Let me parse your rhetoric here:
"Because everyone else acts like 100% tyrannical despots, we can just be 20% tyrannical despots, no hurt, no foul." Someone else's morally wrong behavior does not give justification for lesser moral wrongs by anybody else. WE have opted to hold ourselves to a higher standard. The true test of Constitutional governance is not whether we can say "a man is innocent until proven guilty," but whether we can ACT on that belief in the most trying of times, when all we want to do is lash out against SOMEONE who looks like the enemy.
Deport illegal aliens? No problem. Deport legal immigrants that we have probable cause (i.e., hard evidence on that particular individual) to believe are involved in nefarious activity? No problem. Detain and deport everyone who goes to a mosque? BIG problem.
Suppose we had taken your standard and applied it in 1995, immediately after the Oklahoma City bombing. Would you have supported placing all "right-wing extremists" in "detention camps" for the duration of the "emergency?"
I must remind you that we are fighting a war to preserve both our nation and the ideals upon which it was founded. Punishing an entire group for the actions of a few runs completely contrary to both the letter of the Constitution and the intent the Founding Fathers had in drafting same.
Like your response, and it will in deed hone the fine edges of this post.
First of all, this thread has stretched out over a couple of days now, so those who join in late in the game, such as CT fail to read many earlier threads in context.
As a recap, the original thread,
Posted on 10/25/01 2:52 PM Pacific by FresnoDA
was posted after our government continued to bare down upon the rights of Citizens, while shunning direct confrontation with Illegal Aliens, Aliens in the USA on expired documents, Aliens in the USA on forged documents and Aliens in the USA on expired documents.
That WAS IT Poohbah. No rant to deport ALL PEOPLE OF COLOR OR ARAB DESCENT. EVERY POST has a few handgrenades that posters throw in. But I have never said DEPORT all!!
CT is having fun with some creative posting. The facts are that the INS, CUSTOMS department, etc. are moving at a snails pace addressing the aforementioned scenarios.
Where our Government has placed TREMENDOUS assets and energy is strangely at the feet of suspected Citizen Criminals. Grandma flying from LA to Memphis, passengers waking from a nap on a flight and taking an unauthorized pee, and violation the 30-minute pee your pants rule, suspicious acting Secret Service Agents packing heat, and refusing to submit to "albeit relaxed" rules and regulations for carrying a firearm on a plane.
These are the concerns many have, or at least I have with the position taken by the government. Now, we will limit/prevent Illegal Aliens from purchasing firearms.
Give me a break.
MARK MY WORDS Pooh, I believe that we will address the bombastic and offensive statements made in the October thread sooner than later. The Border Security in the USA is a sieve, and the focus continues to reject the necessary PROFILING used by law enforcement in all other situations which will work.
Middle Eastern Saudis were the predominant evil on 9-11. No rants of excuses or apologies will change that fact!!
But then again, David Schippers says that our government had significant prior knowledge, and the entire process could have been prevented. So what the heck, let's let the conspiracy theories roll