Alright, this argument has just gotten about as stupid as it could possibly get. Because seriously, are there any politicians currently in office who want to put forth the argument that due process is a bad thing? John Boeher... anyone else? Shut up Ted Stevens, you're not in office anymore.
So what we have now is a series of insipid straw-man arguments designed to be a political hot-potato. It's ridiculous, it's insulting and it behooves the president (who promised to end this sort of partisan idiocy) to do just that.
Did the head of the FBI honestly say that he's afraid of what radical Islamists would do to the Federal Supermax prison population? Seriously? Does he know what the ADX facility is like?
Honestly, are we that afraid of due process? And if we are, why aren't we talking judicial reform rather than "oh no, a terrorist in my back-yard!" And seriously, if I hear one more moronic republican tell me that President Obama is going to set Al-Qaeda operatives loose in my town, I may just forswear the whole party on principle. Especially the orange one.
Posted by Vengeful Cynic at May 21, 2009 11:56 PM | TrackBackI heard an interesting discussion (on NPR) about this same issue a week or so ago. There was in interview with the govenor of the only state with a maximum security-level military prison.
He said 3 things, repeated in various forms:
- He agreed with Obama about moving the prisoners to the US for trials.
- He regretted that the maximum security prison in his state wasn't prepared for the detainees from Cuba.
- He was certain that the other secure prisons in his state also weren't prepared.
When pressed on how exactly the detainees would be detained, he suggested they build a new prison for them, in some other state of course.
It was a very amusing and somewhat sad playing out of the NIMBY factor.
Posted by: Moore at June 3, 2009 01:16 PMHere's a link to a recording of this interview: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104406499
Posted by: Moore at June 3, 2009 01:26 PMThe best part is that I've heard interviews with the people in charge of ADMax, the people who work there and the residents (and mayor) of Florence, CO where ADMax is located and the only people who seem concerned about it are the politicians who have nothing to do with (or no awareness of) the actual operations of ADMax. It seems like everyone who has an actual personal (rather than political, emotional or hysterical) interest in the matter are fine with it.
Posted by: Vengeful Cynic at June 7, 2009 06:37 PM