Suspending the Constitution
November 4th 2007 18:29
I was amazed this morning to find myself in limited agreement with someone I usually find irrational! The substance of his comment isn't important. The one place we agreed, is very important, indeed. He said it was wrong for any government to have too much power. I agree with that!
Suspending the Pakistani Constitution is a little scary because the Supreme Court there was in the midst of deciding whether the presidency of Pervez Musharaf was legitimate or not. I can understand declaring martial law during a terrorist invasion. But how long will it continue? Who knows...
The same blogger said if Gore were President of the US, he could ban all gun ownership and send in the National Guard to make everyone behave. That could seriously happen, folks!
Now that President Bush has arranged for the Constitution to be temporarily suspended during national disasters (so another Hurricaine Katerina doesn't have such a death toll) I find myself a little concerned. Don't misunderstand me, folks... I have complete confidence in President Bush not to misuse this authority. He would have been able to send the National Guard to Louisiana in time enough to get everybody out of New Orleans before the hurricaine struck. He did his best to get the governor to request federal help beforehand, but she ignored him and allowed her state and New Orleans to be devastated so she could make him look bad in the aftermath. The only other reason she might have done such a thing would have been because she didn't give a rats behind about the "poor black" population. It was certainly easy for all the libs/dems to accuse Pres. Bush of those prejudices at the time, remember? So he changed things to enable the President to send in troops to rescue trapped citizens if their own governors and mayors couldn't be bothered to do so. I have no problem with that.
My concern is that he won't be in office forever and we don't know what future presidents might be capable of doing for political gain. Bill Clinton used the FBI and the ATF to kill Randy Weaver's wife and son (who had done nothing wrong). He used the same agencies to kill everyone in the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. I ask you, how much more damage could he have done with the new power to suspend the Constitution? In one day, he or Hillary or Edwards or Obama could inflict untold damage on anyone they chose. Clinton and Janet Reno got away with all those murders and never a thing was said. Most mass murderers at least get their faces on "Most Wanted" or fliers in the post office. But it wasn't necessary, because everybody and their dog knew who the criminals were. Political power saved them from the fate that anyone else would have had at the hands of our justice system. Suppose another unprincipled slime moved into the oval office and decided it might be fun to attack another group of American citizens? Maybe churches? Or protestors who don't like thier policies? Maybe even state police in a state where the president wasn't popular? Could happen, folks.
They say the "road to hell is paved with good intentions" and I'm pretty sure it's true. I just hope that President Bush's good intentions to safeguard our citizens doesn't turn out to be a big stretch of asphalt leading us to hell behind another president some day.
Suspending the Pakistani Constitution is a little scary because the Supreme Court there was in the midst of deciding whether the presidency of Pervez Musharaf was legitimate or not. I can understand declaring martial law during a terrorist invasion. But how long will it continue? Who knows...
The same blogger said if Gore were President of the US, he could ban all gun ownership and send in the National Guard to make everyone behave. That could seriously happen, folks!
Now that President Bush has arranged for the Constitution to be temporarily suspended during national disasters (so another Hurricaine Katerina doesn't have such a death toll) I find myself a little concerned. Don't misunderstand me, folks... I have complete confidence in President Bush not to misuse this authority. He would have been able to send the National Guard to Louisiana in time enough to get everybody out of New Orleans before the hurricaine struck. He did his best to get the governor to request federal help beforehand, but she ignored him and allowed her state and New Orleans to be devastated so she could make him look bad in the aftermath. The only other reason she might have done such a thing would have been because she didn't give a rats behind about the "poor black" population. It was certainly easy for all the libs/dems to accuse Pres. Bush of those prejudices at the time, remember? So he changed things to enable the President to send in troops to rescue trapped citizens if their own governors and mayors couldn't be bothered to do so. I have no problem with that.
My concern is that he won't be in office forever and we don't know what future presidents might be capable of doing for political gain. Bill Clinton used the FBI and the ATF to kill Randy Weaver's wife and son (who had done nothing wrong). He used the same agencies to kill everyone in the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. I ask you, how much more damage could he have done with the new power to suspend the Constitution? In one day, he or Hillary or Edwards or Obama could inflict untold damage on anyone they chose. Clinton and Janet Reno got away with all those murders and never a thing was said. Most mass murderers at least get their faces on "Most Wanted" or fliers in the post office. But it wasn't necessary, because everybody and their dog knew who the criminals were. Political power saved them from the fate that anyone else would have had at the hands of our justice system. Suppose another unprincipled slime moved into the oval office and decided it might be fun to attack another group of American citizens? Maybe churches? Or protestors who don't like thier policies? Maybe even state police in a state where the president wasn't popular? Could happen, folks.
They say the "road to hell is paved with good intentions" and I'm pretty sure it's true. I just hope that President Bush's good intentions to safeguard our citizens doesn't turn out to be a big stretch of asphalt leading us to hell behind another president some day.
| 70 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Don Lee
Comment by tlcorbin-raginravensview
My fervent hope: they'll be whisked away aboard an unknown craft to that place far, far, far away where Hillary is beautiful and Bill-chaste.
Raven
Comment by S.L. Bradish
Comment by Howard
Real Crash