AmericasLastHope
05-08-2009, 10:54 PM
My Professor had the following in his course assignment on U.S. Foreign Policy...
"Mainstream Democrats and Republicans do not share this view, but a growing chorus of libertarians fear that the federal government is laying the groundwork for the detention of masses of Americans. Mainstream commentators find these claims to be paranoid and to feed into conspiracy theories. Oddly, this debate is not found so much in the Democratic Party as it is on the margins of the Republican Party, where civil libertarian Ron Paul (R-TX) is charging the neo-conservatives with attempting to set up a dictatorial government – and with using Guantanamo as practice.
Ron Paul (R-TX)
"We might have to hope that our Supreme Court helps us out a little. The Court has been better than the executive branch and a heck of a lot better than the Congress, because we've given the President everything he's asked for and the President has been begging for all this authority, so immediately we have to hope that the courts will save us on some of these things. But once again ultimately its only when the people wake up and say they don't like this... sometimes the people wake up to late. Right now we don't have concentration camps, but like you have pointed out, the authority has been given so that concentration camps can come without Habeas Corpus . I have heard the argument that there is nothing else left in the Bill of Rights. If they can lock you up, what good is freedom of speech or what good is a gun? That is now part of the books, part of the law."
This topic – habeas corpus and the detention of enemy combatants – is highly emotional and political, bringing out the worst in the radio and television “chattering class.” At the end of the day, however, the Supreme Court will decide what the federal government can and cannot do."
:D
"Mainstream Democrats and Republicans do not share this view, but a growing chorus of libertarians fear that the federal government is laying the groundwork for the detention of masses of Americans. Mainstream commentators find these claims to be paranoid and to feed into conspiracy theories. Oddly, this debate is not found so much in the Democratic Party as it is on the margins of the Republican Party, where civil libertarian Ron Paul (R-TX) is charging the neo-conservatives with attempting to set up a dictatorial government – and with using Guantanamo as practice.
Ron Paul (R-TX)
"We might have to hope that our Supreme Court helps us out a little. The Court has been better than the executive branch and a heck of a lot better than the Congress, because we've given the President everything he's asked for and the President has been begging for all this authority, so immediately we have to hope that the courts will save us on some of these things. But once again ultimately its only when the people wake up and say they don't like this... sometimes the people wake up to late. Right now we don't have concentration camps, but like you have pointed out, the authority has been given so that concentration camps can come without Habeas Corpus . I have heard the argument that there is nothing else left in the Bill of Rights. If they can lock you up, what good is freedom of speech or what good is a gun? That is now part of the books, part of the law."
This topic – habeas corpus and the detention of enemy combatants – is highly emotional and political, bringing out the worst in the radio and television “chattering class.” At the end of the day, however, the Supreme Court will decide what the federal government can and cannot do."
:D