Nice Gesture

Friday 9 March 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

It’s a nice gesture and all that you’re seeking to repeal the indefinite detention clause in the National Defense Authorization Act this past December, but what would have been really fucking special would be if you hadn’t voted to instill in the executive branch that kind of power to begin with, you dishonest fuckers. HuffPo:

A pair of lawmakers on Thursday offered a bill that would repeal laws that allow the indefinite detention of Americans and others by the military without trial.

The power of military authorities to arrest and jail people as long as they want stems from Congress’ 2001 joint resolution authorizing the use of military force against terrorists, but was explicitly codified into law last year after President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s Eve. While allowing military detention of anyone, the act mandated that certain terrorist suspects had to be held by the armed forces.

Civil libertarians on the left and right were sharply critical of the law, even though the president promised not to grab Americans.

Obama set out policy rules last month making good on that pledge, specifying that U.S. citizens and numerous other categories of suspected terrorists would not be clapped into the military system, which somewhat mollified critics.

But many pointed out that those rules are only good as long as Obama is president, prompting Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) to offer their bill Thursday.

“On the books, we have a law that gives the executive branch the power to indefinitely detain people here in the U.S., even U.S. citizens, and we believe we should take that off the books,” Smith said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “Even though you can make an argument that this executive will not exercise that authority, has not exercised that authority, we don’t believe we can afford to allow that kind of power to reside in the executive branch.”

This bill is a hollow attempt at making Team BLUE seem as if they care about our civil liberties. You don’t vote overwhelmingly in favor of a shitty bill, only to claim to be a hero by introducing another bill (one that is almost certain to fail, BTW) which seeks to nullify portions of the original one. If this isn’t a sad attempt at posturing for votes, nothing is.

Principles: how the fuck do they work?

2012-03-09  »  madlibertarianguy