Habeas Schmabeas

The Attorney General of the United States of America told a U.S. Senator at a Congressional hearing that the U.S. Constitution does not impart the right of habeas corpus to U.S. citizens.

That noise you are hearing is the theme music from "The Twighlight Zone."

Our president has worked tirelessly to increase the power of the executive at the expense of the other branches.

This is no secret. Cheney, ex- SecDef Rumsfeld and their legal advisors, like John Yoo, have openly stated their intention to return the presidency to what they see as its rightful place of power after its diminished status post-Watergate.

Bush has added 800 signing statements to laws passed by Congress modifying or basically stating his bald intention to ignore them (as opposed to about 500 statements written by every other president in our country's history). This includes the McCain ban on torture. Where is the check when the president can simply tag on an addendum saying, "Nah. Think I'll ignore this one"? He has the right to veto bills. But instead, he actively undermines one of the most vital checks on executive power.

Now don't get me wrong. I know we are fighting for our survival (which is a fight we seem unlikely to lose, considering the enemy simply wants to end civilization). I believe we need a strong executive. I support and admire law enforcement and military personnel who work tirelessly and risk their lives to protect me. I believe the men and women of our police, intelligence agencies and military forces are mostly of the highest character and with the best intentions.

But police and intelligence agents can sometimes be overly aggressive in their techniques. And sometimes, they get the wrong guy.

The core idea of creating a system of jurisprudence lies in the suffix "prudence." No free people should feel the need to simply trust their government to get it right all the time right from the outset. Governments are made of people. And people make mistakes. There are stops and checks to make sure innocent people don't rot away in dark cells (in this country, Cuba or Eastern Europe).

Personally, I don't much care if Kaleid Sheik Mohammad spends the rest of his miserable life in a 2-foot square box with needles in his eyes. But how can we be sure every "terror suspect" is in fact guilty? Our government has already released hundreds of terrorist suspects after years without due process or access to their families. All of a sudden they aren't dangerous? Does our president or his talk radio aparatchicks ever wonder what it might be like to have the wrong name, come from the wrong country, attend the wrong mosque or otherwise be completely and innocently screwed by circumstances?

Every year the U.S. State Department issues a report on human rights violations worldwide. In the report, we itemize the abuses of government in places like North Korea, China and Iran. We condemn them for their political imprisonments, torture tactics and lack of due process.

I'm not comparing our government to these regimes. But on the path we are following, by enshrining extreme and unnecessary terror-fighting tactics as law, there will be nothing to stop them from making those comparisons.

America should not look like this. Fear of terrorism is no excuse for abandoning the values that make this country better than all the others. I'm talking about real values, not the bullshit Republican wedge-issue values they float to win elections.

And to suggest we have to play dirty because the terrorists play dirty only concedes them the war. If we sell out our values and our rule of law, we'll have nothing left worth defending. Just some land and our fears.