Where's the Outrage? Has the Constitution Been Repealed?

Why is it that, on the mere accusation from the executive branch, Jose Padilla, born in the USA, has no right to hear the charges against him, but is detained without charge. Why does he not have access the "Great Writ", the writ of habeus corpus, or the right to confront his accusers, or the right to question, or even know the names of, the witnesses against him? Are these rights the basis of the greatness or our country or not? What are we afraid of?

Is it just me, or does Ashcroft look like he is operating way out of his depth? Nine months after the shock of the great victory of the forces of evil over the land of the free, I think that this is the time that we can see what is happening with clarity, and we can now see that the response of our government is not exectly what we had hoped for. Thousands of muslims have been arrested and released, and not a single charge of terrorism or association with same. But they arrest one idiot who was stupid enough to lose his passport in Pakistan and voila! Ashcroft announces that when Padilla could not raise enough money to build an H-bomb (with cartoon plans) he was ordered to create a very complicated device and kill thousands of people. The only evidence we are offered is a statement that he had $10,000 on him when he got off the plane. No plans, no skills, no phone numbers, no witnesses, no charges. Am I the only one who finds this story fishy?

And what about "Homeland Security?" Does anyone feel safer flying today? Does this obsession with keeping a weapon (nail file) off the plane while refusing to do anything to attempt to keep a terrorist off of the plane make any sense at all? Not to me. Has Tom Ridge done anything to make the Homeland more secure? OK, he came up with a fear color code, but no federal or police agency seems to be using it.

When the towers collapsed, I said a prayer of thanks that we had the best man in the White House (out of the three possibilites). And while I still believe that Bush is far better than either Clinton of Gore would have been, beyond that single opinion, I don't think the Emperor is wearing anything at all. He says the right things (if you can ignore the WAY he says them) but is constantly being contradicted by his flunkies, especially Powell, but don't forget the stunning reverse in his policy and campaign promises Christie Todd Whitman laid on his Global Warming stance.

Is this just a stupid act played by an MBA from Harvard designed to allow him to steal our freedom and de facto repeal or ignore selected pieces from our vaunted rights and liberties, or is it that our President really is as ineffectual as he seems. I hate to admit, but I'm beginning to think it might be true that he's not as bright as he looks. Then the entrenched bureaucracy is in charge, with no agenda other than a single-minded need to expand its own power.

I do not find it frightening that the government wants to reduce our rights as a free people, because that is their nature, but I am scared out of my wits that only extremists like me seem to care