Jeremiah

America is at a crisis state. The experiment of democracy is failing. I’m not being an alarmist, but I am unfortunately reactionary.

President Bush signed in two disturbing laws this month. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows the Presidency to suspend habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a court preceeding that determines the legitimacy of a prisoner’s custody. The concept is prevent meaningless imprisonment by an overreaching government. The concept was so important that it’s mentioned in the United States Constitution.

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. — Article One, section nine

While the bill targets illegal immigrants, it gives the Presidency the power to declare anyone, even American citizens, “enemy combatants”. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 has undone a Constitutional declaration and gives power to one person.

This should offend Americans and the rest of the world, since it allows violation of the Third Geneva Convention, an international agreement on the rules of humane treatment, under the guise of presidental “interpretation”.

Oh yeah… the bill also legalized torture tactics. America is better than this. Torture is not the high ground that we should be walking, especially when we are walking on other nations’ soil.

It Gets Worse

Why does America have two elected representational bodies? Answer: To represent the interests of all Americans that allow the government to exist and to prevent dictators / kings / tyrants.

The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 allows the Presidency to declare martial law (when the military temporarily replaces representational government) anytime, anywhere in the United States in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy. Our own military can now be used to control the people it was created to defend at the will of one person.

One person now defines what is an insurection, who is an enemy, and how all Americans are represented when those definitions are changed from their historical precedents.

Look What’s Going Down

I am having difficulty restraining my hypothetical thoughts. I didn’t want to share them because I want this entry to be informative and encourage people to get involved politically. At the same time, I feel a hypothetical scenario is relevant, even if it hurts my argument, because it’s entirely possible under these two laws.

Imagine if President Bush possessed the power to and declared martial law over the entire country on 9/11. Imagine if rescue services were suspended under a martial law curfew in order to keep the situation worse than it was in order to extend his moment of absolute control. Imagine if the would-be dissenting Congressmen were declared enemy combatants, jailed indefinitely, tortured, and then convicted in a private, military court.

Would you have wished you were more politically active now that you lacked control over your government and your life?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 11:44 and is tagged politics.