Scary Thought

RazorMouth.com - Cutting-edge Christianity ^ | 9/04/02 | Joel Miller

[chunjay]

Wednesday, September 04, 2002 Scary Thought Joel Miller | Ready to go to jail for thinking the wrong ideas?

------------------- God bless Nat Hentoff—if only most conservatives cared half as much about traditional American liberties as this "liberal." His recent Village Voice column is a perfect case in point. It should make you worry:

Under the Justice Department's new definition of "enemy combatant"—which won the enthusiastic approval of the president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld—anyone defined as an "enemy combatant," very much including American citizens, can be held indefinitely by the government, without charges, a hearing, or a lawyer. In short, incommunicado. Guess we forgot about that whole Fifth Amendment thing. …

And the first one, too, according to a recent Associated Press story. Ready to wet your pants? "Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept. 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees, according to a new poll."

Pollsters "found that 48 percent of respondents agreed the government should have the freedom to monitor religious groups in the interest of national security—even if that means infringing upon the religious freedom of the group's members." The survey also found a big drop in the number of folks who think the press should be free to criticize U.S. military and its actions. "Fifty-seven percent were supportive this year, compared to 69 percent in 2001."

This brings me to my scary thought for the day: (1) So-called "enemy combatants" can be held indefinitely. (2) A bigger hunk of the American people do not want to allow the press to criticize military actions—from criticizing the good guys to supporting the bad guys is a short leap in the mind of many. (3) And the scary thought? Jailing journalists (like Hentoff) because they are not supportive of the various incarnations of the war on terror. Scary thought corollary: Jailing preachers who are not supportive. If you think they're all covered by the First Amendment, realize that could be a temporary reality.

Scary? Yes indeed.

http://www.razormouth.com/cgi-local/npublisher/viewnews.cgi?category=all&id=1031132855

Also check out: http://www.enjoyinggod.org and http://www.chunjay.com

[Ken522]

This is not to sound critical, but Henhoff and crowd seem to be afraid of their own shadows!

[Ken522]

Sorry, Henthoff, bad spell checker!

[tet68]

Funny, they can get so worked up about the 1st amendment but
support for the 2nd just gets a yawn.
I guess it's ok to try and reinterpret that one. huh?
Liberals, spit!

[Cultural Jihad]

Almost as scary as sitting in a building at work or at post when a plane comes along and slams into it. Get back to us when journalists and preachers are rounded up, okay? What does "cutting edge Christianity" say about the sufficiency of each day's evil?

Matthew 6:34 "Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof."

[Amelia]

I don't think I'd be complaining too much at this point, if the govt. were to round up a few mullahs & imams. I'm sure there are some good ones out there, but I'm equally sure there are some crazy ones bent on the destruction of our way of life.

[#3Fan]

This is a suspension of Habeas Corpus situation, isn't it. The enemies of the United States have invaded our shores on false pretenses to kill Americans in a warlike manner. Certainly the public safety is at stake with these enemy foreign agents and so the Constitution does make provisions for the suspension of habeas corpus.

[riley1992]

"Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept. 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees, according to a new poll."

This should bother the hell out of you, irrespective of the Second Amendment. Why doesn't it? Simply because it was 'reported' here by a liberal?

[nopardons]

Nat is still a HUGE far lefty , who never cared much for the Constitution, the BOR, or America. What is really SCAREY , is people, like you, who fall for this drivel !

[DWPittelli]

Under the Justice Department's new definition... anyone defined as an "enemy combatant," very much including American citizens, can be held indefinitely by the government, without charges, a hearing, or a lawyer.

The notion that enemy combatants can be held in this way is also now known as "Prisoner of War" or POW status. No doubt this dangerously novel concept was invented by John Ashcroft for purely arbitrary reasons in this so-called "war" which is really a figment of Ashcroft, Cheney and Rumsfeld's imagination and planning, and doncha know it, in league with the Mossad and Big Oil!!!

[Restorer]

Pretty much exactly the same thing has been done in all previous American wars. American citizenship does not shield a person captured on the field of battle as an illegal combatant.

Technically, in strict compliance with the Geneva Convention, illegal combatants can be summarily executed, as in the famous but normally misinterpreted photo of the South Vietnames police chief executing an illegal combatant.

[LogicWings]

I have to say that I grow increasingly uncomfortable with the progress of our 'Homeland Defense.' Why do we need an office of Homeland Defense when the first purpose of our Federal Government is Homeland Defense? This strikes me as fundamental. The only reason we think this way is because the Federal Gov is so involved with things that don't concern it, to the detriment of those things it should.

The unlimited access to emails, phone conversations and all the rest by the law enforcement agencies isn't justified by the threat. A year later and not another successful attack. How long will it be before we realize that was a fluke because we were refusing to face the threat. You might be able to sock me from behind once but not a second time.

Instead of creating a new office of Homeland Security how about taking the money spent on foodstamps and welfare and all the rest of the socialist garbage and put it into the present law enforcement agencies and close the borders, deport all illegal aliens and others whose visas have lapsed and put the troops on the borders? If our own troops can't guard our own borders then what do they exist for? Mexican Federales regularly stage incursions into this country and fire upon local law enforcement. The situation is utterly absurd.

The threat doesn't come from American citizens but from those from outside this nation. Therefore those people should be restricted from entry, examined if they are already here, and deported if there is any doubt. It is time to demand that political correctness be refuted, rejected and overthrown.

If the First Amendment is abandoned, then who is going to stand for those that remain? Like a broken clock, even liberals are right twice a day. The Federal Gov shouldn't be investigating its own citizens in the fight against foreign terrorism. It should be investigating foreigners.

And if they don't like it, they can go back where they came from.

[Cultural Jihad]

[justshe]

****Nat is still a HUGE far lefty , who never cared much for the Constitution, the BOR, or America. What is really SCAREY , is people, like you, who fall for this drivel !****

AMEN! I can't stand this smarmy little worm. He uses bile instead of ink for most of his drivel.

[Tall_Texan]

These Chicken Littles seem to forget about Japanese interment camps in WWII, blackouts, rationing, monitoring of people of German, Italian and Japanese descent...

None of this is new folks. These are the sort of things that come about in a time of WAR and are then rescinded when the war is over or the perceived threat has been vanquished.

Granted, I'd feel a little more uneasy if the *last* administration were still in power, their wont to disregard the law already thoroughly established. My greatest fear is a Democrat in the White House again in 2004 or 2008.

If you think the Constitution is taking a beating now, go back and read what restrictions Americans were under in WWI and WWII. This really isn't anything new.

[A CA Guy]

Wake up, we are at war.

[realpatriot71]

This really isn't anything new.

So because it's not new, it's ok? Crazy talk . . .

[ladyinred]

Where was this liberal when Clinton and Reno sent out that memo to police depts and the FBI after the OKC bombing saying that right wingers were dangerous and should be considered terrorists? Where was that liberal when Clinton said that people who believed in the book of Revelation in the Bible were potential terrorists? Don't even get me started on Waco.

Seems to me that this is a bit of overkill. Perhaps it would be nice if the media used common sense in it's reporting of the war on terrorism and didn't appear to gleefully attempt to undermine the security of our troops by reporting leaks about the military plans that should be kept a secret. Perhaps they should consider how demoralizing their reporting is when they blame America first and accuse the troops of deliberately targeting civilians etc.
I would suggest that if the media didn't have an agenda that is political in nature, and just reported the facts with no spin , then the first amendment would never be in danger of being undermined. (Don't yell fire in a crowded theater for instance)
This is more liberal spin, and this article would not be, and was not written when Clinton was saying and doing the very thing this author is accusing Bush and Rummy of doing.

[ladyinred]

Why do we need an office of Homeland Defense when the first purpose of our Federal Government is Homeland Defense?

If you will recall, the Homeland Defense was created to coordinate the various agencies to work together. Unfortunately, they were not doing that before Sept 11th. The administration has stated that they well know, and take seriously the fact that their most important duty is to provide for the common defense. The things that trouble you have always been done, they are not new at all.

[ladyinred]

When the American citizen is one like Johnny Jihad, then it certainly does become necessary for him to be held.
I would assume from your comments concerning oil that you are a bicycle rider who does not own a SUV?