For what it’s worth — I’m watching the NBC series “Crossing Jordan,” and they’ve introduced an interesting plot twist — one of the main characters, definitely a “good” guy, was “disappeared” by Homeland Security on suspicion of being a terrorist, which was not true. The good guy was interrogated by a sinister agent, and there was suggestion he was tortured. The other characters first had to learn where he was and then tried to get him “sprung,” to be told by a judge there was nothing that could be done because habeas corpus didn’t apply. At the very end of the episode the character was released, but he looked rattled.
It was a nice dramatization of why habeas is necessary. I also think it’s interesting that NBC felt comfortable making Homeland Security the villain of the episode.
It’s wierd but true that one TV show can do more to educate voters than all the blogging on the subject for a year. Most of your visitors, Barbara (and I admit this is opinion) know what habius corpus is. I have learned more about it here, but I did not have to be persuaded that he suspension if basic civil liberties is a BAD idea.
Too many otherwise decent Americans bought into the notion that accused terrorists don’t deserve basic rights, and can be tortured to get at the truth, and those folks are just now getting around to catching on; that ANYBODY can be ‘accused’, and that puts all the power in the hands of people like Dick Cheney, who, on occasion shoots friends in the face and perhaps can’t be trusted with absolute power to arrest and torture.
Last, and only slightly off topic, I hear that educators more and more are ‘teaching the test’, and restricting teachers more and more from teaching dith any depth, examples or discussion. The objective of raising scores overshadows everything. Is shallow teaching (mandated by administrors) a factor in the public being willing to allow laws that erode our civil rights?
As has been stated, it’s amazing how easily one can grasp the utterly twisted mess that the present government has created with the suspension of Habeus Corpus and the free reins with which departments like Homeland Security operate, when presented visually.
What surprised me most is that it appears on NBC. Given the way their news services operate and the free voice they give to the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, one would think a show like this and the now defunct West Wing, would be way too liberal to get airtime. Thankfully, for whatever reason, that’s not so. I just wish there was more of it since it is probably the only way certain portions of the populace will ever see the disaster that is our current administration.
Quite a contrast to the travesty that was “The path to 9-11” on ABC, and the stupidity of “24” on Fox.
It can be argued that, even IF those weasels at Homeland Security were made out to be the ‘villain’ of this particular episode…and the character was indeed released…the REAL purpose that the network may have been ‘comfortable’ with is to be sure to drive home the fact to viewers that the real bottom line, as stated above, is that ANYBODY can be accused and hauled off to fates unknown. Regardless of the packaging or the ‘limited hangout’; it is precisely the very palpable fear of this threat that our faithful programers would dearly love to instill in everyone along with the subtext that ‘resistance is futile’ or can carry such a heavy price and risk that few would dare entertain what normal common sense would otherwise dictate. You know, after all…it’s a ‘program’…..