Take my liberty; spare my life!

As the braindead, stupefied, terrified televiewers wash into another calendar year, our frightened leader is "on the march."

He is battling to renew the "Patriot" Act, which has been extended for one month from December 31st to allow more time for debate on the controversial provisions that are set to expire.

In Bush Fights Resistance To Patriot Act, an anonymous AP journalist informs us of Bush's comments yesterday when he "press[ed] his case to a supportive audience at the Pentagon:

"The enemy has not gone away. They're still there," said Bush. "And I expect Congress to understand that we're still at war, and they got to give us the tools necessary to win this war."

Oh, my! What a fighter! Fuck you, Mr. President.

We are not at war with terrorists. That whole concept is incoherent. Besides, with a little better leadership we wouldn't need to squander so much money in an admittedly futile effort to coordinate the bloated intelligence services and law enforcement that are struggling so hard to get the job done.

In another pitiful and scandalous attempt to exploit the fear and helplessness of our behavior-conditioned citizenry,

Later, outside the West Wing, prosecutors cited several cases in which the Patriot Act had played a crucial role, from staging an undercover sting on California weapons dealers attempting to sell Stinger missiles to securing convictions of major terrorist financiers in New York.

"We use it each and every day to protect our country against terrorists and criminals," said Ken Wainstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Fortunately, stepping somewhat into the void left by the untimely killing of Senator Paul Wellstone,

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Bush should spend more time negotiating about the Patriot Act with Democrats and others on Capitol Hill and less on "staged meetings with hand-picked participants" at the White House.

It's clear that Bush is as terrorized as anybody--afraid of negotiating with the Democrats and others who want an open and honest debate. How could this man ever lead our country in a real war? He needs laws like the Patriot Act and secret police services like Homeland Security to hide his own quaking and trembling ass from Americans who might disagree with him a little bit. It's a foregone conclusion that he isn't up to confronting, much less hammering out a settlement with the Iraqis or the Iraqi resistance.

Get back to your fucking ranch, you coward, and take your whole fascist cabal of lying thugs with you!

In case anyone is really wondering why Bushco is so intent on getting the Patriot Act renewed, as well as carrying on with these secret detentions, the right to torture, the freedom to deny habeus corpus to captives, and the employment security of making themselves rich at the expense of the rest of the world, ecetera, notice what Amy Butler and David Fulghum have to say in an article in today's Aerospace Daily and Defense Report, entitled, Pentagon Dissent Discouraged on Spending, Force Structure

The administration's underlying budget approach now, critics contend, is to put off any growth in military spending until beyond the 2008 presidential race. "There will be no real movement [on acquisition] until after the next election," says a veteran airlift specialist. "That will mean mitigation in combat capability."

They're telling everybody to get with the program or shut up. In other words, Bushco business as usual: no debate, no reasoning, no examination of dissenting opinions or alternative priorities. If we're wrong, we're wrong. Fuck it. Let the whole world go down the tubes. We'll still get our money.

However, according to Fulghum and Butler, "Defense industry officials and uniformed officers are expressing concern about the lack of informed debate."

Is this what we're here for? To allow this mismanagement and bullying destruction of our economy and our society?

Let's oust Bushco now, slash defense, close down Homeland Security, and try to develop a little bit of sustainability in our communities, our food and energy supplies, our transportation system, and our relations with allies.

Give me liberty; or give me death. The war on terrorism IS terrorism.