On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 9:14 PM, Judah wrote: > I believe that Maureen said she'd stay here "until she's hauled off to > Gitmo" for helping people think. Which I took to mean, its not there yet but > sure does look like its heading that direction, *insert diety here* hope we > don't get there. And I don't think we are there yet. But I'd agree that the > omens don't look good. A contraversial statement, to be sure, but one that I > think has supporting data
> Anyway, this is overly long, but my point is that there are plenty of > incidents to point to the scary erosion of personal liberty in the United > States and unless we do something about it, things will continue to go > south. The further consolidation of power into a unitary executive is a > dangerous trend. And yes, facism comes by a matter of degrees. So lets be > vigilant. I don't see even the tiniest, remotest possibility of that happening in the US. Here are a few thoughts: - The War on Drugs is a waste of time, money, and resources, but no one has ever ended up in Gitmo because of it, and everyone prosecuted under it has had the same rights as every other criminal defendant in the United States. - Gitmo is in the process of being wound down, not ramped up to house more people. - Congress controls the levers on the Patriot Act and may well decide not to renew it next time it comes up. Personal liberties have always been more restricted during times of conflict. Part of the compact we make in a civil society is to allow our government, when necessary, to be a little more intrusive in our lives, if on balance that intrusion is deemed necessary to protect the country. Keep in mind that Republicans and Democrats alike have voted to keep warrant-less wiretaps and other measures in place after seeing how those measures have directly contributed to saving American lives. Should we be vigilant against attacks on personal liberty? Of course. We should also be vigilant against attacks on our country and our civilization, which is what we are facing from Al Qaeda. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:269626 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
