Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

I am very, very wary of chipping away at habeas corpus, even though the Constitution provides for just that in cases of invasion or rebellion though Al-Awlaki might fit the case for treason:

"...whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States." 18 U.S.C. § 2381

But what's less clear is what Holder means by due process and I should very much like to see the admissable testimony of two witnesses as required by the Constitution. To me, this screams out for Congressional legislative clarification.

yeah we went over the treason thing on some other thread. basically it's impossible to prosecute.

I assume that the argument goes that as he was levying war against the US and was in a place that made it prohibitively difficult to apprehend him, he would just be killed as an enemy soldier. It's a blind spot in our jurisprudence and a loophole in both American and Common Law personal protections.

While it is possible to make a good case for summary execution of persons in Al-Awlaki's position, what is not necessary here is the cloak of mystery surrounding the standards that must be met, the process that must be followed and the safeguards against abuse. FFS, look at all the process involved in a death penalty case and how much abuse still happens in spite of all that.

afaics, what happens here is that a bunch of CIA or FBI gnomes finger some guy as a target, their boss takes their basket of 'intelligence', sifts it down and kicks it up the line until at some point it lands on Obama's desk and he signs a death warrant. How exactly does Obama know if one word of that intelligence is true? He doesn't. How easy would it be to fabricate this shit and start offing political opponents? Sorry, that's a "state secret"!

The likes of Paul Begala praising the size of Obama's balls for killing terrorists and Keeping Us Safe doesn't help either.

unsure whether Obama's testicles themselves killed terrorists though

was gonna say, those are some huge, deadly balls

** WARNING the image you are about to post is unsafe **

the constitution says you need two witnesses against you to be convicted of treason. at least that's what it used to mean

oh we already mentioned that nvm

John Marshall's decision at Aaron Burr's trial also relevant.

Now it means that, if there is a video taken by a drone of a small, indistinct figure identified as you by a "expert" piece of personal identification software, and that figure is seen in a place reputed to be an al-Q training facility, and two people watch the tape, you're toast.

xpost -- Read that as "Josh Marshall's decision" and was all 'what kind of time travel pundit trip are you on'

Founding Fathers Yglesias, Weigel and Erickson.

for whom Federalist satrap Glenn Greenwald feels contempt

You mean sending a fax about the "kill list" to Congress is not good enough:

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/03/eric-holder-targeted-killing

Holder argues that "robust oversight" is
provided by Congress, but that "oversight" actually amounts to members of the relevant congressional committees being briefed. Press reports suggest this can simply amount to a curt fax to intelligence committees notifying them after the fact that an American has been added to a "kill list." It also seems like it would be difficult for Congress to provide "robust oversight" of the targeted killing program when intelligence committee members like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are still demanding to see the actual legal memo justifying the policy.

And he didn't call them freedom fries?

don't worry Rush, noted lothario and generally all-around idiot Bill Maher has got yr back!

Obama campaigned on what he called “the most sweeping ethics reform in history” and has frequently criticized the role of money in politics. That hasn’t stopped him from offering government jobs to some of his biggest bundlers, volunteer fundraisers who gather political contributions from other rich donors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-influence-industry-obama-gives-administration-jobs-to-some-big-fundraisers/2012/03/06/gIQA9y3txR_story.html?hpid=z2

I just love that Palin has written the playbook for modern GOP candidates. Cannot wait for the Congressional election this fall.

Joe the Plumber blows a gasket on CNN

Samuel Wurzelbacher, who on Thursday morning accused CNN of being like TMZ and trying to trap him with “gotcha questions,” explained to POLITICO immediately following the tense interview that he is “sick of the gossip and drama.”

Reached on his cellphone after his early morning TV hit, Wurzelbacher, better known to many Americans as “Joe the Plumber,” explained why he had gotten flustered.

. . . During his conversation with CNN’s Zoraida Sambolin, Wurzelbacher – who won an Ohio Republican congressional primary this week — began to show his first signs of frustration when asked why he believes he’s qualified to run for Congress.

“What qualifies me?” Wurzelbacher said, laughing. “One, I’m an American citizen. Two, I’m very much involved in the process of what’s going on. I guess my question would be, what qualifies the current politicians who are killing our country, Republicans and Democrats alike?”

He added, “I’m sorry, it just seems like a silly question.”

Things only got worse when Sambolin cited some of Wurzelbacher’s previous statements about homosexuality, including his claim that the word “queer” is not a slur, as well as his declaration that he would not allow homosexuals “anywhere near my children.”

“Have you changed your positions on this at all?” Sambolin asked.

“So this is TMZ, this isn’t CNN, is what you’re saying,” Wurzelbacher shot back.

“Of course it’s CNN. These are things that you said, that I would like to know if you still stand by them or if you have changed your positions on them.”

“Listen, in my dictionary, and everyone’s dictionary in 1970s, the word queer did mean strange and unusual. There was no slur to it. Do you challenge that?” the congressional candidate said, before adding, “Come on, you’re trying to do a ‘gotcha’ moment, it’s quite obvious.”

Before the interview came to an end, Wurzelbacher charged, “I’m allowed to have my opinions as an American, but it seems the left becomes very intolerant when you have an opinion other than what they state.”

Asked by POLITICO if he will go on CNN again, Wurzelbacher said he is undecided.

“You’re going to be asked questions but I’m not afraid of them. I will fight back, I will talk back. I’m not sitting there to be persecuted,” he said. “If they’re going to take me on, they better be ready to take me on.”

Wurzelbacher will face off against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the fall.

congratulations Rep Kaptur on your imminent reelection

BREITBART BOMBSHELL VIDEO OF RADICAL OBAMA zzzzzzzz

lol

hope that the dead air slowly takes over his entire show.

hope that the walking dead slowly take over his entire show

this whole thing is interesting, I mean this is far from the most offensive thing this dude has done in his life, this is like, about as offensive as he's been every single day of his life. so why now? internet anger? limbaugh losing influence?

IIRC during the LA riots he was calling the rioters zulus and spearchuckers

Sometimes you just wake up and find the world has passed you by.

it's the internet

xp

this whole thing is interesting, I mean this is far from the most offensive thing this dude has done in his life, this is like, about as offensive as he's been every single day of his life. so why now? internet anger? limbaugh losing influence?

― iatee, Thursday, March 8, 2012 2:10 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm wondering this too. i mean, the 'democrat media conspiracy' explanation is not convincing to me.

sex and contraception are sort of in the atmosphere right now, could just be bad luck. he hit the wrong nerve at the wrong time

and w/o getting too gaze-y here, sandra fluke is v mediagenic

Just GIS'd for sandra fluke, and what do you know? She doesn't look one damn bit like a prostitute or a sex-crazed slut. This may have produced cognitive dissonance in the ur-nation.

oboy does this mean we get to have the "what do prostitutes look like?" conversation again

Well considering she went to testify about a friend of hers who lost an ovary because of a treatable cyst but she couldn't get the birth control pills through her Georgetown Law School insurance and it was never about her having a lot of sex it seems absurd that this is the route they're taking in the first place.

"So my friend has suffered because she couldn't get birth control which provides a number of non-contraceptive health benefits..."

"HUSSY! SLUT! WHORE!"

Not surprised that the Average American is still offended by dishonestly attacking a reasonably hard-working/successful (based on college, etc.) young woman for cheap political points. Folks would probably take less issue with it she were already a public figure, but since she's not it's seen as Limbaugh crossing a line.

ya it's weird that a human being would approach the subject like that but this guy owns a jet because he has been so successful at doing exactly that

looking forward to Limbaugh dying penniless and obscure but somehow I suspect that won't happen

he won't be penniless or obscure, but we can hope for something that's painful and takes a while to kill him.

penis cancer is my first choice

Uh, she's white and middle class, ppl.

As we all know there's a market for martyrdom, and that's what Limbaugh's best at. He'll replace the ad revenue.

Looking forward to his 'A Face in the Crowd' moment or his repentance more than his penis cancer tbph

Some french freedom fry company should come to his rescue.

that was supposed to be french, of course

Hope people vandalize that bust of him that'll be in the Hall of Fame

the Assholes Hall of Fame?

Missouri Hall of Fame iirc

No post ever has called for goatse.cx more and I hope you appreciate my restraint

this whole thing is interesting, I mean this is far from the most offensive thing this dude has done in his life, this is like, about as offensive as he's been every single day of his life. so why now? internet anger? limbaugh losing influence?

imo the deal is that the Republicans have really misjudged whether the country is ready for "people who use birth control are weirdo sex-crazed perverts." There's a very committed constituency within the right that really does believe birth control is 1) wrong 2) a major source of societal ills, and while I don't think they are actually pulling the strings, I think their voices within the discourse -- the fact that Rush would be having Quiverfull-type stuff cross his radar -- opens the door to him expressing this "a person who wants birth control is a whore" opinion. Which isn't as fringe-y as a lot of his other outrageous opinions: his racism, for example, resonates with racists. But birth control? Literally all straight people use birth control - the % of people, Catholics/Quiverfulls included, who never use it at all is so tiny it's homeopathic. Trying to call somebody a slut for using birth control is like calling somebody a glutton because he ate breakfast; it's a tipping point.

the second half of that graf is a mess sorry I'm tired. point is, there's this tiny constituency of people - who write books and make themselves seem like a bigger constituency than they are - who I think Rush might have heard and thought, I'll use that, that's a good line, and he didn't really get that for most people it's not actually a good line

really don't think it's the nature of the insult at work here. the internet has greatly facilitated both the rapid dissemination of the offending remarks, and, more importantly the ability to mobilize punitive actions. prior to searchable databases and social media, it would have been a huge pain in the ass to target all his advertisers, especially in large numbers at the click of a button, and it certainly wouldn't have been done so quickly.