Once again King George has been knocked down (rightfully so) by a court---the 4th Circuit in this case. The Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to hold a resident alien (here legally) in solitary confinement in a Navy brig for years...even though the Govt tagged him with the term "enemy combatant". Our King and his jackbooted minions were certain that it could be done through military procedures. The suspect will not go free, but now must be charged in criminal court, thus afforded habeas corpus. That is as it should be.
This is not the first time that a court has told the King, "No, you can't do that.", but he continues on anyway. [Remember the Jose Padilla mess?] Our King believes that in his expanded Unitary Presidency he is accountable to virtually no one.
It should be clear to the American public by now that the "War on Terror" is nothing but an attempt to grab unconstitutional power. Terrorists are not in an army; they are criminals, pure and simple. When suspects are caught, they should be charged and tried as criminals. Claiming that such trials would give away national secrets is nothing more than an attempt to avoid due process. Remember Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? National secrets were involved, but they were tried in a criminal court...and we all survived.
The hubris of the Bush Administration is offensive. King George, in particular, acts as though he is some sort of absolute ruler. Even his facial expressions betray him---half the time he looks out at his audience with disdain, superiority, and/or smugness. I think he tops Nixon in that regard. Luckily for us, he is more or less a Lame Duck...very lame.
6 comments:
It’s not just George – it’s his pal Tony too.
If he gets his way they will be able to lock you up in the UK for five years without trial. Better hope George doesn’t get to discussing that with Tony.
Good choice of blog layout by the way.
Thanks very much for the informative link.
We Americans tend to forget the other half of the equation.
:)
You can’t have Oliver Hardy without his Brit side kick Stan' Laurel ;-)
“That’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into George…”
Sad to say it seems that both the US and the UK seem to be using the fear of crime, terrorism, anthropomorphic global warming, etc., to justify measures that no one would have caused outrage, not so many years ago. :-(
... Typo
...that would have caused outrage, not so many years ago. :-(
Agreed.
[Just out of curiosity, how did you happen to come across my blog?
Thanks in advance.]
I think I came upon your blog on the Zebby aggregator, as I recall.
I thought the title was a pretty succinct – neatly summing up a worldview in two words. So I visited the site - you had the same layout as mine.
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