My friend Stephen took the time to write some very clear & concise thoughts on the recent ruling against the Bush administration’s “enemy combatant” policy regarding Gitmo detainees … particularly the concept of holding them for extend periods of time without clear charges.
My thoughts on the subject are bordering on the rantings of a libertarian nut …
Let’s get my concepts of “government” straight … I think it’s a necessary evil, but one that needs to be small and have a specific purpose. That pesky “constitution” thing (the one that the SCOTUS urged the president to re-read without the use of Cliff’s Notes) is a pretty good step in that direction, minus some weird addendums regarding income taxes (different rant for a different day).
Short version … the law should protect people equally against harm through force or fraud. That’s really it. No designation required between “assault” and “hate crime”, no need to write a different law based on someone’s sexual orientation and no going into to a Texas religious compound to “liberate” 400+ children without clear evidence for the foundation of a warrant (even if you don’t agree with their lifestyle).
Like a good sporting event, the rules should be simple and known to everyone at the start of the game. The concept of a “foul” doesn’t change between the 1st and 2nd half of a Celtics-Lakers game, so why should it change between 1789 and 2008? “The Rule of Law” means you set good laws in advance that apply to everyone, not try to go through the current ones with a magic marker when they’re too evenly applied.
Then there’s the money … detaining people in semi-secret on an island is expensive (just ask Patrick McGoohan). There’s housing, food, water and laundry service for hundreds of matching jumpsuits. That money isn’t exactly propping up the American economy, unless we’re training terror suspects to farm crops for biodiesel.
If you have a case against these “enemy combatants” then make it and stop spending my money to warehouse these people. If these were “bad people” in small terrorist cells, what good is it to put them all in the same facility and get them even more pissed off at the US of A? All you’re doing is allowing these so-called terrorists to network … congrats, Gitmo is the terrorist version of an Amway sales rep convention.
Making a commercial for a zombie presidential candidate started out as farce, but now I think it’s more social commentary than I ever intended it to be. Mitt Zombie might be my write-in candidate just out of protest of this nonsense.
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