I hope you guys eventually come to the conclusion you’re both correct (sez the guy about to be flamed from both sides).
John’s right, the Feds moving in and trying this guy is not in the enumerated powers. He’s also right we’ve been violating this for at least 150 years. We can’t get back to where we should be if we keep taking steps away from the enumerated powers, toward tyranny.
Ron’s right, that train left the station a long time ago, and we have to work with the structure as it is today, which is: The Feds have made this an enumerated power, and because of that the state’s power is diminished, perhaps to the point that justice won’t be done on this guy. Trying him in a Federal court may be the only way he gets what’s coming to him (MA hasn’t had a death penalty since 1947).
Ok, please shoot past me if you must? Gracious.
So you probably have read about the recent Amish hate crimes involving Amish people from one sect driving across state lines to shear the hair of the beards of Amish from another sect.
The Federal prosecutor claimed successfully in court that because the scissors were made in one state, and travelled to another state and were bought by the defendants to commit a crime, that the crime was considering a Federal Crime under the Commerce Clause.
Here is a WhirledNutsDaily article on the subject:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/amish-prosecuted-because-scissors-crossed-state-lines/
According to this interpretation of the Commerce Clause, if any piece of that bomb, or any physical mode of transportation of the bombing materials, was made in a state other than Massachusetts, the bombing can be classified and prosecuted as a Federal Crime.
... we live in interesting times.
John makes some good points, and I can't say I disagree, but as you mentioned, that is not the world we live in today.
Any way you look at it, this is going to be another turning point in our Country and will carry a heavy weight on our future. Think about all of the soft targets that are out there for idiots like this to exploit....malls, parks, casinos, ad infinitum. This just exploited the soft underbelly of a free society.
I wish I had the answers, I surly do not. I don't really think there are any, I mean how do you defeat an ideology unless you utterly kill/destroy it? I don't see that happening.
I do hope though that we do not react in ways that diminish what this Country stands for and the opportunities we enjoy....I, unfortunately do not see that happening either.
I certainly took no pleasure yesterday in watching thousands of unarmed people being told to stay in their homes, defenseless, waiting for the almighty Government to protect and take care of them.
All the while they were subjected to mandatory, and not very nice searches of their homes.
Made me really sick.