http://thedailylight.com/articles/2007/08/31/dailylight/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letters1.txtTo the Editor,
With the advent of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’s resignation,I thought it important to review the duties of attorney general, and how their careful execution impacts our lives. The Attorney General represents the United States in cases argued in the Supreme Court, many of a Constitutional nature. There have been many recent abrogations of our Constitution, and the new Attorney General will need to be a thoughtful, experienced person who can separate him/herself from the layers of cronyism that currently exist in the highest level of government.
Our First Amendment rights, allowing freedom of speech, have been abrogated by the creation of “First Amendment Zones,” which prevent Americans from being seen/heard during their protests. Our media has been complicit in this by not reporting on these zones.
Our Fourth Amendment rights, preventing unreasonable search and seizure, have been abrogated through the “Warrantless Domestic Spying Program.” Those of you who say you have nothing to hide forget the days of J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon. Our private conversations and communications are just that-private. If we are deemed to be a threat to the safety of our country, then procuring a warrant shouldn’t be a problem.
The Fifth Amendment-indictment by a grand jury-and Sixth Amendment-right to a trial by peers and speedy trial-have been made virtually impotent in the “War on Terror.” There are thousands of men and boys being held in Guantanamo Bay without being charged, without legal representation. Jose Padilla, who was arrested after 9/11, was only recently charged, and he is a U.S. citizen. Mainstream Americans who think this doesn’t apply to them have missed the passage of the “Military Commissions Act” — which gives the President the ability to deem as an “unlawful enemy combatant” anyone who “engages in hostilities against the United States.” Given the broad brush used to define this, I could conceivably be determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant.
The Eighth Amendment Protects us against “cruel and unusual” punishment. There is abundant evidence that torture of our detainees is widespread and routine, as documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Seymour Hersch, the International Red Cross, and our own FBI. Furthermore, the Bush administration has issued memos affirming its right to torture our prisoners, and George Bush himself has appended a “signing statement” to an anti-torture bill passed by Congress.This has done extensive damage to our reputation across the world.
The violation of “Separation of Powers” as defined by our Constitution is evidenced by the 800 signing statements issued by the Bush Administration, basically making these laws not applicable to the White House.This is more signing statements than the previous 42 Presidents combined. It is also a step away from democracy and a step towards a dictatorship.
Virtually all the safeguards that were written into our Constitution to prevent our democracy from descending into tyranny have been violated repeatedly by George Bush and Dick Cheney: Our freedom of expression has been repeatedly violated, in order to keep Americans in the dark as much as possible; the Bush administration repeatedly spies on its political enemies; it sees nothing wrong with denying a trial to those it captures, throws into dungeons and has tortured; it has repeatedly asserted its immunity from having to respond to Congressional investigations; and by repeatedly firing federal employees who fail to go along with its political agenda, it has turned the executive branch of our government into a crass system devised solely for the furtherance of its own power and political goals. Our Congress has been, for the most part, impotent in acting as a watchdog for its’ constituents.
I hope that the President puts some thought into his appointment of Attorney General. It is a critical time in our country’s evolution, and we need this to be a practical, and not political, appointment.
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