And On The Home Front

On our home front, two of the big news stories that I should be blogging about are the Supreme Court's narrow rebuke of the President's detention of people in the name of this "war on terror" and the compromise that Arlen Specter forged with the administration that is supposed to bring judicial review to the domestic wiretapping.

I'd like to wipe my butt with both news stories. First of all, members of Congress on both sides of the building are already talking about finding a way to give Bush the authority to still strip prisoners of their rights, because, they say, the military tribunals built on the Uniform Code of Military Justice affords them "too many rights". Ah yes, that old chestnut. "Too many rights". Prisoners still have rights, whether those moonbats in Congress want to admit it or not. Of course, people's rights often get trampled under the foot of asserted government power...

Secondly, Specter's compromise is merely a mirage. His compromise, as so boldly spoken of gives Bush the choice to present his wiretapping activities to a secret court for them to judge on the entire program. But he doesn't have to submit it, and there's no penalties built in for not submitting the program to judicial review. It's a sham, and a shame for that matter, and I can't believe that anyone's thrilled by this.

The thing that keeps angering me about this whole thing is that the Administration keeps crying that the FISA courts process is "too cumbersome" to be workable, even though it gives them a lot of time and freedom to act first and go back later for the judicial review. I'm amazed that the administration would complain that they're unwilling to do the little bit of work required to preserve our rights while claiming to protect the American way. The irony is obviously lost on them.

For another point of view on the Supreme Court decision and what it means for the people in Gitmo, read this story by Richard Harlos.