May 16, 2010
Left-Wing Think Progress Advocates Stripping Citizens of Constitutional Rights Without Benefit of Trial, Conviction, or Notice of Even Being A Suspect
Think Progress, the propaganda mill for the radical progressive left, is seeking to strip away the Constitutional rights of Americans by doing what they do best: engaging in deception and perversion of the facts to serve a anti-American political agenda.
Their latest attempt is to use the fear of terrorism (without, of course, naming Muslims as the primary cause of terrorism, as that would not be politically correct) to advocate for the government to have the power to strip away the right of American citizens and resident aliens to purchase and own firearms with nothing more than the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen.
They couch their plea in an incredulous and deceptive pitch, asking:
"...if those on the terrorist watch list should be able to purchase firearms..."
The immediate, instinctive, and entirely emotional response for most people is going to be of course not. Luckily, our Founders sought to create a nation based upon the rationality of laws and not the swirling emotions of men.
Keeping real suspected terrorists form obtaining weapons is an admirable goal, but the simple fact of the matter is that the terror watch lists are ever-expanding, bloated, inefficient, and arbitrary. Children, the elderly, actors, soldiers, and even some of our most famous politicians (including Ted Kennedy) have been placed on these hastily-constructed and poorly maintained terror watch lists, and once on them for whatever imagined offense, it is very difficult to get your name of of them.
What Think Progress advocates is stripping Americans of their rights without the benefit of even being accused of of a crime. You will have no trial. you will have no judge, and no jury. You will have a Constitutional right merely done away with based upon a computer or some harried and incompetent Department of Homeland Security drone connecting your name to another person, or place, or thing that someone, somewhere, thinks might have in some way been related to some criteria they have decided is suspect.
Will keeping everyone on the terror watch list from purchasing guns stop, or even slow Islamic terrorism? As the most lethal attacks on American soil have all been committed with easily acquired objects (box cutters, household and industrial chemicals) the obvious answer is a resounding no.
Think Progress and their progressive, anti-American allies in the White House and Congress hope to erase our Constitutional protections by fiat and fear-mongering because they cannot convince Americans to give up their rights though honest discourse.
Marx, Obama and Alinsky must be proud.
I no sooner finished predicting this on my blog than I come over here and find it's already started. Imagine that.
http://catawissagazetteer.blogspot.com/2010/05/security-over-safety-who-needs-rights.html
Posted by: Tom Usher at May 16, 2010 10:35 AMIronically, the Obama administration -along with their cheerleaders and propagandists- are simply continuing the work begun by the Bush administration. The Democratic and Republican Parties, the Democratic-Republican political class, long ago declared war on the people and the constitution of the United States.
Posted by: d.eris at May 16, 2010 11:08 AMSo in your world it is OK to strip Americans of the constitutional rights of miranda but not guns for potential terrorists. Go figure!
Posted by: Tom at May 16, 2010 12:49 PMMiranda is kind of new. Right to bear arms isn't.
Frankly, I'm not cool with stripping ANYTHING until someone is either caught on a battle field (that includes one they created themselves during an attack) or they've been publicly tried and convicted and formally had their citizenship removed.
Posted by: Foxfier at May 16, 2010 01:12 PMIt seems that between the Repubs and the Dems that they intend to do everything in their power to take all rights and run the country into the ground. When you vote, the only decision is how fast you desire for the process to proceed.
Posted by: David at May 16, 2010 04:15 PM@David, well put! Once governments start to accumulate power they are normally loathe to relinquish it. I'm through with voting myself, as Huey Newton said, "Don't vote, it only encourages them."
Posted by: Will Butler at May 16, 2010 08:49 PMThe Magical Rocket-Propelled Goalposts strike again!
The title of this post includes a perfect desciption of "extraordinary rendition" ... a Bush policy which the American Right enthusiastically endorsed as "getting tough with terrorism" - & this proposal doesn't involve incarceration or torture, either.
I'm far from anti-gun myself; I grew up with them - but I find America's fetish for weapons both macabre & pathetic.
"Miranda is kind of new. Right to bear arms isn't."
Habeas corpus is kind of new. Divine Right Of Kings isn't. Women's sufferage is kind of new. Slavery isn't. Separation of church & state is kind of new. Cannibalism isn't.
Longevity does not equal validity.
Posted by: jim at May 17, 2010 11:07 AMFeel free to move to some place based on the Divine Right of Kings, Jim. I'll stick with the one that's had right to bear arms since day one.
Shifting goalpost, indeed. The Projection Machine is at it again-- are you really too stupid to figure out that the topic is the US, not generic 'longevity'? Some of us think that the US is kinda special.
Posted by: Foxfier at May 17, 2010 11:40 AMSo, if you're on a terrorist watch list but you haven't been convicted or even charged, you should NOT be free to fly - that's too dangerous for other citizens.
But you should still be able to buy a gun, because risk is the price of freedom.
Doesn't that seem like a contradiction?
Posted by: jim x at May 17, 2010 07:01 PMJim X, the terror watch list doesn't prevent people from flying. Takes an extra ten-fifteen or even half hour extra, but hey.
Posted by: Foxfier at May 17, 2010 10:27 PM
Foxfier said:
Miranda is kind of new.
The Miranda warning is kind of new, but the rights it informs about (5th and 6th amendment) are exactly as old as the 2nd amendment. Should we trick people into thinking they aren't allowed to own guns? Posted by: Anonymous P Hancock at May 18, 2010 09:13 AM
APH-
one is a protection put in place less than 50 years ago, on the justification of other rights; the other is actual text from the founding.
If you can't see a difference, I can't help you.
Posted by: Foxfier at May 18, 2010 01:26 PMFoxfier-
You're right. We're safer if people don't know what rights they have under the law. Otherwise the legal system might function the way the founders intended it to.
