The January issue of American Conservative contains my piece, “Assassin Nation” – on Obama’s new policy for killing Americans.
That issue is not yet generally available online; it is available at newstands and for subscriber viewing at their website. Here is a brief outtake from the article:
How much evidence should the U.S. government be obliged to show before it kills you?
None, according to the Obama administration.
And how much evidence should the government be obliged to possess of your wrongdoing before officially targeting you for killing?
That’s a secret, according to the Obama team. And if judges force the government to answer that question, the terrorists will win.
The Obama administration now claims a right to kill American citizens without a trial, without notice, and without any chance for targets to legally object. The Bush administration’s “targeted killing” program has been radically expanded to include Americans far from any war zone….
What sort of warning labels would be appropriate for Obama’s new killing program? A picture of a sniper’s crosshairs on a mother holding a baby in her cabin door, a la Vicki Weaver? A picture of young demonstrators laying dead on the ground after a National Guard volley, a la Kent State? A picture of children lolling in the streets moments before they are obliterated, courtesy of the helicopter gun sight video from the (WikiLeaks) “Collateral Murder” recording made by the U.S. military in Iraq?…
Once it is accepted that the U.S. government is entitled to kill Americans without a trial, only damn fools should expect Leviathan to limit its ravages here and abroad.
You realize, of course, that this means that you’ll need to blog at least hourly until we can get a JimCam installed. Otherwise any break in visibility is going to lead your fans to wonder if you’ve been “got.”
We’ve all been “got”; it’s just a matter of waiting until the assassins get around to you in the que.
LawHobbit, thanks for the thought, but a “JimCam”… ?????
That would be even duller viewing than watching paint dry, and almost as dull as baseball.
With every new bite taken out of our basic rights, I am reminded of the Seattle Library Librarians. You know times are a bit arcane when librarians are the only ones with any back bone. The Seattle Library published a nice bumper sticker that said
“Oh…. I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway”
Heckuva thing when the librarians show more gumption than supposedly pro-Constitution politicians.
Gee, I’ll bet that the Obama supporters must be very proud that Obama has so quickly righted the wrongs of Dubya’s dismal administration. Especially Oprah must be pondering the great improvements — that is unless she was totally bought off at the recent fake awards ceremony convened in the Kennedy Center, which of course located in the lowest circle of Hell. Umm…how much room do they have there for new additions?
None is the correct answer. None is also the honest answer. The notion that secret evidence is to be presented to someone in a black robe is an attempt to bring credulity to the whole process. (A process that should change format to reality TV. Tonight on Presidental AssassiNation, our viewers have picked the 3 candidates, George de los Reyes is a rancher in Mexico. Julian Assange is a condom breaker. And our special guest is the Don’t Touch My Junk guy. Who will Barry kill tonight? Tune in to find out.)