[Jen]

Please throw some bones to the FReepathon

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[Eternal_Bear]

Yeah, let's only apply the Constitution when it is safe and convenient. All Power to the State! Trust Big Brother all the way.

[brat]

We need to call, fax and email the Critters and anyone else who will listen in support of Profiling. It's time to deal the death blow to PC. It's time we were all free of it. But to risk the lives of so many citizens just because someone's feelings might be hurt is just insane!

[billybudd]

If that scares you, get over it.

What scares me is the attitude of Jonah Goldberg and people like him. They do not view individual rights as limits within which government may exercise force, as principles which should be applied in all circumstances because of their nature. They view individual rights as a wad of cash, something which can be spent away when it is convenient (makes you wonder by what principles they measure convenience). Goldberg heartily approves of the interventionist regulatory State and condescendingly advises us to "get over it." This scares me.
Now, as for the substantive issue, Goldberg doesn't address the question of how we know Padilla is an al Qaeda operative. That is the heart of the matter. The is precisely the point of a trial - to determine the facts of a particular case. Yet Goldberg wishes to take the President's word for it that Padilla is a "bad guy", without a trial. Whether Padilla is indeed an al Qaeda operative is irrelevant - he most likely is. What is relevant is that if we accept the premise that we don't need the judiciary to determine the facts of a case, but only the President's word, then we have essentially vested Judicial power in the Executive, thus completing the total consolidation of government branches.