Replying to a message of Gene McAloon to Phil Payne:

 GM> From: Gene McAloon 

 GM> On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 16:26:46 +0200, Phil Payne
 GM>  wrote:

 >> If the German population had spoken out in 1936, 1945 would not have
 >> happened.  Check out your history - the changes to basic human rights
 >> within the two regimes have astonishing parallels.  Your regime has
 >> already started placing its opponents out of the reach of your law.

 GM> What is truly astonishing is your ignorance of both Nazi Germany and
 GM> US history.

 GM> The last free election in Germany occurred in 1932 and the Nazi party
 GM> failed to get a majority of votes in that election, but even though
 GM> that election made the party the largest party in the Reichstag it
 GM> couldn't even form a coalition government because even other
 GM> right-wing parties wanted no part of the Nazis. Hitler became
 GM> Chancellor when the old fool Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor.
 GM> Subsequently everything Hitler did was legal because the Reichstag
 GM> then bent to his will and gave him everything he wanted.

 GM> Of course there was nothing to stop him in law because there was no
 GM> constitution, no bill of rights, no independent judiciary.  In those
 GM> respects, the parallel was not with the US, but with your country in
 GM> which even today there is no constitution, no bill of rights and no
 GM> independent judiciary. Of course Bush is trying to take people
 GM> allegedly associated with terrorism outside the country where US law
 GM> doesn't apply because US law doesn't give him the right to do
 GM> anything he pleases.  Your law does give the PM the right to do
 GM> anything he pleases. All he needs is a willing majority of his own
 GM> party in Parliament.

 GM> What could so easily happen in your country, as it did in Nazi
 GM> Germany, cannot happen in the US and cannot without an overthrowing
 GM> of the government, a military coup perhaps. Nor is it happening.

There are presently two individuals in federal custody who have not been
charged with any crime but Ashcroft won't let them go because they are
'terrorists'.  The Constitution specifies a right to counsel, a right to
face one's accusers and also a right to a speedy trial.

Perhaps you don't wish to admit it, but the Constitution has been
eviscerated by this (and preceding) administrations with the willing
assistance of a compliant judiciary (judges in general and federal judges
in particular are selected for their political ideology, not for any
particular judicial expertise) that will bend over backwards to let the
administration do what it wants.  The Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth
and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution effectively no longer exist thanks
to this situation.

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