The Day The Constitution Died

Bye-bye, Miss American Constitution.

Yesterday, Bush signed the Military Comissions Act of 2006, a bill to make torture legal in our country, destroy the right to habeas corpus, and invalidate major portions of our Bill of Rights.

I find it depressingly ironic that Bush uses arguments like "they hate us for our freedom" to support his flawed and failed plans for fighting terrorism and then does everything in his power to give the terrorists what they want by working with the corrupt, "rubber stamp" Republicans in Congress to take away our freedom.

Not since the Reichstag fire led to the Enabling Act has there been such a regression in freedom and democracy.

We have seen this before in life (see previous paragraph) and art (see subsequent paragragph). Those who do not learn from the mistakes in history are doomed to repeat them.

In art we have seen this:

Padmé watches with increasing suspicion as Chancellor Palpatine becomes a dictator, using the Clone Wars to amass emergency powers and gain control over the Senate and judiciary. Padmé later witnesses Palpatine transform the Republic into the Galactic Empire and proclaiming himself Emperor. As the Senate cheers for Palpatine, she comments to Senetor Organa, "So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause."

Bush has been killing liberty in our country since 9/11, and because Bush shamelessly uses 9/11 as an excuse, there are people who are applauding him when they should be impeaching him.

The people who voted for this disgraceful president allowed this to happen. By voting for Bush and the Republicans, they enabled the destruction of some of the most important tenets of our democracy (such as prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment and the writ of habeas corpus).

I hope and pray that the Supreme Court, now our constitution's and our country's last chance to stop this horrific legislation, will do the right thing and declare this act unconstitutional.

I fear greatly for all of us if they do not.

New US terrorism law criticised as "stain" on history

President Bush has called it vital for his war on terrorism; however, one opposition Democrat Senator said his country would look back on the day as a "stain" on the nation's history...

E. Vincent Warren at the Centre for Constitutional Rights says his organisation will launch a legal challenge. "This bill puts in the president's power, solely, the ability to determine who is and who is not an enemy combatant, even US citizens," said Warren. "This bill also allows for non-citizens to be detained indefinitely, pulled up wherever they appear - whether they are on the battlefield or not."

Critics of the law also claim suspects will not be able to challenge their detention or treatment in court, and authorities will be able to try people based on secret evidence.

Battles brewing on torture, detainees

But as Bush and a group of key Republican senators hailed the compromise that led to the passage of the new rules last month, the American Civil Liberties Union called it ``one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history." Groups of defense lawyers vowed to fight the new law in court, calling it ``blatantly unconstitutional" because it denies detainees the right to challenge their detention in court.