Have You Lost Your Rights?

Let's play a guessing game. We all "know" that the Bush Administration has taken all of our civil rights away, right? Right? We have all lost the right to free speech, which is why anybody criticizing Bush on the Internet has already been killed or whisked away to a secret concentration camp, right? We have all lost the right to move freely from neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, state to state, right? We have all lost the right to pursue whatever job we want, right? What about the list of lost rights below? Police cameras on the streets. Bush? Nope. Local authorities, largely. In Chicago, last time I checked, the ruling class is all "Democrat." Private property rights are being threatened. Bush? Nope. A 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to abuse, which has been enthusiastically used by Democrats such as Chicago Alderman Joe Moore and Eugene Schulter. The right to keep the money you earn. Bush? Nope. Republican and Democrat lawmakers alike, from federal to local, love to take your money. Remember that taxes are taken at the point of a gun: Refuse to pay them and you'll be hauled into court. Refuse to go to court and you'll be arrested by gunmen wearing badges. The right to use controlled substances is being eroded. Bush? Partly, but on a local level around the country it's primarily Democrats with their fanatic anti-smoking campaigns. Come January 1, 2008, we can't smoke in a bar (in a bar!) because of a Democrat-controlled Chicago City Council. The Democrat-controlled Illinois State Legislature has passed similar anti-smoking laws. (And yet, they love the tax revenue from cigarettes.) The right of law-abiding citizens to own a gun is being eroded. Bush? Hell no. Democrats, almost exclusively. How does a politician with any conscience tell a woman who lives in a bad neighborhood that she cannot own a handgun, while thugs and scumbags all around her are packing? Make all the guns illegal and only the bad guys will have guns. Don't you have a right to protect yourself? Not according to Democrats. The right of free speech is being eroded. Bush? I don't think so. But if you're a university student and you want to criticize your professor's politics, you damn well better be criticizing a conservative prof and not one of the Marxist professors. Have YOU lost any rights? How? Give specifics. Give a us a list. RELATED: You don't need a libertarian to know which way the wind blows