A Chill Wind Blows
America is less American today.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 became law on Tuesday. A majority of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the President of the United States, think it is acceptable for the President unilaterally to declare any one of us to be an "enemy combatant" and to deny us rights we have had for more than 200 years. No trial by jury. No habeas corpus rights.
There are other outrages in the bill, especially those relating to torture -- oh, sorry, I mean alternative methods. But it is stunning that so few seem to care that the President (and not just this President, but any President) now can simply detain anyone he wants for whatever reason he wants. And I do mean anyone. This law does not apply just to those found on a "battlefield," whatever that means anymore. Or just to terrorists, bad guys, those who don't look right, or those with the wrong-sounding names. It applies to all of us. You. Me. Every American bleeping citizen. Again, why do so few seem to care? Some are beginning to talk about a repeal campaign, but I am not optimistic.
Thomas Jefferson had it right in 1788, and it is no less true today. Shame on President Bush. Shame on those members of Congress (of both parties) who failed in their duty to check the powers of the executive and voted for this travesty. And shame on all of us for letting it happen.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 became law on Tuesday. A majority of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the President of the United States, think it is acceptable for the President unilaterally to declare any one of us to be an "enemy combatant" and to deny us rights we have had for more than 200 years. No trial by jury. No habeas corpus rights.
There are other outrages in the bill, especially those relating to torture -- oh, sorry, I mean alternative methods. But it is stunning that so few seem to care that the President (and not just this President, but any President) now can simply detain anyone he wants for whatever reason he wants. And I do mean anyone. This law does not apply just to those found on a "battlefield," whatever that means anymore. Or just to terrorists, bad guys, those who don't look right, or those with the wrong-sounding names. It applies to all of us. You. Me. Every American bleeping citizen. Again, why do so few seem to care? Some are beginning to talk about a repeal campaign, but I am not optimistic.
Thomas Jefferson had it right in 1788, and it is no less true today. Shame on President Bush. Shame on those members of Congress (of both parties) who failed in their duty to check the powers of the executive and voted for this travesty. And shame on all of us for letting it happen.
posted by FCB at 8:51 AM
1 Comments:
No one thinks this will ever be applied to them. They're good people. They're never going to get into any trouble. Those folks who are arrested and tried, only to be freed 20 years later because it was all a mistake . . . that could never happen to them. They're not important enough for a President to take note. And surely a President would never take advantage . . . .
If that only were true. And if it only were true that the people who need the protections of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are those who "get off on technicalities."
It's not true. Finding yourself on the wrong side of a person wielding the power of the government happens to regular folks. If only the regular folks could be made to believe that. Congress has relied for too long on the judicial system to make these wrongs into right - all the while complaining about activist judges, who are left no choice but to stand up for the very bedrock principles on which our country was founded because our elected officials would trample those rights that we all take for granted will be there when we need them.
So here we are, relying on a Supreme Court heavily populated these days by men who claim to want to divine and apply the original intent of the Constitution. Maybe this time they'll get it right. Maybe not. But the real question is why we let these elected officials off so easily?
And how did these elected officials come to conclude that we need to be protected from ourselves?
-- A friend in Philly
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