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Nice one, USA
Feb. 16th, 2005 09:10 amI managed to keep (mostly) quiet about USAnian politics all through your election (if you want to have unverifiable elections, that is your choice), but this one is a bit much.
On a mailing list I'm on someone pointed out this new law that the United States of America are about to pass (it's been approved by the House of Representatives and is now moving to Congress). It's bill H.R.418, section 102:
- `(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
- `(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--
- `(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
- `(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.
Can waive any law, at your sole discretion, without review and never giving compensation... Sounds kinda fun, if you're the one doing it. Less fun if you're the one being done to, I imagine.
As I said, it's your country and you run it as you want to, USA. But I'd just like to ask one little thing. Could you please stop using the phrase "Land of the Free"? Because, you know, over the past bunch of years that has gone from inspiring motto to black comedy and is now somewhere in the vicinity of old Soviet Union republics calling themselves democratic. It's not even funny even more, it's just sad.
You can find the full text of the proposed law on the legislative information web site THOMAS run by the Library of Congress. Unfortunately they don't support direct linking to it, so you'll have to manually type "HR418" in the search box, check the "Enter Bill Number" box, press "Search" and then follow the link to Section 102.
