posted October 07, 2006 08:52 PM              

By Marjorie Cohn
Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed.......barely anyone noticed that it EMPOWERS Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants!"

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees is the culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush administration since the September 11 terrorist attacks!

Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."

Bush & Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to protect us against terrorism.

Frightened they might lose their majority in Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill through Congress with little substantive debate.

Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist" organizations......or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely!That includes American citizens.

The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who have been declared enemy combatants.

Congress has the constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion.

The habeas-stripping provision in the new bill IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL and the Supreme Court will likely say so when the issue comes before it.

Although more insidious, this law follows in the footsteps of other unnecessarily repressive legislation.

In times of war and national crisis, the government has targeted immigrants AND DISSIDENTS!!!

In 1798, the Federalist-led Congress, capitalizing on the fear of war, passed the four Alien and Sedition Acts to stifle dissent against the Federalist Party's political agenda.

The Naturalization Act extended the time necessary for immigrants to reside in the U.S. because most immigrants sympathized with the Republicans.

The Alien Enemies Act provided for the arrest, detention and deportation of male citizens of any foreign nation at war with the United States.

Many of the 25,000 French citizens living in the U.S. could have been expelled had France and America gone to war, but this law was never used.

The Alien Friends Act authorized the deportation of any non-citizen suspected of endangering the security of the U.S. government; the law lasted only two years and no one was deported under it.

The Sedition Act provided criminal penalties for any person who wrote, printed, published, or spoke anything "false, scandalous and malicious" with the intent to hold the government in "contempt or disrepute."

The Federalists argued it was necessary to suppress criticism of the government in time of war.

The Republicans objected that the Sedition Act violated the First Amendment, which had become part of the Constitution seven years earlier.

Employed exclusively against Republicans, the Sedition Act was used to target congressmen and newspaper editors who criticized President John Adams.

Subsequent examples of laws passed and actions taken as a result of fear-mongering during periods of xenophobia are the Espionage Act of 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918, the Red Scare following World War I, the forcible internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and the Alien Registration Act of 1940 (the Smith Act).

During the McCarthy period of the 1950s, in an effort to eradicate the perceived threat of communism, the government engaged in widespread illegal surveillance to threaten and silence anyone who had an unorthodox political viewpoint.

Many people were jailed, blacklisted and lost their jobs. Thousands of lives were shattered as the FBI engaged in "red-baiting."

One month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft RUSHED THE U.S.A. PARTIOT ACT through a timid Congress.

The Patriot Act created a crime of domestic terrorism aimed at political activists who protest government policies, and set forth an ideological test for entry into the United States.

In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States.

Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."

THAT DAY HAS COME WITH THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006!!!

It provides the basis for the President to round-up both aliens AND U.S. citizens he determines have given material support to terrorists.

Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of undesirables.

In his 1928 dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Justice Louis Brandeis cautioned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."

Seventy-three years later, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, speaking for a zealous President, warned Americans "they need to watch what they say.....watch what they do." ]/i]

We can expect Bush to continue to exploit 9/11 to strip us of more of our liberties.

Our constitutional right to dissent is in serious jeopardy!!!

Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause:

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

[i]Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, will be published in 2007 by PoliPointPress.

posted October 08, 2006 05:38 PM            

I like it when you expose the sources of your bullsh*t.

In this case, it's Marjorie Cohn of the communist National Lawyers Guild.

This organization has a history stretching back to the 1930's of supporting communist causes, communist nations and in fact, they are supporters of the Communist Party of America.

One of their causes is the attorney for the convicted bomber of the WTC in 1993, Stewart. The attorney who defended the terrorist and passed on messages for the terrorist to his terrorist friends in violation of instructions from the court. Stewart was charged.

I wonder how many other organizations on the following list you've lent your support to Rainbow? Note all the high sounding organization names but they're just greasy, grubby communists.

*Edit**

Every person and organization on the list would agree with you Rainbow...that terrorists should have full US citizenship rights extended to them.

Doc Date: Fri, Sep 3, 1999 14:45:57 GMT
Individuals and Organizations
Supporting Communist Party

Taken verbatim from the website of the Communist Party USA

Sen. Barbara Boxer
Center for Campus Organizing
National Lawyers Guild
Southern Christian Leadership Conference -Youth Section
Student Environmental Action Coalition
Student Association of the State University of New York
United States Student Association
University of California Student Association
Young Communist League, USA

Professor Gerald Horne, Chair, Department of Black Studies, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
Franklin Folsom, Rhodes Scholar, author of more than 40 books.
Barbara Head Millstein, Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum
Professor Cary R. Nelson, English Department, Univ. of Illinois
Dr. Andrew Hemingway, Reader in History of Art, University College of London

Gus Hall, National Chair, Communist Party, Youngstown, Ohio
Wally Kaufman - a painter by trade, a Communist and active trade union leader

Some of the unions represented involved: AFL-CIO, Steelworkers, UAW, SEIU, AFSCME, CBTU, Operating Engineers, Hospital, Teachers, Electricians, Machinists, Longshore and the new UNITE union.
International Federation of Workers Education Associations (IFWEA)

Campaign for Labor Rights
National Organization for Women (NOW)
John Bogg, United Farm Workers
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
Gerald McEntee, chair of the AFL-CIO Political Action Committee
Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO executive vice president

Matt Fong

Patty Murray, U.S. Senate

Art Guzman, a member of Pipefitters Local 250 in Los Angeles
United Electrical Workers (UE)
The National Negro Congress
The Civil Rights Congress
American League Against War and Fascism
Norman Markowitz, history professor at Rutgers University
Carolyn Rummel, Managing Editor
Fred Gaboury, Labor
Rich Giovanoni, Production/Finances
Susan Shifrin, Circulation
Scott Marshall, Internet Coordinator

National Endorser's

Center for Campus Organizing
National Lawyers Guild
Southern Christian Leadership Conference -Youth Section
Student Environmental Action Coalition
Student Association of the State University of New York
United States Student Association
University of California Student Association
Young Communist League, USA

Congressional Endorser's
Congressman Ronald V. Dellums - United States House of Representatives
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. - United States House of Representatives

Local and Individual Endorser's List (in formation)
Asian Pacific Americans for Affirmative action, SF, CA
Californian's for Justice
DePaul Cuba Coalition/Junta de Accion Latina
Labor/Community Strategy Center, Los Angeles CA
LaSalle Street Church Youth Group, Chicago Il
Leavenhouse Camden, NJ
Pax Christi, San Antonio TX Chapter
Prisoners' Defense Committee
People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO), CA
Southern Arizona People's Law Center, Tucson Az
Students For Global Solidarity, Chicago Il
U. Mass Amherst Anti-Racism Coalition, Amherst MA
US Peace Council- Michigan Chapter
US Peace Council, Menlo Park CA
US - Vietnam Friendship Association
Women's Cacus For Arts-- Michigan Chapter

posted October 08, 2006 05:53 PM            

Of course, they are urging votes for the far radical left democrat party...which is the same bullsh*t you are pushing here.

And we're not supposed to question either the patriotism or loyalty of leftists.

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Archive Struggles Ideological Struggle
Applying the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism in the present day
issues and struggles facing the working class and its allies.

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Our country and the world are going through an exceedingly dangerous period. I suppose one could imagine a more ominous time, but I can’t think of one. We have fought two wars in the space of six months and two bloody, costly, and coercive occupations have followed. No exit strategy is under consideration in either Afghanistan or Iraq.
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I hope to make a case against stiff and rigid concepts of class. In my experience, stiffly constructed concepts of class are never appropriate. And particularly now when political, economic, and ideological life is so fluid, when new opportunities exist to strengthen working class, multi-racial, and all people's unity.
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We are dealing with the largest working class in our history. Not counting farm labor, figures that I was not able to come up with, there are roughly 130 million workers in the U.S. economy today. If you add in the unemployed, who are very much part of the working class, then the figure is probably closer to 135 million. For comparison, in 1948 there were a little more than 21 million and in 1970 there were about 71 million workers.
http://www.cpusa.org/article/archive/82/