A non-partisan report says that the U.S. remains dangerously vulnerable to chemical, biological and nuclear attacks seven years after 9/11.
Efforts to reduce access to nuclear technology and bomb-making materials have slowed, thousands of U.S. chemical plants remain unprotected, and the U.S. government continues to oppose strengthening an international treaty to prevent bioterrorism[.]
. . .
The report and supporting studies describe the failure of international cooperation to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, which they call a major problem. Many countries continue to ignore a United Nations mandate to prevent the spread of weapons; the ability of many countries to monitor potential bioterrorism is “essentially nonexistent,” and dangerous chemical weapons stockpiles remain in some countries, including Russia and Libya, the report said.
Perhaps we should lecture these countries more sternly about their ongoing failure to be American and yell at them a little bit to do what we want. Diplomacy, of course, is for wimps.
Any chance you could provide us with a list of the civil liberties you’ve been robbed of?
Fourth Amendment protection against search & seizure — both warrantless wiretaps and dragnet wiretaps.
Habeas Corpus. The President has signed executive orders, and the Congress has passed legislation purporting to remove the right of habeas corpus for an individual the executive branch declares to be an “enemy combatant.” That the Supreme Court decided by a 5-4 vote that they couldn’t do these things is not much comfort to me.
But, you know, nothing big.
So Doug…Indiana Law Update got a little boring & you decided to do a little off-topic blogging? I understand the boredom part…yawn…a VERY long day in the convention center.
But on your post, I imagine Tim might be of the mindset that so long as you personally haven’t been illegally searched or detained or anything, what’s the big deal? Not that I agree with that mindset at all, I’m just sayin’. Oh, and since the secret illegal wiretaps & such are secret, the government won’t even disclose if you’ve been searched or wiretapped, but oh well.
I have been *personally affected* by the changes; I *used* to belong to a country that believed in these things, and that has been taken away from me. To quote Palin , “If it was good enough for the founding fathers…”
(ok, couldn’t resist – at least my use of it was contextually accurate – after you gloss over the part where they owned slaves and women couldn’t vote, and stuff like that).
Has anyone been following the latest moves by the Justice Department?
I find it positively hilarious that a collections attorney in Indiana & a handfull of blogging paranoiacs deem their lives so important that the full force of our “oppressive” government would expend the effort to spy on them.
All due respect, FISA was and is backed by your Messiah, and pertains to international communication patterns, not telephone calls from you to your dentist. And habeus corpus is a non-issue as the only ones suffering from a lack of it are military detainees who were picked up and detained outside the U.S. while shooting, knifing, bombing, or beheading American soldiers in military actions around the globe, not in LaFayette Indiana.
The two examples you cite have no impact on your lives at all. Instead, beware the city councils and the mayors and the state senates, they are the ones that make your lives more constrained.
You have an odd sense of humor.
So Tim… as long as the bad guys beat up and rip off the neighbor across the street and leave your house alone… you are totally ok with their activities. And you totally trust that the next time they come on your street they *aren’t* going to hit your house, ’cause they said they wouldn’t and they are the most trustworthy bunch you’ve ever seen.
I don’t think anyone cares enough about me to make me the focus of an investigation. But, as you ought to know, that’s not the point. I’m a citizen, same as you, same as George Bush, same as most of the folks who read this blog. This government is our government — not in the sense that it governs me, though it does, but in the sense that it is my responsibility as it is the responsibility of all citizens. If it’s acting outside of the Constitution, it’s all of our concern as free men, women, and citizens.
I don’t particularly want to hand a creeping police state over to my kids with a sheepish apology about how we were really, really afraid of the terrorists.
Doug, That was where I was trying to go with my initial response… you did it so much better, thanks.
The real problem is that the majority of detainees at Guantanamo are now found not to have been doing those awful things. That’s the whole point of habeas corpus: to show an impartial court that the detainees are reasonably known to have been doing those bad things.
Actually, Tim, a guy was detained at a U.S. airport while travelling through to Canada, shipped off to the Middle East for several months of torture, and then released. He hadn’t beheaded anyone. Mistaken identity, sucks for him. Perhaps in the future someone might mistake you for someone else, torture you a few months, and then tell you there’s no recourse, no one to sue about it. Then we could ask your opinion, and you could give a really informed one.
Call me a skeptic T, but I seriously doubt that guy was a boy scout heading for the Jamboree in Canada. I seem to recall that whole lawsuit of his faded away against the feds for unlawful detention and if the suit had legs and a willing mouthpiece, we’d be hearing all about his “wronged” arse.
So you think these Right thingies only apply to us individually and not as a community (oops, bad liberal wors) as the body politic? It is only broken if it happens to me personally?
Look, if the lesson of Martin Niemoeller needs to be repeated for you personally, I’d rather live in another country.