United States of the American Dictatorship?

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Ming


20 % Green....



What the heck are you smoking... can I have some too.

Well if we had a parliament, voting for the Green party would actually do something, so people would vote for them more often.

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus


My source is the Australian media after September 11. No-one has mentioned the issue since.

Might that suggest that the people have been released? Or that the Australian media was incorrect?

[GeneralTacticus]

Might that suggest that the people have been released?

Possible, but I wouldn't assume that, considering that I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.

Or that the Australian media was incorrect?

Again, possible, but if it hadn't actually happened, you'd thinkBush & Co. would be strongly denying it, to avoid the negative PR effect among Muslisms and people who value civil liberties, wouldn't you?

[Sava]

I think Mel Gibson said it best in "The Patriot"

"Why trade 1 tyrant that's 3000 miles away for 3000 tyrants that are 1 mile away..."

[Jaguar]

I think that a lack of media coverage on an event means that it isn't contraversial. In the case of this news item, releasing the suspects a few days later is non-contraversial. Therefore, I believe the media would not report the release of the suspects. However, if the suspects were still jailed, the media would report it. Since we have heard nothing about it since the alleged arrests, I would assume that the people were released a few days later.

[Sava]

there was another thread where we determined that there are only about 13% Republicans and 15 % dems based upon the stats from the last Presidential election.

[GeneralTacticus]

As I recall, what was reported was that they had been arrested without charges, detained without a trial, and not released for as long as it actually appeared in the media. Considering that, I'd imagine that there would have been some coverage if they'd been released.

[Jaguar]

Not necessarily. The media doesn't like to admit it when it's wrong.

[GeneralTacticus]

Eh? Them being released wouldn't have proved the media wrong, unless it had said they weren't going to be released at all, which it didn't.

[Ming]

When they do print a retraction, it appears on page 50, in small type

[Sava]

The US is becoming a Police State (if it isn't already), but Ming's right... each bum at the top is gone in 4 years. You could argue that its just a revolving door... but the President's powers aren't nearly strong enough to be put in the "dictatorship" category. For instance, Bush couldn't come to my house and make me do push-ups... but if Saddam yells "drop and give me 20"... you can bet the Iraqis will do it.

[GeneralTacticus]

But it wouldn't have been a retraction, it would have been an update.

[Jaguar]

Oh I was thinking about the possibility of them being wrong. If they were wrong about the people being jailed, you wouldn't hear about it.


If they were right, and the people were still locked up, we would. I'll draw an analogy: When Trent Lott first said the "all these problems" quote, the media criticized him a little, but it did not dominate the news. After each of his "apologies" in which he basically stood by the statement, the story was reported on more and more. The same would happen in the case of the allegedly locked up people. The media wouldn't care if they were released in a few days. But for each day they were kept, the media would make it into a bigger issue. However, it has not. Thus you can draw the conclusion that they haven't been kept.

[GeneralTacticus]

Well, look at Camp X-Ray - they've been holding people there since last year, but you hardly ever hear about it. Doesn't mean they're not still there.

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by Sava
I think Mel Gibson said it best in "The Patriot"

"Why trade 1 tyrant that's 3000 miles away for 3000 tyrants that are 1 mile away..."

well, the power would be shared among 3000 tyrants, making each individual tyrant less powerful, and they would only be a mile away, making them much easier to kill if they pissed you off
Go second amendment!

Kman

So you call it common sense to lock up people based on their ethnicity/religion/whatever, with no charges being brought against them an dno indication whatsoever of what's happened to them, or even that they still exist? I'd have thought America was beyond that stage by now, and the fact that the media doesn't seem to mention them at all is rather disturbing...

well, the people were detained for fear that they were terrorists or had connections to terrorists with other plots such as the 9/11 one. If even one of those 1000 people would have had a plot half as deadly, it would make detaining those 1000 people more than justified. If you think differently, then i would like to see you explain your thoughts to one of the families of these hypothetical victims.

And had the US not detained them, and one of them had done a terrorist attack, you know what would happen? Everyone would be asking why the government did nothing to stop them if they knew that person posed a terroist threat. And then they would have all those Congressional inquaries and investigations and stuff like what they are going for the 9/11 attacks.

And beyond what stage are you refering? After 9/11, our nation felt vulnerable and cornered, and we are doing as much as we can to protect ourselves. It is very unfortunate for those who were detained wrongly, but if they had nothing to hide, then they should have nothing to fear and have been released (one such man is a arab docter in my area. it recieved much coverage when he was forcefully detained a few days following 9/11, but when he was released it got little more than a tiny article in the deep recesses of the local newspaper). As the government doesnt target muslims or arabs because they hate muslims or arabs or something ludicrous like that, if that is what you are inferring. Those who were detained were not done so just becasue they were from a specific group, they were all just suspect of having connections with terroism. Nothing racist or prejudiced about it. If that were the case, a whole lot more than 1000 would have been detained.

Im sure your country, or any other country would do the same, if not to a higher degree, if they had similar experiences as the US.

Kman