When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declared that the Constitution doesn't guarantee habeas corpus rights to all Americans (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/24/MNGDONO11O1.DTL), it was as if dialogue that didn't make the novel 1984 was stuffed into Gonzales's and Arlen Spector's mouths, the former a calmly smiling O'Brien, the latter an impotently enraged Winston - the scariest conversational exchange, by far, in 217 years.
If anyone on this planet (or any other) ever needed a steaming dollop of Bushian dastardliness plopped on their heads to eye-drippingly prove once and for all that the Bush cabal exists/persists exclusively to rip at the stitchings of our cherished freedoms and protections and for no other reason...well, the Spector/Gonzales exchange was that greasy, runny dollop, and how. A serving to rival grandma's, when she was working to fatten you up. Although grandma's dollops, it must be noted, never gave you the shits.
I can't think of a more blatant doublespeak/doublethink moment in American history, rendered as it was in front of cameras and microphones and a roomful of people (not to mention a clutch of American Senators). Gonzales stated, unabashedly, unflinchingly, that Americans don't enjoy habeas corpus as a right. This would be the equivalent of stating (as better thinkers than I have analogized) that freedom of the press is also illusory, not guaranteed; that freedom to bear arms should be thought of as "bare arms," more like; that freedom of assembly and speech are (imagine Gonzales's snickering) absolutely not what we make them out to be - or, freedoms. They're simply rights that are not to be suspended, you see - unless the citizens rebel, or there's an invasion of America. And it's that latter word - invasion - that's truly frightening, for surely that's where Gonzales lives, as it were - in an America that's been invaded by terrorists, that was invaded by them pre-9/11, that will always suffer their invasion.
These are the Attorney General's formulations, remember. The AG is the living embodiment of the law. The AG clearly perceives America as an invaded state. The Constitution says that invasion = suspension of habeas corpus. Gonzales wasn't, it turns out, doublethinking or doublespeaking after all. He was merely letting us know how the Bushies see America in the 21st century. He was just too shy to state our new habeas-suspension situation in clear, concise terms. He preferred to do the kabuki.
So there it is. The scariest moment in 217 years, just humming right on by. We live in an invaded country, and our right to a speedy trial - to all that habeas corpus affords - is a thing of the past. An interpretation made by bastards on behalf of thieves in a world of fools.
See you in prison, mates.