It was a nice experiment

[Pekka]

TheStinger, right. Only thing that's different mostly is regulations about guns and drugs between western nations.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Sava
I hate being right

You have nothing to worry about in that regard.

[Saint Marcus]

It's a bit of a myth that Holland is free. Sure you can smoke pot, but that's about it. I can do that as well.

yeah you can. and I can shoplift. there are a lot of illegal things you can do in any nation. If you use that as a criteria, Somalia must be one of the freest nations.

But if you talk about what's legal, we can do a lot more here than you can in Britain. For one, we have far more rights for gays than you, or any other nations, has.

[Ned]

The article itself states that the matter of designation as being an "enemy" combatant is now being reviewed by the courts, and may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

What I think will happen is that the an accused citizen will have the right to have his designation reviewed by the courts. Once, however, his designation has been approved, the Courts have already decided that these special tribunals are legal. The article cites two WWII decisions by the Supreme Court, one concering a Nazi sabateur who was also a US citizen.

Well, we survived the Roosevelt administration and his reign of terror on our civil rights. I think we can survive Bush's.

BTW, Lincoln also suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War. I believe he even ignored a Supreme Court holding that this was unconstitutional.

[Liberal rant]

Another Republican tyrant that brought infinite ruin to our nation's liberties!

Republican and Democrat scum - Lincoln and Roosevelt.

And now Bush!, following in the trail those two tyrants blazed into the swamps of tyranny!

OH MY GOD! The world is coming to an end.

[/Liberal Rant]

[DinoDoc]

What's going to be interesting is if several lawsuits steming from this, if it comes to pass, pop up in different Circuits with different verdicts because I can guarantee you that the Supremes would rather avoid this issue if possible.

[DinoDoc]

On a side note, I'm suprised that che wasn't the one to start this thread.

[Ned]

Just a note. From my understanding, the combatant "crime" is being a combatant. He doesn't actually have to do anything else, as with most crimes.

Once he is a determined to be a combatant, I believe he should be held pending the termination of the war.

[Lonestar]

Whine whine whine.

"Probable terrorists should have due process, nuclear tests cause cancer."

Sheesh.

[Jules]

Originally posted by Sava
I hate being right... (BRING ON THE FLAMES REPUBLICANS)

Except that the Democrats are going along with all this. This isn't a partisan issue. It's about a government that no longer functions as intended.

If I could legally smoke pot, I'd probably forget about a lot of America's problems

And that's exactly the motive of the drug legalizers. Recall the function of soma in "Brave New World."

[Lonestar]

Hey now, I know for a fact Abe Lincoln would approve of this.

[Alex]

You think you're free? Ha! No one is free. Freedom is an utopic dream.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Azazel

oh, you poor slave. I pitty you, and all those hundreds of millions of americans who're being brutalized by the evil US regime... Where have the good ol' ways of the founding slavedrivers gone... Now just the other day, many american apolytoners were sent to the praries of alaska to mine deerdung, and the FBI went on patrolling the streets and taking people's money, to build an enormous statue of gold shaped like a penis.




Sometimes I am simply shocked by the feelings certain westner(Including Israelis) express. 'The end of the world is coming, blah blah'. Be it terror acts, the economy, or the americans living in their harsh despotic regime Note I am not saying that this law is a good thing, not at all. But saying things like

Wouldn't be correct even if the president would zombify the congress. Turn soldiers on any corner, and napalm broadway. So this is no more than farting in the wind and singing.

People, don't forget that you've got it VERY good. Most of the people in the planet don't have even nearly the freedoms that you do.

This really isn't that big of a deal. Bush and Ashcroft can proclaim whatever they want, but the Congress and especially the Supreme Court have traditionally been uppity about this little concept known as "separation of powers."

Padilla's case is so far a one-off, and apparently he's dirty as hell, because no civil rights types have wanted to touch him as a test case. Probably, flying from Pakistan to Chicago after meeting with some people to plan a bombing wasn't such a hot idea.

Once someone's detained within the US and designated an enemy combatant, things will be a bit different. Get a few people like that, and the judiciary won't give a fair damn that the executive branch has proclaimed it has sole jurisdiction.

The Bushies are relying on ex parte Quirin as legal precedent, but Quirin is based on a very narrow and specific set of facts.

Right now, this isn't much more than Bush and Ashcroft weenie wagging.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Jaakko
You don't have to worry at all Evil Knevil, all the detainees are terrorists. If they weren't, they wouldn't have been detained in the first place. Surely we can trust the Bush admin to act in our best interest for us.

I presume that is sarcasm

Anyway, it is a scary idea, and one that would be open to abuse with impunity and no questioning. It demonstrates to me that the new episodes of Star Wars are happening in reality

The rest of the world have observed the continual slide of the US 'freedom', few people outside the US have any illusions in it. At this rate, that constitution isn't going to be worth the paper it is written on...the clampdown tightens...

[Az]

The rest of the world have observed the continual slide of the US 'freedom', few people outside the US have any illusions in it. At this rate, that constitution isn't going to be worth the paper it is written on...the clampdown tightens...

what are you talking about? What freedoms exactly did americans lose?

[Provost Harrison]

*ahem* Patriot act *ahem*