jhetley: (Default)
[personal profile] jhetley
In Re: Padilla

A reminder about detention without trial, for US citizens arrested on US soil, unarmed, without resistance:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6682846

Date: 2007-01-03 03:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wcg.livejournal.com
We do still have a Constitution Jim. We just need someone to enforce it. Like a chief executive and an attourney general.

Date: 2007-01-03 04:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jhetley.livejournal.com
Wasn't there something about the Constitution in that oath we took, way back when?

I don't want them to _enforce_ it, I want them to _obey_ it. Possibly to _defend_ it.

Date: 2007-01-03 05:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wcg.livejournal.com
Yeah, there's that whole bit about "support and defend" it. What complicates it is that there's also a part about obeying the orders of the President and lawfully appointed superiors. So if the President himself is doing something shaky it puts us military folk in a pickle. (It's noteworthy that the officer's version of the oath doesn't include the bit about the President, even though officers are commissioned by the President.)

I doubt anything is going to change in the next two years, but it'll be interesting to see how the next administration weasels out of prosecuting GWB and his minions. I'm under no illusion that they will be prosecuted. I just hope that the next administration returns to a policy of at least pretending to obey the law.

Date: 2007-01-03 10:46 pm (UTC)
ext_85396: (Default)
From: [identity profile] unixronin.livejournal.com
When Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard Milhouse Nixon, he did it because he believed it was in the best interest of the country. And at that time, I believe he was probably right.

However, I doubt very much that he intended to set a precedent or establish a tradition, which is what has now happened: It has now become routine for each outgoing President to pardon his predecessor, almost as a ceremonial formality, for any transgressions he may have committed. And so the situation has come about that the office of the President has no accountability, short of an actual blatantly-impeachable offense. Anything less will be forgiven when the reins of power are handed over. It's a delayed-action quid pro quo -- each incoming President pardons his predecessor, needed or not, in the expectation that he will be duly pardoned in turn by his successor for any indiscretions he might commit whiel in office.

It may have been the right thing to do in September 1974, but in 2006, it has become destructive of America and of the constitutional system of checks and balances upon American government. This new "tradition" needs to end, and end now.

Date: 2007-01-03 10:53 pm (UTC)
ext_85396: (Default)
From: [identity profile] unixronin.livejournal.com
"Absolutely we treated him humanely! We treated him so humanely he's now a mental basket-case who's probably incompetent to take care of himself, let alone stand trial for the dirty bomb plot ... uh, the apartment bomb plot ... um, that is, blowing up Russian soldiers in Chechnya ... uh, whatever it was we finally decide it's plausible that he might have been involved in... we'll think of something sooner or later. Honest. Trust us."

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