Second Term - A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 1)

by John Price

  “I can get used to all that, I think. At least, eventually. I’m mainly worried about my wife. How do you handle being away from your spouse?”

  “Not easy. She’s up here this week, still trying to find a job that will pay enough to justify moving to Oregon through the trial. We don’t have a trial date yet. How about your wife? Is she interested in moving to Oregon?”

  “Her parents are both ailing, plus our two kids are trying to finish college, in Montana. It doesn’t look good for a move out here. We’ve talked about it. She’ll get here probably twice a month, but Billings is a lot closer than Tyler. What happened to your income? Weren’t you in the insurance biz?”

  “Yeah. That’s all gone. My boss was supportive, but his boss got some heat from some place, who knows where? Insurance regulators? Anyway, they let me go, not long after I was arrested by the feds. Gave me six months’ severance, which helped, but you can’t live forever on it.”

  “Well. Let me ask you, on a different subject….”

  “How’s the food?” Madison asked with a smile.

  “No. I don’t expect a gourmet five star establishment. My question is what are you hearing about our Judge, you know, the ‘Hanging Judge’?”

  “Big problem. Besides distance from home, the major reason we’re in Oregon. Pro-government in his rulings from the bench. Occasionally overruled when he’s gone too far, but generally seen, my attorney tells me, by the DOJ as a fairly reliable judge for the DOJ, as well as a good court to try a high profile case. Judge McDermott isn’t shy when it comes to being in the public spotlight with a case that the government really wants to win.”

  “Like our two cases?”

  “Yeah, like our two cases. What I hear, again from my attorney, since the DOJ doesn’t call me, is that the government wants to convict us in order to shut up verbal protestors, like me, and, to shut down demonstrations, like yours. A loss of either case would be seen by the Administration as a real set back. If they’re going make McAlister stick, they need to scare Americans who are upset about the gun law. Their goal appears to be to create a state of fear….the fear of speaking up as well as the fear of protesting.”

  “Un-hunh, the way any government in history has grabbed and kept control – scare its citizens into sheep-like compliance. There’s nothing new under the sun, as Solomon once said. I just wish I was from Texas. I hear it’s the only State in the Union that can withdraw from the Union. It’s actually a Republic, as it was an independent nation for ten years before it joined the Union. If you ever get out of here, you should help lead Texas out of the Union.”

  “Sure, that’s what I need, more trouble, to be a bigger target. I’ll pass….for now.” But, despite John Madison’s protestations, a seed had been planted.

  “Gunning, do you mind if I ask you what really went down in Helena at your protest?”

  “I don’t mind at all, if you’ll then share with me the background of your speech in Austin that got you in so much trouble.”

  “Deal. You go first.”

  “No matter what you’ve read or heard, we didn’t take over the State House to start a fire fight. Except for the three guys that were shot by government troops, one who’s still alive, as you probably know, but not in very good shape, the rest of us were going to exit the State House late Sunday night. We just wanted to make our point against the government trying to cancel our right to own firearms, and then we would just fade away. But, it all went south on us. The three guys who volunteered to be arrested and jailed shouldn’t have carried their firearms with them for their speech out on the balcony. That cost two of them their lives, as it turned out. Actually, we should have all left our firearms at home. The rest is history.”

  “And now you’re here.”

  “Yup”, he chuckled, “But I get to meet a nice class of people, including the famous rabble rouser John Madison, high on the President’s enemies list.”

  “The truth is there are things about the President that I like. He works on spending time with his family, for instance. It’s just that almost every position he takes on a public issue, I disagree with him. His handling of the economy is clearly wrong-headed. If we had a President who understood business and how jobs are actually created, those millions of Americans who are unemployed would be back to work. It wouldn’t take too many Presidential speeches and DC policy changes to convince the small business owners of the country that they could start expanding their businesses again.”

  “John, do you buy the theory that he’s trying to bring down the financial system, because at heart he detests capitalism?

  “I don’t know if I do or not. What I do know is that this President’s background and training, and his growing-up friends and associates, could lead you to that conclusion. Now, what about your speech in Austin?”

  John Madison related to his new prison friend the details of his speech warning that the President, if re-elected would try and take away Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. He shared his belief as to why he was targeted, among the many others who were giving similar warnings, and why what he said publicly led him to become an inmate at a medium security federal correctional institution in Oregon.

  To an observer it would seem that Madison and Bedford were having a confidential conversation. But, things are not always what they seem, especially in a federal prison. The sealed playing card box on the middle of their table in the recreation room at Sheridan federal prison was a sophisticated microphone and transmission device. Every word spoken by the prison’s two leading inmates was being recorded and simultaneously transmitted to the Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ in charge of prosecuting Madison and Bedford. Though the Deputy AJ didn’t learn anything of note in this initial meeting, he was convinced that future such meetings between the two inmates at Sheridan would yield information that would help shut down those who opposed the Administration’s efforts to mold the First and Second Amendments more to its liking.

  SIXTY NINE

  Denver, Colorado & Washington, DC

  Violence begets violence. There is something in the human psyche that raises the blood level and the propensity for violent behavior when one witnesses violence, particularly when coupled with perceived injustice. When television newscasts showed Rodney King being assaulted by police officers, widespread violence by others soon followed. Likewise, when Americans who still possessed guns saw the shootings by the American military of three gun rights protestors at the Montana State House, the fuse was lit for even more violence yet to come, in a nation which had witnessed unprecedented levels of blood shed by Americans in the streets of its cities and towns.

  Three days after the Saturday shootings in Helena a powerful bomb blew apart the front two-thirds of the ATF field division offices in Denver. The bomb went off at one in the morning. If it had ignited during working hours it was estimated that over four hundred would have died, counting those in adjoining offices. Two days later a similar device exploded, demolishing the ATF offices in Little Rock. This time, the bomb, which ignited at just after 9 PM, killed two persons passing by the offices. One day later, the Portland, Oregon ATF field division offices were decimated, but the bomb went off at just after 6 PM, killing three late workers and five in an adjoining office’s conference room.

  The next morning the President summoned the national media to the White House to issue a statement. As he approached the podium his expression could only be described as one of fury, absolute rage. He seemed to almost spit out the few words of his brief statement which he uncharacteristically made without a Tele-Prompter.

  “I have a statement to make. These bombings of federal offices are an unacceptable atrocity. America is under a domestic terror siege. I will protect and defend our government from these….these….haters. Deprived of their gun hate weapons, they have now turned to more serious and violent hate weapons, bombs. I have called up an additional troops to be used to restore public order in the US. In addition, I have just signed an Order prov
iding arrest powers to members of the CCC. Any criminal act, in word or deed, witnessed by a Conservator can now be the basis for immediate arrest. The haters are warned.”

  The President turned, abruptly exiting the White House Press Room, followed by numerous shouted questions, the loudest of which was, “Mr. President, do we have any evidence who planted these bombs? Could they have been by outside terrorists, or someone not part of the right wing? Do we know anyth…..”. The President stopped short and turned, glaring at the reporter, whose well known voice he instantly recognized. Ignoring his Press Secretary’s advice not to take any questions, he shot back in response, “Ed, are you implying that someone in the government bombed our own offices? Is that your question? That’s reprehensible, even for Fox News. There’s no Reichstag fire here. The bombings were by the crazies, the radical right wing that just can’t get used to losing their hate weapons.”

  The reporter shouted to the retreating back of the President, “Mr. President….How can you know these bombs weren’t planted by your supporters, or by…..”. By now he was only talking to the press corps, most of whom looked at him with disdain.

  SEVENTY

  White House Oval Office

  Washington, DC

  “General, don’t you get it? Hunh? Are you deaf?

  “Do….you….not….understand….the….words….that….are….coming….out….of….my….mouth?”

  “Oh, I understand, Mr. President, what you are asking the United States Department of Justice to do. I….understand….the….words….that….are….coming….”

  “Alright, no need to be sarcastic. Sorry for my anger, but you just don’t seem to get what I want you, as Attorney General, and your DOJ, to do.”

  The President and his Attorney General had known each other since they organized voter drives together, before either one of them had any hope of serving in high public office. That long-time friendship, however, didn’t prevent them from frequent verbal clashes. The AG was a loyal soldier, a fact which he found he had to on occasion remind the occupant of the White House. The President had never practiced law, though he had a law degree, which hindered him in his ability to understand why his choice for the nation’s top lawyer wouldn’t always do what he wanted him to do.

  “Mr. President, I’ve told you this before, and once again, it bears repeating. If I file some crazy pleading, or bring ridiculous charges against Madison, that not only hurts my credibility, and that of the Department of Justice, it back-splashes on you, and hurts your image.”

  “Image? I don’t care about that now, Erik, I won. Remember that? I’m in my second term. This is the ‘big things finally get done term’….Image?….Who gives a rip about my image? They’re never gonna’ carve my face on Mount Rushmore, let alone print my charming smile on our currency. Image?”

  “You misunderstood what I meant. I also don’t give a fig for what the voters tell pollsters. Voters? Who are they? After the election they lost their standing. What I was trying to say was that if we operate the DOJ like we don’t know what we’re doing, and go off half-cocked, we’ll be held in low esteem, to say the least, by the Judges we have to deal with every day. Need I remind you, since you used to teach this stuff, that there is a supposedly co-equal branch of government in this country called the judiciary. You know, the guys that throw out acts of Congress and rule that you exceeded your legal authority? We don’t want those guys and gals in black robes coming to the conclusion that this Administration is incompetent. I can live with them thinking you’re a radical leftist, because a lot of them are too, but if they conclude that we’re totally inept, then that will hurt us with their future rulings.”

  “But, Erik, how many of these Judges were appointed by Clinton, or Carter, or by O…., or by us?”

  “I don’t know the current breakdown, but over half are our party’s appointments.”

  “So, if I file, excuse me, if you file, the DOJ or the District Attorney, or whomever, files a hate crimes charge against this Texas televangelist, are you telling me that some federal judge is just gonna’ throw it out? How do you know that?”

  “Mr. President, let me go over this again. You are very close to the line on the free speech issue. The First Amendment says….you remember that one. It’s right before the Second Amendment. The two we modified in the McAlister Act.”

  “One of the highlights of both of our lives, I might add.”

  “Yes, but back to my point. The media helped us mightily on getting rid of the right to keep and bear arms, but it won’t be so easy to modify the First Amendment. It provides for protections for the media that they jealousy guard. The Supremes didn’t directly rule on the speech aspects of McAlister, so we could still have a problem with that part of the law. ”

  “Why can’t we just focus on the free exercise of religion part, and stay away from the free speech and press part? Am I missing something here?”

  “Kind of, you are. This young pastor, the son of your least favorite Texan, who is, I might add, still in the federal pen awaiting trial, will launch his much-announced sermons on what ‘the Bible says about perverted behavior’ next month. The fact that his dad has been labeled by Fox as America’s number one political prisoner will add considerably to his viewership. Assume he says what we think he’s going to say. We can have several CCC Conservators in the congregation to witness his words. We can bring hate crime charges for violating the federal hate crime statute, besides, of course, charges for violating McAlister. We’ll emphasize that he is abusing the free exercise of religion clause, trying to jam his religion down folks’ throats, using the public airwaves and thus violating the separation between church and state, etc., etc. That we can do. Unfortunately, by presenting his hate speeches verbally, and on television, his lawyers will claim it’s all protected speech. First Amendment protected speech. See the problem? It’s a fine line, like I said.”

  “I get it. I get it. I didn’t practice law, but I understand the problem of losing the media. Can’t we come up with something that we can add to the charges that will kind of….you know….cover over the free speech issues and highlight the violation of the separation of church and state part?”

  “We’re working on it as we speak. We’ll be ready. He’s doing a series, so we can send in the CCC Conservators for the first sermon, nail down his hate words, then, maybe we’ll arrest this guy as he’s giving his next sermon right on the stage of his Dallas church. He threw down the gauntlet with those billboards and promo ads in large letters saying, What Does the Bible Teach on Perversion? He’s just asking for trouble from us.”

  “I was told that he didn’t agree with his dad. That he thought John Madison was wrong to take me on so viciously in the campaign?”

  “I don’t know. I just know he’s inviting scrutiny of his words. Don’t forget that Pastor Jack Madison’s words will be spoken after the McAlister Act. His dad’s speech was before McAlister, which makes convicting his dad much harder than convicting his son. But, I actually think it helps that he’s John Madison’s son, sort of makes it look like he’s thumbing his nose at the Administration, even though it’s on a different topic than the one on which his dad campaigned. He knows that we have to strictly enforce McAlister. We can’t have televised hate speech like what he promises to talk about. What do you think?”

  “Back to what I said when you first got here. Send in the Conservators and nail down his hate words. Then prepare the charges and go after him as soon as he’s finished his next hate sermon. Let’s hope that there’s some red meat in his first sermon, some references to Sodom and Gomorrah, that kind of thing. I hear they go after pastors in Canada and Sweden all the time, so why can’t we? These guys on the religious right want to send us a message. I’ll send them a message, one they won’t soon forget.”

  “All right. You’re the boss. In any case, we’ll be ready for Pastor Jack Madison. I just want you to know what can happen if we’re not careful. Let’s hope our Judge agrees.”

&nb
sp; SEVENTY ONE

  Louisville, Kentucky

  Editorial Offices – Louisville Colonel-Journal

  Gordon Ziegner had been the Editor of the Louisville Colonel-Journal, the State’s oldest daily newspaper, for over twenty seven years. He thought he had seen it all, reported it all and printed it all during those years. He was wrong. The official-looking Department of Justice letter lying on his keyboard grabbed his attention, as his assistant knew it would. She knew that if she placed it on his paper-strewn desk it might never be seen. As a trained editor, he read it all in one swift top to bottom scan, but, unlike most reads, this writing required a more intensive analysis.

  Editor Ziegner was officially informed in the letter by a Deputy Attorney General named Roger F. Scott that his newspaper was about to receive a visitor from the government. Upon re-reading, he saw that the visit would be that afternoon. Not much notice, he thought, but not a big problem, I can make time before the Editorial Board meeting. But, hunh? As he read it again, he saw that the visitor, a Conservator with the Civilian Conservation Corps, was coming not to see Editor Ziegner, but to meet with Editor Ziegner and his newspaper’s full Editorial Board. Now, that’s strange, he thought. Don’t think we’ve ever had someone invite themselves to a meeting of the Editorial Board.

  The Editorial Board of the Colonel-Journal, consisted of five editors or associate editors of the paper. It met every afternoon to discuss the next day’s editorials to be published, which guest columns to select for publication and how to prioritize the stories on the paper’s front page and the first page of the metro section. When elections came around, the Board would invite in candidates and interview them for potential endorsements. Service on the Editorial Board, inside the newspaper, was considered the top of the newspaper food chain, a position to be coveted.

  Editor Ziegner read the DAG/DOJ letter the third time, and then the fourth. He then scanned it and e-mailed it to the other four Board members, asking for their comments. As it was a quiet news day, his e-mail and the accompanying letter stirred up a storm of comments. The City Editor wrote him back, “WHAT? This guy or gal from some federal agency is going to attend our Editorial Board meeting? WHAT EVER FOR? Tell them to forget it, we’ve got a newspaper to publish!!! (Yes, Gordon, I used three emphasis marks plus three words in caps, so mark me up, already!)”