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Given that the Republican Party has roughly the same prognosis as Terri Shiavo in the upcoming elections and that we may see the GOP brand sullied and disgraced for a generation as a result of the Bush Administration, I think we may be acting a bit hastily on this proposed roll-back of Executive Powers. No, no, seriously, I mean it. Just think what President Obama could do with those powers.
Ah, yes. Now you're with me.
Or let's say President John Edwards has just been sworn in and he decides it's time for a little payback. He picks up the phone and calls his people at the NSA and says, "I need to see all of Bill Donohue's cell-phone records, taxes, credit card transactions, and checking account records for the last ten years. Oh, and freeze his assets. I think he may be involved in terrorist activity."
See, if you throw in the T-word, all those provisions of the Patriot Act come into play. No need to go to a judge. No need for a subpoena. That stuff's for sissies. Let's just get his records, find the data we need (or not!), change his status to "Enemy Combatant", and off he goes to our secret interrogation facilities in Romania. Ta-daaaaaaah!
"But please!" Donohue would beg, "Let me speak to an attorney! Let me at least know what charges are being brought against me!"
Nope. Too bad, so sad, but all that went out the window when the Bush administration gutted habeas corpus.
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How loud you think the whiny Rethugs would scream? Would we hear the old chants of 'rule of law! rule of law!' begun when Clinton was in the hot seat? Would we hear 'misuse of the executive'? Of course we would, and of course it would be nice to turn the tables on them ... as a fantasy. It would be even nicer if we could make this nation work the way it was supposed to.
Thank God this is still America. Thank God I'm not a Rethuglican. It's how I know I'm on the right side.
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