The Young Turks now also blog on AOL. Here's an excerpt from my blog there today:
The genius of our system is checks and balances. Our founding fathers realized that unchecked power almost always leads to abuse. And that is precisely the type of abuse we have seen over the last six years.
Some can credibly claim that we need more unchecked power in order to fight our enemies, but they are not arguing for the American system. They are arguing to change the system - and to do so by presidential fiat, not by amending the constitution or following the rule of law.
No one can credibly claim that this administration has followed past precedent and followed the Geneva Conventions or constitutional strictures. The president admits they used an "alternative set of procedures" to treat detainees, the Attorney General said the Geneva Conventions were "quaint" and outdated, and even Antonin Scalia has said the administration has acted unconstitutionally.
What I don't understand are Republicans who see all of this and still stand with these guys. Is it an instinctual deference to authority? Is it being a loyal comrade to your political party no matter what? Is it a belief that America is not up to the job of fighting a bunch of guys living in a cave when we have beat all other enemies that came before us?
I wasn't born a Republican. I chose to be one because I believed in the things the party stood for. But when the party changed from the New World Order to preemptive strikes against countries that did not attack us, and when it changed from being the party of law and order to the party of ignoring the rule of law, I was able to see that they weren't right for the country anymore.
This is not the Republican Party I grew up in. This is not a conservative philosophy that treasures our constitution and our form of government. This administration has become an embarrassment. They never believed in the greatness of this country and the strength of its principles.
In the past, we would have captured, questioned and charged Jose Padilla. If we had evidence on him, we would convict him and send him to a maximum security prison in Colorado (right next to Ramzi Yousef and Omar Abdel-Rahman - the two men convicted of planning and executing the first attack against the World Trade Center).
Now, we have the worst of all worlds. We detained Padilla without rights, we abused him with "alternative" treatments and now we might have to let him go because we either never had anything on him or can't share what we learned because we obtained it through coercion. No justice for Padilla, no justice for us and no justice for the American system.
These days I often find myself shaking my head at the remaining Republicans as they argue against our constitutional system. How could you let Osama bin Laden change this great country? How could you let him and his like scare us into changing the best form of government ever created by man? How could you have so little faith in this great country and what we stand for?