Red Scare -Bush Style

Like a passage from Orwell’s 1984 came to life, it has been revealed that under the supervision of Bush administration officials, the government has started compiling a list of Americans who are considered subversive or potentially risky to the security of the state. The criterion for determining selections for this list is top secret which means that the jingoistic citizens in charge get to pick their targets without oversight.

A recent online publication of an article from Radar Magazine gives deep insight to how the current administration has been compiling, through domestic surveillance and spying programs -*cough* Patriot Act *cough*, a (secret)list of citizens who may be deemed ‘dangerous’ in the event of a large scale terrorist attack.

Awesome, the elected officials we entrust with national security have ostensibly scared themselves retarded and are putting together a super secret (probably under double-probation) list of domestic citizens due to their perceived “un-American” activities. James Comey, John Ashcroft's second-in-command at the department of Justice until 2005, was the sole obstacle to the “red scare-esque” programs being enacted by Bush’s loyal crony and friend to the American people, ex attorney general Alberto Gonzalez. According to the Radar Magazine article - “Much of his testimony centered on an operation so clandestine he wasn't allowed to name it or even describe what it did.”

The most disgusting part about this whole ordeal is not the fact that a list of supposedly turncoat citizens is being compiled –trust me half of the contributors on this blog are on it (hey Rupey!) and similar programs have been in place from the days of J Edgar Hoover. It’s the manner in which the Bush administration tried to ensure that the program passed legal muster back in 2004 that’s truly shocking.

First, John Ashcroft (attorney general at this time) discussed the program and its facets with Comey (readers might remember that this was the same program that included the warrantless wiretaps provision) and ultimately decided that it was unconstitutional. Just before the act’s certification deadline - “Ashcroft fell ill with pancreatitis, making Comey acting attorney general, and Comey opted not to certify the program.”

This pissed the cowboy we call president the fuck off. Imagine if you will - rejection of an act that would allow complete surveillance over the entire population is something that would make power slaves like this administration foam at the mouth. And what’s worse was being thwarted a man (Comey) appointed by his administration. Sound the cavalry. Knowing that Ashcroft was in intensive care due to his ailment, the Bush administration went project mayhem on this shit, “sending Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then–White House counsel Alberto Gonzales on a mission to Ashcroft's sickroom to persuade the heavily doped attorney general to override his deputy.” Comey, hearing of the sneak attack, rushed to the hospital to warn Ashcroft.

But Ashcroft, despite being in a sedated state, played the card of constitutionality; he looked at the officials that had been sent to forcibly persuade him and pointed directly at Comey saying “there is the attorney general.” -And Comey's perception of the act’s illegality stayed constant and he refused to sign it.

Although the republican party may prove itself to suck seemingly all the time, I’m relieved there was a member of the occupying faction that chose to view a program not as an act of preserving freedom, but as an act of pure unadulterated stupidity.