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Originally Posted by skippy3481
Dts, An honest question,
Are you really that bored, that you must sit around and come up with ways to post common dreams or huggington post articles? It would be great if you actually came up with your own ideas instead of posting something that someone else wrote. If i wanted to read those articles, I would go to that site.
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Skippy, all penis jokes aside, DTS is posting this (I assume) because recently many things Cheney has said have come to light that make it pretty clear he considers himself above the law. From the Washington Post:
"For months, Olson and his Justice Department colleagues had pleaded for modest shifts that would shore up the government’s position. Hamdi, the American, had languished in a Navy brig without a hearing or a lawyer for two and a half years. Shafiq Rasul, a British citizen at Guantanamo Bay, had been held even longer. Olson could make Cheney’s argument that courts had no jurisdiction, but he wanted to “show them that you at least have some system of due process in place” to ensure against wrongful detention, according to a senior Justice Department official who closely followed the debates.
The vice president’s counsel fought and won again. He argued that any declaration of binding rules would restrict the freedom of future presidents and open the door to further lawsuits. On June 28, 2004, the Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in the Hamdi case that detainees must have a lawyer and an opportunity to challenge their status as enemy combatants before a “neutral decision maker.” The Rasul decision, the same day, held 6 to 3 that Guantanamo Bay is not beyond the reach of federal law."
In short, these kind of actions mean Cheney believes the Executive Branch has the right to imprison you, without charges, with no access to a lawyer or contact with your family, torture you, and never face any sort of legal ramifications. You could die in prison, never having been charged with anything, or with ever being permitted to know why you were imprisoned. This is a very big deal. This is supposed to happen in banana republics, not in the USA. And just because you don't want to read the articles doesn't mean it's not happening. And it's happening because somewhere along the way, we got cowed enough to allow it.