Stop the War!

What an exhilarating photo. I didn't make it to this protest, as I have for dozens of others. This march on Saturday, the Anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, turned out thousands in Washington and in major cities across America.

I didn't see much coverage. So I am showing the protesters here marching. Free people. Free country. Free speech. As our rights have been eroded by this administration (Bill Maher pointed out recently, that all we have left of the Bill of Rights are "...handguns, religion and they can't make us quarter a British soldier"), I look to events like this as the reminder of the constitutional foundations of our country. However, even the right to protest has been circumscribed by designating "Free Speech Zones" at sensitive events, such as political conventions! Good grief!! Shouldn't a party convention be the ground zero of free speech!?

Right now this administration searches our phone records, credit cards, mail, and Internet communications. The protection of privacy has been given up. So has search and seizure, warrants, self-incrimination, trial by jury and cruel and unusual punishment. Bush/Rove/Cheney know that we do not understand these civil rights, much less care about them.

The best line from Bill Maher is this: "George Bush asked us to sacrifice things he knew we wouldn't miss---privacy and morality. He let us keep the money." Cynical? You bet. So take a good look at the picture above, because these actions could go the same way our other civil rights have gone. This kind of free speech may become the next "quaint" thing to disappear.