Constitution

As in, U.S.

Specifically: Bill of Rights.

To wit:

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.

This is the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Now read how U.S. News & World Reports (not exactly a leftist rag) will reveal, online tomorrow and in print on Monday, that the George W. Bush/Richard Cheney Administration Justice Department has authorized domestic search and seizure of homes and offices without warrant.

Check out the Keith Olberman piece tonight from his ever more essential Countdown show.

If this is true, and if it is an extension of the FISA warrantless wiretapping violation, then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be incarcerated and charged with treason.

If this is indeed what comes out in the media between now and Monday, I hope it kicks support for Senator Russ Feingold's censure motion into high gear. To be honest, you can't really pack enough into that censure motion -- the list of crimes just keeps growing.

Now, I know that Bush/Cheney are not Adolf Hitler. That's not a fair comparison, not with the facts as they stand. Where a comparison of methods comes into play is with the slow creep, the taking away brick-by-brick of previously assumed or Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

The German Jews weren't carted off to concentration camps the very first day the Nazis took power. They lost their rights one piece at a time, losing their jobs, losing their rights of association, losing their rights of free movement, having to wear yellow Stars of David, having their homes seized...these steps all happened over a period of years.

Unless it's a case of one country taking over another, fascism doesn't happen overnight. It's too smart, too insidious. Maybe it starts with the truth, bending it to its will through media control. Then, the public softened up, if declares wars of nationalistic protection, and the need for controls at home to protect said efforts. Social controls, free speech controls, legal controls, police controls...pop pop pop.

It's up to all us U.S. patriots to stand up against these denigrations of this plain, sweet English written and enacted by our Founding Fathers.

Maybe I have a pre-9/11 mindset.

But I prefer to think of it as post-1776.