Patters

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGDONO11O1.DTL

One of the Bush administration's most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus -- the right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution.

"The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas,'' Gonzales told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17.

Gonzales acknowledged that the Constitution declares "habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless ... in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.'' But he insisted that "there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution.''

Specter was incredulous, asking how the Constitution could bar the suspension of a right that didn't exist -- a right, he noted, that was first recognized in medieval England as a shield against the king's power to dispatch troublesome subjects to royal dungeons.

Fogbuster

Hey, if you think this administration is scary, just wait to see what the Taliban, al qaeda, and Muslim sharia have in store for you. That's if the Chinese don't take over the world first, thanks to Bill Clinton giving them access to ultra-top secret technology needed for precision outer space military work, like targeting and intercepting communication satellites. Technology Clinton gave away for a few million in under the table campaign donations. Un-freaking believable. The guy sold out his country just so he could be elected. And people want to talk about "traitors" !!!




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Pujo

Pujo

Blah blah blah, just generic try-to-scare-you crap like usual. So you're saying that as long as we're a little better than the Taliban and Al Qaeda, we can ignore the constitution. There's just no way to accept the Admin's interpertation. The AG is is claiming that by saying that habeas won't be denied, the constitution doesn't actually grant citizens habeas corpus.

PressCoverage

dear chicken little: there's medication and therapy for that level of sky-is-falling paranoia...

yes, i'm sure China, with no semblance of a viable navy, is prepared and bold enough to take over the world all because of some alleged Clinton buyoff... lol...

you have everything you need in that church basement, huh? a computer, the good book, and your slanted political conviction... do the CCD kids buy your pap when you get political?

Real World

I read the article, and would love to see the complete exchange between Specter and Gonzales. Anyone know where that might be?

I think the arguement, and this is why I want to see the complete exchange, is that every citizen is not granted the right, because there are instances where it can be taken away. If it is an unalienable right, then there would be no instance where it could be taken away. I think anyhow. It's letter of the law crap I think. I'd really love to see the entire exchange to see if that is what Gonzales is trying to say.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Fogbuster

OK, I'll make it simpler for you: as they go railing about Bush's admin as the second coming of Hitler or something, the Mongolian hordes are watching, stroking their chins, deciding just exactly WHEN the right time to strike would be.

Oh, yeah, you got bad little Gonzalez for taking away your "habeas"; meanwhile the Islamists (or Iranians or NKoreans) just blew up Times Square, Capitol Hill, and the rest of DC. Either that or the Chinese just knocked out all our satellite communications. All. Not only your internet, but *all* commercial and military communications. ALL of them.

But, hey, you got those "scary" Repubs !!! Pyrrhic victories, anyone??

Pujo

The video is here: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/19/gonzales-habeas/ and your reasoning is weak. Habeas isn't an "unalienable" right, it can be taken away, but the constitution is very clear on when and how it can be done. To me, that means it can't be taken away except as the constitution says... the AG is saying it doesn't exist in the first place.

Pujo

I completely concede that the foreign threats to our country are more dangerous than the domestic threats at the moment, but does that mean that we should suspend the constitution? Yes or no, should we suspend constitutional rights because we're so concerned about the "Mongolian hordes"?

Harry Boy

Dear Liberals And Bush Haters:
Times are changing, America has to adapt to the actions of it's enemy's, we are now facing a ruthless savage stone age religion whose members believe they will go to Paradise if they disembowel your childrens guts and if you let your guard down for one instant that is exactky what they will do, they will blow you and your family to kingdom come and then scream "Praise Allah"

What the hell is wrong with you people, don't you remember that poor guy falling from a hundred stories up on 9/11 flapping his arms "trying to fly".

Has your HATRED for G Bush erased that from your little liberal head, or do you just try to make believe it didn't happen.
God Help You.

Many of you complain about America's "Religious Nuts", what do you think about the "Radical Muslim Head Hunter" and his GOD Allah.
DEATH TO THE INFEDELS (you are one of the Infedels)

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself