What's Past Is Prologue

Okay, so let’s talk about this picture, because it pisses me off. Well, a lot of things piss me off, but incorrect criticism of this president (whom I happen to like) piss me off greatly.

(So just so we’re clear, it’s President Obama standing on the Constitution, surrounded by torn up bits of money, while a working man is down on his luck while the rest of the presidents console him.)

Let’s cover ways in which some of those presidents superseded the Constitution:

George Washington rode out to western Pennsylvania with a full military to goad farmers into paying taxes on whiskey in the Whiskey Rebellion.

John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law (barring criticism of the government in print) and nearly got us into a war with France.

The crowning achievement of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the Louisiana Purchase, was so extra-constitutional the president himself (an advocate of a weaker executive) wasn’t even sure it was legal.

Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1861, fearing riots in Maryland would cause the state to secede from the Union. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Congress wouldn’t even approve of it until 1863.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (this one is a bit of a doozy) tried to pack the Supreme Court with friendly justices, he ran for an unprecedented third term (not technically unconstitutional, but eventually banned in the form of the 22nd Amendment), and he interned Japanese-American citizens by executive order at the start of World War II.

(These last two presidents are usually considered the greatest American presidents in history for handling the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II.)

Ronald Reagan, the Great Saint of the Republican Party, illegally sold weapons to Iran and then used the money to fund anti-communist contras in Nicaragua, also an illegal practice.

We could spend all night talking about the extra-constitutionality of most of George W. Bush’s tenure, from the USAPATRIOT Act to Guantanamo Bay to wiretapping American citizens to torturing prisoners to… well, you get the gist.

And what on earth did Barack Obama do? He… signed health care legislation into law that falls under the purview of the necessary and proper clause as well as the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Hardly the height of impropriety and presidential overreach.

*sigh* Here we go again.

1. Under the murky provisions of the USAPATRIOT Act and under the general auspices of a few executive orders, the United States government has already been detaining people in military prisons while neglecting their Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights (and, if we’re going to be honest, probably their Eighth Amendment rights as well). On top of this, in case you all missed it this year, the United States military attacked and killed an American citizen.
   
   You wanna talk problems? We can talk about the murky legal authority of the US government to declare certain people “enemy combatants,” which excludes them from their prisoner-of-war rights as defined by the Geneva Conventions (and let’s be honest, the US government is going to completely ignore the stipulations in the Geneva Conventions if it suits their interests). This was all a precedent started by the Bush Administration. The funny thing about power is once you give it to someone, they will not give it back. The President has been endowed with the powers to declare certain people enemy combatants and will do what he sees fit with them. I’m a fan of the current guy in the office, and I’d like to think he wouldn’t abuse those powers, but say Rick Perry were inaugurated. This is the guy who has executed more prisoners than any other governor in America. Imagine how trigger-happy that imbecilic cowboy would be if he had his finger on the button and thought groups of people needed shootin’ up.
2. All that being said, the President has stated that he will veto this legislation. It’s not for the best of reasons — he doesn’t like that this gets Congress involved, and to be frank, I don’t like involving Congress in those things either — but I’ll take that and run with it, rather than expanding these powers.

Fear mongering goes nowhere. Learn your facts.

(Source: doomofraven, via waxfruit)

handgrenade2:

abandonedatspacecamp:

Senate votes to make US a military state

The military was just given permission to arrest and detain American citizens on US soil and hold them indefinitely, without charge. There are about a thousand things wrong with that previous sentence.

I know I post alot of petitions and things, but please, if you have a facebook or an email address, sign this petition to tell Obama to veto this bill.

Basically the first thing they’re going to do is round up all the Occupy protestors and put them in one big, federal pen, but I wouldn’t count on it stopping there. Our country’s in bad enough shape as it is without arresting more innocent people. Spread the word and, please, sign the petition. Make your voice heard.

Holy shit.

Source.

Yeah, so:

1. The United States military is not planning on arresting members of the Occupy movement, the Tea Party movement, the I-was-just-going-to-the-grocery-store-why-did-I-get-pepper-sprayed? movement, or any of them. This particular Senate bill was passed in an effort to combat al-Qaeda.
2. They are doing this because of the shady “enemy combatant” thing we’ve got going on with our relationship to al-Qaeda. This is no different than what’s gone on for the past decade or so with Guantanamo Bay — suspected terrorists are held there without trial and are often not given a reason for their suspension.

I’m completely and adamantly against this bill, because it’s a dumb bill. But let’s not go into hysterics.

A last minute change to the provision exempted American citizens and would allow the executive branch to waive the authority based on national security and hold a terror suspect in civilian rather than military custody.  But the bill would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention. [source]

Senator Carl Levin, whom I generally support, is one of the biggest backers of this bill. I’m aghast at Senator Levin’s shocking oversight into the implications of this bill — but not because American citizens are going to be “rounded up and put in a federal pen” somewhere, but because we have certain constitutional liberties in this country, and this bill, and the treatment of detainees in general, violates the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and and Fourteenth Amendments to our Constitution.

But the President has promised to veto this bill, so it’s not going anywhere.

(via tobie1kenobi)