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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJonathan Turley chimes in on Obama & the NDAA. Another Constitutional scholar is appalled.
President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country . . . and citizens partied only blissfully into the New Year.
<snip>
Obama insisted that he signed the bill simply to keep funding for the troops. It was a continuation of the dishonest treatment of the issue by the White House since the law first came to light. As discussed earlier, the White House told citizens that the President would not sign the NDAA because of the provision. That spin ended after sponsor Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) went to the floor and disclosed that it was the White House and insisted that there be no exception for citizens in the indefinite detention provision.
The latest claim is even more insulting. You do not support our troops by denying the principles for which they are fighting. They are not fighting to consolidate authoritarian powers in the President. The American way of life is defined by our Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights. Moreover, the insistence that you do not intend to use authoritarian powers does not alter the fact that you just signed an authoritarian measure. It is not the use but the right to use such powers that defines authoritarian systems.
<snip>
There are also those who continue the long-standing effort to excuse Obamas horrific record on civil liberties by either blaming others or the times. One successful myth is that there is an exception for citizens. The White House is saying that changes to the law made it unnecessary to veto the legislation. That spin is facially ridiculous. The changes were the inclusion of some meaningless rhetoric after key amendments protecting citizens were defeated. The provision merely states that nothing in the provisions could be construed to alter Americans legal rights. Since the Senate clearly views citizens are not just subject to indefinite detention but even execution without a trial, the change offers nothing but rhetoric to hide the harsh reality. THe Administration and Democratic members are in full spin using language designed to obscure the authority given to the military. The exemption for American citizens from the mandatory detention requirement (section 1032) is the screening language for the next section, 1031, which offers no exemption for American citizens from the authorization to use the military to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial.
More at Turley's blog. So, another Constitutional scholar is appalled and agrees that this bill is horrifying. Turley is someone I've followed for years. I don't always agree with him, but I respect his opinions and the invaluable voice of this Constitutional scholar over the hell of the Bush years......but I guess he's now going to be thrown under the bus, along with the ACLU, Greenwald and others who are trying to warn Americans!
Consider me appalled along with them. Their warnings are justified -- too bad they're falling on so many deaf ears.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)i`m sure he`ll be on the shit list soon.
think
(11,641 posts)Dewey Finn
(176 posts)Yeah, that's some scary bus, huh?
HangOnKids
(4,291 posts)I mean that, the bus stuff is really funny.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)December 27, 2002|By Jonathan Turley. Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington University Law School.
In a season of lists, last week's disclosure of the assassination list by the Bush administration may be the ultimate gift idea for the agency that is close to having everything. After a post-Sept. 11 windfall of expanded budgets, personnel and power, it was inevitable that CIA officials would return to the one item that they have most coveted: the discretionary use of assassination. Not only does the CIA have a specific wish list of two dozen targets, it is not confined to this list for targets and even citizens could be subject to this lethal form of agency action.
In 2001, President Bush issued a secret order to the CIA that generally authorized the use of assassination as an anti-terrorism tool. When disclosed last month, it was noted that the order conspicuously did not limit assassination to non-citizens, a fact that the White House has never denied. The order signaled a radical change in U.S. policy. In the 1970s, the Church Committee found that the United States had used assassination extensively with often disastrous results. It turns out that (to our credit) we stink at assassination.
While assassinations were sharply curtailed, the United States occasionally dabbled in the dark art. During the Reagan administration, a hit was reportedly ordered on Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a fanatical cleric with terrorist ties. On March 8, 1985, the CIA used a Lebanese team and money from Saudi Arabia to explode a car bomb outside his mosque. The bomb was detonated when hundreds of Muslims were leaving services, killing more than 80 people and wounding more than 250. One fact in the bombing instantly pegged the attempted hit as a likely CIA operation: The one person left unscathed was Sheikh Fadlallah. It is something of a signature element of past CIA hits: Many die but the target remains.
It is not clear whether the CIA will return to the use of car bombs, which has taken on a certain pejorative tint of late. However, it now has authority to engage in a level of assassination that we have not seen since before Nixon.
CONTINUED...
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-12-27/news/0212270378_1_cia-assassination-al-qaeda
MisterP
(23,730 posts)I sh*t you not, people are saying that
what sort of thought process is going on there?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Not Turley's. He sees evil as evil:
Prof. Jonathan Turley: Stop Being a Country of Chumps!
William Hughes
September 20, 2006
Wherever the real power in a government lies, there is the danger of oppression. - James Madison (1)
Baltimore, MD - On September 18, 2006, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) held a very informative program to honor the 219th anniversary of the birth of the U.S. Constitution. One of the featured speakers at the splendid event, entitled Constitution Day at MICA, was Professor Jonathan Turley of the George Washington U.s School of Law, in the District of Columbia. Hes a nationally recognized expert on Constitutional law, national security and terrorism-related legal issues.
Professor Turley began his lecture by recalling the struggle to create the Constitution. He called it a novel experience and praised its prime architect, James Madison of Virginia, for his genius and tenacity in writing it. (1) The Constitution, he continued, is a common article of faith that binds us, no matter how hateful the debate, because we have a common legacy found in that document. That is why, it drives me crazy when the President (George W. Bush) says: This is our defining moment. We had that defining moment in the 1700s, when we agreed to a Constitution that bound us all and it required a leap of faith.
I happened to believe we are living through a crisis of faith, Professor Turley emphasized. There are people in our government, who for some reason, have lost faith in their heritage...There is only one rule, in the Madisonian system, that can never be broken. And, that rule is: you cannot go outside the rules...Madison built a system that is idiot proof. God knows we have tested that. We have had morons for president and we are still here. It is a system designed to survive...You have to take the leap of faith. President George Bush is a relativist...Hes a legal relativist. He believes the law is a technicality...He always has. It doesnt make him evil. It just makes him a man of zeal.
Background on the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the site of the conference: It predates the American Civil War. It was founded in 1826, just nine years after Madison finished his second term as president. It is the oldest college of arts in the country and is located on Mount Royal Avenue in the Monumental City, near the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the Bolton Hill neighborhood. During WWII, MICA helped to facilitate the training of students to work in jobs, requiring expert drafting and drawing skills, in the important aircraft and maritime sectors, related to the war effort. The organizer for the Constitution Day program was MICAs Robert Merrill, a Professor of Literature and Humanities, who also gave an inspiring keynote address at the affair.
After 9/11, Professor Turley said the Bush-Cheney Gang spoke of the Constitution as if it were the threat! Why, he wondered, after 200 years, this loss of faith in our system? I suggest it is because this administration intentionally set a course before 9/11 to reinvent the presidency...to have an uber presidency...After 9/11, they could have asked to hang Americans on meat hooks and Congress would have granted it. They were getting everything they wanted--immediately...Why wouldnt the Bush administration go to the Congress and ask for the authority of a military tribunal?
Professor Turley further asks: Why would the President assert the authority to create a legal system, that he alone designed--a prison system, that he alone ran--a court system that he created by his own rule and through this, people could be held indefinitely--even put to death--at his discretion? Why would you do that? I think it is all about reinventing the office of the presidency...The checks and balances in the Constitution...designed by Madison...keep ambitions in check-and it [the Constitution}is stable...What has occurred in the last few years is the greatest threat to the separation of powers in the history of this government...Meanwhile, Congress has completely failed to exercise oversight...Were afraid and when youre afraid, the Constitution becomes an abstraction...It is treated as a piece of paper...Our worst injuries [as a country] in history have all been self-inflicted...Sending Japanese-Americans [during WWII] into camps, the Palmer Raids and arrests [during WWI]..We always hear about how bad they are [the terrorists], but we never hear about: Who we are!.. Now, we are even having a debate [in the U.S. Congress] about embracing torture, like waterboarding.
CONTINUED...
http://www.sanfranciscotelegram.com/articles/view/13799
PS: Some people prove Santayana, regarding repeating the past of Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy, where anyone who thinks something that they shouldn't is an "enemy."
Little Star
(17,055 posts)bhikkhu
(10,725 posts)I noted a lack of any specific reference to constitutional law on his site. Like many others, he seems to miss that the bill simply repeats the authority granted by the 2001 military authorization, and is not substantially different from any prior military authorization in its terms, going back as far as the civil war.
I would think all this energy would be more usefully be channeled toward a demand for an end to the war - which would retire the AUMF and the detention authority - rather than against the current president and party, where it more likely has the effect of distracting from the importance of the next election and potentially prolonging the war.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Currently Turley holds the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School
Just saying. Sort of a good gig. Or should I say "good gig"?
TheKentuckian
(25,029 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Note how neither Turley, nor the OP mention that.
See my post below--# 40, for details.
bhikkhu
(10,725 posts)It reinforces my opinion based on reading just a piece or two - when someone relies on "gut" language and hyperbole like he does, the argument is generally worthless and poorly constructed, and has hidden motives.
Some writers leave one no more informed, no more effective, and no more capable after having read them than before; when a writer gives nothing but a foul taste in the mouth, its probably not worth spending time with.
Some posters leave one no more informed, no more effective, and no more capable after having read them than before; when a poster gives nothing but a foul taste in the mouth, its probably not worth spending time with.
Its fun to read threads like this.
First a poster slightly attacks the messenger, then back up arrives, then more back up, then the messenger really gets it and soon, the Blue Link Brigade shows up.
Then the big guns come out and the same four posters suddenly have many posts in the same thread, each attacking the messenger harder as the thread grows.
Interesting.
But what a farm to harvest when it comes to making my DU experience better by using the tools at hand.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)My spidey-sense must have been tingling....
I see you posted that you were here in '08, and that you left because it was too 'toxic.'
Now you are back for another election year, under a user account that was opened only last month.
Quite interesting--who were you in your past DU life???
i_sometimes
(201 posts)But yeah, was here at the beginning (more like 03) but 08 was so nasty during the primaries, kind of like now but without Hillary , I was disgusted. Most of those posters are gone but there are allot of the same people here, doing the same thing.
I found myself stopping by less and less. I am not the most articulate person and do not respond well to walls of text telling me so. I am still logged in at DU2...lol!
I always kept a bookmark for latest breaking as DU has some very good posters who find the neatest stuff, articles I do not see any where else but maybe Reddit. But Reddit is a time suck while DU is so out of control its tough to spend more than a few minutes here.
I have vowed to stay away from most of DU this time, I read it but it seems like we have no common enemy but ourselves here. Blind allegiance, name calling and snark that would have earned tombstones, its not like it was but what really is?
I do credit DU with my involvement in local politics, I have been very active in local issues and take great pride in that. DU once taught me how it all works.
Now...well, its good to see old friends!
Have yourself a great day!
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)eridani
(51,907 posts)Turley doesn't think so.
The 'normal' is the Patriot Act, wtf?
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)I read a post where you stated you left in '08, but you only signed to this account last month.
Just here for the elections???
bhikkhu
(10,725 posts)Along with improving income equality, ending the wars and retiring the AUMF is the one most important thing that should be the issue of the next election, as I've said over and over here every time the NDAA is brought up. Its absurd to say "Obama just did this", "this has never been done before", "now its a police state", etc...absurdity that misses the primary point serves no purpose but to make people less intelligent, and a productive outcome at the next election less likely.
How clearly have any candidates standing for the next election stated their positions on continuing the war, or their plans to bring it to a close? Yet we have endless criticism and chest-thumping over the wording of a nearly irrelevant recent document - leading to nothing.
As far as Turley, he was involved as a supporter of the Clinton impeachment, which is about all I need to know. Perhaps that makes me closed minded, but anyone who was paying attention back then is likely to understand.
i_sometimes
(201 posts)Some of us found it disgusting what he did while in the highest office in the land.
So yeah, beat that horse...
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)i_sometimes
(201 posts)from DU2, checked my list, you were on it.
Bye bye.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)The latest claim is even more insulting. You do not support our troops by denying the principles for which they are fighting. They are not fighting to consolidate authoritarian powers in the President. The American way of life is defined by our Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights. Moreover, the insistence that you do not intend to use authoritarian powers does not alter the fact that you just signed an authoritarian measure. It is not the use but the right to use such powers that defines authoritarian systems.
That makes no sense. The President didn't claim that "consolidate authoritarian powers" is what the troops are fighting for. Nor did he claim that the funding has anything to do with the Constitution. The President issued a very clear signing statement:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100295851
That is absolutely false. The ACLU:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/behind-closed-doors-congress-trying-force-indefinite-detention-bill-americans
That is patently absurd. Human Rights Watch, 2003:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100299985
That is essentially the President's position.
His assertions about what Senators believe ignores that all of this is about ambiguity in the existing law, not because all Senators agree.
But Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said citizen terrorism suspects should retain their fundamental civil liberties in order to protect the founding principles of the United States.
I think at a bare minimum, that means we will not allow U.S. military personnel to arrest and indefinitely detain U.S. citizens, regardless of what label we happen to apply to them, he said.
Before voting to leave current law unchanged, the Senate rejected, 55 to 45, a proposal by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, to instead say that Americans are exempt from detention under the 2001 authorization to use military force.
The uncertainty over the current law added confusion. Some, like Mr. Graham and Mr. Levin, insisted that the Supreme Court had already approved holding Americans as enemy combatants, even people arrested inside the United States. Others, like Senators Feinstein and Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, insisted that it had not done so.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/us/senate-declines-to-resolve-issue-of-american-qaeda-suspects-arrested-in-us.html?_r=1
Turley is using hyperbole and conflating situations to make his opinion (not a legal argument) more convincing.
He give the impression that there are no valid opinions that challenges his assertions that the law doesn't do what he claims.
NDAA FAQ: A Guide for the Perplexed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100248562
TheKentuckian
(25,029 posts)Just on this basis the law is poorly constructed, at minimum.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"As do you, going so far to ignore some of those who wrote the damn thing. Just on this basis the law is poorly constructed, at minimum."
...I'm fairly certain there the bill is flawed. Still, logic prevents me from ignoring a few things:
1) More than 80 Senators voted for the bill, which means it passed by a veto-proof margin.
2) The bill did not change existing law with the exception of a weak clause inserted by Feinstein
3) The President's signing statement (See I'm not interested in making this about Obama's character as Turley seems to want to do)
Now, given where the situation stands, there are things that should be more pressing, like fixing the problem: http://www.democraticunderground.com/100225975
GeorgeGist
(25,324 posts)If so, then I can see why you don't want to talk about his character.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)Turley criticized Obama.
"shorter version Turley criticized Obama."
...but do you have an opinion on my assessment of Turley's point:
That is patently absurd. Human Rights Watch, 2003:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100299985
That is essentially the President's position.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)before I do, I'd like to know, do you have any strong biases regarding President Obama that might skew your analysis?
"i haven't read your analysis yet
before I do, I'd like to know, do you have any strong biases regarding President Obama that might skew your analysis?"
...this a bit strange? I support the President. Do you consider that a bias? I mean, regardless of the answer, you should be able to comment on my assessment.
RUMMYisFROSTED
(30,749 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Occulus
(20,599 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Note how neither Turley, nor the OP mention that fact.
boxman15
(1,033 posts)In my opinion, all the vitriol being aimed at Obama would be better served being aimed at Congress, which would have overridden any veto. Our anger should be directed at them. Make sure this provision is not in the 2013 NDAA.
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)And a good president can just force congress to do what he wants, apparently. Even though no president in the history of our country has been able to accomplish such a task. Obama is a bad president and deserves the blame for all that is wrong, and shame on anyone who claims otherwise.
piratefish08
(3,133 posts)it's a shame he's so powerless.
HangOnKids
(4,291 posts)killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)tledford
(917 posts)... BUT the veto can be overridden, then there is no point in issuing the veto.
Interesting but bizarre point of view.
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)Everything else the bill authorizes, like funding contractors and military personnel, would be halted until that time. It would negatively impact a significant amount of people for the reason of a protest veto which would change nothing about the negative aspects of the bill that would then be passed. In the meantime, Obama would be blamed for the negative consequences of a delay.
Robb
(39,665 posts)To say nothing of the fact of, you know, no funding for the VA.
uponit7771
(90,367 posts)Autumn
(45,120 posts)truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...regardless of which party was in control...
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)He got a lot, because there were enough right leaning dems who supported some of his crap, but he didn't get everything. The democrats also didn't have a policy of obstructing everything and grinding the government to a halt, unlike the republicans.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)... you know, his tax gifts to the wealthy, the Iraq War, the (un)Patriot Act, no proper investigation into 9/11, torture, indefinite detentions, massive bail-out of Wall Street....
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)The democrats put a stop to that, thankfully.
I fail to see how a weak democratic congress vs. a republican congress hellbent on fucking things up so people will blame Obama is Obama's failing, however.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)Because Obama signed it, thereby making it his own instead of vetoing and making Congress override and therfore own it. You sign for it, you own it.
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)And those consequences would be blamed on Obama, and congress would just override the Veto eventually, anyway. It was passed by a veto proof majority in congress.
It is amazing how many times congress can fuck shit up and have the blame pinned on Obama, because so many people are hung up on the idea that Obama sucks and will use any straw they can grasp to promote that idea. Stunning.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)Funny that.
Maybe it's because they can't vote out other people's congress people.
piratefish08
(3,133 posts)he must be another lying Obama hater, huh?
seems to be a trend.
lillypaddle
(9,581 posts)with people not eating up Greenwald's shit? Funny that Obama supporters are called all kinds of names, but god forbid anyone say anything against Glenn or Cenk ... what a bunch of hypocrisy! Some people can dish it out, but get their panties in a wad when the tables are reversed.
one_voice
(20,043 posts)I was thinking the same thing today.
Cenk, Glenn Greenwald, David Swanson, FDL, and host of others....
lillypaddle
(9,581 posts)intimidation is their weapon.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)lillypaddle
(9,581 posts)nt
Dewey Finn
(176 posts)for the conversation to swing back to the typical targets of your scorn instead. Don't worry. I'm sure it won't be long.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)And Turley too?
lillypaddle
(9,581 posts)who is an attorney, but who is NOT an Obama fan. He says it's bullshit, and that people are waaaay over-reacting. He doesn't read it that way, for whatever that is worth.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)See my post below...
eridani
(51,907 posts)"Because our pro Citizens United court system is just so wonderful, right? "
...libertarians like Greenwald and Turley support that ruling. Turley is more guarded in his comments, but he would have voted for it.
I was sympathetic with Citizens United and the free speech groups. In the end, I have to favor more speech than less in such conflicts. While I would have written a concurrence and have difficulty with aspects of the majority opinion, I probably would have voted to support the majority in the result in this case. However, I do consider this to be one of the most difficult free speech cases to hit the court in decades. Many of my friends are on the other side and I understand that this is quite a blow. People of good faith can disagree on such issues. It really broke along a fine line. It depends on whether your gravitational point tended to fall along the free speech line or the good government line. It is a rare case where those lines ran perpendicular rather than parallel with each other.
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rules-5-4-against-campaign-limitations-in-the-hillary-the-movie-case/
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)decision.
QC
(26,371 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)This 'constitutional scholar' was recently taken to task by a federal judge for filing a case he knew would be thrown for standing--so either Turley was too stupid to understand the standing question, or, as Judge Reggie Walton pointed out, he's a political hack.
4. Interestingly, Representative Kucinich, the lead plaintiff in Kucinich v. Bush, the case in which these words were written, is the lead plaintiff in this case in which members of Congress are again attempting to bring an action against Executive Branch officials. Indeed, the plaintiffs "acknowledge the contrary result" reached by the District of Columbia Circuit in a case also involving alleged presidential violations of the War Powers Clause and the War Powers Resolution. See Pls.' Opp'n at 17. While there may conceivably be some political benefit in suing the President and the Secretary of Defense, in light of shrinking judicial budgets, scarce judicial resources, and a heavy caseload, the Court finds it frustrating to expend time and effort adjudicating the relitigation of settled questions of law. The Court does not mean to imply that the judiciary should be anything but open and accommodating to all members of society, but is simply expressing its dismay that the plaintiffs are seemingly using the limited resources of this Court to achieve what appear to be purely political ends, when it should be clear to them that this Court is powerless to depart from clearly established precedent of the Supreme Court and the District of Columbia Circuit.
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv1096-14
I note that Turley didn't disclose that he'd recently lost a case against Obama--and felt it necessary to take to his blog to defend himself against said footnote---but we are supposed to see him as impartial? Fair???
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/10/20/federal-judge-dismisses-war-powers-challenge-by-members-of-congress/#more-40743
Robb
(39,665 posts)But I'm not even getting into this one until Turley posts a good Ron Paul love letter. It's early yet.
"But I'm not even getting into this one until Turley posts a good Ron Paul love letter. It's early yet."
...late!
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/12/15/obama-breaks-promise-to-veto-bill-allowing-indefinite-detention-of-americans/
Evidently Ron Paul is the next FDR in Turley's mind. Oops!
What's interesting is the following is from the piece linked to above. It includes the same language as in the OP:
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)That must be why.
Perhaps you could also look into your crystal ball and tell us why he also regularly wrote about Bush's assault on the Constitution.
Laura wouldn't flirt with him?
Bush called him Johnnie?
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)and got his ass handed to him, then.
Mr. Turley allowed himself to be used like a Kleenex by the impeachment Republicans because back then, Turley thought being a Libertarian would get him a reputation of being 'unbiased.'
You see, I remember them quoting him, on the Senate floor, as justification for why the election of 1996 should be overturned. Read Rogan's speeches--they were based on Turley.
I remember him writing in the Wall Street Journal about how wrong it was for the federal grand jury to return a 'no bill' against President Clinton.
Mr. Turley despises the Clintons and by extension, anything to do with Hilary Clinton's State Department. That's why he sued over Libya, and that's why he's stamping his feet, now...
Some of us don't forget--you try to impeach a duly-elected Democratic president, and you are on my shit list, FOREVER.
As for critiquing Bush, come on--wasn't that shooting fish in a barrel?
The Magistrate
(95,257 posts)joshcryer
(62,277 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)becoming more clear that libertarians would rather a Republican win than a Democrat.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"the Court finds it frustrating to expend time and effort adjudicating the relitigation of settled questions of law. "
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)I don't know what Judge Walton did in a past life to get Turley, Taitz, Bob Barr, and Dennis Kucinich in his courtroom, roughly all at the same time, but it must have been something that rent the karmic curtain.
FirstLight
(13,366 posts)for sure.
all i can think of is the contrast between being a winner of the fucking Nobel Peace Prize and NOT vetoing this shit!
Dewey Finn
(176 posts)so that you can think beyond the constraints you've apparently set for yourself. "Deaf ears" seem to have nothing on you.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)I'm sure many a legislator in Chile wished they had NOT given such power to the military.
Do these idiots in congress really believe they are exempt from indefinite detention, torture and murder by the military?
In fact legislators are one of the prime targets of the military when they are handed so much power.
Response to tpsbmam (Original post)
Post removed
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)or a handful of Obama sycophants on DU. Tough choice, but I think I'll go with Turley on this one.
i_sometimes
(201 posts)Lol, I am with ya.
(Former New Bern resident here)
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...shame the "Constitutional Scholar" in the WH doesn't agree...
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Not a tough choice.
T S Justly
(884 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Especially if it's run by a Democrat. Like....Tonkin Gulf.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)be cited to change existing law on detention of citizens. so it leaves us exactly where we were before in the very long ugly debate between authoritarians and civil liberties folk on this topic: the right wing has argued at least since the nixon era that the government has the authority to detain us without trial. we've been protected some by the decisions of the courts pre-reagan. furthering that protection depends on a federal judiciary unsympathetic to the authoritarian wackos
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)And that "constitutional scholar" was a cheerleader for Bill Clinton's impeachment.
I regard that as unforgiveable.
Maraya1969
(22,507 posts)Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)It is good to see law schools raising the bar for their acceptance standards.
Johnny supported impeachment of Bill Clinton, even though the investigation was nothing more than a witch hunt.
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/10/20/federal-judge-dismisses-war-powers-challenge-by-members-of-congress/#more-40743