Letters to the Editor
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that we are even debating these issues at all...
...But the overarching point is how extraordinary it is -- specifically, how extraordinarily disturbing it is -- that we are even debating these issues at all. ...
Extraordinarily disturbing, indeed! What seems like hyperbole is in fact an understatement.
How can any normal American even consider that our government may "arrest individuals on U.S. soil and keep them imprisoned for years and years, indefinitely, without charging them with a crime ..."? Is it possible to sink lower? Has no one read our history? Have we no moral underpinning at all anymore?
It make you want to hurl.
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If George W. Bush Jr. Can't Throw Anyone In the Dungeon He Wants, The Terrorists Have Won
If Our Commander In Chief cannot simply think any of us into dungeons for any reason or label whatsoever, then the Terrorists Win.
It's taken us a long time to finally get over the lessons left to us by the Founding Fathers, but, By God, the Reagan Junior Movement will do everything it can in its power to make sure there are no freedoms left for the Terrorists to hate us for.
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Remember 'Man in the Iron Mask'?
That was the power of the kings of France, and that is what these people that hate Americas' freedom want: a king, not a president.
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i want to post something witty ...
but it's just not funny. not funny at all. pretty damned scary really.
as usual excellent commentary glenn.
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To reiterate...
The primary reason they want to be able to designate al-Marri nan enemy combattant was so they could "coersive technique" his contact list out of him. Unlike most terrorist suspects who've made it to trial, this guy had a rather strong case against him. But in the US, waterboarding criminal suspects is against the rules. Hence the enemy combatant designation.
Anyone who thinks that this is a good idea needs to be reminded that "enemy combatant" is in the eye of the beholder.
Perhaps these folks would qualify: http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/PCU2288.php
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The irony of him being in Peoria of all places
Should not be lost.
This type of review-free detention can quite actually happen to anyone, even in Peoria.
It is somewhat reassuring that when the courts actually rule on the Yoo/Gonzales theories of the Constitution, they have so far not failed to repudiate them as errant nonsense and unamerican.
It is telling that these bogus notions do not survive the incisive examination of even Republican judges, and as Hamndi showed, even a Majority republican Supreme Court.
Only 1 of 3 branches seems to be actively working against the malignant executive. Would the Legislative branch begin to exert its full power we might end this long international nightmare.
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Worse than Nixon
Worse by many degrees of magnitude. Nixon held that "La loi, c'est moi," but I don't recall that he got as far as imprisoning people based on that foul notion.
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Omnipotence and lawlessness
As always, great post! This is an issue that true patriots should be up in arms about.
With the contempt Bush has repeatedly demonstrated for constitutional law, the omnipotent powers he has repeatedly claimed for himself, and the thoughtless destruction he has casually unleashed in Iraq, one has to consider the possibility that "The Decider" may presume that "his government" is just too indispensible to be discharged in 2009.
This isn't hypebole. These are perilous times for our constitutional democracy.
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A Black and white issue; literally
As long as the victims of this lawless behavior are non-white people with muslim sounding names, pretty much nobody is going to care about this issue. The news shows a photo of al-Marri, or Padilla, and people think to themselves, "Well, he looks like a terrorist" and then go on about their daily business.
Now if one of these "suspected" terrorists just so happened to be white, and have "normal" sounding names... you know, like maybe E-R-I-C R-U-D-O-L-P-H, or T-I-M-O-T-H-Y M-c-V-E-I-G-H, for example, this would all be a completely different matter. altogether. If either of those folks had been detained without charges, boy, would there be some whining and gnashing of teeth. From folks like Limbaugh, and O'Reilly, Malkin, and Hannity, among many others we discuss here on a daily basis.
But as long as it ain't white folks being denied basic civil rights, nobody's gonna care.
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Now That's a Unitary Executive
Glenn asks, "Who would possibly believe that an American President has such powers, and more to the point, what kind of a person would want a President to have such powers?"
Um, so-called Republicans, and Joe Lieberman. The inhabitants of right-wing think tanks. Right-wing bloggers. TV anchors, pundits, guests, and corporate columnists. Wall Street. Evangelical Christians, militant Catholics, and other Crusaders. Rural red state dummies. Rush Limbaugh. Dick Cheney. Lynne Cheney. In short, roughly 28% of all Americans.
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The Preconditions for Authoritarianism
One can't assert absolute power without a constituency supporting it. What is most worrisome to me is that something like a third of the population is supportive of these sorts of violations. It is becoming increasingly clear that we live in a democracy where large numbers of people are anti-democratic.
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Traitors
Anyone advocating such dictatorial powers to the President is nothing more than a traitor, no different than any other extremist threatening overthrow to our country and democracy. Supposedly they are doing it to protect our freedoms from the “terrorists,” yet their actions and statements show such disregard and lack of faith in the strength of our laws and protections, it makes you wonder just what they think they are safeguarding. Do they think America is that weak that we have to throw 200 years of progressive success away? I wish that every time one of these idiots opened his mouth, someone would simply call them un-American and traitors – it’s time to lay it out, and shut them up.
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King George the first and last
Our King and his court are in their greatest struggle right now before they leave power, if they leave power which is a big "IF", to totally overthrow the constitution of the United States from their kingly chambers on high.The most high neo-con in public office is nothing more than a court jester for the new world order gangsters that are destroying this country from within using some of the most wicked people that has ever been elected or stolen a public office in this country.The loss of personal freedoms in this country throughout many localities in this country is truly frightening and very telling of just how intense this warfare against our Constitution actually is.Personal freedoms all across this country are being ignored on a daily basis by police departments in all states.Children are being taken from their parents on a routine basis, personal property is being stolen regularly,citizens are routinely arrested as illegal aliens are routinely released.It is truly eye opening just how many evil people are actually in places of power.