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Now, we can consider ourselves the “Land of the Semi-Free” and “Home of the Scared”.
Bush signed into law a document so nauseating in its attack on the fundamental principles that made this nation possible that the Media doesn’t even need to spin it. It is what it is and it is a sickening.
A dizzying array of essential elements of a free society have been eliminated, to start with, habeas corpus. This is not a word from a biology class. This is a fundamental principle of American case law. A writ of habeas corpus is essential to the whole legal system.
THINK about it:
- If the State considers you an “enemy combatant”, you can be held indefinitely, with no right to contact anyone ever, with no right to see evidence used against you, no right to have counsel, and on and on and on.
- You can be tortured.
- No one will ever know what happened to you….
NOW, THINK about this:
- In the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement was sometimes labeled “terrorist” by those who believed in States Rights and “separate but equal”.
- In the McCarthy period, those who were Socialist or Communist were considered “enemies of the State”.
- In 2006, if someone, anyone, is labeled a terrorist, Bush et alii can now view that person as an “enemy combatant” or “terrorist” and, with no habeas corpus, this person has no civil liberties.
- If the Bush Administration considers a detractor, like Stephen Colbert, an enemy of the state and threat to security, he can now “disappear” Stephen with no threat of retribution.
So, here we are, at the threshold of that very autocratic and totalitarian state that the Founding Fathers hoped to eliminate.
Our spread of Democracy no longer has any meaning because we don’t have one ourselves. No society is free when its citizens can be secretly arrested, held and tried.
Tags:
American torture laws, Bush, civil liberties, enemy combatants, enemy of the state, habeas curpus, Stephen Colbert, torture
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Posted on 10/19/2006
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