politics, mostly NP with a glance at Vineland

[pynchonoid]

Read through the latest legislative abortion
increasing Bush's powers to identify and detain
enemies of the State and "tyrrany" is another word
people may start debating. 


Sez the islamofascistloving NY Times:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30detain.html?hp&ex=1159675200&en=4b0651b4401c1962&ei=5094&partner=homepage>


Detainee Bill Shifts Power to President
[...] Rather than reining in the formidable
presidential powers Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney have asserted since Sept. 11, 2001, the law
gives some of those powers a solid statutory
foundation. In effect it allows the president to
identify enemies, imprison them indefinitely and
interrogate them — albeit with a ban on the harshest
treatment — beyond the reach of the full court reviews
traditionally afforded criminal defendants and
ordinary prisoners.

Taken as a whole, the law will give the president more
power over terrorism suspects than he had before the
Supreme Court decision this summer in Hamdan v.
Rumsfeld that undercut more than four years of White
House policy. It does, however, grant detainees
brought before military commissions limited
protections initially opposed by the White House. The
bill, which cleared a final procedural hurdle in the
House on Friday and is likely to be signed into law
next week by Mr. Bush, does not just allow the
president to determine the meaning and application of
the Geneva Conventions; it also strips the courts of
jurisdiction to hear challenges to his interpretation.

And it broadens the definition of “unlawful enemy
combatant” to include not only those who fight the
United States but also those who have “purposefully
and materially supported hostilities against the
United States.” The latter group could include those
accused of providing financial or other indirect
support to terrorists, human rights groups say. The
designation can be made by any “competent tribunal”
created by the president or secretary of defense.

In very specific ways, the bill is a rejoinder to the
Hamdan ruling, in which several justices said the
absence of Congressional authorization was a central
flaw in the administration’s approach. The new bill
solves that problem, legal experts said. [...]



> > > From the Hullabaloo blog:
> > >...
> > > I'll say it again: Americans are living in a
> fascist state. > >
> ...

Might be worth re-reading Pynchon's intro to 1984.

>http://pynchonoid.org
"everything connects"

>http://OnlineJournalist.org

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