Sunday, June 22, 2008

Change You Can't Believe In

Remember the days when every Fourth of July Republican and Democratic politicians around the nation would take to the hustings and proclaim that they, more than their opponents, revered the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? That they would defend them to their dying day?

Times have changed. Some are noticing.

4 comments:

ross said...

From this list of legislative defeats, it looks like trying to lose the war on terror is becoming more and more unpopular.

Real Change, on the part of the Democrats in Washington, would be for them to show solidarity against this enemy (al Qaeda, not Bush), hold their noses, and at least pretend to support this effort. Or at the very least, to step aside and let the President succeed or fail on his own.

Trying to criminalize the prosecution of this war, down to wrapping our Constitution around enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield, just prolongs the war and invigorates the enemy.

Anonymous said...

I did a Blue Dog plate for you.

Ross, you support and defend the Constitution, or you resign from public office.

People seized on the battlefield are called prisoners of war, and treated accordingly. You can ask John McCain what it's like when that doesn't happen.

According to sworn testimony, the phones started this program in the Spring of 2001. It was not a reaction to 9/11.

ross said...

"According to sworn testimony, the phones started this program in the Spring of 2001. It was not a reaction to 9/11."

Yeah I seem to remember that. What was it about, I mean, was it something to do with intelligence gathering in an anti-terrorism sense or was it about spying on grandma back then?

ross said...

"People seized on the battlefield are called prisoners of war"

That is a correct statement for conventional warfare like McCain was in. By conventional, I mean between uniformed armies from countries. Those captured are called prisoners of war.

What makes those saps at Club Gitmo 'enemy combatants' is that they are not a uniformed army or part of any single country, that have declared war and have been fighting it for decades. That classification was supported by the Supremes awhile back.

The recent granting of Constitutional protections is something else. A mistake imho.