Justice Department Considers Institutionalized Bigotry

As reported by Wired News and The Associated Press, the Justice Department is considering the adoption of a new policy which will let them investigate Americans without any evidence of misdeeds. Instead, they will rely on a nebulous terrorist profile which includes a person’s race or ethnicity. An FBI official who defended the plan said:

“We don’t know what we don’t know. And the object is to cut down on that,”

The primarily flaw in the plan proposed is that it removes the presumption of innocence which is a cornerstone of the American justice system. Instead, this policy would allow the FBI to assume that anyone who fits the profile is guilty and then weed out those that they believe are innocent. This leaves the new FBI policy looking like an inversion of due process and justice.

The DoJ’s spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, said that the new policy will simply harmonize various FBI policies. However, he wouldn’t reject the AP’s characterization of his policies when they pushed him on it, saying only:

“Any review and change to the guidelines will reflect our traditional concerns for civil liberties and First Amendment liberties and our traditional investigative emphasis on using the least intrusive means feasible,”

President Bush condemned racial profiling back in 2001 saying it was “wrong in America” and when an Arab-American Secret Service agent was refused access to a plane, Bush said “If he was treated that way because of his ethnicity, that will make me madder than heck,” However, the President hasn’t condemned or forbidden this new policy.

Obama Leads In Montana and Polls

A new Rasmussen poll has shown that Senator Obama is ahead of McCain in Montana with 48% of the vote to McCain’s 43%. As recently as April the two were reversed with Senator McCain having 48% to Obama’s 43%.  Obama leads among voters under 50 and Senator McCain leads amongst seniors. Montana is yet another state which McCain should be winning yet isn’t.

The last Democratic presidential candidate to win in Montana was Bill Clinton back in 1992. This can only be seen as a good sign for the Obama campaign as it shows that Democrats who win Montana tend to take the White House. Of course, many still have doubts that Obama will be able to do what most Democrats have viewed as impossible. However, a recent Rasmussen markets poll has caused Montana’s classification to shift from likely Republican to lean Republican.

The other poll released by Rasmussen shows that Obama is still leading in the national daily tracking poll. He’s leading by 47% to McCain’s 40 which is about the same margin he’s had for the last few weeks.

The photo used was uploaded to Flickr by borman818 who licensed it under a Creative Commons Attribution License and my use of the photo in no way indicates an endorsement of the article from borman818 .