Jon Stewart Rips Obama on Continuing Bush Era War Powers
All of these policies are troubling, but most troubling to me is that Obama has made no effort to explain his reversal on all of these policies. He may very well have important, serious reasons for abandoning his core convictions from the 2008 campaign, but if he does, we are entitled to hear him. Being President requires that one be accountable to the American people. President Obama’s failure to make this accounting is the biggest blight upon his administration.
As a libertarian, I put a greater premium on civil liberties than most Americans. But I also understand the incredible pressure placed on a President responsible for the safety and well-being of a nation, and I recognize that there are situations where even I would crumble under the weight of such responsibility. Even the President’s harshest critics might find some sympathy for our President … if only he would explain himself.
He went into office and the military scared the crap out of him. That’s all I got.
Did nobody offer this theory?:
Should DUI Checkpoints Be Banned Altogether?:
DUI checkpoints continue to generate a lot of debate and discussion.
The latest skirmish involving DUI checkpoints comes from at least two states that are now reconsidering the legality and effectiveness of DUI checkpoints in the first place. In Utah, a bill will soon be considered by the state House of Representatives that would completely ban police from setting up DUI checkpoints, FOX 13 reports. Utah state Rep. David Butterfield, a sponsor of the bill, believes that DUI checkpoints violate citizens’ rights against unreasonable searches. “The Utah Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court have both held that they are constitutional under very narrow guidelines, but that’s problematic,” he said.
Similarly, WestIslip Patch reports, New Hampshire lawmakers are also considering a proposal to prohibit state police from setting up DUI checkpoints, again citing possible violations of citizen’s civil rights. According to the Patch, New Hampshire lawmakers are concerned with citizens’ “due process rights when they are arrested for other violations or their vehicles are searched.”
Supporters of DUI checkpoints such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving argue that the tactic does improve public safety. They add that checkpoints do not violate civil rights because citizens are only detained briefly and strict guidelines govern what police may and may not do in connection with the checkpoints.
“With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates. This would be the first time that Congress has deviated from President Nixon’s Non-Detention Act. And what we are talking about here is that Americans could be subjected to life imprisonment without ever being charged, tried, or convicted of a crime, without ever having an opportunity to prove their innocence to a judge or a jury of their peers. And without the government ever having to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. … I think that denigrates the very foundations of this country. It denigrates the Bill of Rights. It denigrates what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil. Our Founders were fearful of the military-and they purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure we did not become a country under military rule. This bill undermines that core principle, which is why I could not support it.”
“The government has as much of a right to control what I as an adult put into my body as it does what I put into my mind, it’s NONE of their business.”
Judge Jim Gray, the Republican who co-authored the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act and believes there will be an end to marijuana prohibition within two years.
(Source: d-0wn)
onefootinthegrave replied to your photo: That’s a great catch by jron. I know it’s easier…
my issue is that no matter how many grannies we frisk, a terrorist will still get through eventually.
Unfortunately, I can’t say a terrorist attack won’t ever happen again. But I’d prefer to believe that most of us are willing to endure the occasionally embarrassing episodes from the TSA as long as they’re continuing to lessen the odds of that attack happening. It’s certainly more convenient to pass judgement on the agency immediately after public missteps such as the one today, but it’s not as though too many people give them any credit for all those other days when their employees weren’t in the news and presumably just doing their job.
That’s a great catch by jron. I know it’s easier for most everyone to simply pile on the TSA for something that sounds so totally outrageous and unnecessary (never mind that there was a suicide bomber in a wheelchair over in Iraq today, of course), but as LTMC put it earlier today about this same story:
America will continue to tolerate these procedures until we are willing to admit, collectively as a society, that the price of a free nation is suffering the occasional terrorist attack. We can pat down wheel-chair bound, cancer-stricken grandmothers due to the fear of “terrorists exploiting that vulnerability,” or we can simply accept that occasionally, a terrorist is going to get through and kill people. Until people are willing to accept that trade-off, this sort of thing will continue to happen.
A woman was arrested for filming police officers from her own front yard. Then, when neighbors held a meeting at a private home to discuss ways they could support this poor woman, four cop cars showed up to ticket cars every car that was parked more than 12 inches from the curb. As Randy Balko notes, “they even brought a ruler.” Balko adds:
By the way, due to a $50 million budget shortfall, the city of Rochester is considering cutting 27 full-time police positions. If the the cops in Rochester have time to carry out petty grudges against citizens who dare to show support for a woman who was illegally arrested, maybe the city ought to consider cutting 40 or 50 positions instead. They could start with the cops in this video.
Every day, cops are wrongfully arresting people for filming them. And everyday, the the TV news reports on the Palins.
