If there are any Americans out there who still have the illusion that they live in a "free country" then they obviously have their heads buried in the political sand. I cannot let the month close out without making another attempt to inform others that America officially died on October 17th. That's when President George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which did away with Habeas Corpus. Forget the fact that this is entirely unconstitutional and thus illegal, but now Bush has set into motion his own dictatorship.
It is now "legal" for him or his appointees to secretly arrest any American citizen, try them in a military tribunal instead of a civil court of law, place a death sentence on them with only hearsay evidence and execute them without the due process of appeal.
It is now possible for anyone branded as unpatriotic, a potential enemy of the state, or "unlawful enemy combatants" to face a Gitmo type of future. Don't forget that Halliburton is busy building detention (read "concentration"?) camps/centers/facilities allegedly for temporarily holding illegal aliens waiting to be deported. I'm sure there will be plenty of room for some good ol' Americans, too. Please, consider watching each of these two videos fully to get the whole message. Keith Olbermann's special commentary may well go down in broadcast history as being one of the most moving and sane pleas for the American public to wake up... if it's not too late already.
Bonez George W. Bush Military Commissions Act Habeas Corpus Unconstitutional Politics Illegal Aliens Dictator Halliburton Gitmo Due Process Freedom Americans Keith Olbermann MSNBC
7 comments:
Keith Olbermann will be remembered in the future as being the last anchor in the mainstream media who continued to speak truth to power and dared to stick his neck out whilst all around him were simply shutting up and falling into line. America should cherish him. He is the last of his kind here in the USA.
Americans have been dummied down so much by the public schools and the governmental control that they no longer understand the dangers that are coming to reality all around them. It is ridiculous that there hasn't been more of a public outcry about this or about the other illegal actions and laws Bush and his cronies have enacted. I am serious when I say that this President has wormed his way through the laws of this country to a point that he has more power and authority than any other President in our history. The power to change laws and trample the Constitution with immunity and set himself up to lord over the American citizens like never before. He must be stopped and Americans must take back the reigns of government and make it what it was always meant to be. A government FOR the PEOPLE BY the PEOPLE. Our elected officials are PUBLIC SERVANTS not MASTERS. Wake up, America! Damn it, please wake up before we become a footnote in History that marked the abolishment of Freedom, the Facism of America and the Fall of the Democratic government we once were so proud of.
Tony,
There isn't a public outcry because it is a non issue for 99.999 % of the American people. They didn't suspend Habeas Corpus out right, so unless you plan to become an enemy combatant any time soon you have nothing to worry about. This sky is falling nonsense that Oberman is spreading is ridiculous.
Jon,
It's a non-issue for most of the American people because their media has not alerted them to the drastic elimination of their fundamental rights as free citizens of a democratic state. The law clearly and unequivocally gives the president the power to name any US citizen as an enemy combatant. From that moment onwards, the citizen in question has lost all rights to a fair trial and can be imprisoned indefinitely. Check the small print of the act and you'll see I'm right.
Basically, you have a president who is now saying to you and all the other American citizens: "If we arrest you, you will no longer be allowed to know the charges and to challenge us on those charges (prosecuting evidence can be kept secret), and you have no right to a trial by civilian jury to prove your innocence."
I don't know about you but I always found it reassuring to know that the law had been designed so that it was always on your side, i.e. you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law where charges need to be backed up by facts that we are all allowed to consider. This is a fundamental right in a truly democratic and free state. This right has now been effectively eliminated, and all it takes is for the president to say "I think you are an enemy combatant." That's it. Nothing else.
A good constitution is supposed to protect the people from an executive run amok because history shows us that the more power an executive acquires, the more it will abuse its power in order to retain it. It doesn't matter which politicians you have at the top; left-wing, right-wing, greens, independents, the more power they acquire, the more corrupt they will become.
It's all about checks and balances. These 2 things are fundamental aspects of a correctly functioning democratic nation state. Take them away and you're left with a tyranny.
This is the kind of legislation that you would associate with the dictatorships that we have all studied in our history classes.
Remember, Hitler did not come to power through a military coup. He did it by manipulating his parliament and the population by using the fear of an imaginary enemy.
It was his parliament that passed his Enabling Act in 1933 giving him unheard-of powers to arrest and throw in jail the people who criticized him.
You don't need me to remind you what happened to German society in the years following the passing of this act.
One more thing:
The bitter irony of the whole situation is that our troops are over there in Iraq and Afghanistan getting killed and maimed fighting to protect our freedoms, whilst the Commander in Chief who sent them out there in the first place, is actively eliminating those very freedoms they're fighting for.
Everyone has an opinion and all are welcome at Bonez. I, however, find it interesting that anyone can blindly, on faith, accept the changes of Habeas Corpus, the Patriot Act, the abuse of Posse Comitatus Act, refusal to comply with the Geneva Convention, and disregard to the International Court of Justice, and many more changes without at least questioning the potential future abuses of those changes. How can Bush's Administration be trusted not to use the changes against the American people when he's already abused his power and authority and lied to get his way from the beginning? Isn't it more prudent to be questioning and bringing our government to an accounting than to sit back and smuggly say, "No big deal because they won't use it against Americans."? Against Americans or not... what will prevent someone in the future from deciding that it is not okay to be of some religious preference, or gay, or Hispanic or... anything... and there would be no defense or protest or trial or charges. The misused military can kick in any door, drag a person out of their home and incarcerate and even kill them without just cause. What makes US any different then from the very tyrants we claim to be defending against and abhor their human rights abuses?
Is there any wonder that Borat calls him "Premier George Walter Bush"?
Truly frightening. What's more frightening is that the majority of the county is completely oblivious.
Thanks for highlighting it. And glad you like my Cyberia blog!
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