This speaks to Clandestine's valid concerns...

[pnjsurferpoet]

...and my faith in the US Constitution's checks and balances.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=615&e=16&u=/nm/20030410/pl_nm/iraq_congress_contracts_dc_2

I could have stopped at "concerns" eh? :p

[kevlar85]

All the legislation requires is that the contracts are declared 30 days after they have been signed. This doesn't make any difference to the awarding of contracts.

Incidentally, although the US constitution is usually a model of checks and balances it isn't at the moment - you have a Republican Congress, a Republican President and a Supreme Court with Republican views. This (and the fear of being labelled unpatriotic) means that Congress is allowing Bush to pass whatever he likes such as the Homeland Security Act which is of dubious constitutional legality as it threatens basic civil rights.

[pnjsurferpoet]

it isn't at the moment - you have a Republican Congress, a Republican President and a Supreme Court with Republican views. This (and the fear of being labelled unpatriotic) means that Congress is allowing Bush to pass whatever he likes such as the Homeland Security Act which is of dubious constitutional legality as it threatens basic civil rights.

You sound like my dad. And I think you're right. But I also think that if we didn't clamp down on immigration and really go after Al Qaeda, we'd have had another 911 by now and our economy and the world's would have been in very bad shape. The rights and liberalism will come back when people are less, and less afraid.

[Clandestine]

Hello? Wake up call pnj, the country and the world IS in terrible economic shape!

And as for fear of Al Qaeda, well endorsing without question the Bush doctrine, which wont stop at Iraq, is only fueling the cause of terrorist organisations. A very bad demonstration of both an understanding of the nature of the threat as well as the proper methods required to combat its spread.

All told this admin flunks the course big time!

[kevlar85]

Originally posted by pnjsurferpoet
it isn't at the moment - you have a Republican Congress, a Republican President and a Supreme Court with Republican views. This (and the fear of being labelled unpatriotic) means that Congress is allowing Bush to pass whatever he likes such as the Homeland Security Act which is of dubious constitutional legality as it threatens basic civil rights.

You sound like my dad. And I think you're right. But I also think that if we didn't clamp down on immigration and really go after Al Qaeda, we'd have had another 911 by now and our economy and the world's would have been in very bad shape. The rights and liberalism will come back when people are less, and less afraid.

Your dad talks a lot of sense then! :lol: Seriously though, all the hi-jackers I seem to recall had American passports and had been living in the states for some time before 9/11, the American government would be better off just telling people to be vigiliant such as the flight instructor in Miami who was told by the hi-jackers "we don't want to learn how to land". I don't think you've really gone after Al-Qaeda, we've had some arrests but to be honest the war in Afghanistan had little to do with Al-Qaeda and the war on Iraq even less, I'm sorry to say this but these wars were little more than a desire for vengence by America. The way to catch Al-Qaeda is to increase your intelligence and monitoring not to bomb the hell out of poverty stricken countries. The economy is in bad shape and has been since 9/11 but is also because of where we are in the economic cycle, we've had the late 90s boom and are now teetering on the brink of recession. Civil rights are very hard to achieve and very easy to lose - governments generally like to gain as much power as they can and are very unwilling to relinquish that power, with a thing like terrorism which you can say is eternal I think it's unlikely that many rights that have been taken will come back soon, if at all.

[pnjsurferpoet]

This post was meant to show Clandestine that I feel he makes valid points and that I hear them. It was supposed to cut him a break since I give him such a bad time.:D