Thursday, February 26, 2009

Obama +1

I've bellyached a lot over the past weeks about Obama's reneging on his promise to get us out of the legal quagmire Bush put us in with respect to terrorism. He has made use of the "state secrets" defense and has continued to hold other Bush Administration legal opinions. However, Ian reports that in at least one case, the Obama DoJ has actually chosen to try a terror suspect in a court of law instead of detain him indefinitely.

It's a nice gesture. Let's hope there's more where this came from. I've never understood why conservatives talk about approaching terrorism from a law enforcement perspective as if that were a bad thing. Because it is just a crime. A big, obnoxious crime, yes, but a crime nonetheless.

5 comments:

Ben said...

I wish I could be as optimistic as Ian about this. But it does look like the same thing Bush did with Jose Padilla....charge him with a crime when the case is going to get close to the Supreme Court (who might rule against the Executive, again). A return of the rule of law or a tactical retreat in the overall attempt to shore up Presidential power? I don't know.

Then again, it's still a good gesture. Maybe the Administration means it. The proof will likely be in what they do with Guantanamo detainees.

Mike said...

FRY 'EM ALL!!!

Ben said...

Mike, what does Mike Fry have to do with this conversation?

Matthew B. Novak said...

Actually Ben, I think he was referring to the main character of Futurama, and the suggestion is that we should freeze them all to be woken up in a thousand years in New New York.

Mike said...

According to Mike Fry, that character was based on him, so maybe you're both right.

So, for clarity:

LETHAL INJECT 'EM ALL!!!

...says the guy who's opposed to the death penalty...