Posted by mair on September 30, 2006, at 9:53:42
That's what I feel about Congress passing the detention bill. American politicians love to talk about our moral authority but I really think that this administration acts more like a third world dictatorship. (hasn't fearmongering always been favored tool of demagogues?) And the President has so intimidated Congress that they let him get away with it. I actually heard Newt Gingrich talking on a panel broadcast on NPR about how the President has the right to ignore decisions of the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of a law or a presidential action when those decisions were out of the mainstream of American opinion. He felt this particularly with reference to 5-4 decisions, because he thought it meant that one justice (the tiebreaker) yielded more power than the president or congress. Compare that to Al Gore's pained decision to accept the decision of the Supreme Court when that 5-4 decision meant that the winner of the popular vote was the loser. So much for our system of checks and balances.
I think this is a shameful period in American history, every bit as shameful as the detention of Japanese-Americans during WW II.
Mair
poster:mair
thread:690473
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060809/msgs/690473.html