Red skies at night

In 1984 (!) at the height of the last act of the Cold War and Reagan Worship Syndrome, a movie called Red Dawn was released. It quickly became porn to a subset of the far right in this country, both the desktop warriors who worship violence, and the actual wing-nuts who fetishize gun ownership, and believe that any moment someone, probably a Democrat, is going to swoop down in a black helicopter, take their guns, and force them to go to socialized medical clinics. Just like they did to the patriots at Ruby Ridge and David Koresh's Waco compound.

These folks, both the passive chickenhawks, and the gun-toting militia-loving survivalists, have one thing in common: the enemy is the Left. It may be Libtard bloggers in the US, liberal elites who actually went to, you know, school, or Commies from Cuba, Russia, or Nicaragua. Ask Michelle Malkin, high priestess of the people, and she'll likely tell you it's all 3, and more.

Here's the problem. The only person who wants to have military action in the US, to circumvent the Constitution and detain U.S. citizens, is that stalwart of the far-right, Richard Bruce 'Dick' Cheney.

Glenn Greenwald, attorney and constitutional scholar, explains:

This new report today from The New York Times' Mark Mazzetti and David Johnston reveals an entirely unsurprising though still important event: in 2002, Dick Cheney and David Addington urged that U.S. military troops be used to arrest and detain American citizens, inside the U.S., who were suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda. That was done pursuant to a previously released DOJ memo (.pdf) authored by John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, addressed to Alberto Gonzales, dated October 23, 2001, and chillingly entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the U.S." That Memo had concluded that the President had authority to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens on U.S. soil. Far worse, it asserted that in exercising that power, the President could not be bound either by Congressional statutes prohibiting such use (such as the Posse Comitatus Act) or even by the Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which -- the Memo concluded -- was "inapplicable" to what it called "domestic military operations."

Though it received very little press attention, it is not hyperbole to observe that this October 23 Memo was one of the most significant events in American politics in the last several decades, because it explicitly declared the U.S. Constitution -- the Bill of Rights -- inoperative inside the U.S., as applied to U.S. citizens. Just read what it said in arguing that neither the Fourth Amendment -- nor even the First Amendment -- can constrain what the President can do when overseeing "domestic military operations" (I wrote about that Memo when it was released last March and excerpted the most revealing and tyrannical portions: here). Here's just a small sample to convey the rancid taste of that Memo (click on images to enlarge):

. . .. . .

Today's NYT report is the first which reveals that high-level Bush officials actively considered and even advocated that the power to use the military to arrest American citizens on U.S. soil be used.

So, proud 2nd Amendment loving conservatarians, lovers of freedom, believers in limited central government, fans of States' Rights, reconcile this. Your party, your guy, wanted to bypass the beloved constitution (I know, only the 2nd Amendment counts, the rest is liberal posturing) and use the Army to arrest citizens on U.S. soil.

Where's the outrage? C'mon, Wolverines, spring into action.

Bastards.

For another song called Red Sky at Night, here's David Gilmour:



(I worked a gig as guitar tech for Berlin, opening for The Police at Hollywood Park in '83. The Fixx were one of the opening acts. I didn't talk with any band members, but their crew were fine folks, and they played a heckuva set.)