March 4, 2009

Dictatorship

From Harper's:
Yesterday the Obama Administration released a series of nine previously secret legal opinions crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel to enhance the presidential powers of George W. Bush. Perhaps the most astonishing of these memos was one crafted by University of California at Berkeley law professor John Yoo. He concluded that in wartime, the President was freed from the constraints of the Bill of Rights with respect to anything he chose to label as a counterterrorism operations inside the United States.
And:
We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.
Investigate and prosecute the war crimes. It's the law.

2 comments:

  1. i would hope that people of every political party see the need for this, if only to stop people from trying it again.

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  2. Makes you realize just how very close we are to total collapse....if a dimwit little shit like Bush could push a nation of 300-million people this close to the brink of insane, one-person rule...

    If the Obama administration doesn't forcefully investigate (and not some weak-ass "truth commission") and prosecute Bush et al, it will be a sad statement...

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