- the right to elect your government and representation.
We are repeatedly warned that the terrorists "hate us for our freedoms." Does this government believe that if it strips away all our freedoms, that the terrorists will love us?
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