Posted on 06/16/2002 5:32:24 AM PDT by magnum opus dejure
Good old Osama. Yeah, he didn't deny any Americans their rights, did he?
Statistically insignificant. And I travel a lot for business. And I live near a major city. And I travel to the UK a lot for business, where we stay in a Marriot less than a block away from an Islamic Student Center in northern London. And I, given all that, probably have a greater risk of getting hit by a car this week than being injured or killed in a terrorist incident. Or, for that matter, being injured or killed in a raid from the BATF. Honestly, those who oppress me the most right now are the ones who run my homeowner's association.
It is MY personal opinion that we have many, many sleepers in this country: gangs, anarchists, enviro-whackos, leftists, Arabs (not all), non-Arab Muslims (not-all), Cinese Islamicists, Black Muslims. I believe that ALL of these groups have some members with ties to al Qaeda. No offense Miss M, but that sounds like what the conspiracy folks say. Is it possible? Yes. But I always go back to the fact that they just all want the same things - to bring down our country. Leaderless cells would be more likely. For some of them at least.
So You're a BushBot too
"Mr. Speaker, I support President Bush and voted for the authority and the money to carry out his responsibility to defend this country ..." --Ron Paul
You say Osama wasn't here then when that happened? Well, neither was GW Bush. He is the current leader who is in the unfortunate position of having to deal with these terrorists and I will do everything in my power to support his efforts to that end.
Fine. Dandy. However, I would like some process in place to deal with people in Padilla's situation. He has been accused of being a traitor by the government, however, nothing backing this assertion has been presented to Padilla's attorneys, or Padilla himself. Additionally, the government intends to hold him indefinitely without charging him. This man is an American-born citizen.
There needs to be SOME sort of process in place for an innocent man in this situation to challenge the government assertions. Habeas Corpus requires that the government charge him or release him, but the government says Habeas Corpus no longer applies. While the Constitution allows the President to suspend Habeas Corpus, it does not allow him to do so on a case-by-case basis, and I am not aware that he suspended it.
Do I give a crap about Padilla? No. What I am trying to get across is that if it can happen to him, it can happen to you and me. If you allow the government to hold people indefinitely without a charge, then we have become the Soviet Union. We cannot allow the government to hold people without some sort of checks and balances to allow innocent people to counter the charges. The present system worked for years, if we need a new system, fine. The Wall Street Journal had an excellent set of suggestions that would be acceptable to most anyone on Friday.
To quote a favorite President of mine: "Either you're with us or you're with the terrorists."
This is an inaccurate quote. He stated that "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror.". There is a distinction between being for terrorists versus a nation or person who may not be joining the fight against terror.
But that is besides the point: I think this is overly simplistic. One can be against terrorism and still question the manner in which American citizens are being treated during this war.
Fact: 3 Chinese Islamacists were arrested in Pakistan for terrorism.
Fact: both the anarchist and the radical environmental groups were hooked up on their web sites with the PLO and other Arab radical groups.
Fact: the radical Islamacist groups have been recruiting in prisons.
Fact: the radical Islamacist groups have been recruiting on college campuses.
Fact: For the last 10 years, the INS has not tracked any of these people.
Feel free to believe you have a small chance of being a victim. In a country the size of ours, I suppose that is true. However, I think that you will find that your chances of being harmed are greater than you currently think.
I actually hope I am wrong, since I have a family who travels and works in a Midwestern city.
If you think this is true, them we are all paving the way for tyranny. And this is not to say that Bush is a tyrant however, if we permit the government to do ANYTHING because we are at WAR, we might wake up one day and find ourselves in very ugly situation. When is it ok to make the call that the government is overstepping its bounds?
We are at war, I am well aware of that, but lets make sure we go after the right enemy. I will add that the claim that any disagreement with the Republican President might qualify someone as a leftist is ridiculous. We screamed when the liberals put party over principle when Clinton was president, we shouldn't go and do the same now.
p.s. LOL!
I do understand that during times of war, that some liberties are temporarily suspended. But we must remember that these men are just that, mere men. And a critical eye is something to always keep trained on our leaders.
Overall, I support what Bush is doing, but am filled with horror that some people are being smeared as traitors and not 'real conservatives' because their levels of acceptable are soemwhat different than mine.
Yet another Constitution trasher!
Has he been hanged?
I've never agreed with Hillary on a thing in my life....lol. That resolution authorized the use of military force to which I wholeheartedly agree. I don't however believed they authorized this administration to suspend the Constitution and constitutional rights of American citizens. If you will recall at the time Bush said all these new "rules" would NOT apply to American citizens.... did he not?
:-)
Disagreeing with your government is a far cry from claiming that your government is more to be feared than terrorists, which is exactly what sandmanbr is saying.
The pallida precedent might look attractive to a prosecutor with a weak case or some official who has decided to make you an enemy of the state..
I think he's probably a scumbag and I don't think the Bush administration would intentionally exploit this, but bush ain't gonna be there forever.
The thought of Mz. Krintoon or algor yelling "he's a terrorist" three times and then tossing people in jail makes me a little nervous.
I mean, it wasn't too long ago that we ridiculed Russia, China, Cuba, Iraq, etc for this kind of thing..
We don't need another reichstag and we don't need this precedent and this power falling into leftist hands.. Cause they see all of us as potential "terrorists" by virtue of our disdain for government and our allegiance to the 2A.
And the "thought police" make a appearance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.