Amerika

Article IV, U.S. Constitution, as amended on July 9, 2008:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Hitler didn’t not rise to power by show of force; he was elected. The rights of the German people were not first taken away at the point of a gun, but were eroded by the power of the pen.

With back-room deals and plenty of intimidation, laws contrary to the public good and in violation of the German Constitution were passed by lawmakers whipped to a frenzy by an atmosphere of fear-mongering and hysteria. The Reichstag — the elected representatives of the German people — voted to destroy their Constitution and disband themselves in order that the country be “protected” from “terrorists.”

Thom Hartmann at Common Dreams, March 16, 2003:

To get his patriotic “Decree on the Protection of People and State” passed over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency provoked by the terrorist attack was over by then, the freedoms and rights would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be re-restrained. Legislators would later say they hadn’t had time to read the bill before voting on it.

When historians are asked, at some far-off future date, how the formerly-great republic of the United States of America ended, they will point to the “long train of abuses and usurpations” of the Bush regime, and will tell future scholars that although it lasted a bit longer, the tipping point came when centuries of rights granted to the American people were destroyed with the willing help of the supposed “opposition.”

They will show their students how, inch by slippery inch, the principles on which the country was founded were subverted and stripped away by a corrupt administration and its corporate sponsors who used fear-mongering and “patriotism” — and a little lot of the green — to persuade the elected representatives of the people to betray their oaths.

And when that day finally comes, when we or our descendants look back on the former United States and weep for the destruction of our principles — and ultimately, our country — the following will be remembered as traitors to the Constitution, to whom money and power were more important than the rights of the people:

YAYS: (69)*

Alexander Allard Barasso Baucus Bayh Bennett Bond Brownback Bunning Burr Carper Casey Chambliss Coburn Cochran Coleman Collins Conrad Corker Cornyn Craig Crapo DeMint Dole Domenici Ensign Enzi Feinstein Graham Grassley Gregg Hagel Hatch Hutchinson Inhofe Inouye Isakson Johnson Kohl Kyl Landrieu Lieberman Lincoln Lugar Martinez McCaskill McConnell Mikulski Murkowski Nelsen (NB) Nelson (FL) Obama Pryor Roberts Rockefeller Salazar Shelby Smith Snowe Specter Stevens Sununu Thune Vitter Voinovich Warner Webb Whitehouse Wicker

And when that day comes, these will be remembered as patriots who held their oaths of office as sacred:

NAYS: (28)*

Akaka Biden Bingaman Boxer Brown Byrd Cantwell Cardin Clinton Dodd Dorgan Durbin Feingold Harkin Kerry Klobuchar Lautenburg Leahy Levin Menendez Murray Reed Reid Sanders Schumer Stabenow Tester Wyden

Abstaining were McCain, Sessions, and Kennedy.

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* Bold = Democrats; italics = Republican; bold italic = Independent