Is This Still the United States?

I opened the Denver Post this morning to find a series of articles that, taken together, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and "Déjà vu" ring in my head, evoking the history of every country that fell under tyranny.

The first, entitled "Bush wins battle over spy powers", states "The Senate gave final approval Wednesday to a major expansion of the government's surveillance powers". The bill also provides for "legal immunity for the phone companies that cooperated in the National Security Agency wiretapping program", who allowed wiretapping of all their customers' private telephone lines without prior court orders. Two-and-a-half years ago, when this legislation was first introduced, a "fierce national debate over the balance between protecting the country from another terrorist strike and ensuring civil liberties" ensued. But this election year, the Democrats were "wary of handing the Republicans a potent political weapon"? What could that mean, except that the Democrats don't want to be accused of not attending to national security, which is the oldest psychological ploy in history (see House Unamerican Hearings). Our communications companies are now being directed by "Security Councils", and Democrats can't figure out that this should be a coup moment to unmask this oppressive
legislation?

The second, entitled "The Secret Service said so", is a column by Susan Greene, a Denver Post columnist. She describes how a 60-year-old librarian, Carol Kreck, carrying a sign saying, "McCain = Bush" was ousted from a public park before John McCain's town-hall meeting in Denver, by the Denver Police at the urging of the Secret Service. As Ms. Greene put it, "Never mind that the property is owned by the city. Never mind that McCain himself declared his meeting an open forum. And never mind that Kreck heeded police by not entering the event with her sign". Our local police are now being directed by the Secret Service?

The third, entitled "Fuming over road closure", describes how the Denver Water Department, directed by the State's Office of Homeland Security, used concrete barriers to close the reservoir dam road - "a key route across Summit County", after "homeland-security priorities had trumped local wishes with the sudden and largely unexplained closure of Dillon Dam road". Apparently, a "new" analysis by federal and state security agencies was recently conducted to determine the vulnerability of the dam and consequences if terrorists attacked it, but Denver Water officials were asked not to name the security agencies that conducted the analysis that "made the closure necessary". The local State Representative Christine Scanlan said, "I'm not asking for high-level security clearance. I just want to be able to tell my communities why we're doing what we're doing". The kicker is, a pedestrian path is still open, because as Denver Water spokeswoman McGuire-Collier said, "It's easier to compromise the dam with a vehicle on the road than on foot"! Seems somewhat random, doesn't it? Maybe not. This particular road is under the jurisdiction of the Denver Water Department, which apparently has no problem knuckling under to "Homeland Security officials" (whoever they are), unlike the other 1,200 sites deemed at-risk, but under the jurisdiction of local authorities responsible to their constituents, and so not seized by the State.

So, apparently, now the Secret Service/Homeland Security/Senate is running this country without having to consider any points of law concerning civil liberties or local and state governments. How long will it be before "Secret Police" is the right title for the powers reigning in America?