The Washington Post reports that the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals just handed the Administration a huge victory for its ability to detain any US citizen indefinitely and without recourse to any courts: http://tinyurl.com/9ze4p (Sorry about the tinyurl, but I can never get the other way to work.)
This will go the the Supreme Court, and if it is upheld, today's date will be as good as any to mark the end of the Constitution as anything else but a historical document. The Padilla case essentially stands for the proposition that the Executive branch has unlimited power to determine that a US citizen is an "enemy combatant" and cane be held forever without trial or any other type of judicial relief.
With the news reports coming in, one after the other, each one worse than the last, telling us how dire the situation is, it's hard to step back and in some ways be very selfish about what it means for the future. It is clear that Bush and the GOP have abandoned any conception of government as something that can be used to alleviate suffering (at the least) or to make life better. Further, the structural damage that these 8 years have done (and will continue to do) to the ability of the government to respond means that even if Bush and his cronies are gone, rectifying the situation will take time.
But this is very strange stuff. Just found this over at BOP News and followed the link to http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/2005/07/following-money.html For those of you with memories of 9/11, there were a lot of stories floating around about short trading on airline stocks and insurance stocks just before that event. Nothing ever seemed to come of that discussion, just like nothing will happen with this.
(I hope that link translates properly when posted, so don't call the Diary Police if it doesn't.)
If you read one editorial today (besides the ever-shrill Paul Krugman), make it this one by James Carroll.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2005/02/01/train_wreck_of_an_election/
It may be the best summary of the current status of American foreign policy and what is likely to be the lack of any long term beneficial impact from the recent "election".
A good article, but it demonstrates clearly what we already knew--that many of the reporters covering Kerry are openly hostile--I don't think you will be surprised at the name that appear http://tinyurl.com/4dd3y
All right, so it's not that earth-shattering, but I drove up to Allentown for a Hearing this AM, and what to my wondering eyes should appear on the side of 476, but two "Bush Lies" signs. One was on the way into Philly, where it could be seen by thousands of inbound commuters every day. The other was southbound on the way back from Allentown, about 10 or so miles south from the Allentown exit off the Turnpike. Has anyone else seen anything similar around?
Summary--Federal Court has held a TIME reporter in contempt for failure to disclose name of person who was source of Plame leak. The ruling states that his testimony is directly related to the question of guilt or innocence. Russert is also involved.
Sorry for the content, but dKos' links have gone on both of my systems (work and home). Anyone else having this problem with the site, or did I miss something new?
Todays' (May 7, 2004) has an article which states that Thomas Hammill, the civilian truck driver from Mississippi, was placed under general anesthesia and had surgery on his gunshot wound WHILE HE WAS IN IRAQI CAPTIVITY.
Two points: 1) compares badly with our treatment of prisoners and 2) tends to put the lie to the foreign fighter and dead-ender crap. Of course, I don't recall seeing this story played up much anywhere else.
This particular thought has been on my mind for some time now, but I think it is particularly urgent at this moment: It is time to assign who is to blame for the fiasco in Iraq, in particular, and the disaster that is and will be the American geo-strategic position, in general. The reason? Bear with me for a moment as I draw a possible historical parallel, always a risky business as the 1939/Munich obsessed neo-cons have possibly learned.
Did anyone else notice that,just as Gen Kimmit (sp?) was asked by a reporter something like: "If the current situation is not basically a war, then what do you call it?", the signal went out? It went out on both CNN and MSNBC and never came back up. Struck me as not being coincidental...
Here's a little something from the irony department: Bush people critcizing the former Spanish ruling party for 'mishandling' information about the terror attack in Madrid. The Bush people would never do a thing like that, I'n sure.
On Today, Katie Couric interviewed three widows from 9/11. 2 of them (and 1 in particular who I saw on CNN last night with Paula Zahn) went after Bush for the ads, for his failure to appear before the 9/11 commission and for his stonewalling. One widow said Bush's proposed 1 hour of testimony amounts to about 5 seconds per victim. Anyone else see it and what did you think?
I haven't seen anything posted on this yet, but Matthews was on the Today Show and said that the National Guard/AWOL issue was going to be a significant issue through the campaign in his opinion.
O'Leilly was on GMA and apologized for supporting the administration's positions that there WMD's in Iraq.
The worm may be starting to turn.
Kay, in his testimony and with Wolife on CNN, is pushing the line that there was no pressure to make intel conform to some White House/VP Cheney line on the people that worked for KAY. Of course Wolfie is either too dense or to much of a whore to explore the fact that the ISG is examining the WMD after the fact and this has nothing to do with the pre-war intel distortions. But watch, this will be transformed into a blanket assertion by Repubs that there was no pressure from Cheney, no cherry-picking of the intel.
Lou Dobbs is about to blow a gasket because Dean is quoted as wanting to re-regulate part of the American economy. Gee, Lou, could you be any more of a whore?
