[lbo-talk] [Pen-l] Obama plus & minus (part 2) -- and yakking about the right Post 2

[socialismorbarbarism]

On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 5:28 AM, Jim Devine wrote (yes? do I understand
the provenance?), per a posting by Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> :
>
> Bill of Rights "due process" and all that? There the Attorney General
> reached back for the ultimate sophist's gambit: 'When you collide with a
> contradiction, draw a distinction!' In his case, that "due process" didn't
....
>
> A LINGERING QUESTION
>
> Is there no way to bring the War on Terror fully under legal,
> constitutional, even political restraints? I've seen no proposal that
> realistically appears to accomplish that while those much acclaimed
> "balances' have a fairy-tale quality. I would like to address this difficult
> 'restraint'  question in a forthcoming Appendix to this chapter of OBAMA
> PLUS AND MINUS.
>
>
> --
> Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be
> understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in
> poetry, it's the exact opposite." -- Paul Dirac
>
...

"Is there no way to bring the War on Terror fully under legal,
constitutional, even political restraints?"

Is this a rhetorical question? I'll assume it isn't. Here's the
answer: No, there is no way to bring the War on Terror fully under
legal, constitutional, even political restraints. That is because from
its inception the "War" on Terror was *designed* to act outside of
legal, constitutional, and political constraints. That's the point--to
wipe out legal, constitutional, and political constraints to state
power. I'm not sure I have to explain further, as this article itself
provides sufficient evidence.

If one was really serious about putting the "War" on Terror under the
rule of law, there is an option available immediately: Indict Woo,
Holder, Bush, Cheney, etc. (Obama would have to be impeached). This is
of course unsayable and all but unthinkable in the US, but it's not as
if other countries haven't noticed:

March 29, 2012
Poland indicts former spymaster over CIA renditions

http://euobserver.com/22/115745

What this suggests is that constitutionalism and the rule of law can
be taken seriously in Poland. In the US, "constitutionalism" and "the
rule of law" appear to have been reduced to meaningless slogans, even
under the already limited standards of a capitalist-controlled
republic.