Ah, The Supremes! You gotta love 'em. They may be a little long in the tooth but the harmonies are still there.
Last week we heard the quintet of Ruth, Anthony, John Paul, David and Steven deliver the sweetest sound we have heard since the last time the Liberty Bell was struck. I'm speaking, of course, of the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene vs. Bush which hopefully, results in the closing of the Guantanamo Gulag forever.
By establishing that a detainee can challenge in federal court the government's right to incarcerate him, the Supreme Court has forced the Bush administration to offer some proof that the people in jail in Cuba are guilty of something.
Naturally, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, Scalia, Thomas (aka "Lil Antonin"), Roberts and Alito voted for the administration. Why not? Having put George the Lesser in power, they may as well back his play.
The fascinating aspect of the dissent was that there was virtually no mention of the law. Scalia bloviated about the body count that will result if the 275 or so prisoners in Gitmo are turned loose by the federal court system. At no time did we hear his famous rant about original intent. That's probably because the right to habeas corpus was critical to the Founding Fathers. A person's right to argue the reasons for his imprisonment is black letter law. Since when is Scalia a proponent of situational interpretation? I can understand Judge Antonin's concern. Having locked these people up and tortured them for six years, I'm not sure I want them loose either. They're probably a little steamed having missed six Super Bowls and the entire run of Dancing With the Stars.
Scalia's dissent presupposes several troubling issues. Is the most powerful country in the world really afraid of 275 guys? They must be pretty scary. Also, is the government's case against these folks so weak that federal judges around the country would laugh the prosecutors out of court? If there is no evidence to support even one conviction, why are they in jail?
The Administration's two-step regarding the prisoners at Guantanamo would take first prize at any Motown dance contest. They are enemy combatants but not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Conventions because they don't wear uniforms nor belong to an organized army. Holding them in an offshore prison sidestepped the need to address habeas corpus. That was, until the Court stepped in.
The decision handed down last week is the third smack in the back of the head that the Court has inflicted on the Bush cabal since we started scooping up the world's citizens and renditioning them to hostile hostels around the world. The Court has repeatedly taken Lil George to the woodshed because he is apparently too dense to grasp the notion that 9-11 was not a blank check to torture, incarcerate and eliminate anyone with a dark complexion and a Middle Eastern accent.
We all know why Americans are oblivious to the treatment of Guantanamo's prisoners. If they were Irishmen or Frenchmen, if their skin was lighter or, if they were Christians, none of this would be happening. We should be ashamed. National Security is a perfectly good reason to deny a plane ticket to a shady character. Flying is not a constitutional right. We do not however, have the right to imprison Muslims who attend an anti -American mosque in Munich or run a printing press in Yemen that produces pro-Iranian pamphlets.
George Bush and John McCain are fond of regurgitating the fallacy that "if we withdraw, the terrorists win". Wake up, boys! If we continue to shred the Constitution for the sake of a vague notion of National Security, the terrorists have already won. If we persist in riding roughshod over the world because we think that 3,000 dead Americans in lower Manhattan gives us the right, the terrorists have already won. If America forgets that our strength comes from compassion and tolerance not from the point of a lance, the terrorists have already won. If four hijacked airplanes is all it takes to drive us into the arms of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, we may already be lost.
The upcoming election will be a referendum on American courage. Are we brave enough to defend the Constitution when it most needs defending or will we hide behind misguided leaders who "know what's best". Wake me on Nov 5th.
Showing posts with label Guantanamo Bay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guantanamo Bay. Show all posts
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
...or has Rush Limbaugh migrated from oxycontin to oxymoron?
Item:
I don't care what flavor of politics you favor, no one should be happy about Rush Limbaugh,aka: the big, fat, idiot, attempting to manipulate the American electoral process for his own amusement. In a sane country (that would be a place where issues are more important than flag lapel pins) the hubris of a radio airbag believing that he can shape political events from behind a microphone would be laughable. Sadly, we live in a place where a staggering number of people actually hang on this guy's every word. This would be the same country where more people vote for American Idol than president.
It would be one thing to cheer for a candidate whose policies he supports or to belittle the views of the opposition - that is his right. However, encouraging your listener/lemmings to vote for candidates from the other party for the sole purpose of extending the nomination process is reprehensible. Has it ever occurred to this baboon that, by encouraging bad electoral behavior, he is promoting chaos just because he can? If you really care about America you want the two best possible candidates running in November. That way, regardless of who wins, America is in capable hands. It was the underhanded politics and disgraceful tactics of the Republican party in 2000 that gave the country George the Lesser instead of John McCain. How's that working out for you?
If a single Limbaugh devotee really cared about the United States they would disavow this tactic and change the channel. The cynicism of Rush Limbaugh degrades us all.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Hillary, go home! It's over.
Senator Clinton says that she's staying in the race until there is a winner. Hil, baby, there is a winner. He's a skinny black guy.
Do your party a favor and return to Chappaqua or Washington or the Rose Law Firm; anywhere but West Virginia.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Sami al-Hagg, a former photographer for Al-Jazeera (that's a news network not a Simpsons character) was released from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay...after six years. No charges were ever filed. No court ever heard his case. He simply became one of the 775 "detainees" sacrificed to the post 9-11 vengeance of the Bush administration. Having slept through the summer of 2001, the Bushes were determined to appear responsive. Sympathizers and fellow travelers were rounded up all over the world and dumped in a prison that Amnesty International calls "the gulag of our times". These people have served sentences longer than many murderers in America.
Where's the outrage people? Did the attacks on Sept 11,2001 revoke our status as the good guys?
The only way that anyone in this country will express any emotion about this stain on our conscience is if CBS interrupts an episode of Survivor to expose the problem. Just watch the outrage then!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Osama Hussein need not apply.
Some U.S. air marshals are being refused a seat on flights because their name appears on no-fly lists.
It has been 6 1/2 years since 9-11. You would think that we might have figured this issue out by now. This is just another example of the stellar contractors that have done such a bang-up job in Iraq.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
An Arkansas man awaiting trial on murder charges has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the portion sizes of the meals in prison are causing him to lose weight. Originally incarcerated at a robust 413 pounds, the skimpy chow in the hoosegow has him at a svelte 330. The Arkansas Department of Corrections is contemplating a partnership with Kirstie Alley to promote the "Death Row Diet." The slogan, "Eat like there's no tomorrow and still lose weight."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Speaking of death row...Georgia just couldn't wait to give the needle to William Earl Lynd. (Are all killers required to have three names?) Now that the Supremes have green-lighted a resumption of executions, prisons all over the South are warming up their gurneys and restocking their medicine cabinets with sodium thiopenthal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The Texas death house looks like a bakery on Sunday morning. They're giving out numbers.
Isitjustme has always opined that, assuming we get it right, the death penalty is an effective way of taking out the trash. Some folks have just worn out their welcome. The problem is, we seem to be getting it wrong too often. Once is the definition of "too often."
The Innocence Project has been instrumental in the release of 216 inmates across America using DNA testing; 16 from death row. Of the 216 wrongfully convicted, 69% were black or Latino. (Everyone who is surprised, raise your hand.) Because Texas and many other bloodthirsty states destroy the evidence after an execution, we may never know how many innocent people died in the "furtherance of justice."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
At a recent public appearence, Vladimer Putin leaned toward the party member sitting to his right and whispered, "Do you want to see a trick that I learned from Dick Cheney?" He then proceeded to drink an entire glass of water while Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev gave a speech.
I don't care what flavor of politics you favor, no one should be happy about Rush Limbaugh,aka: the big, fat, idiot, attempting to manipulate the American electoral process for his own amusement. In a sane country (that would be a place where issues are more important than flag lapel pins) the hubris of a radio airbag believing that he can shape political events from behind a microphone would be laughable. Sadly, we live in a place where a staggering number of people actually hang on this guy's every word. This would be the same country where more people vote for American Idol than president.
It would be one thing to cheer for a candidate whose policies he supports or to belittle the views of the opposition - that is his right. However, encouraging your listener/lemmings to vote for candidates from the other party for the sole purpose of extending the nomination process is reprehensible. Has it ever occurred to this baboon that, by encouraging bad electoral behavior, he is promoting chaos just because he can? If you really care about America you want the two best possible candidates running in November. That way, regardless of who wins, America is in capable hands. It was the underhanded politics and disgraceful tactics of the Republican party in 2000 that gave the country George the Lesser instead of John McCain. How's that working out for you?
If a single Limbaugh devotee really cared about the United States they would disavow this tactic and change the channel. The cynicism of Rush Limbaugh degrades us all.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Hillary, go home! It's over.
Senator Clinton says that she's staying in the race until there is a winner. Hil, baby, there is a winner. He's a skinny black guy.
Do your party a favor and return to Chappaqua or Washington or the Rose Law Firm; anywhere but West Virginia.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Sami al-Hagg, a former photographer for Al-Jazeera (that's a news network not a Simpsons character) was released from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay...after six years. No charges were ever filed. No court ever heard his case. He simply became one of the 775 "detainees" sacrificed to the post 9-11 vengeance of the Bush administration. Having slept through the summer of 2001, the Bushes were determined to appear responsive. Sympathizers and fellow travelers were rounded up all over the world and dumped in a prison that Amnesty International calls "the gulag of our times". These people have served sentences longer than many murderers in America.
Where's the outrage people? Did the attacks on Sept 11,2001 revoke our status as the good guys?
The only way that anyone in this country will express any emotion about this stain on our conscience is if CBS interrupts an episode of Survivor to expose the problem. Just watch the outrage then!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Osama Hussein need not apply.
Some U.S. air marshals are being refused a seat on flights because their name appears on no-fly lists.
It has been 6 1/2 years since 9-11. You would think that we might have figured this issue out by now. This is just another example of the stellar contractors that have done such a bang-up job in Iraq.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
An Arkansas man awaiting trial on murder charges has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the portion sizes of the meals in prison are causing him to lose weight. Originally incarcerated at a robust 413 pounds, the skimpy chow in the hoosegow has him at a svelte 330. The Arkansas Department of Corrections is contemplating a partnership with Kirstie Alley to promote the "Death Row Diet." The slogan, "Eat like there's no tomorrow and still lose weight."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
Speaking of death row...Georgia just couldn't wait to give the needle to William Earl Lynd. (Are all killers required to have three names?) Now that the Supremes have green-lighted a resumption of executions, prisons all over the South are warming up their gurneys and restocking their medicine cabinets with sodium thiopenthal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The Texas death house looks like a bakery on Sunday morning. They're giving out numbers.
Isitjustme has always opined that, assuming we get it right, the death penalty is an effective way of taking out the trash. Some folks have just worn out their welcome. The problem is, we seem to be getting it wrong too often. Once is the definition of "too often."
The Innocence Project has been instrumental in the release of 216 inmates across America using DNA testing; 16 from death row. Of the 216 wrongfully convicted, 69% were black or Latino. (Everyone who is surprised, raise your hand.) Because Texas and many other bloodthirsty states destroy the evidence after an execution, we may never know how many innocent people died in the "furtherance of justice."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Item:
At a recent public appearence, Vladimer Putin leaned toward the party member sitting to his right and whispered, "Do you want to see a trick that I learned from Dick Cheney?" He then proceeded to drink an entire glass of water while Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev gave a speech.
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