Creeping American Fascism

Denying your constitutional right to a trial by jury. (Check your credit card or Internet contract for the "arbitration only" clause where you waive your right to trial by INDEPENDENT JURORS IN THE FULL LIGHT OF DAY and agree to a binding deal by your corporation's favorite arbiter in a private backroom settlement. Guess who benefits. That would be NOT YOU.

Packing your courts. See the Oliver Diaz story about Rove/Bush's campaign to remove honest judges from the federal bench and replace them with bought boys and girls.

Intimidating honest judges with false and expensive indictments. See the Oliver Diaz story, and look into all the ways the Republicans are stacking the courts and intimidating honest judges.

Rescinding your right to fair compensation for damages. The fact is that in TX and other states where "tort reform" has been imposed, legal costs and medical insurance costs have escalated. The truth is that there is no widespread, epidemic of frivolous lawsuits and out-of-control damages, but rather that "tort reform" is just another astro-turf campaign to roll back basic, and sacred, constitutional safeguards. Corporations cannot fairly judge, nor can legislators, what you should receive if a doctor's negligence renders your child helpless for life. Only a jury of your peers can make that call. Tort "reform" removes that jury, replacing it with arbitration, and limits damages, replacing them with arbitrary and minimal caps regardless of the real-world costs to you. Who wins? Big insurance and big corporations. Who's screwed? American citizens.

What did George Carlin say? Something like, "The only freedom we have left is whether to choose paper or plastic."

It's getting there. I'm making a list.

Just yesterday, kids at a California university were pepper-sprayed for protesting tuition hikes. Hell, they can't even protest, let along take over the administration building! That's how much has changed since the early '70s. The mere thought of publicly speaking out gets you a face full of pepper spray.

And don't think for a minute it can't get worse than that. Have you followed the Occupy Movement lately? That whishing sound you hear is your First Amendment rights flushing down the toilet. Do you care? I do.