A Bright (but very dark) September Day

A Bright September Day

It happened in a hurry
That the rules were washed away
It was done with little notice
On a bright September day

"They hate us for our freedoms"
So due process we'll give up
Call them "enemy combatants"
And forever lock them up

(chorus)
They don't need to see the evidence
Or learn who turned them in
Interrogation methods
Set by Presidential whim
So forget habeus corpus
The Constitution too
Just say "enemy combatants"
And make them disappear from view

A self inflicted wound
Was administered that day
The terrorists made a nation
give it's principles away

So the patriots of yesteryear
who died for rights held dear
Had their sacrifice diminished
Because it was an election year

(bridge)
The use of fear is all it takes
To make a once great nation yield its place
And become one of those other states
Where folks vanish without a trace

(chorus)
You don't need to see the evidence
Or learn who turned you in
Interrogation methods
Set by Presidential whim
So forget habeus corpus
The Constitution too
If you're called "enemy combatant"
Your rights are gone - you're through

The steps along this process
and the use of fear this way
to keep some seats in Congress
on the next election day

Are aftershocks remaining
From another...
Bright September day

---

Once upon a time, America stood for something in the world and the protesters in Tiananmen Square chose a model of the Statue of Liberty as an important symbol of their protest.

It makes me heartsick to realize how severely our standing in the world has declined in the past five years. Can you envision something like that happening in a foreign country now? I doubt it could even happen in Great Britain or Canada. Now the pressures of a political campaign have led us to the point of abandoning our long-held moral principles in a rush to retroactively legalize what, under normal circumstances could be viewed as war crimes. Sickening.

But Glenn Greenwald lays out our choices for the way forward very clearly. It is essential that Democrats, despite their failings, win at least one house of Congress in November.

I wrote the above lyric yesterday while listening to C-Span2. I would have uploaded it last night but a tornado knocked out the power in my neighborhood. Luckily we didn't have any damage but some of my neighbors weren't so lucky. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported.