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Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists Examine the Root of All Evil: February 28-March 2, 2014 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)11. The Erosion of the U.S. Constitution ... and It Starts in the White House By Peter Van Buren
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/erosion-us-constitution-and-it-starts-white-house?akid=11515.227380.7noMUF&rd=1&src=newsletter959460&t=10&paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
....Remember the testimony then-FBI Director Robert Mueller gave before a House subcommittee in 2012? When asked point-blank if the president could order the killing of an American in the United States, he replied Uh, Im not certain whether that was addressed or not... Im going to defer that to others in the Department of Justice. Mueller, of course, had the option of saying flat-out, No, no, of course the president cant order a hit on an American here in the U.S. where the full judicial system, Constitution, and due process protections exist! Are you mad?
The truth emerged only in 2013 when Senator Rand Paul asked point-blank whether the president could authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against an American citizen in the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder fired back that while the question was "hypothetical," the real-world answer was yes. Holder said he could imagine "an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the president to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States."
Its easy enough, in fact, to imagine the sort of scenarios that might lend themselves to such an act: a ticking time bomb, a killer believed to have anthrax and on the loose, a suspected dirty-bomb maker in a desolate location, terrorists with a bus full of children on a mountain top. Imagine a slippery slope and... presto! Youre there.
They've thought about it. They've set up the legal manipulations necessary to justify it. The broad, open-ended criteria the president laid out for killing suspected terrorists exposes the post-Constitutional stance our government has already prepared for. All that's left to do is pull the trigger.
MORE NAUSEA AT LINK
WHEN YOU THINK OF THE CRIMINALITY ALLOWED FREE REIN IN THIS COUNTRY...BY ITS "PUBLIC SERVANTS"....IT'S A WONDER YOU CAN THINK AT ALL.
....Remember the testimony then-FBI Director Robert Mueller gave before a House subcommittee in 2012? When asked point-blank if the president could order the killing of an American in the United States, he replied Uh, Im not certain whether that was addressed or not... Im going to defer that to others in the Department of Justice. Mueller, of course, had the option of saying flat-out, No, no, of course the president cant order a hit on an American here in the U.S. where the full judicial system, Constitution, and due process protections exist! Are you mad?
The truth emerged only in 2013 when Senator Rand Paul asked point-blank whether the president could authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against an American citizen in the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder fired back that while the question was "hypothetical," the real-world answer was yes. Holder said he could imagine "an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the president to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States."
Its easy enough, in fact, to imagine the sort of scenarios that might lend themselves to such an act: a ticking time bomb, a killer believed to have anthrax and on the loose, a suspected dirty-bomb maker in a desolate location, terrorists with a bus full of children on a mountain top. Imagine a slippery slope and... presto! Youre there.
They've thought about it. They've set up the legal manipulations necessary to justify it. The broad, open-ended criteria the president laid out for killing suspected terrorists exposes the post-Constitutional stance our government has already prepared for. All that's left to do is pull the trigger.
MORE NAUSEA AT LINK
WHEN YOU THINK OF THE CRIMINALITY ALLOWED FREE REIN IN THIS COUNTRY...BY ITS "PUBLIC SERVANTS"....IT'S A WONDER YOU CAN THINK AT ALL.
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Weekend Economists Examine the Root of All Evil: February 28-March 2, 2014 [View all]
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I'll give you all a chance to catch up, and let X and others handle posts for a bit!
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Here's something I posted earlier this week about the economic situation in Ukraine...
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