POLICE STATE? You're Soaking In It!

Wow, so that Military Commissions Act of 2006 that the House and Senate passed last week? Yeah, that thing is pretty bad. For one, it says that non-US-citizens determined by the Bush Admin to have "engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" don't have the right to challenge their detention. Why is this bad? It's bad because this is a basic human right. A government that doesn't acknowledge every individual's right to challenge charges leveled against them is essentially claiming that they are perfect and never arrest anyone unless they are 100% guilty. Such a government claims that they never make mistakes and essentially don't even need a court of law or even a military tribunal to determine your guilt. Don't believe me that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 bans alien unlawful enemy combatants from getting a judge to review their case to determine if they have been lawfully detained? Check out [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.6166:|the law for yourself] at LOC.gov. That's the Library Of Congress website, BTW. Here's the exact quote to save you some time:

Section 7e1:No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.

So, if you're an alien and you speak out against the USG, you could get seriously screwed. Two other things make this damn law even more fun. First, it applies to anyone who may have "engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" BEFORE THIS LAW WAS ENACTED. If this law doesn't get struck down by the Supreme Court, it could set a seriously messed up example for future laws to follow--you could be committing a crime right now--only the law hasn't been passed yet. Yes, some lawmakers have said that this new law preserves Habeas Corpus (the right to challenge your detention/arrest/etc) but here's the second thing that makes this law totally fucked--remember how I said that it assumes that the government is perfect? Well, we know they aren't. What happens if they think YOU are an alien? You can't challenge them because they've decided you're not an American citizen. Now YOU are fucked. [http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn09302006.html|Read an October 1, 2006 piece by professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists, Marjorie Cohn] at CounterPunch.Org. God luck trying to find a PDF of the law...

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