{"id":13313,"date":"2009-01-25T22:21:45","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T05:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2009\/01\/25\/maybe-you-should-have-thought-of-that-earlier-people.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T16:22:49","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T23:22:49","slug":"maybe_you_should_have_tho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/25\/maybe_you_should_have_tho.html","title":{"rendered":"Maybe you should have thought of that earlier, people"},"content":{"rendered":"

So with the order to close Gitmo, the question becomes, what to do with the folks being held there?<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

Republican lawmakers, who oppose Mr. Obama\u2019s plan, found a talking point with political appeal. They said closing Guant\u00e1namo could allow dangerous terrorists to get off on legal technicalities and be released into quiet neighborhoods across the United States. If the detainees were convicted, the Republicans continued, American prisons housing terrorism suspects could become magnets for attacks.<\/p>\n

[…] Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said, \u201cAs people start getting an indication that they\u2019re going to Kansas, that they\u2019re going to California, that they\u2019re going to Illinois or to Michigan, people are going to say, \u2018No, why would we want them here and put them in a general prison population and make our hometowns a target for terrorists?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cool. We can’t try them because they are too dangerous to be potentially set free, and we can’t keep them in prison because that makes the prisons terrorist targets. Spiffy mess you’ve gotten us into, GOP. Stop your smirking and help figure out how to get us out of it, because you really don’t want to perpetuate the growing sense that the Party of Lincoln is actually the Party of Kafka.<\/p>\n

(And, by the way, Rep. Hoekstra, nice fear-mongering there. Next time be sure and add the part where a terrorist with a hook for a hand is creeping up on the unsuspecting couple up at Lover’s Leap …)<\/p>\n

The problem is, our legal system, though it tends to trust arresting and prosecuting authorities, does in fact require, y’know, proof of wrongdoing in order to convict. That’s overall a good thing, because I don’t think anyone actually wants the police picking up and holding folks because they might <\/em>be a danger. (Well, probably there are people who feel that way, but they are, generally speaking, short-sighted gits who would be shocked, shocked, to discover that particular legal precedent might bite them or their loved ones in the ass some day.)<\/p>\n

But, of course, you take ’em, you buy ’em<\/em>, and most countries haven’t been enthused about taking the folks that, gosh, we made a mistake in picking them up, they’re probably innocent,<\/em> back. <\/p>\n

Honestly speaking? If we’ve decided they are not actually a danger, they should be given US citizen ship and a stipend for the next 20 years. If we can’t actually convict some of these folks of doing something wrong — on what basis do we argue that they are too dangerous to release? <\/p>\n

I mean, we have lots of dangerous criminals in our country already. Many are behind jail. Others are not. We manage to survive as a society with not letting the police just lock away folks who the really, truly, honestly, absotively think are dangerous people to be out on the streets. That’s because we don’t give the police that power, and for very good, solid, historical reasons. The same pertains here. <\/p>\n

Do I want a former Gitmo internee living next door to me? All things considered, probably not — but, y’know, it was my government that wrenched that person out of their old life without enough demonstrable proof to show he’d done something wrong enough to convict him.  If they didn’t think that through at the time, then shame on them, and it’s up to our country as a whole to make it right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So with the order to close Gitmo, the question becomes, what to do with the folks being held there?  Republican lawmakers, who oppose Mr. Obama\u2019s plan, found a talking point…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[715,10,17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-punishment","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26782,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/01\/not-passing-the-sniff-test.html","url_meta":{"origin":13313,"position":0},"title":"Not passing the sniff test","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Mar-12 2:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Really, Michigan GOP? You're that scared of Rick Santorum (I mean, I'm scared of him, too, but ...) that you have to pull this kind of zany \"Oh, we set up the rules early last month, but sent out the wrong memo to the candidates and everyone\" shenanigans? Great way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31755,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/13\/the-problem-with-model-legislation-is-that-its-only-a-model-ssshhh.html","url_meta":{"origin":13313,"position":1},"title":"The problem with model legislation is that it's only a model (SSSHHH!)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Dec-12 5:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem with model legislation is that it's only a model (SSSHHH!)Apparently the Michigan \"Right to Work\" bill pretty clearly doesn't adhere to Michigan constitutional law. Which makes sense, given that it's pretty clearly boilerplate legislation from ALEC that the GOP was so rushed to pass during the lame duck\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32540,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/21\/right-to-work-laws-explained.html","url_meta":{"origin":13313,"position":2},"title":"Right-to-Work Laws Explained","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Feb-13 10:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No, they're not about worker freedom or prosperity. They're about driving down wages through reduced collective bargaining power, increasing corporate profits as a result, and, of course, weakening the Democratic party. (h\/t +Paula Jones) Embedded Link 'Right-to-Work' Laws Explained, Debunked And Demystified - Forbes English: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (Photo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132764,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/05\/its-not-acceptable-to-call-for-another-kent-state-yet.html","url_meta":{"origin":13313,"position":3},"title":"It's not acceptable to call for "another Kent State" … yet","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 5-Feb-17 3:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Who knows? In a few months, maybe a guy like this (Dan Adamini, Secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party in Michigan) won't have to apologize for \"a very poorly worded tweet\" and delete the Tweet and Facebook posts where he suggested that bullets were the right response to \"thuggery\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51431,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/11\/michigan-okays-religious-based-discrimination-in-state-funded-adoptions.html","url_meta":{"origin":13313,"position":4},"title":"Michigan okays religious-based discrimination in state-funded adoptions","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jun-15 4:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Michigan gives about $20M a year to private agencies, many of them faith-based, to handle adoption services. Based on a new state law signed by the governor, those agencies can now decline to place a child with a family for \"sincerely held\" religious reasons.So, don't like the look of that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5540,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/24\/open_mouth_inse.html","url_meta":{"origin":13313,"position":5},"title":"Open mouth, insert foot","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Feb-04 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Cue cry and furor over Sect'y of Ed Ron Paige jokingly referring to the NEA as a \"terrorist organization\". Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47913,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313\/revisions\/47913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}