Who should get the benefit of the doubt: our own American Military or suspected terrorists plotting our destruction? According to a 5 to 4 ruling by the Supreme Court on June 12, it’s the terrorists! This decision in the Boumediene v. Bush case is the first-ever application of a constitutional right of habeas corpus in American history for alien combatants held abroad in the course of an ongoing war. The “wisdom” of the Court now decrees that these foreign, enemy combatants, (POWs), are to be treated like U.S. citizens and have the protection of habeas corpus along with all of the other attending benefits of our civil court system. Can you imagine?
It’s insane to contemplate just where the liberals will take this ruling: yellow crime tape in the battlefield, arrest warrants for Osama bin Laden, reading Miranda rights to suicide bombers, granting the right of discovery, calling soldiers as witnesses, filing endless briefs and offering endless appeals! It will practically nullify our ability to prosecute the War on Terror, leaving our nation and our soldiers open to more deadly attacks.
Al Qaeda, decimated on the field of battle by our troops and demoralized by the growing success of the Surge, has just received a big shot in the arm. Hooray for justices Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer coming to the rescue just in time! The liberal wing of the Court has just demonstrated to you why the next presidential election is so desperately important. The swing of just one vote can make a huge difference. It’s expected that at least two justices will likely be replaced in the next presidential term. Obama is on record fully supporting this decision, whereas McCain has called it one of the worst decisions in history. Remember, McCain has promised to appoint justices like Alito and Roberts: two of the dissenters in this case.
Why is this so crucial? The first responsibility of government is the protection of the people. There’s an important and vital difference between the military and domestic law enforcement. History is replete with example after example of how governments, in times of great peril, resort to the appropriate measures of self-preservation and survival. Suspending habeas corpus represents a requirement of the higher law that grants to the state certain privileges of self-defense in face of rebellion, insurrection or national emergency. Desperate times, do indeed, call for desperate measures. It’s apparent, that the common sense of this necessity is well beyond the comprehension of most liberal, activist judges who care more about “process” than “getting the bad guy.” They seem to always frustrate justice by hiding it somewhere, cleverly, in the fine print of the law.
To examine this properly, it’s important to realize how this whole Guantanamo Bay mess got started. Once the military engagement began in Afghanistan, following 9/11, we started collecting enemy combatants on the field of battle and needed some place to hold them. That’s when the Naval Base (GITMO) at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was established.
This is where the 9/11 terrorists were detained, including the confessed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The attack of 9/11 wasn’t a bank robbery that should be treated like some law enforcement issue. That’s the way Bill Clinton, the ACLU and other liberals would like to conduct our response to the worst attack ever on American soil. This Supreme Court ruling, which puts foreign militants in the category of shoplifters, will undoubtedly cost American lives. Dissenting Justice Scalia warned “it will make the war harder on us, and almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” Major Kyndra Rotunda, a former Member of the GITMO prosecution team, said the decision “will lead to more dead Americans.” She went on to say, “we already know 5 to 10% of these released end up back on the battlefield interfering with the mission in Iraq. With this ruling we could end up with that ten fold.”
At least 30 of the estimated 395 detainees who have been released from Guantanamo Bay returned to Afghanistan to engage in further hostilities against Coalition forces. One promptly resumed his post as a senior Taliban commander and murdered a UN engineer and three Afghan soldiers. Another murdered an Afghan judge. And, last March, Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, after being released from GITMO, launched a suicide attack in Mosul.
Since the beginning of the Afghanistan war in 2002, 775 enemy combatants have been brought to GITMO. None of them are American citizens or legal residents. Approximately 240, or just 30%, now remain. More than one fifth have been cleared, but the U.S. officials can’t find a country that’s willing to take them. So, it’s wrong to think that this situation has not been getting resolved, over time, with due process.
The ACLU, the UN and Human Rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe we are engaging in torture simply by having an indefinite period of detention for these enemy combatants. The ACLU has been suing the military to obtain the GITMO manual. The fact is, the detainees receive the most systematic and extensive procedural protections afforded to foreign enemy combatants in the history of armed conflict, including unprecedented access to legal representation and U.S. courts. Even the Geneva Conventions require that combatants be released from custody only “after the cessation of active hostilities.” How would Obama suggest that we keep these individuals, once released, from returning to the battlefield?
Detainees at Guantanamo Bay actually have it pretty good. They have received more procedural protections ensuring the fairness of their detention than any foreign enemy combatant in any armed conflict in the history of warfare. Chief Justice Roberts termed it “the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.” Detainees have the right to appointed counsel, the right to a summary of the evidence, the right to attend all open portions of the tribunal proceedings, the opportunity to call witnesses, the right to cross-examine and the right to testify. They are judged by a neutral panel of three commissioned officers who make a determination by majority vote on the preponderance of the evidence. These procedures go far beyond what most nations provide and what the Geneva Conventions require.
The GITMO detainees are afforded several considerations. They are provided with Muslim diets, prayer caps, prayer beads, prayer rugs, arrows in their cells pointing to Mecca, calls to prayer five times a day with guards “standing down” out of respect, and up to 22 hours of daily recreation.
What the Supreme Court has done is inexcusable. It will make our war effort much more difficult and jeopardize the lives of our military personnel. This decision will force attorneys to release evidence against enemy combatants to the terrorists’ own lawyers. Detainees will have a legal right of access to classified information. It has emboldened our enemy at a time when we have them on the run. It has put every American at risk from some new terrorist attack within our borders. Keeping the people safe is the first, and most important, job of government. This November, it would serve us well to vote for candidates who will help, not hinder, the proper defense of our great nation! (send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
To Tax or Not To Tax
This is the question: Can the answers to all of the world’s problems be solved with a wealth-destroying tax? Liberals seem to think so.
Back in 1993, Bill Clinton proposed a multi-billion dollar value-added tax, (VAT), but we thankfully dodged that bullet when it died a merciful death in Congress. It was designed to help pay for Hillary-Care and the anticipated high cost of Free, Universal Healthcare, or Socialized Medicine. The VAT is a broad-based consumption tax which has been used for decades by the Socialists in Europe. It’s something that Liberals in this country have always admired despite evidence which shows its devastation upon entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. Well, don’t look now, but here it comes again.
The UN has lobbied for a Global Tax for years out of interest in paying for all of their Global Utopian schemes. Never mind the fact that these programs don’t work and that the UN is a corrupt organization which routinely votes against America’s interests. That’s beside the point. The Liberals are quick to protest that such “nuances” are nothing compared to the do-gooder “warm and fuzzies” we’re all sure to feel by disengaging our minds and disemboweling our wallets!
UN representative Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, is part of this New Age, “enlightened” crowd that is working to alleviate global poverty through another round of government-controlled wealth redistribution. Sound familiar? It should, it’s a rehash of LBJ’s “Great Society” programs, and we all know how well that turned out! Well, this time, the scam is much larger, much more Marxist, and fully supported by a much more popular politician- Barack Obama, the presumptive Democrat-nominee for president.
Sachs has said, “the only way to raise the kind of money needed, [$845 Billion], to fight Global Poverty is through a Global Tax, preferably one aimed at carbon-emitting fossil fuels.”
Obama recently sponsored a bill, “the Global Poverty Act,” (S. 2433) which serves as the perfect blueprint for this colossal, new government activism. His bill, to “fight world poverty,” commits .7 % of our nation’s GDP every year to the whims of UN managers. But, it doesn’t stop there with the imposition of another failed wealth redistribution scheme, it also includes a wiz bang provision to ban all small arms and light weapons! Presumably, these would be exactly the type of weapons individuals might choose for their own God-given Right to self-protection. For UN promoters, a policy of gun confiscation is almost as cherished as more taxes. These are the type of weapons, ironically enough, that Congolese women could be using right now to defend themselves from those pesky, unwanted advances made by UN soldiers. Mustn’t worry about that though, we have a Global Mercy Mission to launch! Pass the blindfold and “soak the rich.” Liberalism’s chief benefit remains- No Time To Think.
The U.S. Senate, sensing the apparent rise of this new wave of pro-Government enthusiasm, just voted for cloture on the Lieberman-Warren Climate Security Act, aka “Cap and Trade.” I guess, it’s open season now on the American Taxpayer. Who knew? Politics is the only endeavor I know of in nature where “the hunted” give routine aid and comfort to “the hunters!” This proposed annual cap on greenhouse gases- with the added feature of transferable restrictions- amounts to the “mother of all carbon taxes,” ala Jeffrey Sachs. Fortunately, it has stalled for the time being, but the danger is far from over.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the cost of compliance for this tax would be $90 Billion per year by 2012. Our losses in GDP for years 2010 through 2030 would range from $1.7 to $4.8 Trillion! It would also cost one million jobs by 2022, and would create a spike in energy costs adding another $1.10 to gas prices. As a bonus for all the do-gooders out there, it would create five, brand new, government bureaucracies to cheer for as they manage all of this capital destruction. Yea!
None of this makes sense. Europe has already tried these initiatives and they have proven disastrous for their economies. The insanity of it all is that it won’t make any difference. We’re looking at trillions of dollars wasted for nothing. Countries like China and India are developing quickly, using more and more fossil fuels and they would not be subject to any of these carbon restrictions- that is, assuming there’s any real benefit from curtailing these emissions in the first place, per the Global Warming hysteria.
The baby-blue helmeted UN Zoo-Keepers are also looking to tax our emails, our currency exchanges, our air travel, among many, many other things just as soon as they can think of them. They are basically, power-hungry Peaceniks desperate to find all the money they can to finance their Liberal fantasies for a Global Commune. They want an International Criminal Court and various Conventions which would rule over us in the name of: “the Rights of the Child,” “the Law of the Sea,” “the Rights of Women,” and “the Protection of Biological Diversity,” etc. Basically, they are taxes to you and me which would go toward financing the end of American Sovereignty. The perplexity of it all is seeing Americans welcome the subservience. Barack Obama is clearly an advocate for this type of “change,” and he’s currently leading in the polls.
“To Tax, or Not To Tax” may simply come down to-- “To Elect Obama, or Not Elect Obama.” (send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)
Back in 1993, Bill Clinton proposed a multi-billion dollar value-added tax, (VAT), but we thankfully dodged that bullet when it died a merciful death in Congress. It was designed to help pay for Hillary-Care and the anticipated high cost of Free, Universal Healthcare, or Socialized Medicine. The VAT is a broad-based consumption tax which has been used for decades by the Socialists in Europe. It’s something that Liberals in this country have always admired despite evidence which shows its devastation upon entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. Well, don’t look now, but here it comes again.
The UN has lobbied for a Global Tax for years out of interest in paying for all of their Global Utopian schemes. Never mind the fact that these programs don’t work and that the UN is a corrupt organization which routinely votes against America’s interests. That’s beside the point. The Liberals are quick to protest that such “nuances” are nothing compared to the do-gooder “warm and fuzzies” we’re all sure to feel by disengaging our minds and disemboweling our wallets!
UN representative Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, is part of this New Age, “enlightened” crowd that is working to alleviate global poverty through another round of government-controlled wealth redistribution. Sound familiar? It should, it’s a rehash of LBJ’s “Great Society” programs, and we all know how well that turned out! Well, this time, the scam is much larger, much more Marxist, and fully supported by a much more popular politician- Barack Obama, the presumptive Democrat-nominee for president.
Sachs has said, “the only way to raise the kind of money needed, [$845 Billion], to fight Global Poverty is through a Global Tax, preferably one aimed at carbon-emitting fossil fuels.”
Obama recently sponsored a bill, “the Global Poverty Act,” (S. 2433) which serves as the perfect blueprint for this colossal, new government activism. His bill, to “fight world poverty,” commits .7 % of our nation’s GDP every year to the whims of UN managers. But, it doesn’t stop there with the imposition of another failed wealth redistribution scheme, it also includes a wiz bang provision to ban all small arms and light weapons! Presumably, these would be exactly the type of weapons individuals might choose for their own God-given Right to self-protection. For UN promoters, a policy of gun confiscation is almost as cherished as more taxes. These are the type of weapons, ironically enough, that Congolese women could be using right now to defend themselves from those pesky, unwanted advances made by UN soldiers. Mustn’t worry about that though, we have a Global Mercy Mission to launch! Pass the blindfold and “soak the rich.” Liberalism’s chief benefit remains- No Time To Think.
The U.S. Senate, sensing the apparent rise of this new wave of pro-Government enthusiasm, just voted for cloture on the Lieberman-Warren Climate Security Act, aka “Cap and Trade.” I guess, it’s open season now on the American Taxpayer. Who knew? Politics is the only endeavor I know of in nature where “the hunted” give routine aid and comfort to “the hunters!” This proposed annual cap on greenhouse gases- with the added feature of transferable restrictions- amounts to the “mother of all carbon taxes,” ala Jeffrey Sachs. Fortunately, it has stalled for the time being, but the danger is far from over.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the cost of compliance for this tax would be $90 Billion per year by 2012. Our losses in GDP for years 2010 through 2030 would range from $1.7 to $4.8 Trillion! It would also cost one million jobs by 2022, and would create a spike in energy costs adding another $1.10 to gas prices. As a bonus for all the do-gooders out there, it would create five, brand new, government bureaucracies to cheer for as they manage all of this capital destruction. Yea!
None of this makes sense. Europe has already tried these initiatives and they have proven disastrous for their economies. The insanity of it all is that it won’t make any difference. We’re looking at trillions of dollars wasted for nothing. Countries like China and India are developing quickly, using more and more fossil fuels and they would not be subject to any of these carbon restrictions- that is, assuming there’s any real benefit from curtailing these emissions in the first place, per the Global Warming hysteria.
The baby-blue helmeted UN Zoo-Keepers are also looking to tax our emails, our currency exchanges, our air travel, among many, many other things just as soon as they can think of them. They are basically, power-hungry Peaceniks desperate to find all the money they can to finance their Liberal fantasies for a Global Commune. They want an International Criminal Court and various Conventions which would rule over us in the name of: “the Rights of the Child,” “the Law of the Sea,” “the Rights of Women,” and “the Protection of Biological Diversity,” etc. Basically, they are taxes to you and me which would go toward financing the end of American Sovereignty. The perplexity of it all is seeing Americans welcome the subservience. Barack Obama is clearly an advocate for this type of “change,” and he’s currently leading in the polls.
“To Tax, or Not To Tax” may simply come down to-- “To Elect Obama, or Not Elect Obama.” (send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)
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