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Good Bye Habeas Corpus...President and Congress Remove Your Most Important Right From The Constitution...and the Country Yawns
October 23, 2006
In all the turmoil of Iraq, Mark Foley and the mid-term elections, one of the most important changes to our rights as Americans was passed by the Congress recently. For all practical purposes, our right of Habeas Corpus was dramatically weakened...and in some cases, removed altogether. While the implications are enormous, the reaction by the nation...and the media...has been nothing short of a big yawn. Not since Franklin Roosevelt (yes, a Democrat) interned over a 100,000 innocent Japanese-Americans, has a national hysteria caused a President and a Congress to authorize such a breach of our national moral foundation and our most important rights as Americans. Based on this new law, any "enemy combatant," as defined exclusively by the President...can be held without being charged, without access to a lawyer and without seeing a judge, let alone access to a trial....these are the most basic rights of all Americans, but with this new law those rights may no longer exist. Don't be fooled by the term "enemy combatant"... yes, it does include potential terrorists, but it also includes anyone from a reporter to a protester to an opponent of this President...or the next President...any American can be labeled under this law and all rights as we now know them would not apply. If you don't believe me, just look at those jailed by Woodrow Wilson (yes, another Democrat...and this one is from New Jersey) for the crime of being a pacifist.
But, instead of me trying to convince you, it's important that you watch the following MSNBC report, along with this piece with Keith Olbermann that goes into much more detail on this...it features one a America's leading scholars on Constitutional law expressing his deep concern and strong opinions on this new law.
Posted by Michael Kempner at October 23, 2006 11:03 AM
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Comments
Hi Michael,
Thanks for bringing up a subject that few have focused on. What is more basic than the right of freedom of speech in America? Further to your blog, this report came out showing that the US has slipped in the rankings under the
pretext of 'national security.'
Regards, Leslie
Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006
North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea the worst violators of press freedom
France, the United States and Japan slip further Mauritania and Haiti gain much ground///
New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones.
“Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” the organisation said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. These situations are extremely serious and it is urgent that leaders of these countries accept criticism and stop routinely cracking down on the media so harshly.
Posted by: Leslie at October 25, 2006 09:47 AM
I'm very concerned about the fundamental changes taking place in our country. I came across an article called When is Constitution Day (http://www.fdrs.org/when_was_the_constitution_written.html) that goes beyond Habeas Corpus and torture, and links it all to this new North American Union we're hearing about.
Posted by: DS at December 6, 2006 01:53 PM
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