It Is Always Darkest..

..when the ship hits the bottom of the ocean. Re: Derek's post "America's Darkest Day" below, those of us who live days thinking about the implications of principles extended to their logical end -- physicists among them -- cannot view the agreement of Congress and the enshrinement in laws the end of Habeas Corpus as anything but an enormous step toward the end of democracy and toward the re-establishment of tyrranical government.

The unassailable rights of an individual are the basis of social contract in a democracy; we each support a government, giving it enormous powers, but knowing that there are lines it cannot cross. We can speak out against it, and it can shout back, but it cannot lift us from our rock and toss us in a dungeon for doing so.. Because it is not illegal to do so, and if we were to demand a hearing with a judge to determine if there is legal basis for our imprisonment, the judge would conclude "No", and we're back home in an hour, because of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is why we can demand of a police officer to know why we are being arrested. Habeas corpus gave us the phrase, "Justice delayed is justice denied," and we cannot be held indefinitely.

Friends, that is now over in the United States. The United States government can now send people to prison, without justifying it to anyone, for no reason or for any reason whatsoever. They can hold people indefinitely without charge. You would one day, disappear, never to be heard from again.

The moderate enablers in the Republican party try to pat-down those spiky wet hairs: "This is only for terrorists", they say. "This is for enemy combatants." Friends, we have no rights if they are not held by everyone; and what the Republican Party has done is said "No one has these rights anymore", and now we are bickering over what category of person will be treated this way.

So pray that the President does not decide to widen those categories. Because he has the power to do so. Any time. Against any person.

The rule of law! We have no rulers but the rule of law! But when our government removes those laws which bar their actions, which increases their powers to intimidate, supress and nullify those who oppose it, those powers will be used.

America's Darkest Day

I would argue that yesterday was the darkest day in modern American history. Forget political assassinations and days of mass murder, bad fortune in war or finance or politics: The day that our own elected representatives decide that we, their constituents and citizens of this democracy, are no longer entitled to the rights of habeas corpus (first enshrined in our legal heritage via the Magna Carta of 1215), nor necessarily entitled to legal representation, nor to the assurance that our own government will not torture us if it so wishes, is quite simply the worst manifestation of partisan demagoguery we have seen since the last World War.

We can only hope that it does not get worse from here.

Clinton the Demigod

It was only this week that I realized that, since leaving office and having a near-death experience, Clinton had ascended from the ranks of the ex-Presidents to become a demigod.

Key pieces of evidence:

• The Clinton Global Initiative raised $7 billion last week to combat poverty, disease in developing nations, and climate change;
• Clinton showed up on the Daily Show, and held is own against Jon Stewart;
• Clinton showed up on Fox News Sunday, and completely eviscerated Chris Wallace and the whole right-wing terror-propaganda apparatchik machine.

The last, you simply have to see (thanks to TPM for the pointer). Go there - now. Watch. And quake in awe.

9/11 and the Need for Closure

So the President has revealed the 14 suspects who were detained in secret CIA gulags abroad and moved them to Guantanamo. In announcing their transfer to Guantanamo, he pointed to the 9/11 relatives by his side and suggested the need for closure now, 5 years after the attacks.

Here is what closure is not: Detaining the chief suspects in secret locations while fighting court battle after court battle to avoid his responsibility to live up to the Geneva Conventions and our nation's laws. Failing to lay out the evidence against these men in any public forum, so that our enemies abroad can continue to claim that they are innocent. Failing to convict these terrorists in any court. Continuing to push for un-Constitutional legislation to set up special kangaroo courts for these suspects and these suspects alone.

Here is what closure would be: Trying these suspects and convicting them, using evidence presented openly to the whole world, and then locking them up in prison after a free and fair trial.

Personally, I think the Democrats should push for closure. 5 years is long enough.

Median Income Down in 46 of 50 States

In this diary posted on DKos we see that median income has dropped in 46 of 50 states 1999-2005.

This drop in median income is a direct result of Bush administration tax policies, which increase incentive of the very rich to hold the very real increases in worker productivity as corporate (and thus, their) profits.

Are you getting this?