Yes, elections matter

As Al Gore noted in his endorsement of Barack Obama, everyone right down to the family pet understands that elections matter. Obama sealed the Democratic nomination shortly before the Supreme Court’s Boumediene v. Bush ruling on the constitutionality of the horrendous Military Commissions Act of 2006 – that legislative gift to the Bush administration which allowed it to ignore habeas corpus and the rule of law. The Military Commissions Act was an answer to the court’s Hamdan v Rumsfeld ruling which noted that the president did not have a blank check to lock people away indefinitely without access to the courts. We can hope that the Congress does not capitulate to the Executive branch on this topic yet again, but judging from todays wiretapping vote in the House there may be no limit to these craven votes at least through the election season.

The 5-4 Boumediene decision is a perfect illustration of what is at stake in November. John McCain has expressed his preference for justices in the mold of Alito and Roberts. Already now there are four such judges, and that bloc needs only one more like-minded jurist to sign the death warrant for habeas protection and to further sanction the president’s dictatorial powers.

In a recent column, Frank Rich examined the punditry’s fixation on the possible defection of Democratic women to the McCain camp and found it lacking in substance. Nonetheless, a reminder of the stakes are in order here. If elected, John McCain will have the opportunity to create a court majority that favors further expansion of executive power at the expense of the Constitution. Democrats disgusted with the tenor of their party’s nominating contest will do themselves no favors by voting for the supposed “maverick” Republican who is sounding more and more like Bush with each passing day.

The immigrant scapegoat

The best way to deflect attention from the criminal activity of the current administration is to highlight/accentuate the supposed criminality of others. Hence the sharp increase in Justice Department prosecutions of undocumented immigrants. By parading large groups of scapegoated immigrants in front of an angry public, the Bush administration can continue its assault on the Constitution and our civil liberties while our focus is elsewhere.

Recent news articles have illustrated the criminalization of the undocumented as the federal government has ramped up its prosecution of those re-entering the United States after a deportation. A recent story in the Austin American Statesman tells of how the federal government is charging more and more immigrants who return to the United States after deportation with a felony punishable by several years of incarceration. The number of prosecutions in Austin increased from two to three at the beginning of the year to 25 in May.

In Iowa a mass raid of a meat processing plant netted more than 250 immigrants many of whom pled guilty to working without proper documentation and were sentenced to five months in prison followed by immediate deportation. It was either that or face felony charges which could net a two-year prison term. Even with that the sentencing judge acknowledged that those convicted were “hard-working people who have done what you did to help your families”.

Clearly Americans are angry about the influx of undocumented workers. We focus on the jobs they are taking away, the way they game the system, and totally ignore the underlying reason for the migration – the destructive economic results of IMF debt restructuring and dumping of our subsidized crops on Mexican and other markets. Petitions are going around (I received one the other day) claiming that “illegals” will soon be able to benefit from our Social Security system. The veracity of these petitions is discussed here and here.

While Americans are more than willing to sign these dubious petitions, we express less of a patriot’s zeal for demanding the repeal of the horrendous Military Commissions Act – the legislative affront to the rule of law with such ambiguous wording that it gives the president the power to designate anyone he so chooses as an enemy combatant, including American citizens. As spelled out in the Military Commissions Act section 950v.(b)(26):

“Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States or one of its cobelligerents shall be guilty of the offense of wrongfully aiding the enemy and shall be suggest to whatever punishment the commission may direct.”

The persons “subject to this chapter” are alternately “alien unlawful enemy combatants” and “unlawful enemy combatants” but either way the president should not be afforded this type of power in a democratic republic founded on the rule of law.

It is no doubt much easier to lash out at the hated “criminal illegal” than to read the lengthy legislation that abandons habeas corpus and gives the president the power to lock people up for good. Apparently many of our representatives signed on to the bill without thoroughly reading its contents. But while we are railing against the current chosen scapegoat, the principles our country was founded on continue eroding under the current administration’s watchful eye.