In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
America the Failed
If you think the last few posts are too harsh and too full of despair, think again. Now it's a crime to be a witness. How's that for upside-down reality?
LAS VEGAS - Abdullah al Kidd was on his way to Saudi Arabia to work on his doctorate in Islamic studies in March 2003 when he was arrested as a material witness in a terrorism investigation. An F.B.I. agent marched him across Dulles Airport in Washington in handcuffs.
"It was the most horrible, disgraceful, degrading moment in my life," said Mr. Kidd, an American citizen who was known as Lavoni T. Kidd when he led his college football team, the Vandals of the University of Idaho, in rushing in 1995.
"I was made to sit in a small cell for hours and hours and hours buck naked," he said. "I was treated worse than murderers."
Mr. Kidd, who described himself as "anti-bin Laden, anti-Taliban, anti-suicide bombing, anti-terrorism," was never charged with a crime and never asked to testify as a witness. In June, 16 months after his arrest, the court said he was free to resume his life.
He lost his scholarship, he now moves furniture for a living, and his marriage has fallen apart. About 60 other men have been held in terrorism investigations under the federal material witness law since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a coming report by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. Such laws, meant to ensure that people with important information do not disappear before testifying, have been used to hold people briefly since the early days of the republic.
But scholars and critics say the government has radically reinterpreted what it means to be a material witness in recent years. These days, people held as material witnesses in terrorism investigations are often not called to testify against others; instead, frequently they are charged with crimes themselves. They lack constitutional protections like the requirement that criminal suspects in custody be informed of their Miranda rights. Moreover, they are often held for long periods in the same harsh conditions as those suspected of very serious crimes.
So there you go. Don't take my word for it, tell it to the jailer. This post really ought to be called "America the Gulag" but we're not quite at that point yet. Close though. Give 'em another four years. Speaking of which, here's what your fellow Americans think about that prospect, from today's NY Times:
To the Editor:
Dick Wirthlin (Op-Ed, Aug. 18) says President Bush should be prepared for "The Quadrennial Question": "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"
Let's see. My country is engaged in a futile military exercise in Iraq. My city is under a perpetual orange alert. I am not sure that my vote will be counted.
My bags are being pilfered at the airport. Gas prices are up, and rising. My rent just increased another 4 percent. My salary has not increased in two years. Hmmm?
But why worry? In a month, I'll be able to buy my very own assault rifle. Now there's some cheery news that will make the next four years just a little more bearable.
Neil Friedman
Brooklyn, Aug. 18, 2004
•
To the Editor:
Dick Wirthlin is correct that John Kerry may not be able to persuade some voters that they are worse off now than they were four years ago.
If so, that failure would result in part from the Democratic Party's failure to drive home the facts - to repeat a few simple truths as often and as effectively as Mr. Bush repeats his few outrageous lies.
As for the debates, perhaps Mr. Kerry should avoid questions altogether and instead try making suggestions. Here's one: "Be a man, Mr. President."
He could then ask the president whether he is prepared to take responsibility for the appalling failures of the No Child Left Behind Act, or the disgraceful behavior of a few soldiers in Iraq, or the alarming unwillingness of the federal government to enact and enforce proper standards for the oversight of elections.
Clifford Ando
Los Angeles, Aug. 18, 2004
•
To the Editor:
Dick Wirthlin says that President Bush "should convince Americans that the question is not so much whether we are better off than we were four years ago, but how, under his leadership, we will be even better off four years from now."
Given the president's record of the last four years, no wonder his stump speeches already stress the future. Who wants to remember the past four years?
Whit Weihe
Boca Raton, Fla., Aug. 18, 2004
Meanwhile, the alarming unwillingness of the federal government to enact and enforce proper standards for the oversight of elections continues unabated.
The nation's voting rolls are notoriously inaccurate. One study found that as many as six million votes were lost in the 2000 presidential election because of registration problems and that the use of provisional ballots nationwide could have cut the loss significantly. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 mandated that such ballots be given to every voter in a federal election who shows up at the polls but doesn't seem to be listed on the voting rolls. Unfortunately, Congress left local officials too much discretion in carrying out the law. In Chicago this March, 93 percent of the provisional ballots were thrown out, often for dubious reasons.
This week, several unions filed a similar suit in Florida, which also disqualifies provisional ballots cast at the wrong polling places. The wrong-precinct rule serves no legitimate purpose, and it denies eligible voters the right to vote. States should not wait for a court to tell them that rule is unacceptable. At the very least, election officials who intend to throw away ballots cast in the wrong locations must have a foolproof way of directing voters on Election Day to their correct polling places.
Let's call it the No Paper Trail Left Behind Act and rename November "National Florida Month" -- and while we're at it,
I can't finish that sentence.
Fear more years.
- Michael 8:55 AM - [PermaLink] -
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