Keillor: Dallas Methodists say ixnay to human rights
Garrison Keillor, the "Prairie Home Companion" big-head, was at the United Methodist church on campus here the other night for a speaking engagement. He writes about it today in the Chicago Tribune.
Seems he was chilled to the bone by the response he got to his comments about how the Bushies have eradicated rights to habeas corpus. In their zeal to imprison "enemy combatants," the administration has radically altered human and civil and legal rights that have been in place in civilized societies for centuries.
Dallas comes off looking...well, about like you'd expect in Keillor's view. This church is the one that proudly claims George and Laura as members (though no one I know has ever seen him, her or their invisible twin spawn step foot in the place). But dang, it is scary how quickly people dismiss their rights in the name of "national security."
By the way, Papa Cheney's in town today. Thus, no Southwest Airlines jets buzzing our rooftops every minute or so. Wonder why he's here? My guess: fundraising and electrode-charging. Most of his parts are still under warranty.
For more about how easily YOU could be declared an enemy of the state, check this out.
posted by writer @ 12:26 PM
9 Comments:
Garrison Keillor's piece should be required reading for all Americans. Wonderful!!
Just to bring you down to earth. The MCA excludes US citizens. Whether or not the provision eliminating habeas for non-US citizens so declared is constitutional or not remains to be seen. For a long time, it has been an unanswered question in constitutional law whether a “jurisdiction-stripping” provision is constitutional, and whether habeas can be “suspended” with respect to some people or not others.
Unfortunately, as was the case with the Patriot Act, too many non-lawyers are speaking about this legislation without reading it. In fact, I have been explicitly informed by a “spin-master” (as he calls himself) that this works in favor of the administration, as this panic sends a message to the people that Keillor was referring to that somehow “civil rights” have been abrogated by one man. In his words “...left-wing academic panic has done more for the cause than any press conference by the president.”
I understand academics are busy, but can’t they at least be bothered to read the texts that they comment on.
Every time I try to "check this out", I get:
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Please contact the server administrator, support@loudcloud.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
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Well, anonymous, yes, the definition of "enemy combatant" does exclude U.S. citizens. But why does that make you feel any better? If we refuse to treat citizens of other nations with due process with they are in our country, why should be expect our citizens to be treated with due process when they are abroad. I think that's why Keillor's article suggested that "if your college kid were to be arrested in Bangkok or Cairo, suspected of 'crimes against the state' and held in prison, you'd assume that an American foreign service officer would be able to speak to your kid and arrange for a lawyer, but this may not be true anymore."
We cannot exepct to be treated any better than we treat others. That is a simple logical corallary of the golden rule. You'd think that an administration that would not exist but for it's insincere pandering to evangelical Christians would understand that.
What I can't figure out is why Keillor assumed that the applause meant that the audience shared the sentiment he was sarcastically expressing. Maybe they understood his sarcasm and were applauding his real opinion.
I am amused when people want to extend rights granted to american citizens to non-citizens.
In the get a clue department part deux, just exactly what parts of the Constitution and Bill of Rights will survive when Sharia Law is put in place here? Our civilization is exactly why they are interested in burning it to the ground.
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Oddly enough, I'd always assumed that "all Men" refered to, well, everyone, not just to Americans.
Two of the 'offenses' that the King of England was charged with were:
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:"
No habeus corpus and 'extraordinary rendition' aren't that new, are they?
I couldn't get the "check this out" link to work. Can you e-mail it to me?
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