.gov authorizing military detention of US citizens on US soil

Patriot Act provisions will eventually bite you, once you become part of the opposition to the .gov: 

In a time of austerity, and with the planned drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, you might expect congressional proposals to reduce the military’s footprint around the world. You’d be wrong.

Instead, the defense spending bill passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee and now heading for a vote in the full Senate would dramatically expand the U.S. military’s role in counterterrorism — potentially inciting more attacks on U.S. interests.

this defense authorization bill marks the first time since the McCarthy era that Congress has sought to create a system of military detention without charge or trial — including U.S. citizens arrested on U.S. soil.

Well, isn't that special?

Now it may be al-Qaida and Taliban American citizens, but that means any American citizen can be instantly stripped of habeas corpus by Executive will.  This is one of the elements of Empire; arbitrary absolute power in the hands of an executive, in our case, the President.


So if a left wing President is elected, the right might be arbitrarily imprisoned, and vice versa. I am not thinking of this occurring 2 weeks or 2 years from now. I am saying that a precedent is set, and future administrations may turn authoritarian/absolutist and use the precedent against internal political opposition.  Of course, it would be legal...just not Constitutional, American, decent, or compatible with a free society.  Think gulag, lager, detention camp. No difference whatsoever, except for the accent of the thug guarding the detainee.


This is why federal powers were to be limited and enumerated by the Constitution. This is what the Founders feared.


link to Politico


H/T to iiipercent.blogspot.com