Path to Dictatorship

Arthur does an excellent job of articulating the constitutional dangers posed by the Bu$hco Administration and their propaganda voice to the wealthy: The Wall Street Journal.

Once Upon a Time...: The Ignorant Liars at the WSJ -- Paving the Path to Dictatorship: "I discussed the significance of the Padilla case and this week's indictment a few days ago. Let's briefly remember the key aspects of this battle over individual rights. Jose Padilla is an American citizen. The government held him for more than three years, and during much of that time he had no access to a lawyer. The government held him as an 'enemy combatant.' He was an 'enemy combatant' simply because the president said he was. The government never offered any evidence to support its claim, nor did it believe it was obliged to. Before this week, the government never charged him with even a single crime. This is the naked exercise of raw executive power -- power without limit, oversight or restraint of any kind. The Bush administration seeks to bypass the entire judicial system of the United States and the constitutional rights it guarantees, a system that has endured for more than 200 years. According to this part of the Bush doctrine, the president may declare anyone -- including any American citizen, which means you -- an 'enemy combatant' whenever he wishes. The administration maintains that the executive should be able to lock up any one of us for any reason or for no reason, and keep us imprisoned for the rest of our lives if it chooses -- without ever offering a single word of explanation or justification. As I've stated, this is -- in principle -- the power of any authoritarian dictator. It is literally the power of life and death. If this aspect of liberty and individual rights is destroyed, the rest won't matter a damn in time. In the most significant sense, in terms of its meaning and implications, this is the whole ball game. See the earlier post for more details."