Monday, February 18, 2013

A Different Sort of "Obesity" Problem

Trey Smith

Prosecutors always expand laws far beyond their intent. Attorneys in civil cases do the same. For example, the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was passed in order to make it easier for the government to convict members of the Mafia. However, the law, despite its intent, was quickly expanded by prosecutors and attorneys and used in cases against pro-life activists, Catholic bishops, corporations accused of hiring illegal immigrants, and in divorce cases. “Junk bond king” Michael Milken, a person with no ties to organized crime, was threatened with indictment under the RICO Act. Prosecutors have found that the asset freeze provision in the Act is a convenient way to prevent a defendant from being able to pay attorneys and, therefore, makes it easier for prosecutors to coerce innocent defendants into a guilty plea.

We are now witnessing the expansion of Obama’s Kill List. The list began under the Bush regime as a rationale for murdering suspect citizens of countries with which the US was not at war. The Obama regime expanded the scope of the list to include the execution, without due process of law, of US citizens accused, without evidence presented in court, of association with terrorism. The list quickly expanded to include the American teen-age son of a cleric accused of preaching jihad against the West. The son’s “association” with terrorism apparently was his blood relationship to his father.

As Glenn Greenwald recently wrote, the power of government to imprison and to murder its citizens without due process of law is the certain mark of dictatorship. Dictatorship is government unconstrained by law. On February 10 the Wall Street Journal revealed that the Obama dictatorship now intends to expand the Kill List to include those accused of acting against foreign governments.
~ from Obama's Ever Expanding Kill List by Paul Craig Roberts ~
For all of you out there who think that the President's secret kill list is a-okay because it will be used solely to whack off swarthy terrorist, you need to read this column by Dr. Roberts. As he aptly points out, law expands. It often starts out with a very narrow focus only to become a giant net that swoops up the guilty, marginally guilty and the innocent.

It's really not that much unlike the huge drift nets that commercial trawlers utilize to catch fish out on the high seas. While the folks deploying these nets generally are targeting one kind or species of fish, almost any life form that happens to move into the net is entrapped as well.

Think about that the next you applaud the President for assembling a list of people to kill. Who knows what other "fish" will get caught in the snare!

1 comment:

  1. Obama has a "kill list" I feel a little skeptical.

    ReplyDelete

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