What the hell is going on up on Capital Hill? There is a new bill called The National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the Senate on Thursday. That bill sounds nice; we are authorizing national defense and giving money to troops yay! But in actuality that’s not the only thing this bill is doing. It also contains a provision that will give the military new power to detain Americans indefinitely without trial, and even mandates military detention for some terrorism suspects. Let me type that again, the bill contains a provision that will give the military new power to detain Americans indefinitely without trial, and even mandates military detention for some terrorism suspects. Yes, that bill PASSED the Senate with a 93-7 vote. Even Rand Paul who is a Republican Senator and Tea Party enthusiast said “WTF?”
Supposedly the bill was originally written so that we can get funding to the troops, and the detention insertion was made in secret. So what? The Senate doesn’t read past the title of bills they pass? What could possibly be their excuse for letting this one slip through? “Oh uh, I didn’t know that’s what I was voting for – I just skimmed it”? This is not only completely ludicrous, it is completely unconstitutional.
The Fifth Amendment clearly states that a person will not be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Are we just going to amend that? You won’t amend the Constitution to extend civil rights so that two same sex, tax paying, citizens can get married, have the right to be at each others death beds, adopt kids together, but you have no problem changing it to take away civil rights? Yeah, that totally makes sense to me.
The Senate’s answer to criticism was to add an amendment that says the provision will not affect current detainees. Okay, so if I got detained before this bill I can get a trial, if I get detained after it, I can’t. Hmm, that makes every thing okay. Are you out of your fucking skulls?! This is giving the military cart blanche to do what they like with citizens!! We all saw how well that worked out in, oh I dunno, Germany, Cambodia, Argentina, Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, and the list goes on…
John Bellinger, a former Bush administration official noted, “These provisions go far beyond anything the Bush administration either did, or would have tolerated.” Bush wouldn’t have tolerated this!?! If Bush would’ve said “Um, hell no” to something and you’re all for it, you need to have your heads examined.
Bellinger also warned that the detainee provision could threaten the ability of U.S. officials to get cooperation from allies who are likely to object to indefinite detentions, and could therefore be unwilling to provide information that might otherwise lead to actual criminals and terrorists being captured.
The White House warned last month that senior advisers would recommend a veto, saying the detainee provisions could restrict the ability of law enforcement to combat terrorism and “make the job of preventing terrorist attacks more difficult.” Obama can veto this bill and still fund the troops so I don’t even know why this is an issue. Lets shut this crazy down.
This reminds me of a documentary I was watching the other night about this thing that happens in New York all the time – it’s called stop and frisk. The NYPD can stop you at any time and frisk you. If they find something you go to jail. It’s mostly weed that they’re looking for. The documentary highlighted allegations that the NYPD have been routinely asking citizens to turn out their pockets (illegal), or worse, reaching into their pockets (illegal). If they find even a small amout of weed, they drop it on the ground before claiming it was “in public view,” and would then use this as cause for an arrest (illegal).
According to The Daily News, the number of marijuana arrests in 2008 (40,383) was more than the combined total of arrests during mayors Koch and Dinkins’ tenures, as well as the first two years of Giuliani’s term. And that already inflated number increased by 15% from 2008 to 2009. Why did this increase happen? It happened because the cops were given the power to do whatever the fuck they wanted. No one was checking them. They were drunk off of it. That’s exactly what will happen if this bill gets signed into law.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Give folks too much power and they will abuse it. This is not a responsible party we’re handing this over to. The military’s leaders are not the stablest of people. They get jumpy, they’re over sensitive, they’re too quick to react, and they have all manner of ulterior motives and agendas. You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, got the wrong color skin or the wrong name, or someone in authority got the wrong attitude – guess what? Jail forever.
I keep trying to find ways to make this post funny, to insert some humor, to rub some Vaseline on it before I slip it to you, but I just can’t. It’s too tragic to be funny. Or maybe it’s so tragic that it is funny. Next week I’ll lighten it up. Maybe I’ll even throw in a dick joke.
