More Scary News

Now that I am reading Fox News online, I can find out all sorts of scary information. In particular, the Times Square attempted bombing appears to have brought all sorts of kooks out of the woodwork and into the mainstream media. Here's two items that caught my interest:

Lieberman Unveils Bill to Strip US Citizenship of Terror Suspects Arrested Abroad

"Sen. Joe Lieberman introduced legislation on Thursday that would strip Americans of their citizenship if they are arrested overseas for their affiliation with a foreign terrorist organization.

Under the bill, Americans captured overseas and found to be connected with a foreign terrorist organization would be stripped of citizenship and could be hauled before a military commission.

"I believe that anyone apprehended and charged with attempt to commit a terrorist act against the United State is effectively a prisoner of war and should be tried by the military system of justice," the Connecticut independent senator said at a news conference flanked by other lawmakers supporting the bill, including Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., who is introducing a companion bill in the House.

"The reason we're doing this, being an American citizen means something," Lieberman said. "To me, somebody who takes up arms against the United States, whether they wear the uniform of a foreign country or associate with a foreign terrorist organization, has given up their right to be an American citizen."

The bill would expand a 1940s-era law that requires citizens fighting in a military force that is an enemy of the U.S. to renounce their citizenship to include those who are part of a terrorist organization."

 

Much like another bill introduced in another country (Israel) by another Lieberman (Avigdor) making citizenship conditional upon "good behavior," this bill would deny a fundamental right to a person because the majority disapproves of his undoubtedly disrespectful behavior. However, no one expects to pull citizenship from  the Bernie Madoffs of the world, just to put them in jail.

Along these same lines, it appears that the American public has retreated from 200 years of civil rights, deciding that the rights of the accused are no longer worth preserving. According to another article on FoxNews.com:

 

"American voters split down the middle over whether the Times Square bomber should be treated like a criminal or a combatant, but nearly half believe that the botched terror attempt was a failure for homeland security.

The man officials say admitted trying to bomb Times Square is a Pakistani who recently became a naturalized U.S. citizen.


A slim 51 percent majority of Democrats would treat the suspect like a criminal defendant, while just over half of Republicans (51 percent) and independents (52 percent) would treat him like an enemy combatant.

Click here to see the poll.

Click here for the raw data.

Here's the "enemy combatant" argument rearing its head again from the right wing of American discourse. It seems like our justice system isn't good enough for them; "bad guys" - especially when they are Muslim and darker-skinned - don't deserve our rights and can't possibly be tried in our judicial system. Arguments like these don't even deserve to be discussed in public. Just giving them credibility skews our public debate towards the kooky right. Let's banish it to where it belongs - to the dustbin of history.