Afraid?

The recent OP-Ed concerning the al-Marri decision is just another chance for the Editor to sound off once again about all the scary bad-guys out there trying to get us.  Glenn Greenwald lays out the sad state of this debate in his blog today. 

“But the overarching point is how extraordinary it is -- specifically, how extraordinarily disturbing it is -- that we are even debating these issues at all.

Although its ultimate resolution is complicated, the question raised by Al-Marri is a clear and simple one: Does the President have the power -- and/or should he have it -- to arrest individuals on U.S. soil and keep them imprisoned for years and years, indefinitely, without charging them with a crime, allowing them access to lawyers or the outside world, and/or providing a meaningful opportunity to contest the validity of the charges?

How can that question not answer itself? Who would possibly believe that an American President has such powers, and more to the point, what kind of a person would want a President to have such powers? That is one of a handful of powers which this country was founded to prevent.”

This irrational fear of almost everything is getting “Monk”–like in it’s silliness.  The whole “be afraid, be very afraid” is a tactic that is hard to fight off as evidenced by the continuing belief by Republicans that it will work! 

The DNR editor and his supporters are running scared. I'm not so sure that the conservative wisdom of fearmongering is an act. I think some of these guys are REALLY afraid of all the bad guys, pestilence and horrible stuff that's out there. I think they are honest when they say that security is more important than the rule of law, the constitution, habeas corpus, human rights, or the environment. Their FEAR rules their words and actions. They are simply AFRAID, and want us to be AFRAID too. I just don't share that level of fear and refuse to give in to any fearmongering from anyone.