Today on Morning Joe, we had Scarborough belligerently justifying US prison camps in Cuba and elsewhere. “Habeas corpus was invented for American citizens,” he said. “Next you’ll be wanting free speech for Danes.”
Leaving aside the long English history of habeas corpus, which Blackstone traces to 1305, Scarborough reflects the alarming conservative belief that we get our rights from the federal constitution rather than from God or our nature. Libertarians can share this attitude, as we saw during the Heller hysteria.
Then Mike Barnicle, the genial pariotic myth purveyor, averred that he was sick and tired of those who criticized US foreign policy as evil, since the US has never done anything wrong, only made mistakes, as in Iraq. He then said that 30 years from now, we would hear the stories of brave Americans committing secret assassinations overseas for us in Hamburg and other “dangerous neigborhoods.” The only thing missing was a few bars of Hail to the Thief.
8:05 am on July 15, 2008
