Don't Worry, We've Still Got the Third Amendment

Jesse Walker | September 9, 2005

Howard Kurtz has done a decent column about the restrictions on reporters covering Katrina. An excerpt:

There have been other moments of tension. At a fire near the French Quarter, [Brian] Williams noted in a posting on NBC's Web site, a police officer from out of town "raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media...obvious members of the media...armed only with notepads." He also noted that the National Guard is barring journalists from the city's convention center and Superdome, the very facilities that evacuees were barred from leaving last week.

"I saw many fingers on triggers," Williams said yesterday, producing such a sense of being in a foreign land that he repeatedly caught himself saying, "When I get back to the States."

Comments

|9.9.05 @ 4:43PM|#

They are making the president look bad and therefore are a threat to national security and must be delt with accordingly.

Meanwhile, did you see the WaPo story on the "Freedom" march today?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802140.html

|9.9.05 @ 4:43PM|#

Like I said in the gun post. Fucking frightening. I wonder if the media will roll over on this one too?

|9.9.05 @ 4:47PM|#

Boy, it would sure be ironic if the MSM lost it's first amendment rights because of it's hardline support for the suppression of the second amendment over the years...

/spite

Tim Cavanaugh|9.9.05 @ 4:51PM|#

Regarding the Third Amendment, I haven't heard about troops actually catching z's in private houses, but isn't forcing out owners at gunpoint pretty close to what the never-popular Third was designed to prevent?

|9.9.05 @ 4:58PM|#

Tim, if I were a New Orleanian, I'd think that even putting some soldiers up in my guest room or on my couch would still be a hell of a lot better than leaving my house and all of my possessions within.

Things are getting pretty damned sad, when something the Founding Fathers considered a worst-case scenario to be avoided is actually an IMPROVEMENT over what we've got now.

|9.9.05 @ 4:59PM|#

Being that all the news coming from my home city is so depressing, and that I'll probably have to use my FEMA money to check myself into the Betty Ford clinic, I think that this is strangely appropriate. I caught it while searching for jobs in my new city.

|9.9.05 @ 5:19PM|#

Uhhmm...I'd have to disagree slightly with all of this. I just came from Lackland AFB, where we were allowed blanket media coverage on all Air Force medivac missions leaving for New Orleans. Not only did we contact pretty much every media outlet in existence with the offer, but a few of my fellow public affairs reps even rented a car --on the government's tab -- to drive ABC's GMA and World News Tonight out of New Orleans after operations unexpectedly shut down Monday. This may not be subterfuge, just a case of itchy trigger fingers.

|9.9.05 @ 5:31PM|#

Tim:

I had the same thought. Not to mention the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against seizure of housesm the Fifth Amendment prohibition against being deprived of property without due process of law, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

Larry Horse|9.9.05 @ 5:37PM|#

Yeah I wonder if they are having any soldiers staying in private property while the owners are evacuated. Hey, at least we'd then still have the 27th Amendment, and that was part of the original Bill of Rights!

|9.9.05 @ 5:57PM|#

Ugh - it's official. "Us" against "them". If you're not for us you're against us. They are trying to get the american people to start being suspicious of each other. It's almost like they want another revolution, or at least for everyone that doesn't agree with them to get the fuck out.

Scary.

|9.9.05 @ 6:35PM|#

Is it just me or does most of the constitutional infractions seem to be comming from local and state athorities and not from the federal authorities?

Anyway Joe said eirlier that this is not a good example of federalism...and i am sorry to say that he may be right.

of course this is also a good example of why you should never vote for democrats for local office...

|9.9.05 @ 6:39PM|#

Regarding the Third Amendment, I haven't heard about troops actually catching z's in private houses, but isn't forcing out owners at gunpoint pretty close to what the never-popular Third was designed to prevent?

Prior to the 16th amendment, the military was financed through tarriffs and excise taxes. Arguably, forcing the citizenry to subsidize military housing and facilities through direct taxation could be construed to be a violation of the 3rd, since the taxpayers are effectively "owners" of public property. But I doubt you'd find a judge in the country to rule in your favor if you brought it to court.

|9.9.05 @ 6:46PM|#

It's almost like they want another revolution, or at least for everyone that doesn't agree with them to get the fuck out.

Unfortunately, the American people are so ignorant and lazy there would never be a second American revolution over constitutional values unless we could contract the fighting out to mexican laborers.

Oh, wait a minute. That's today's Marine Corps ...

|9.9.05 @ 7:21PM|#

I can't help but think that there is an odd sort of "For God's sake where are the National Guard?!! Oh, there they are. Pointing guns at people just like me."

Overall, there may be an inconsistency in demanding that the government be responsible and parachute in and save you with special cop or military, or for heaven's sake Special Forces powers and the reality of what those folks can actually deliver.

|9.9.05 @ 8:01PM|#

Clearly this is the end of freedom as we know it. My only hope is that Brian Williams' chin will be able to save us.

The Lonewacko Blog|9.10.05 @ 4:08AM|#

I went to Canada once and it was almost like being in a foreign country.

Say, during one broadcast, Williams obviously relished saying something that might not be true: that many of those in the Superdome were complaining about Bush. I'd really love to find video of that.

|9.10.05 @ 7:39AM|#

Nic and Joshua, all the stories I've heard about police being abusive to citizens, media, etc. have been about local police and not about National Guard or US military.