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Eliminates Privacy in the United States Seizure of Government's 3 Branches Promises Rightward Trend Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi Friendly to Gay/Lesbian Issues
"Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend - all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as 'a virtual, centralized grand database.' " "To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources," Safire warns, there will be no aspect of American citizens' lives considered too sacred for detailed government inspection. Nosy neighbors' complaints will allow snoops to follow fellow Americans with hidden cameras, checking passport requests, driver's licenses and even highway toll booth records. There will be, he says, "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. resident. John Poindexter, a Bush Administration supervisor is looking forward, according to Safire, to wielding "unprecedented power" from his Department of Defense office. CNN's news commentator Wolf Blitzer, blandly asked his program's Thursday listeners: "Are you willing to sacrifice your personal privacy to provide America with security? Send us your views." Opponents of the Republican agenda are aghast as the United States now appears to be swinging sharply to the right. But Democrats no longer control any of the three branches of government. The U.S. Supreme Court, already a Republican bastion, promises to become a hotbed of GOP right-wing extremism in the wake of two of its members' expected resignations, allowing George W. Bush to appoint their replacements with judges similar to his current Court favorites: Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Will Hutton, writing November 10 in The Observer (London) referred to the November 5 Republican takeover of America's power levers "a dark week for democracy." "The stranglehold the far Right has now taken on America will make it a more divided, reactionary and illiberal country," he says. Hutton tells how former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, a homophobic extremist and a " long-time crusader against abortion, divorce and single parent families" has become the leader of Georgia's Republican Party. Hutton writes that such power grabs have constituted "one of American liberalism's darkest days" and has been "repeated across the country." Even so, nearly powerless Democratic politicians whose ineptness and timidity played a major role that served the Republicans' often crude and crooked manipulation of the nation's 2002 midterm elections, are now making attempts to regroup. The National Stonewall Democrats (NSD) while admitting that anti-gay Republicans now have a firm grasp on power, are nevertheless celebrating the election to their Party's Congressional leadership of Nancy Pelosi, a Congresswoman from San Francisco who is said to be a strong advocate of gay and lesbian issues. The NSD admits, however, that nearly unlimited powers have now fallen into the hands of anti-gay Republican politicos: In elections held Wednesday, the NSD says: "the Republican House and Senate Caucuses elected a leadership team that strongly opposes gay and lesbian civil rights." "Republicans have chosen anti-gay leaders to craft congressional priorities over the next two years," according to Chad Johnson, the organization's Executive Director. "The silence among gay Republicans regarding these crucial leadership contests demonstrates that their inattention has once again allowed bigotry to bully the Republican agenda."
In the House, Republicans elected anti-gay Representative Tom Delay (R-Texas) as Republican Leader. Delay has worked for years to prevent the implementation of gay civil rights legislation. Anti-gay Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) was elected as Republican House Whip, the number two position previously held by Delay. In the only bright spot of the leadership elections, Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), a relative moderate on gay issues, was elected as Chair of the Republican Caucus. Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), who also opposes equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans, remains the Republican choice for Speaker of the House." "The Democrats," continues the Observer's Hutton, "had to find a way of voicing the concerns of the mass of Americans while not undermining the President during a national emergency, but to do that they had to have a powerful pitch based on a liberal ideology as animating and dynamic as that of the conservatives. They didn't and they lost." The National Stonewall Democrats, nevertheless, praised House Democrats Thursday for electing an aggressively pro-gay leader who they expect to guide the Democratic caucus over the next two years during which time it lacks significant powers. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), elected overwhelmingly as the Democratic Congressional Leader, is being celebrated by the both the media and NSD as "the first woman to lead either party in the U.S. House of Representatives." Representing a district that includes most of San Francisco, Pelosi has been a longtime champion of gay and lesbian civil rights, and strongly contrasts the anti-gay record of Republican Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas).
NSD is confident, its seemingly optimistic leaders say, "that Pelosi can lead all segments of the party in a pragmatic way that will serve to advance equality for all Americans." |
Bush signs an anti-terrorism bill while members of the Republican Congress look on 
Sen. Lott will once again lead the Senate 
Liberal Nancy Pelosi took over the leadership of the Democratic minority in the U.S. House this week