Question of the Day
Megan McArdle of the Atlantic has a revealing question:
Can someone explain to me–hopefully using graphs, and small words–why Joe Lieberman is willing to share the precious blessing of American citizenship with Charles Manson, Gary Ridgeway, and David Berkowitz, but wants citizenship stripped from a guy who strapped some firecrackers to a bag of non-explosive fertilizer?
He’s brown. Duh.
He wasn’t born here and he just became a citizen.
the only explanation i can think of is that the 3 afore mentioned killers were born citizens. Shazahd was granted citizenship… but this would of course mean that you’d have a class of citizens who will always be citizens, and a class who could have their citizen taken away for some reason…. interesting a Jew would be calling for such a policy.
Or it could be that the first three, while despicable murderers, did not take up arms against the United States. After all, the proposal made by Liebermann would apply to John Walker Lindh and and Jose Padilla, too.
Yeah, funny how no one talked about revoking Tim McVeigh’s citizenship.
well, Saint Tim was fighting on behalf of the “real america”
If you strip someone of citizenship, is taking up arms against the country still treason? And how many traitors can dance in a cage in Gitmo?
Probably no one thought of it with McVeigh because he was not part of an organization, nor was he part of a larger effort directed against the US. Since September 11, we have had a very different reality involving ongoing terrorist efforts coordinated from outside the country. That makes it a question of an isolated incident vs. ongoing asymmetrical warfare.
By the way, I’m not necessarily supporting the Liebermann proposal — I’m just offering answers to the “why now and why these people” issues.
I don’t think any of these guys really care if they have citizenship anyway
BTW — I like Geezer’s (first) question. It raises a very interesting issue.
Actually, Charles Manson’s stated goal was to start an apocalyptic war between the races, or helter-skelter. That is not unlike these other American terrorists.
Lieberman is simply anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. Just preface every story about him with that mantra and he will start to make sense.
I just love how the wingnuts miss the obvious CONSTITUTIONAL concern here. If you empower the government to take away someone else’s citizenship without any due process, what’s to stop them from taking away your citizenship down the road?
So, is this how you express your dismay that the guy wasn’t a teabagging white guy ?
Who said this a couple of days ago ?
“In the end it will be another numerous episode of right wing terrorism.”
If you said Delaware Dem, you are correct.
And if you paid attention, I said I was wrong. But you right wingers are naturally violent and have a history of terrorism when you are out of power, so it was a good guess on my part.
no DD, they have a history of lone wolves… like the ones who made up the “susesh” army. The conservatives have a proud history of loving this country more than liberals… they just have a couple bad apples… and you cant make delicious cider without bad apples!
LOL, A.Price.
I think people really under rate how valuable it is to be white in America.
UI–“revoking Tim McVeigh’s citizenship”? It was quicker and easier to give him the death penalty.
DV–that’s white AND speak English.