Trey Smith
As a follow-up to my post of earlier today on The National Defense Authorization Act, there is another aspect of this draconian bill that warrants a separate discussion. The problem with the impending presidential signing of this measure is that, once the US government decides to pick you up and throw away the key, what legal recourse will you have?
You can't argue that the government doesn't have any hard evidence...because they no longer are mandated to possess evidence of any kind. You won't be able to argue that your due process rights have been violated because this law specifically allows the government to violate due process. You can jump up and down demanding your day in court as much as you want, but the government is no longer required to charge you with any crime. If there are no charges, there is no reason for a court to be involved.
Your friends and family might wish to file a suit on your behalf IF it is made known that you've been picked up (all they may know is that you mysteriously disappeared), but this would probably be thrown out of court because they lack legal standing. You, of course, will have legal standing, but no way to access a civilian court! Remember, you'll be languishing at Guantanamo under military guard. Heck, you may not even have access to a lawyer.
And that, my friends, is WHY this new law is so dangerous and threatens the very fabric of freedom and democracy! Because of the typically over broad language in the law, the government basically can round up ANYONE they want to remove from the general population. All they have to do is label any of us a terrorist or that we nebulously support terrorism and we could be snatched up in the blink of an eye.
Am I worried that the government will start rounding up activists and average citizens left and right? No, at least not at the outset. What worries me far more is that the government has now equipped itself with a weapon to quell dissent of any kind. If the 99 percent believes there is a possibility -- even a remote one -- that the government will imprison citizens critical of the government or Corporate America, we will start censoring ourselves!! Who wants to take the chance of being ripped away from our loved ones and thrown in a hole or outright killed?
There have been a lot of evil things coming out of Washington, DC lately, but this takes the cake. Can you spell t-o-t-a-l-i-t-a-r-i-a-n-i-s-m?
But hey, we get to keep using incandescent bulbs.(added by Republicans to the bill)
ReplyDeleteI am with you Trey. Americans should be shocked at the continued erosion of our constitutional rights and protections. Seems George Orwell was quite prophetic.
Bruce
People always think it will never happen here. Hitler, Mousellini (sp?), Stalin, those were lesser countries, we've always stood for liberty and freedom, and always will. But this looks to me like the laying of groundwork for some future, maybe not far off, that I really don't like the looks of. This law is clearly unconstitutional, if what you're sying is true (I haven't researched it myself), but if you can't get to a court, you can't get it to the Supreme Court for overturning. Hmm... this is bad.
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