So I was thinking today (as usual) and came up with this theory: As more and more American ideas fall by the wayside in our quest for “security”, we’ll begin to see more and more very un-American actions and activities by our governing body, and not just the executive but the legislative and judicial branches as well. It reminds me of Superman’s interdimensional brother and how despite having similar goals, the two characters could not have been more different. I thought that it might be a good idea to keep track of these reversals and changes, so that when our kids wake up in their federally-monitored beds before heading off to Daily Indoctrination and Loyalty Testing, somewhere there will exist a record of what this country used to be like and what its slow decline into fascism looked like to those that lived through it. Taking a cue from Mr Colbert from Comedy Central, I’ve decided to start my own “multi-part series” akin to the Get To Know A District feature from The Colbert Report.

March 6th brings us two interesting pieces of crumbling American ideals: free speech and separation of powers.

The Supreme Court rules today that institutes of higher learning that accept federal money must allow military recruiters equal access to students despite the military’s use of discriminatory policies that these colleges find worthy of protest in the interests of equality. At issue was the “Solomon Amendment” which required schools accepting federal money to give equal access to military recruiters. Some schools feel that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy again gays amounts to unfair discrimination and wanted the right to refuse the recruiters access to the campus.

Justices heard arguments in the case in December, and signaled then that they were concerned about hindering a Defense Department need to fill its ranks when the nation is at war.

“This is an important victory for the military and ultimately for our national security,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

Well, without trying to sound too stupid or reasonable, there’s always the untapped population of gay citizens that voluntarily sign up for the military, only to be told that they cannot serve. Recent findings indicate that the military is going out of its way to reject gays, at great expense to taxpayers and military readiness as a whole. $363 million wasted over ten years, under the banner of “maintaining unit cohesion”? And then to try and cover it under the banner of military readiness and national security? I honestly don’t care who’s serving in the military, as long as it’s not me. Chris Rock said it earlier, and better: “If gays want to fight, I say let ‘em. ‘Cause I ain’t fighting!” This being America, if you want to sign up to shoot guns at brown people on the orders of some white Christian dude, you should be able to, straight or gay. And if your school wants to protest policies that bar regular citizens from such service, that should also be your right. It used to be, until the Solomon Amendment, which could possibly be renamed into the Military Policies and Requirements Trump Social Conscience Act.

Moving on to the separation of powers story, I’ll try to be a bit more brief. This one involves George Bush, so I’m not going to have that much to say, in the interests of remaining polite. Anyways, King George apparently wants to propose legislation to Congress to give the executive the line-item veto again. Already ruled unconstitutional once, what are the chances that this will pass again? I’d have to say doubtful. Sure, the GOP may want to hand Bush the keys to controlling spending during this oh-so-crucial election year. But what’s to say that he’ll use them? And even more importantly, what are the chances that he’ll use them effectively or efficiently? I certainly don’t want Bush to be able to cancel any spending in a bill that doesn’t involve the military, faith-based initiatives, or abstinence-only sex eduction. But that is basically want is going to happen here. The president will be able to say what he will support spending money on and what he won’t, and the final approval for that decision will rest with the President and not with Congress. I don’t enjoy seeing massive spending bills stuffed with provisions from every representative for their districts, but it is kind of the way that smaller areas get much-needed federal funds instead of areas with more population and representation taking everything. Allowing an executive (and especially this one) with this power dumps protections in the Constitution that kept the executive hand OFF of the wallet of the country. Changing that now, in these times, with the deficits we’ve allowed to build up, would be a giant mistake.

Keep tuned for more Bizarro States of America. There will undoubtedly be more to write about in the future. Try not to weep too loudly about it, you might wake up the sleeping patriots.