"It astonishes me to find ... [that so many] of our countrymen ... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty ... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries," - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith, 1788.
(On October 17, 2006), president Bush signed into law the suspension of habeas corpus for people he alone decides are "enemy combatants." It is a dark day for freedom. And for America.
