(cross-posted, with permission from Deep Harm at Daily Kos)

Look carefully at these people.  Each did something extraordinary.  Something rare.  Something wonderful.

And our government is never going to let them forget it.

Mr. Hannity: "Liberals," including US Catholic bishops, reproachfully stirred up millions of people to join nuclear freeze demonstrations in the early 1980s. (p. 76)

My response: Some brief background on this issue might help clarify the discussion. Early in the Cold War, American administrations pursued a strategic, offensive-defense security doctrine known as Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The idea was for the US to maintain "strategic parity" with the Soviet Union --that is, a balance among number, power, sophistication and readiness of atomic bombs such that neither country would dare to start a nuclear war against the other thanks to fear of equally destructive retaliation by the adversary. Except for a temporary challenge during President John F. Kennedy's administration, which began courageously downsizing America's nuclear arsenal, the MAD doctrine more or less continued to guide American nuclear policy through containment to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) of the 1970s, which aimed to mutually reduce US and Soviet nuclear forces. The acronym of MAD was quite appropriate; this delicate policy was truly insane, as it could not be continued for long without leading eventually to a global nuclear disaster.

Mr. Hannity: "There is no appeasing this enemy." (p. 6)

My response: By its very nature, terrorism is a drastic form of negotiation. It is defined as the threat or use of wanton violence to frighten governments in order to achieve a political goal. Just as a baby kicks and screams in an attempt to force his parents to give him what he wants, terrorists use violence hoping to leverage the US into complying with their demands. However, there are two noteworthy differences between the baby and the grownup terrorist. One is that the terrorists' ultimate objectives are usually just and legitimate. Second, "Islamic" terrorists are prepared to go to great lengths for their cause, even to die for it--precisely because it is just. To summarize, terrorists attempt to achieve a good end through bad means.

Jose Padilla, center, is escorted to a waiting police vechicle by federal marshals in this Jan. 5, 2006, file photo. He has been on trial in Miami for most of this year, charged with conspiring with al Qaeda to detonate a "dirty bomb" in the United States. Photo by J. Pat Carter, AP

On Thurday August 16 2007 A federal jury convicted Jose Padilla of three counts of conspiracy in a trial that was the culmination of five years of a criminal proceeding that is among the most shameful in the history of the United States justice system.

I am not an apologist for Jose Padilla, I belong to no "Free Jose" organizations nor am I a member of any "Jose Padilla defense funds," although maybe I should have been, maybe we all should have been because when they throw away the keys to Padilla's cell we will also throw away any pretense to being a nation of laws, a nation that respects human rights, we will throw away a large measure of what once made us a great and civilized nation.

I am also not a terrorist, nor am I a member of any terrorist organization and that declaration alone, in the modern, mandatory, cocoon of fear within which we are now required to live by governmental decree, is probably enough to have a tap placed on my phone and a couple of guys who look like the Blues Brothers parked in front of my house at odd hours. After all, if I have nothing to hide, why would I bring it up. Under the new Department of Justice rule book I must be indictable for something.

Jose Padilla was arrested over five years ago in May of 2002, picked up in Chicago after returning  from Europe and allegedly carrying over 10 grand in cash. He was held for  about a month as a material witness before Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed a trip to Moscow in order to announce that the US had discovered a plot to explode "dirty bombs" inside the country. Padilla was branded as the "Dirty Bomber" and George Bush declared him to be an illegal enemy combatant.

Of Incorrigible Transgressors, Tacit Complicity, and Lady Justice's Conspicuous Absence"

by Jason Miller

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."

---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973

Baghdad's kangaroo court has issued a verdict that virtually guarantees that Saddam Hussein will launch his journey into the hereafter from the platform of a gallows. Convicted of "revenge killings of 148 people, deportation of 400, and razing of orchards," (1), and still facing a charge of genocide that resulted in the deaths of 180,000 Kurds, Hussein is undoubtedly a malevolent individual.

Looks like there's one less grand jury in Cheney's future.

The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department today cleared Vice President Dick Cheney in the shooting mishap that injured an Austin lawyer, calling it an accident.

Funny, when other people have accidental shootings, it tends to go a lot less smoothly.

Tacoma 18-Year-old gets 9-year sentence in apparently accidental shooting death

Granted, in that case a death was involved, but across the country, a good percentage of those involved in accidental shootings find themselves headed for court.  Even when there's no death involved.  Even when they were hunting.

It is as much as a done deal. Justice Samuel Alito will now sit on the bench of the highest court in our land for possibly the next 30 years. This ultra-conservative will rule against victims, grant unprecedented Executive power, re-interpret our laws, and promote the ultra-right agenda upon our country. Check Alito's America website for what we can expect to see from this KING GEORGE YES MAN!

Watch the careers of those who put him on the Supreme Court. Get the voting record at CSPAN and remember these so-called legislators at election time. With the exception of Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, every single Republican voted for the confirmation of Alito. A straight party vote, despite his checkered past on the bench. Republicans as a whole, voted their party-line rather than their conscience. It sickens me that these are the representatives of the people, and they are merely representing their party over the welfare of their constituents. I believe that Senator Chafee's statement is very clear, and well examined. Please read Senator Chafee's statement here.