From a blog called Lowering the Bar:
A number of sources (including the Wall Street Journal) report that someone has used the White House’s “We the People” website to start a petition asking it to create a “Do Not Kill” list similar to the “Do Not Call” list that has been reasonably successful against telemarketers. […] The president, who you may recall won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, then personally approves names on the “kill list” for execution targeted killing by drone. […]
There may be no need to worry, of course, if you think the government will never get it wrong and target somebody who’s actually innocent. And probably that never happens. In fact, it really can’t happen, because the administration has adopted a rule defining any “military-age male” it has blown up as a terrorist unless proven innocent:
[The rule] in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent. Counterterrorism officials insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good.
All perfectly legal under the Fifth Amendment, of course, which provides that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, unless he is probably up to no good.” And under the strike-zone rule, you also don’t have to worry about killing foreign civilians, because there aren’t any, at least not near your bomb.
I voted for Obama in 2008, at least in part because of his promise not to continue the Bushcheneyian business-as-usual vis-a-vis the loss of respect for due process and rule of law. It was that same promise that got him the above-mentioned Nobel Peace Price, I presume. So much for promises.
The above encapsulates why I am going to have a VERY difficult time voting for him again in 2012, despite my terror at the Romneyian alternative. I may just forgo voting altogether, so as to avoid the guilt. I know that’s very sad. I particularly like the blogger’s re-interpretation of the 5th Amendment.
I tried to go to the whitehouse.gov website and sign the above-mentioned petition, but the site complained that it was having technical difficulties. I wondered if that was due to my choice of petittion. But then, eventually, I was able to sign the petition.
