We’ll have to come up with a name for this new hybrid form of proceeding.

It is part secret trial and part show trial all at once. Hundreds of years experience with war and peace have left us with a common law tradition inadequate to a “post 9/11 world”. The American constitution was exceptional, but a frightened, aggrieved America is even more exceptional.

Watching the contortions the government is going through to try to preserve the illusion of respect for the rule of law, the constitution and precedent is astonishing.

I anticipate these bizarre judicial spectacles will become quite common as the US deals with all of the various “combatants”, whistle-blowers and activists who must clearly fall into the hands of law enforcement, but never into courts where outcomes can not be pre-ordained.

I wonder when, or if, anyone but a few dirty hippies and libertarians will notice or give a shit? Remarkable.

Hey, I take your point, but you don’t carry a gun because “five guys with guns”? Um, not sure that’s helping.

As a foreigner, I can assure you that we love you but you have collectively gone insane since 9/11.

My wife and father in law got back on Sunday from a dermatology conference in Washington. Ten minute porn scans and strip-searches of seventy-year old dermatologists sends a peculiar message about American insecurity.

We still come to the US, but the sigh of relief and unclenching of shoulders as soon as we’re airborne is reported by a lot of visitors. Too bad. America was a lot more fun when it was not paralysed with fear.

It seems they are deeply confused. Perhaps I can help.

You can have a show trial. Or you can have a secret trial (often for the same reasons). But you can’t have both, simultaneously.

There.

OK. Assault weapons, cool. Unlimited magazines, fine. Straw purchasers, no problem. Ammunition sales, wide open. Any gun owner can transfer guns to anyone, as long as they are not gun dealers, fantastic.

But hey, we got a “vote”. Perhaps the gun shows (maybe)…so yeehaaa! Democrats win!

Bet you didn’t notice the AG report on foreclosures!

Hope and Change.

Not in defence of eternal vigilance’s comment, the evident defeatism or cynicism, but is it ever appropriate for the victim of a show trial to call a spade a spade, and refuse the Potempkin illusion of due process and justice?

(Easy to say when my ass is not on the line, but Mr. Manning chose to join the great whistle-blowers, and could not have been insensible to the adversary he would meet.)

P.S. Whatever happens, yours will be the most complete record of this travesty. For this your place in the American pantheon of journalists will be secure (eventually).

Re: NOTE: Kate and I married in Vancouver, B.C. Canada in July 2004. A wee bit OT….

As a native of soviet cannukistan, I note some swings and roundabouts. I am a bastard. This is because in 1961, an excommunicated R.C. man marrying a divorced Methodist by way of a Reno divorce and a Vegas wedding was considered illegitimate in a very conservative province like Ontario.

I think I was about 11 when, in a civil ceremony, my parents and I became less illegitimate. Attending your own parents’ wedding was (by 1970) a bit cool. I’m pretty sure I’ll always be a bastard, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Nevada, the only place on the continent my parents were able to solemnize their love.

Many years later a smaller, more nimble country like Canada, has been able turn this corner more quickly and return the favour for some American couples whose country (or state) has refused to recognize their love.

In any event, in terms of marriage equality, we’ll see you soon!

Hey New York Times!

Remember. You have access or you can have the truth. Just not both.

(h/t: Stephen Colbert)

I’m still curious to know if multiple agencies (Justice, CIA, Defense, Homeland, etc.) have the right to kill me when the POTUS issues a fiat fatwa naming me a “terrorist.”

fixed.

or in the words of Dave Mason…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=p8_FOQ7-P30

The only way to win at three card monte is not to play.

The only problem with that idea is that unless you are a hermit you are automatically a player.

Ever paid taxes, had a bank account, a job or accommodation? Bingo! What the banks do affects you every day.

I guess the game you mean is not the one with the banks, but the one run by the politicians on behalf of the banks.

But Newty will not be alone. I’m sure we’ll begin to see how many of our die hard culture warriors were only soldiers for power and profit. As soon as the paths to shareholder value and value-voters hearts diverge, the principals of principled conservatism will find new hills to die on.

But what Obama is prepared to do now is even more dangerous, that is to “normalize” this behavior.

Now where have we seen this before?

Illegal electronic surveillance; Illegal indefinite detention; Immunity for torture and extra-judicial killing; Immunity for economic crimes (holy crap HSBC!); Revolving-doors & lobbyists (Liz Fowler, Peter Orszag)…the list is long, distinguished, and growing daily.

It’s not that Obama created all the evils he once railed against, it’s just that for short-term political advantage, he has made them permanent, legitimate and bi-partisan.

we might as well put up a giant billboards all over Washington saying “politicians will never be held accountable.”

Considering the record of the last 4 years, with HSBC as the crowning achievement, why are we even using words like accountability? We have entered a mirror universe. The greater the magnitude of your bad acts, the lower the likelihood of being held accountable for them.

If you enable murder, corruption, and terrorism on a global scale you get a speeding ticket that your shareholders get to pay. If you establish a global spying and torture regime, you get immunity and eventually TV shows and movies to sing your praises.

Get caught with a dime-bag, you forfeit your freedom, and lose your voting rights, employment prospects and social services. Forever. Get a loan from a casino masquerading as a bank, and your own taxes pay for the bail-out that enables them to take everything you have left.

Whatever Obama does or doesn’t do for the poor and middle class this term, his headlong campaign to destroy the rule of law for short-term political advantage will be his true legacy.

Even more than the grotesque economic inequality, the failure of the rule of law will eventually undo whatever social cohesion exists. At which point democracy itself and law and order will seem just as “quaint” as the Geneva Convention.

Thanks for the effort on these stories. Ever since King Ronnie sold us on broken government these regulatory horror shows abound. What is it going to take before the public sector remembers what it is for?