The Day The U.S. Lost Its' Moral Compass

While the press went gaga yesterday over the fact that history was made when the 300 millionth resident was clocked in at 7:46 a.m. ET, according to the Census Bureau's "population clock", the REAL history making event occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. when King George officially received unlimited power from an enabling Congress by signing the Military Commissions Act. Not only will this give George and any future President the power to define exactly what an "enemy combatant" is from the detainees at Guantanamo but also his/her own citizens. Officially, as of now, the right of Habeus Corpus has been suspended and anyone, US citizen or not cannot have access to the court system to persue their constitutional rights of challenging their detainment. As Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI)stated in his statement, I am deeply disappointed that Congress enacted this law. We will look back on this day as a stain on our nation’s history.” Add to that the fact that the President or anyone he designates will have the "absolute right" to define exactly what the definition of "torture" is, and to hell with the Geneva Conventions, and you have a clear recipe for Fascism. Constitutional rights lawyer Jonathan Turley stated in an interview with Keith Olbermann: "People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It's otherworldly..People clearly don't realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I'm not too sure we're gonna change back anytime soon." Once again the Edward R. Murrow of our time Keith Olbermann (transcript available here), commented on the loss of Habeus Corpus. A stain on history indeed.