Two good links:
The
Baltimore Sun on GWB and Dover AFB:
"...The blackout on the return of soldiers' remains, so as not to disturb the contentment of ordinary Americans, is unconscionable.
...Slipping dead soldiers' remains into the country under cover of a press ban - that, in fact, is the real insult to their memory. That's the way Russia brings its dead soldiers back from Chechnya.
...This administration ...evidently lacks confidence - either in its own policies or in the steadfastness of the American people."
This is another of those lose/lose situations we keep finding ourselves in. Bush does the wrong thing, to our potential advantage. If he is successfully urged to do the right thing - confer the CINC's gravitas on the solemn, heartbreaking occasion of the return home of those who died implementing his policies - he gains stature. If he is not so urged, he may lose stature, but those families who would (inexplicably) gain some measure of comfort from this traditional, symbolic act are punished.
We can either lose ground in the battle to evict his sorry ass from power, or we can surrender a little more of our souls. A very merry Hobson to us all.
The St Louis Post-Dispatch on another administration constitutional lark:
"...a year ago, the government said that the Constitution does not apply at an American military base in Cuba. Now it argues that it can prosecute someone for acts at an American military base in Cuba, based on powers given to the government by the Constitution.
Hence the government's headache: Under the doctrine of judicial estoppel, it cannot argue today contrary to what it argued last year on the same point of law.
...in its prosecution of the war on terror, it seems that government lawyers, from the attorney general on down, have self-interpreted their oaths to uphold the Constitution: They want to uphold the parts that grant them power, but not the parts that restrain their exercise of it."
...The government argues that certain defendants are so fearful and their guilt is so palpable and their knowledge of our secrets is so volatile that we need not respect their liberties. This is the justification of tyrants."
It is also "discarding presumption of innocence" and "assuming your conclusion".
Of course, now that George is the state, and Antonin is the law, these considerations are so Last Century, so Why-Do-You-Hate-Freedom.
