Rant #5

[ed goldberg]

There is no truth to the rumor that the toilet paper in the White House has the Bill of Rights printed on it, but it might as well be that way.
The whole story of the Bush administration has been the dismantlement of the first ten amendments, except of course for the second. Keep and bear arms to your heart's content. Want a 105-mm. howitzer for your next backyard cookout? No problemo.
Want the cops to have probable cause before they rummage through your mail, email, phone calls or home? Forget it. Just yell "national security" and the 4th amendment goes away. Contrary to Samuel Johnson's dictum, patriotism is the first refuge of a scoundrel here.
Want to live in a country that doesn't engage in torture? Move somewhere else. The 8th amendment has been waterboarded to death.
Believe that the 1st amendment protects your right of free speech and assembly? See above. Bye-bye, #1.
A speedy and public trial? Amendment 6 is chained in Guantanamo.
Oh, yeah. The 5th is still going strong, because the thugs running our country need it to avoid copping to their crimes. You expect Dick Cheney to incriminate himself?
Whether it's the price of gasoline, the monumental debt, the ugly and illegal war, or the destruction of the environment, the Bushies are the worst ever. Worse than NIxon, Grant, Harding, Hoover, or any of the other Republicans who took this country into corruption, war and depression.
What a record to retire on.
January 20, 2009. Gone but not forgotten. Jail to the chief!