Can he even do that? Does this, along with the rest of the article, scare the hell out of anybody else?
The debate: I think that Bush is taking this “War Against Terrorism” too far. He’s slowly turning our country into a police state - taking more and more rights away from everyday citizens like you and me. Where do we draw the line? When Congress passes a bill that allows wiretaps on “suspected terrorists” without the court’s approval? When you can’t speak out against anything the government does for fear of being arrested? How much of the Constitution are we, as a people, going to allow to be taken from us to fight this “war”? Is winning worth giving up everything we’re fighting for?
Word on the street here in DC says this particular EO was prompted because Bush has so many Reagan-era people in his lineup that literally dozens of them are vulnerable to…
Wait a minute. To what, exactly, are these people vulnerable?
Looks like we’ll never know, eh? Your good government at work.
I found it right below the text you had pasted here at the site you likned above. Do not post copyrighted material to this message board. This issue is covered explicitly in your registration agreement. Please review that document. As you can easily imagine, the owners of this message board, namely the Chicago Reader being a publisher, are strong advocates of copyright protections. Don’t do this again.
romanticide the boards script automatically puts spaces in long lines of text. The smaller sized link seems to work. Or you can just take one of the longer ones and delete the space in .h tml
Can Bush do that morally? No. Can he do it legally? Maybe. Did he do it? Certainly.
If I were an American citizen, I’d be terrified about this, personally. He or someone close to him needs to hide something, and needs it so badly that Bush is willing to risk bad press.
Here in Canada, we have enough trouble trying to deal with Bill C-36, which curtails so many civil liberties that even other members of the cabinet are questioning it.
Sloganeering, charismatic unelected leaders, jingoism, reduced freedom of speech, arrests without warrants, secrecy and strict information control. It gives me the chills.
Everyday, we step a little closer to fascism. Didn’t the West learn how dangerous that was the first time? Do we really think these things will improve our societies, after what they did to Italy, Spain, and Germany?
It’s as if democracy is no longer considered workable by the very people we elect. We’re losing the precious system that’s given us all that we enjoy, because of a blind a futile desire to protect those things in the short term.
You just stated what I was trying to say with my OP - but with eloquence. Thank you. I feel the exact same way.
Except, of course, for the Canadian Bill. I didn’t realize you Canadians were going through the same pains we are here in the states. Is it in response to the terrorist attacks?
Yeah it’s a pretty cruddy and apparently self-serving thing to do, but I’m not worried about it for two reasons:
Numerous people, including Republicans, are already pissed about this, and the longer it goes on the more pressure will be put on Bush to rescind the order until he finally acquiesces.
If he doesn’t rescind the order you can bet in 2004 the Democrats will bring this up at every turn when they seek a return to the Whitehouse. Unless the Dems put up a really crappy candidate they could get the presidency on this issue alone, assuming the terrorist situation doesn’t get wildly out of hand before then, and then they would be in the situation of having to rescind the order or look like hypocrites.
It does certainly appear that the reason Bush handed down this order is due to potentially damaging people in his administration and a few others, [wild speculation] his father perhaps?[/wild speculation]
Considering that he appointed John Negroponte as Ambassador to the UN, and is trying to appoint Otto Reich and Elliot Abrams into certain positions, I’m not surprised.
What’s next-Ollie North as Human Rights Coordinator?
Dave Stewart:I see no justification for this, at all. Where is the ACLU? Stop defending NAMBLA, and get your butts onto something more important.
You mean, like protesting the expansion of military tribunals, unconstitutional government eavesdropping, and the “court-stripping” effects of the Patriot Act? Yes, we have been awfully busy lately trying to protect basic civil liberties, and I’m sure this new executive order will soon be added to the docket too (in addition to the pending case on behalf of the First Amendment rights of NAMBLA and many other landmark civil liberties cases). Thanks so much for your support!