Josh Marshall is a Statistic

I'm a fan of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, but this recent post made the hair on my neck stand straight up:

I'm a good deal less doctrinaire on civil liberties issues than, I suspect, many of the readers of this site. As Justice Jackson put it, the constitution is not a suicide pact. And a lot of the things that were done in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were, I think, justifiable in theory, if not always in execution.

Josh has been playing a little coy by what he means, protesting that he doesn't mean torture but he doesn't offer any clarity about which civil liberties he's okay with removing. If Josh doesn't mean torture
(i.e. cruel and unusual punishment), it must be some of the other civil liberties that Josh is okay with removing or reducing:

- The right to be considered innocent until proven guilty
- The right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures of your person, house, papers, and effects without a warrant or probable cause
- The right to a speedy and public trial
- The right to an impartial jury
- The right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation
- The right to confront witnesses
- The right to obtaining witnesses in your favor
- The right to have the assistance of counsel

Hmmm... that doesn't sound right - Josh wouldn't suggest that the government remove these civil liberties from everyone - and maybe that's really what it boils down to. It's not a question of which civil liberties but whose civil liberties.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the government didn't remove everyone's civil rights - just the rights of those whom they thought might fit the category of guilty - namely Muslims and other assorted brown people. If Josh is okay with the government's actions, then Josh is justifying the loss of civil rights for a group of people. That makes him a statistic - one of the many Americans who believe its okay to give up civil liberties for national security as long as its not his civil liberties.

As I have posted often, I am sick and tired of people who would scream about the loss of their own liberties but have no problem selling the rights of others down the river. The Justice Department, taken off the civil rights leash, arrested more than 1200 Muslims and locked them up for periods of close to a year without any charges. They were held in facilties ranging from immigrant detention centers to maximum security prisons, abused by their guards, and often held incommunicado from their family and loved ones.

They then forced thousands of young Muslim men from 27 countries to show up at immigration centers to be photographed, fingerprinted, and questioned. Some of those men were detained and deported without benefit of a trial before an immigration judge or access to counsel.

Guess how many terrorists these intiatives netted John Ashcroft? Zero. Zippo. Nada.

If Josh thinks that this is justified, then he's just another clueless asshole who pays lip service to the principles embedded in the Constitution. If he thinks that my rights are secondary to his safety because of my skin color or religion, it's time to recall his doctorate in history - the founding fathers embedded those rights in the constitution for a reason - to protect me and my right to be treated as an equal citizen from a frightened mob empowered with the force of government. I will not allow myself or others to be treated as second-class citizens.

So I'm calling your hand, Josh - time for you to show us your cards.

Comments

[Firas]

Relax. Civil liberties include things like not having your phone tapped without a warrant, not having your library borrowing history tracked, etc.--much of which was made excuses for via that Patriot Act. It's not all about seizure, arrest and trial.

It's really easy to randomly spew invective online, but he is on our side after all.

[Joe]

the problem Angry Desi is that you are not what the Constituitional writers anticipated as a 'citizen'. Hence you have no rights. You are one of those typical refugees who expect the USA to hand them everything, while you return nothing but your angry diatribe.

You are not American, you never will be. It's not about race or color, it's about attitude. You are still on the outside, complaining about the inside.

Take your angry self and just go away. Don't you get it from the last election... we do NOT WANT YOU here.