its been a terribly sad week for america
10/17/2006
Today, 135 years to the day after the last American President (Ulysses S. Grant) suspended habeas corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At its worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld to declare anyone — US citizen or not — an enemy combatant, lock them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a court of law. In other words, every thing the Founding Fathers fought the British empire to free themselves of was reversed and nullified with the stroke of a pen, all under the guise of the War on Terror.
Jonathan Turley joined Keith to talk about the law that Senator Feingold said would be seen as "a stain on our nation's history."
Turley: "People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. 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. It's otherworldly..People clearly don't realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I'm not too sure we're gonna change back anytime soon."
so long habeas corpus. it was fun while it lasted.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." - Nietzsche
I feel sick to my stomach.
*bliss*
and it made me break up with my grrlfriend. i compared this law to the Reichstag Fire Decree {1933, Germany}, and she took the opportunity to jew-bait me and poo-poo my concerns. i was then done relating to her. {this was only the most recent in a series of disrespectful things she said to me, but i like having something else to blame on republicans.} here's hoping i won't have to move to canada, too. if i do, i think i should send a reimbursement request for my moving expenses to bush et al.
"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?" ~lani ka'ahumanu
www.walkingthewalls.blogspot.com
"dragon knows dragon
"if i pass for other than what i am, do you feel safer?" ~ lani ka'ahumanu
dragon knows dragon
::hugs:: back. i really appreciate your support. i checked in with everyone here in rl to confirm that my initial response wasn't unreasonable, and the validation was unanimous. still, i'm saddened, and it helps to hear again that it wasn't for nothing.
"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?" ~lani ka'ahumanu
www.walkingthewalls.blogspot.com
"dragon knows dragon
something I actually feel like I have the energy to engage in, without saying something I might regret, something that begins with the words: "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Just wanted to say: Sorry, mamaneen. That is a lame thing to do, and I'm glad your rl friends were unanimous in their response/support. Bah. It still sucks, though. Sending you good thoughts. VP
hipmama support is the next best thing to rl support, and i'm glad to have both. it's helping.
"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?" ~lani ka'ahumanu
www.walkingthewalls.blogspot.com
"dragon knows dragon
if you move to canada, you can come visit me! although we're not safe up here either, harper has done nothing, (as far as i know) to protest this. which sounds like him - he's got no damn balls when it comes to standing up to bush and his lackeys.
i as well feel very nauseous!
i may take you up on that, though i hope i'm just visiting and not fleeing. we're thinking canada because we already have family of affinity folks up your way, and it's more accessible to family/friends in the states if they need to take refuge with us than other countries we have kin in {england, france}.
"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?" ~lani ka'ahumanu
www.walkingthewalls.blogspot.com
"dragon knows dragon
Sounds like the relationship had passed into contentiousness. Good for you to keep your principles.
***the United States is one of only four out of 168 countries studied to not have some form of paid family leave for new moms. We join Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, and Lesotho in not having that policy in place. ***
I would have a hard time staying with someone I didn't share political views with. Like too many americans, my partner was snowed by Colin Powell in the lead up to the war (I think Colin Powell was lied to also, but whatever) and we had many rows over going into Iraq, even though he is a "liberal". Luckily, he came around pretty quickly on that one.
Sunflower the unflower
Sunflower the unflower
I knew about powells military record so I figured he was all up in it, but I held out hope for rice for a looooong time. I wanted so badly to believe she was a dupe who meant well and was being used.
Then I found out she had an oil tanker named after her!! You know how evil and mercenary you gotta be to get those kinds of props, right.
Sad and scary.
Thanks for the post.
the constitutional professor kept on referring to the "national yawn" in response to this.
Sunflower the unflower
I'm not saying I condone this legislation; I really don't know what I think about it because I don't feel I have all of the information I need to form an intelligent opinion about it. However, do you really believe President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld desire in their hearts to just nab people left and right for absolutely no reason and detain them? Now, I know these guys aren't perfect, but are we really going to compare them to dictators? Is that a fair comparison, or do you think it could possibly be a bit dramatic? Is it possible that they truly want to protect the citizens of this country from terrorists, but maybe they are going about it in the wrong way? I don't know, but I'm just trying to put this into perspective.
i too dont know a lot about it, but from what i can tell, they dont need them to be an actual threat to the country. they can take anyone for any reason and use this against them saying that its for the countrys good. its totally creepy, and not really surprising for bush to do this.
But do honestly think they would?(take anyone for any reason) Are they really inherently evil, or just bad or misguided, unwise, etc.? Are they evil or do you just disagree with their policies?
i t hink they would. i dont think they're just going to yank some people from the street and throw them in the slammer (or whatever) just for kicks, but i do think that if they've got someone that is causing shit that they cant control, they've got the law on their side to do what they wish. i dont know a lot about them, but i think they're evil.
So you say, "I don't know a lot about them, but I think they're evil." I'm sorry, maybe I was mislead when I joined this blog, but I thought I was joining a group of people who were able to not judge others by atributing characteristics to them they don't really know were there or not. Do you really KNOW that every person in the government is evil? Have you not lived a relatively comfortable life in a priviledged country, partly due to the protection and convenience you enjoy simply by being born here? I cannot understand how you can make a blanket statement about our government being evil when you really don't know all of the people governing our nation or what kinds of pressures they are faced with on a daily basis. And if you want to check out some really corrupt governments of countries where people are actually SUFFERING, check out some African governments, where the leaders keep aid money that was meant for their starving/dying people because they want their own lives to be comfortable. I don't think ANY government is perfect; there is always something we don't agree with, or don't understand, or don't know about. But I am tired of hearing about how horrible our government is when there are people in other parts of the world who are truly suffering because of government corruption.
like maybe the author of this book http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-Combatant-Imprisonment-Guantanamo-Kandahar/d... or possibly all those children left behind?
"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?" ~lani ka'ahumanu
www.walkingthewalls.blogspot.com
"dragon knows dragon
Are you suffering? What have you done lately to help someone who is actually suffering? Like dying of aids because their government won't pay for their medication.
Again, what have YOU done? Are YOU suffering? Are YOU helping the suffering. Let's stop bitching and DO SOMETHING for someone else.
Specifically?
~*Now with more fist*~
~*Now with more fist*~
Just writing about these topics here is DOING SOMETHING. Bringing attention to the problem, reaching a wide audience. We often have over a thousand guests online at any given time. We are all doing something.
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maybe educate yourself on current politics and the state of america, from a source other than fox news, and get back to us.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." - Nietzsche