NY Times

"The Bush administration argues that judges should have essentially no role in reviewing its decisions on handling terror suspects"

So .. who decides who a terror suspect is ? Why, the same people who advocate torture during interrogation, naturally.

How many repubicans will disappear before Joe dimwit realizes he now lives in a police state ?

 

Associated Press today released an article on taxing of hybrids. Fed is afraid that with more hybrids on the road, they would not be collecting enough fed gas tax (18.4 cents/gal) to carry out their highway programs (15.4 cents/gal)...Report was on page 2 of the boston globe..

Frankly, (my personal opinion based on 30yrs of driving), here in MA, the fed highways are some of the worst maintained in the country. They should be paying me (us) for the car repairs. My wife has had her wheel align done 3 times over the past few months... Anybody else out there from MA, agree/disagree?

 

Didn't Clinton's white house staff steal a few thousand FBI files on private US citizens that they didn't like? I mean which is worse? An administration that at least goes on record with the Patriot act to gain access to such things, or an administration that just steals it outright?

As for federally funded highways, I just did 1900 miles from Phoenix to Boulder and back this weekend. The highways were awesome. Your problems must just be mis-spending of the federal money by your state. No surprises there - lots of states have problems with unwise spending of their federally allocated dollars.

 

Dallas has had a rash of highway work - both repairs and new construction. I can see a lot of pot holes on the East Coast because of the congestion.

 

I have no idea if your Clinton story is truth or fantasy, but this is not about comparing presidents.

Think about it for a moment: bush wants unrestrained powers to do whatever he wants to an individual, for however long he wants to. All he will have to do is deem you (yes, YOU) a terror threat. End game.

If you think this kind of abuse will only be directed at *others*, you are in for a nasty wakeup in a couple of years. The GOOD NEWS, however, is that you can take solace in the fact you brought it on yourself.

 

I read the cover story of Newseek with Sen McCain on the cover on the topic of Torture. It was an interesting read.

McCain's premise is while the US could outlaw torture, it will be broken on occasion, but only when there is a very good reason. Lincoln broke the Constitution during the Civil War, explaining if he didn't there would not be a Constution to save....FDR also broke laws during World War II, etc, etc...

I think EricGo's concern is the Reichstag's burning scenerio - broad-based emergency powers to deal with terrorists that include political opponents like it did in pre-**** Germany. That experience is exactly why German courts had to rule on allowing early elections, BTW.

As McCain sees it, if torture was outlawed, situations like Abu Giraub would not take place. However, if we had credible evidence al Queda was going to detonate a nuke in a major city, the use of torture very likely would be used. In such an instance, I doubt an interrogator would be punished for saving NYC.

This is an issue because it got out of hand. It was applied to way more than Osuma's top lieutant's (to them, I have a hard time sympathizing with them).

The war in Iraq is not the problem - it's the occupation. The resources for the occupation were underestimated and underplanned. It is embittering the Arab/Muslim world against the US.

I don't see he Bush administration using broad powers against terror suspects indefinitely - accountability is already being demanded.

 

Yes, Chuck has read me correctly.

How quickly people forget. First it was "Shussein has WMD!!"
Then it was "He is a monster ! He kills and tortures to keep his regime in power !!"

Course, if the US wants to torture and kill to protect it's pet regime -- well, that is quite all right. Because we are the GOOD GUYS (tm), and uhh .. uhh .. the Iraqis want us to !

I find the hypocrisy revolting, but the base reason to stop bush is our own skins.

 

Hi EricGo:

___Although I believe the US has made many large mistakes, comparing it to the likes of an Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein is foolish at best. Ever see a pre-emptive no-warning strike by the US the likes of the WTC unless we were really at War (WWII Japan/Germany)? Saddam would kill people on a whim and I am not even discussing his now deceased rape boys.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes