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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

A New Democracy under Bush

Imagine what could happen when a high Al Qaeda official gets arrested under the The Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the evidence against him is strong. He sues the government. The Supreme Court rules the law unconstitutonal, and the terrorist is freed with apologies for trampling on his rights. Will Americans even have to pay punitive damages to the man? Will we have to cover the expense for sending him back home to fight another day?

Passing a law that will assuredly be overturned by the Supreme Court-- if, that is the Supreme Court can legally review this "law"-- is endangering our security. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 meets all the criteria of vagueness and trampling of rights that the Supreme Court has invalidated in the past.

More frightening is the assertion in the "law" that no court can consider its legality. Bush and the Republicans are trying to redefine The Constitution of the United States.

In my last post I generously did not say that Bush would trample on the rights of others. I fear that I must have been overly generous in not naming him a potential abuser of human rights. His response in having the lawyer Lt. Commander Charles Swift forced into retirement, after his having any press member that criticizes him fired as he did to the coherts of Dan Rather, after his denunciation of anyone who dares criticize him as anti-American, I now believe the man to be a severely dangerous threat to American Democracy and to The Constitution of the United States. The Separation of Powers in our Constitution and the Freedom of Speech Americans once enjoyed are key factors in preserving Democracy. Bush tramples both. I do hope for the sake of all bloggers and editorialists that the The Military Commissions Act of 2006 doesn't become Bush's weapon to stop the criticism that he so abhors. He is potentially more scary than McCarthy ever was.

1 comment:

Nelly Nandes said...

Pretty interesting post. I wasn't even aware of such a law. Cool blog too, good read.