HOLY CIVIL LIBERTIES! HOLD TIGHT TO BILL OF RIGHTS

The Bush administration's chief brown shirt, Attorney General John Ashcroft,
has been on the road trying to drum up support for the USA PATRIOT Act and
laying the groundwork for new, even more outrageous assaults on American civil
liberties.

Meanwhile, Utah Sen. Orin Hatch has rolled out the so-called VICTORY Act, the
new Orwellian name for the latest proposed usurpation of our liberties. It's
another one of those eponymous acronyms minted to fold patriotism and
nationalism into a veil for sinister realities.

Amazingly, this radical perversion of the rule of law empowers the government
to summarily strip Americans of their citizenship.

Give money to the cause of liberating Palestinians from Israeli occupation and
you, my friend, are a supporter of terrorism - not on the basis of any
proceedings in a court of law but on the word of the creepy attorney general in
charge of the burgeoning American police state.

The Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003 would
further remove the judicial system from oversight of the government's wiretap
authority and similarly expand law enforcement's unsupervised subpoena powers.

This summer the House voted by a wide margin (309-118) to eliminate funding for
the "sneak-and-peek" powers originally authorized in the PATRIOT Act. But,
under VICTORY, the attorney general's secret powers would expand to drug cases,
allowing federal agents wider grounds than terrorism to enter American homes
and businesses without a court order and without even notifying the targets
that it has happened.

Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, introduced this curb on the attorney general's
authoritarian ambitions. Still, it's only a parry in the larger struggle
between legislators and an executive branch bearing down anywhere it thinks it
can expand its power to evade the checks and balances of the other two branches
of government.

This new bill would treat drug possession as a "terrorist offense." This is the
rankest form of political expediency and cynicism. Bereft of political
leadership as we are, will alienated Americans remain so occupied watching
"reality TV" that the VICTORY Act slides through Congress upon the occasion of
some new, fearful act of terrorism?

A couple of lawsuits already challenge provisions of the PATRIOT Act,
legislation that most congressmen didn't even fully understand or read, much
less take the time to vet, in the fear-filled aftermath of 9/11.

Three states and more than 140 cities, towns and counties already have passed
resolutions critical of the PATRIOT Act. Some have directed their local law
enforcement not to cooperate with federal agents involved in investigations
deemed unconstitutional.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (located in New York) is challenging as
unconstitutionally vague the provision making it illegal to provide "expert
advice and assistance" to groups with alleged ties to terrorism. A $10
contribution to an Islamic charity could set you up to be hounded by the
Ashcroft apparatchiks.

The Bush administration can't credibly distinguish a terrorist from a
malcontent. It's about as promising as Joseph McCarthy having differentiated a
communist and a leftist. So, the ACLU is suing over the provision that allows
law enforcement to secretly subpoena people's bookstore and library records.

Having John Ashcroft going around the country selling the idea of Americans
turning more of our civil liberties over for his safekeeping seems as foolhardy
and rash as consigning your 21-year-old daughter for a Clinton White House
internship. It could be dangerous. At the minimum someone is going to get . . .
well, you won't see it on "Girls Gone Wild."

Actually, PATRIOT II was trotted out earlier to a less than rousing reception.
So the VICTORY Act repackages some of the same objectives with the Justice
Department publicly disowning any connection.

The American "wars" on terrorism and drugs grow conveniently and disturbingly
more interchangeable. The same American operations in Colombia that used to be
termed anti-drug are now "anti-terrorist." Nothing changed but the term for the
"enemy." Whether focus group or poll driven, we're left to presume that
whatever term is in vogue pushes the most fear buttons, cowing the general
population and what passes for political leadership into the unquestioning
acquiescence of fear.

Seeing the creepy attorney general in his role of public shill is as startling
as Morticia Addams becoming the Coppertone spokesperson. Ashcroft just isn't a
fella whom sunshine particularly flatters.

May the elections next year please close the lid on this dreadful, dangerous
administration before the American commitment to individual liberty withers,
unrecognizable within the values of those who've given their lives to secure
it.