Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Republican appointed, decided with four other members of the Supreme Court, that America doesn't need a tyrant. His majority ruling rips the Administration's lame and convoluted reasoning that the President can do whatever he wants in a wartime situation, including his blowing off of the UCMJ and Geneva Conventions.
In particular, Justice Stevens' majority ruling deals a devasating blow to
tribunal rules which violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva
Convenions. Indeed, the most signficiant news in Justice Steven's Hamdan
majority ruling is fierce insistence on the power of international law, and in
particular the Geneva Conventions, which the Administration has long dismissed
as irrelevant to non-state actors like Al Qaeda volunteers. Such dismissals are
nonsense, according to Justice Stevens' ruling: the Geneva Conventions' Common
Article 3 clearly prohibits "the passing of sentences...without previous
judgment...by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial
guarantees ... recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples." For three
years, Administration lawyers have argued that the Geneva Conventions don't
apply to its "war on terror". That argument is finished.
Thanks, Justice Stevens, Justice Breyer, Justice Kennedy, Justice Souter and Justice Bader Ginsburg.
The four flies buzzing around Bush's ass were, Scalia, Thomas and Alito. Roberts had recused himself because he had earlier agreed to give Bush these powers while on an appeals court.
And a special thanks to those gutless Democrat Senators that rolled over for Bush and put Robert's and Alito on the Supreme Court.
Bush now plans to go to Congress to get the laws he needs to continue his un-American activities. Some in Congress are no doubt ready, but it would probably mean this country repudiating the Geneva Conventions.
Eugene Robinson at the WaPo puts it in terms that even the most thick-headed, anti-American, Bush supporter can understand. Well, probably not, but it sounded good when I typed it.
The administration's response was to design military tribunals in which the
detainees would not be able to adequately defend themselves. Yesterday the court
ruled 5 to 3 that show trials are the same as no trials. Predictably, the
majority opinion was written by 86-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens, who has
become the court's conscience. Predictably, the swing vote was Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy, who has assumed the old Sandra Day O'Connor role. And, predictably,
the court's hard-right faction -- Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and the newest
member of the club, Samuel A. Alito Jr. -- voted to let the Decider do whatever
the hell he wants. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had to recuse himself,
since he had already ruled on the case (in favor of the president) when he was
on a lower court. Remarkably, even if he had been able to vote, the rule of law
would have been upheld.
Condi's having her own problems, after having a lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, recorded. Condi was sticking to the Administration's policy of, it's what you say, not what you do that's important.
But a recording of the ministers' private lunch, made when an audio link into
the room was accidentally left on, showed that "Condi" and "Sergei" -- as they
called each other -- had several long and testy exchanges over Iraq. The
disputes concerned relatively minor wording changes in the five-page statement
issued after the meeting, but grew out of basic differences between the two
governments over how to proceed on Iraq.The State Department's subsequent denial of tensions illustrates how
officials manage the information that flows to the public from such closed-door
meetings to create an image meant to advance foreign policy objectives.
Reporters often have no independent account of such discussions.
The V.A. has recovered their lost computer with the personal information of 26.5 million veterans and active duty personnel. The V.A. says the information wasn't accessed. The V.A. make no comment on the dumbasses that Bush appointed to run it.
Federal officials yesterday announced the recovery of computer equipment stolen
from an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They said that sensitive
personal information of 26.5 million veterans and military personnel apparently
had not been accessed.
The laptop and external hard drive, stolen May 3 from
a VA data analyst's home in Aspen Hill, contained the names, birth dates and
Social Security numbers of millions of current and former service members. The
theft was the largest information security breach in government history and
raised fears of potential mass identity theft.
The whores in Congress passed a resolution yesterday condemning news organizations that leak any of Bush's illegal activities against the American people.
WASHINGTON The House on Thursday approved a Republican-crafted resolution
condemning news organizations for revealing a covert government program to track
terrorist financing, saying the disclosure had "placed the lives of Americans in
danger."The resolution, passed 227-183 on a largely party-line vote, did not
specifically name the news organizations, but it was aimed at the New York Times
and other news media that last week reported on a secret CIA-Treasury program to
track millions of financial records in search of terrorists.
17 little Democrat Bush groupies gladly spread their cheeks for the president on this resolution. They are, and yes, once again my Congressman turned Bush whore, voted right along with them,
John Barrow, Melissa Bean, Dan Boren, Leonard Boswell, Henry Cuellar, Peter DeFazio, Chet Edwards, Bart Gordon, Brian Higgins, Jim Marshall, Jim Matheson, Charles Melancon, Collin Peterson, Mike Ross, John Salazar, Ike Skelton, Gene Taylor.
The Overseas Press Club of America told King George and his flunkies what effect that their words and actions may have on the American Press that may be too gutless to speak for it self.
NEW YORK, June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Defending The New York Times's recent
disclosures of secret government programs to monitor Americans' overseas phone
calls and financial transactions, the Overseas Press Club of America today told
President George Bush that his administration's attacks on The Times could have
a "chilling influence" on editors around the country.The OPC president said the need to withhold news that might hinder U.S.
military efforts "must be weighed against the damage to our society and its
institutions that can be done by secret, unfettered spying on our citizens."
The Boston Globe says the NYT blow-up by the White House was just to divert attention away from the fact that the American commander in Iraq has a plan that is about the same as the so-called "cut and run" Democrats in Congress.
The Casey strategy sounds suspiciously similar to the scenario Vice President
Dick Cheney denounced on CNN as ``the worst possible thing we could do . . .
packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory
that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight." Of course, at the
time, the vice president was talking about the Democrats' call for withdrawal --
not the Pentagon's plan for withdrawal.And then, the president deftly changed the subject to another New York Times
story, this one disclosing a secret program to investigate and track terrorists
through an international database that includes Americans' banking transactions.
Bush condemned the report as ``disgraceful," administration officials piled on,
and the political right joyously joined the chorus. Senator Jim Bunning,
Republican of Kentucky, accused the Times of ``treason." The Washington Post,
The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times also reported on the
financial tracking program, but most of the vitriol is aimed at The New York
Times, whose parent company owns The Boston Globe.
I can't equate this "treason" bunk from an adminstration which openly ratted out our own undercover agent. I call THAT treason!
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