Did you ever think in 1999 that Congress would pass a bill, and that a President would sign a bill that eliminates habeas corpus at the whim of the president? I sure as hell didn't. This is why the utter warping of our political system by the mindless Christopath Uruk-hai, the anti-gay bigots, and the blastula liberationists is so devastating: because it allows other forms of extremism such as the Federalist Society and those who believe in the 'unitary executive' to flourish unchecked.
From Keith Olbermann:
OLBERMANN: Does this mean that under this law, ultimately the only thing keeping you, I, or the viewer out of Gitmo is the sanity and honesty of the President of the United States?JONATHAN TURLEY: It does, and it's a huge sea change for our democracy. And the framers created a system where we did not have to rely on the good graces or good mood of the president. In fact, Madison said he created a system essentially to be run by devils where they could not do harm because we did not rely on their good motivations. Now we must, and people have no idea how significant this is.
Osama bin Laden never took away habeas corpus. Americans did. Impeach Bush. Impeach him now.
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Turley made another remark that was spot on: The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars.
I guess I should no longer be surprised that so many people just accept whatever happens.
Why do I get the feeling that people will only impeach Bush if Jesus himself appears and says "For the love of me, kick that idiot out of office!"
I have to disagree. Jesus would be ignored as another whiny, liberal, long-hair Jew that hates America and loves the terrorists.
The courts will make short shrift of it, but none the less it a sad commentary. Lose not faith ye all, the stain will be lifted.
Only us left-wing wackos seem to have even noticed this one. I used to be middle of the road, but this has pushed me into the left-wingers camp. I sure hope markie is right, but I'm not that confident about our court.
Actually Habeas Corpus was essentially inherited from the Brits, it was in the 1215 MagnaCarta.
Bush will only use it on certain people, but that is the trouble with this law. It will apply to those chosen by the U.S. who are very likely to be guilty of crimes. And it will be applied, as Bush says, with temperance. I imagine that all those tried under this law will have their cases carefully screened so that the most odious portions of this law would not be called into question at their trials. But that is not really how laws are supposed to work. Justice is supposed to apply equally to all. By carefully picking cases to try under this law so as not to call its most controversial provisions under scrutiny it lends those provisions a veneer of constitutional legitimacy which they do not likely have.
I don't the the main purpose of this law is to try people held by the US in its war on terror. The purpose is to make the administration look tough on terror by having the legal means of treating terrorism suspects markedly differently from traditional prosecutions by military commissions. If this law fits a potential prosecution, it shouldn't be solely up to the executive whether to test it: if the attorney general or the defense secretary do not force the rest of the executive to apply all aspects of these laws, so the public can see that they pass muster constitutionally, then then congress needs to hold them to account. Laws must be enforced to their fullest extent, including bad laws, or they shamefully stay on the books, never tested in court, but needlessly threatening.
I was pretty horrified this law passed without people screaming bloody murder about it. The language is so vague that pretty much anyone the president thinks is giving material support to terrorists can be grabbed, put in a secret prison, and tortured. I guess that's the new American way.
To me, this is the number one reason to vote Democrat in 18 days (and in 2008). And I'm not as a Democrat! People who think it's a great idea to fight the war on terror by destroying the foundations of our Constitution, destroying our image in the world by advocating torture, and flushing our basic liberties down the toilet need to be booted out on their asses. Real conservatives would never do crap like this. The Republican party has turned into a party of one idealogy: religious fundamentalism.
Impeachment isn't the way to fix this (if that happened, we'd just get President Cheney). Instead, say VOTE DEMOCRAT ON NOVEMBER 7!!!