Yesterday's (9/19) vote in the US Senate fell four votes short of restoring habeas corpus. That is, the basic right to challenge government detention. Here is the record of the vote on the Cloture Motion to restore Habeas Corpus.
The US Constitution states this: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." Does anybody acually think that either of those situations apply today?
But we've actually undone more than just the US Constitution. And I use the term just with some reservation because I revere the US Constitution. The concept of habeas corpus was actually introduced in the Magna Carta, way back in the year 1215.
So, what this means is that the right wing assholes in the executive branch, coupled with the go-along pussies in congress, have managed to dismantle not only basic tenets of the US Consitution, but also the Magna Carta, the document that guided the framers of our Constitution.
We've not just regressed 200 years in civility, but almost 800 years.
When will this bullshit stop?
Thursday, September 20, 2007
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3 comments:
Typical. Sad to say but this has become typical of politics these days. One one hand you have the one party that is slowly coming to realize that its leadership has essentially dumped in the trash everything the party is supposed to stand for, while on the other hand you have the party that made such big noises about fixing things and they apparently don't have the courage of their supposed convictions. Sigh.
We don't need Democrats! We don't need Republicans! We need statesmen!
Time to bring out that old chestnut. We need statesmen who have read and understand the Constitution. We need statesmen who are willing to actually live up to the oath they take - to uphold the Constitution. We need statesmen who are committed to federalism. We need statesmen who have the gonads to roll back this country's political history, to roll back everything since FDR. I have never understood how an elected federal politician can justify worrying about what he can bring back to his/her state as much of the taxpayers dollars as he/she can possibly get there hands on when he/she has been elected to do the country's business. Let state governments lobby for federal dollars. Let states prove to the entire country that their projects are for the whole country's good. If they can't, they they fund them themselves.
Let the power rest with the states, not with the centralized, insular bordello we have now.
I I thought this might be worthy of your attention. I hope this is an appropriate place to put it. For me, like the issue of habeus corpus it addresses fundamental human rights poses the question, after 'five thousand years of empire; are you ready for a change?'
derF
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