What It Is and What To Do About It

It's scary - what is happening in the USA. The last 7 some years of the Bush Administration have seen America change significantly. The nation has become polarized. Fear is coming to dominate society and not without good reason. The USA is weakened economically. Select members of the Bush Administration, in the face of a genuine environmental crisis, have opted to feast on their political aspirations for global military and economic "dominance." Money is being spent on conquest and furthering corporate hegemony.

Money is not being spent on answering the pressing crisis of ecological collapse and the massive lack of sustainability of the current economic system.

The Bush Administration is leading the USA down the path of destruction. It's quite possibly criminal and the USA deserves to prosecute the actions of the Bush Administration as such - as criminal actions.

Some examples:
- voting irregularities which resulted in two Bush Admin electoral victories
- the lack of credible evidence that Iraq possessed WMD (threatening US security) in the face of much more credible evidence that Iraq, in fact, did not possess weapons to threaten the security of the USA.
- exhibiting a specific disregard and a lack of concern for the welfare of humanity in terms of future generations.

I could go on and on. But I want to plug a couple of stories worthy of mention.

First, the text of a speech by Daniel Ellsberg in which he likens the Bush Administration's presence in the White House to a coup. It's a really good article, here's the intro:
link to original

I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

Will there be anything left for NSA to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11.

And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps.

It’s a little hard for me to distinguish the two contingencies; they could come together. Another 9/11 or an Iranian attack in which Iran’s reaction against Israel, against our shipping, against our troops in Iraq above all, possibly in this country, will justify the full panoply of measures that have been prepared now, legitimized, and to some extent written into law. …

And secondly, a call by Garret Keizer for a General Strike on this coming First Tuesday of November, election day, the 6th. In response to the (potentially) felonious assault on the American People and the economy of the USA, Keizer advocates for a full scale General Strike:
link to original

Of all the various depredations of the Bush regime, none has been so thorough as its plundering of hope. Iraq will recover sooner. What was supposed to have been the crux of our foreign policy—a shock-and-awe tutorial on the utter futility of any opposition to the whims of American power—has achieved its greatest and perhaps its only lasting success in the American soul...

...If someone were to suggest, for example, that we begin a general strike on Election Day, November 6, 2007, for the sole purpose of removing this regime from power, how readily and with what well-practiced assurance would you find yourself producing the words “It won’t do any good”?
...
...[It would be] better if we could say to our next administration: Don’t talk about Bush. We dealt with Bush. We dealt with Bush and in so doing we demonstrated our ability to deal with you. You have a mandate more rigorous than looking good beside Bush. You need a program more ambitious than “uniting the country.” We are united—at least we were, if only for a while, if only in our disgust. If only I believed all this would happen.

I wrote this appeal during the days leading up to the Fourth of July. I wrote it because for the past six and a half years I have heard the people I love best—family members, friends, former students and parishioners—saying, “I’m sick over what’s happening to our country, but I just don’t know what to do.” Might I be pardoned if, fearing civil disorder less than I fear civil despair, I said, “Well, we could do this.” It has been done before and we could do this. And I do believe we could. If anyone has a better idea, I’m keen to hear it. Only don’t tell me what some presidential hopeful ought to do someday. Tell me what the people who have nearly lost their hope can do right now.

It's scary to hear this kind of talk. Talk about police states and about losing hope. Let's resist apathy as we muster the courage to keep talking - to keep resisting. Please, dear reader, ask yourself what specific actions that you can take to roll back the Bush Administration assaults on personal liberties, the environment and humanity itself. Then take action!