Suggested Discussion Outline - Bush's Law

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Suggested Discussion Outline - Bush's Law

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SUGGESTED DISCUSSION OUTLINE – ERIC LICHTBLAU’S “BUSH’S LAW – THE REMAKING OF AMERICAN JUSTICE” – MAY 14TH

(A) The poignant stories of innocent individuals described by Lichtblau who were wrongly suspected of being terrorists and incarcerated for extended periods while being subjected to "aggressive interrogation" methods.

(B) Whether the warrantless-wiretap program and the aggressive-interrogation methods square with US and international law -

(B-1) Whether laws passed by Congress can trump the Constitution.

(B-2) Whether the Supreme Court is the final authority on the Constitution or whether each President can make his own decision subject to being impeached (you are guaranteed to be at least as surprised as I was by the review of Harvard Law School's foremost Constitutional Law Professor of how Presidents have defied the Supreme Court including (a) President Thomas Jefferson and his Secretary of State (also a Founding Father who later became President) James Madison; (b) President Andrew Jackson who, during the War of 1812, made his famous statement "John Marshall (Chief Justice) has made his decision, now let him enforce it"; (c) President Abraham Lincoln who defied the Supreme Court's decision that his suspension of habeas corpus was unconstitutional and, therefore, he must release a Confederate soldier; and (d) President Franklin Roosevelt who informed the Supreme Court that he didn't care whether they decided that Nazi agents captured in the U.S. (INCLUDING AN AMERICAN CITIZEN!!!) were entitled to civilian trials because he was going to execute them expeditiously after quick military tribunals (the Supreme Court "knuckled under").

(B-3) George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman all using their Constitutional "Commander in Chief" power to seize whatever communications they thought advisable (foreign to foreign, US to/from foreign, and US to US) AND FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT EVEN EXERCISING HIS "COMMANDER IN CHIEF" POWER TO IMMEDIATELY INCARCERATE AFTER PEARL HARBOR ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS OF JAPANESE HERITAGE FOR THE 4-YEAR DURATION OF THE WAR.

(C) Whether Lichtblau is fair in portraying throughout his book the fear driving all of the Administration's actions (and indeed the actions of the Congressional "Gang of 8" which included the ranking Democrat in the Senate and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee - and their two counterparts in the House).

(C-1) Lichtblau portrays that fear as merely trying to prevent another 9/11.

(C-2) Yet, we know from past meetings that the Chair and Co-Chair of the 9/11 Commission and the last three Senate Foreign Relations Chairs Joe Biden (D-DL who was a Presidential candidate this cycle), Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Sam Nunn (D-GA) are all deathly afraid that Osama bin Laden's fatwa to nuke 10 million Americans will begin to produce results in the near future.

(C-3) To put this into perspective, under Islamic law it is the duty of every follower to do everything in her/his power to implement a fatwa issued by her/his leader. If, for example, the 78 suitcase-size nuclear weapons missing from the old Soviet Union AND LONG SINCE PRESUMED TO BE IN THE HANDS OF TERRORISTS are used by followers of Osama bin Laden in trying to implement his fatwa to nuke 10 million Americans, THE TOP 78 POPULATIONS CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES WOULD INCLUDE SALT LAKE CITY. And that's not even taking into account all of the weapons-grade fissile material missing from the old Soviet Union and all of the weapons-grade fissile material that has been produced already in North Korea and Iran (which accounts for the many United Nations Security Council resolutions dealing with Iran and North Korea).

(D) What we think of the 6 briefings that the "Gang of 8" received between 9/11 and the vote 14 months later to authorize the use of force against Saddam Hussein - and the total of 30 briefings they received during the first 5 years after 9/11.

(E) Whether we really want such things as universal single-payer health care (our major politicians haven’t talked about “single payer” since the early 1990’s), free college education for ALL colleges/universities with admission based solely on merit (the French model, which isn't even being discussed by our politicians), improving inner-city schools so that our inner-city kids have a realistic chance at success, etc. - OR WHETHER WE ARE WILLING TO RISK ALL OF OUR DOMESTIC-POLICY DREAMS "GOING IN THE TOILET" IN ORDER TO DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF TERRORISTS AND SOME ERRONEOUSLY-SUSPECTED BYSTANDERS (WHICH WE WILL BE FORCED TO DO BY THE MILITARY TRIBUNAL OF KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED DOMINATING THE HEADLINES THROUGHOUT THE GENERAL ELECTION AND WHICH MAY EVEN BE COMPOUNDED BY ANOTHER MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK WHICH WOULD REALLY "MAKE OUR DOMESTIC-POLICY DREAMS TOAST").

(F) Barack and Hillary starting the next war with Iran before even finishing the last one in Iraq.

(F-1) Barack's promise not to take ANY OPTION off the table in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

(F-2) Hillary's proposal to extend America's nuclear umbrella to the "Gulf State Six" (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Republics, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman).

(G) Barack's American troop surge in Afghanistan.

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