Showing posts with label habeas corpus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label habeas corpus. Show all posts

Monday, March 3, 2008

America Going to the Dogs

USA Going to the Dogs

My dogs must dig a shallow hole to sleep in every night. Since I have a tiled floor, they indulge their instinct in the beleaguered items I laughingly call my furniture. Consequently, wood chips and mattress stuffing dominate my décor a definite lived-in effect.

As these leftovers are poor stuff as victuals, my doggie crew counts anything soft as edible. I dare not enter my humble home without a bag of munchies.

The Israeli Police State authorities have never acquired this wisdom. They insist on climbing over the walls to conduct warrantless searches and seizures. It is difficult to smash metal doors before twenty-eight sets of canine teeth gnawing at every exposed body part.

Americans generally lack such protections. They live behind shrubs and wooden picket fences easily breached. Their animals are house pets licking the hands of intruders.

The good citizens have forgotten they are responsible for self-defense. They depend on uniformed authorities for protection. They rely on the legal system for justice. The Constitution is in the hands of those sworn to uphold it.

The founding fathers weren’t so trusting. They knew power corrupts, so they set up a system of checks and balances. Nobody could hold a mandate indefinitely.

Who could anticipate a time when Americans would live in fear? Afraid to speak freely, they take instructions from television personalities and administration pundits. They fear to associate with potential enemy combatants who uphold ancient traditions and who espouse causes deemed heretical in high places.

In preparation for Martial Law, the leaders have revoked habeas corpus and the rule of law. They promote a foreign policy based on intervention, preemptive war and torture.

As my dogs, they beggar the future for one night of comfortable slumber.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Life Without Habeas Corpus

If I had murdered my wife in 1992, the Israeli authorities would likely have released me in 1999 to return home to America. Unfortunately, I could not pull the hammer on the mother of my son.

So, Israel revoked my human rights and detained me indefinitely in the Holy Land. Without charges or trial, I probably will die here. It’s cheaper to give me a disability check and six hours on the Internet than it is to incarcerate me.

Torture would kill me faster than I could confess.

Most citizens with common sense have resigned themselves to this status. They are free to travel, to take a new job or to participate in politics. They are free to rock the boat, but not to change its course or to sink it.

What does one do when the Police riot?