CelticBear’s Musings
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Popular Ignorance and the Land of the Persecuted
Posted by CelticBear on February 21st, 2007
“Liberal media” my rear. What court proceedings is the leftist, administration hating, liberal media filled with the last few days? Is it the “Scooter” Libby trail in which the crimes of the administration is being investigated? Where evidence has been admitted that implicates Cheney and even prez. shrub in possible treason? Nope.
Is it the federal appeals court upholding the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which repeals habeas corpus, with the reason that “Congress has made this law so we uphold it” as opposed to oh, I don’t know, adjudicating on the constitutionality of this Act? Nope.
It’s filled with the Anna Nicole Smith trial crarp. Our government has repealed an inalienable human right that has been codified as far back as the Magna Carta, observed even by feudal kings, that countries like even Malaysia observes, and and our media cares more about tragic celebrities. Our highest ranking legal official in the country, Attorney General Gonzales, stated for the record his opinion that the United States Constitution does not expressly guarantee habeas rights to United States residents or citizens (lest we think they’re extending their disdain for human rights on just so-called “enemy combatants.”)
The concept of habeas corpus is so basic, so fundamental, that the US Constitution assumes all citizens have this right to the extent that indeed the only mention of habeas corpus in it is to mention the instance in which it may be suspended (not repealed!)
A recent episode of the Penn Radio Show has guest Peter Sagal, a journalist and NPR game show host, who expressed the basic problem with American mass media is its “popularist” approach. News organizations poll viewers regarding what they want to see. What news they want to see? The mass media feeds the people what they want as entertainews in a cynical, corporate-minded desire to grab ratings and viewers and money. The American populace doesn’t care what’s going on with their country so long as their SUV’s have gas and the entertainment that helps them forget about their lives of quiet desperation keeps coming, while people in power slowly turn this country into a fascist state run by lobbyists and corporate interests.
What can be done to change things before the worlds described in “1984“ and “Fahrenheit 451“, which we’re beginning to realize, become irreversible?
