September 12, 2003- The US Tour

Many rock and roll bands have used the title of today's column as the title of their American tour, maybe you have a T-shirt or poster or some other such memorabilia that says that on there somewhere. These rock and roll tours are all about a band crafting a release of some kind ( a CD or DVD or whatever), and going around from town to town all across the USA to get fans to buy that release and earn themselves some money. Some of these tours are smashing successes, while other just flat-out fail. Most of the time, that depends on the quality of the release that the band is pushing, if is deemed a good re;lease by the people, then the tour is successful, and if it is deemed a shitty release, then the resulting tour suffers. Many a rock and roll outfit has had their dreams of stardom smashed into dust by flopping miserably on one of these tours. However, they all have to do it in order to even have a chance of succeeding. Just putting out a release by itself is usually never enough for a band to be successful with it, they have to do that tour sooner or later. That is the way that these things are done in the entertainment industry. That is an industry that I slooked down upon by the American government, because they look down on all businesses, because they consider themselves to be the greatest and most important business in the world, so they do not have to worry about petty shit like other businesses do. They feel that since they are in charge, that they do not have to worry about things like selling something to the public, that they just have to say that it is so and that will take care of it. The current administration is an ardent disciple of this way of thinking. They love to just rule by decree and say that is how it goes. That was the way that they did it with the Patriot Act. You remember that, right? That was the law that was rammed through Congress by the White House in the days and weeks that followed September 11th, 2001. The one that had all sorts of sweeping powers for the government, like secret searches of homes and roving wiretaps, and screening of e-mails and all that good stuff. The President scared the shit out of an already panicked nation by filling their heads up with wild stories of terrorism and terrorists and the things that they might do, and said that the only way that America could be kept safe from these people was by giving the government sweeping powers to look at anyone and everyone that they pleased so that potential terrorists would be weeded out early. Bush and his cronies pushed and pushed this horror story on the Americans relentlessly. After a while, many Americans started to believe this doomsday scenario that Bush was painting. The fact that the average American does not know all that much about global politics and religions and the shit that makes up the terrorism scene played into this. The people figured that Bush and the people working for him knew more about this shit than they did, after all, they were players in the geopolitical scene, while the average America was not, so it stood to reason that the President and his men knew what was the right thing to do here. A panicked nation looked to its leader for assurance and guidance and all that. What that nation did not factor into things is that this same leader would use the opportunity to lie to them about it all so that he could pursue his agenda of assembling a Police State in America. Anyone that said that when this was all being crafted in 2001 was branded an unpatriotic subversive by the government. In the media, on the streets, in the schools, that was the mantra that was chanted, that you had to blindly support Bush and whatever he said was right or else be against America. Even this Patriot Act was seen as something that had to be blindly accepted. There was no real debate over it, because there was no time given for debate, this bill was rushed into law at record speed. Americans were told that the freedoms that were being curtailed were things that had to be sacrificed in the name of safety. They accepted this, and the Patriot Act was passed into law before 2001 was over. Since then is when the debate has started over it all. Now that two years have passed since that horrible day in 2001, some of the shock and horror is starting to wane in Americans. Even with those fervent efforts that we saw yesterday to remind everyone of the terror of that day and how it impacted their lives, the people are starting to see that it was only one day and that its impact was largely confined to that one awful day. When they look at the Patriot Act now, they see something that has the potential to impact their lives in every way every day, with a much more far-reaching effect then any one day, no matter how horrible it was, could ever have. These Americans are now starting to question the validity of the Patriot Act and the powers that it gave the Government. Many are starting to question just how this act is going to stop terrorism, why the government needs these sweeping powers over its own people in order to control something that reaches far beyond the borders of America. Many are starting to see how they were bullshitted and rushed into judgement by their government two years ago. It has gotten to the point where some communities in the USA are starting to pass resolutions condemning the Patriot Act and publicly stating that they do not support it or agree with its principles. This has put a great state of alarm into the White House. Since they are accustomed to the people meekly accepting whatever they say to accept, they have not been sure quite what to do to stifle this growing unrest over their actions. They will not tolerate it, that is for sure, so they devised a strategy to deal with it. They took a page out of the handbook of the rock and roll bands and decided that they would go on a US Tour to promote their Patriot Act and to stifle any dissention that they encountered. So they sent Attorney General John Ashcroft out to traverse America this past week and to try and sell the Patriot Act to Americans once again. We had all of these well orchestrated events where Ashcroft went on a stage that was flanked by pigs and firemen and kids and the like, and he gave rousing speech after rousing speech defending the patriot Act and reiterating how necessary it is to the safety and security of America, and reminding one and all about how the government is out to ensure their safety and all that. So the question begs to be answered: did thsi tour drum up support for the Patriot Act or not?

The early returns suggest that it did not at all. Even though the tour was scheduled to coincide with all the two year anniversary of September 11th shit, it did not really have the desired effect. Part of the problem was that it was carefully orchestrated so that it only played in places where local governments and politicians had not publicly condemned or repudiated the act, so they were preaching to the choir, playing to favorable crowds all the way, especially when they festooned the stages with flags and filled them with Pigs and the like, they basically became pep rallies rather than attempts to sell something. Just the fact that the administration felt that they had to do this at all meant that there had been a drastic change in things.We saw supporters of the Patriot Act going on TV and saying shit like that there had been no abuses of the act thus far, and that is true, there have been none, as the act has largely not been implemented as of yet. However, the America people have come to the realization that this act will be in effect long after the War On Terror is over, whenever that will be. The powers that it gives the government will still be in effect, but the reasons that they were implemented in the first place will no longer be.That will mean that there will be nobody left for the act to be used against except American citizens themselves. Then these tactics that Bush said would be useful against terrorists will be used against the American public, and they are not all that crazy about that idea. They have seen that thus far the Patriot Act has not been useful in catching any terror suspects at all, that this is mostly done through political means in the lands that breed terrorists. Now that they are not so afraid anymore, the American people are starting to see the reality of the situation. The events of September 11th, 2001 were so horrifying to most Americans that they could not comprehend it at all right away. Their minds pretty much went blank with the magnitude of it all. Bush jumped on this and started all this Patriot Act shit designed to confuse an already scared public. Now that the fear has worn off, the public is starting to see what he did. Many of them don't like it after all, and have been saying so. That is a growing chorus in America, blind acceptance of this act is no longer the dominant thing. The problem is is it too late to change it all? When the Patriot Act was first passed, many said that the freedoms that were being eliminated so quickly would be almost impossible to get back once they were gone. It seems that might not be the case if Bush has resorted to these tours already. He would only dot hat if he feared that the powers that he gleaned from this act were going to be scaled back in any way. It is obvious that Bush and Ashcroft fear what the people are starting to think about their precious law. They seem to feel that they cannot control a restive public, even with these powers. So they are going to try and beat the same old drum again, try to scare people into thinking that this all has to be so that Americans can live safely. In the two years since that fateful day, we have heard so much about how America is a more sophisticated place, how it has learned so much since that day. That same principle goes for the people, they have learned every bit as much in the last two years as any governmental bodies have. They are not as uneducated about worldly matters as they once were. They are sophisticated enough to see that there is no direct cause and effect between these laws that Bush rammed through and the cessation of terrorist activity. They can see that the whole incident was used to try and speed up an already existing agenda, that of bringing about a Police State. The people have seen that all these extra Pigs serve no purpose in stopping terrorism, that they end up hassling and harassing the public far more than they stop any terror plot. They see that there never was any need for all this sweeping power, and they damn sure see that there is no need for any further powers to be handed to the government even though the government is saying that they need them. The American people are seeing that living in a free society has responsibilities, and that not everything can be solved by giving the Pigs and Establishment more power. Bush and his cronies see this, and they will do anything to put a stop to it. That is the purpose behind the US Tour that Ashcroft embarked on last week. He will be the designated liar that tells the people more bullshit in hopes of getting them to stop opposing the White Hose and what it wants. However, the media, who were such compliant tools in the aftermath of that day two years ago, have now started to give other viewpoints some time, and these viewpoints are what is convincing the American people that maybe they need to take a longer look at it all. It will definetly be a long and hard road to get these freedoms back entirely, but it is something that can be done, if it could not, Bush would not be using these tour tactics to try and convince people otherwise. As long as the American people stick with it and do not deviate from trying to right these wrongs, then they have an excellent chance of someday being able to get everything back that Bush took from them with this law. But they must be diligent, because Bush and whoever is the next President will surely use the mammoth resources of government to drag their feet and do whatever they can to hang onto what they have. If the people give up on the idea any time, then they will be giving the government carte blanche to do whatever they want from now on. This is a critical time for freedom in America. If the people truly value it, they will take it back and do whatever they can to accomplish that. If they don't, then they will be doomed to having government rule by decree and mercilessly expand its powers. They have the government nervous over this, the recent US Tour proves that. Now it is just a matter of keeping it up and perhaps things could return to what they once were in America, despite September 11th 2001, it is possible, no matter what the government might say.