Friday, June 30, 2006 SupremeCrt blocks BushCo Tribunals but Defense Dept says So What? In a suprising 5 to 3 vote, the "Supreme Court on Thurs repudiated the Bush admin's plan to put Gitmo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by fedrl statute and violated internatl law." Ouch, that had to hurt, but I'm sure Bush, Cheney & Abu Ghraib Gonzales then looked at each other and grunted: "Internatl law? What's that?" Justice Stevens, writing for the majority in a 73-pg opinion, shredded each of the admin's arguments, including the assertion that Congress had stripped the crt of jurisdiction to decide the case. A principal but by no means the only flaw the crt found in the commissions was that the pres had established them w/o Congressional authorization. Stevens said: "The executive is bound to comply w/ the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction." I'm sure that Bush, Cheney, & Abu Ghraib Gonzales then looked at each other and grunted: "Congressional authorization AND the executive is bound to comply? What the hell is that?" Oh don't worry boys. Rumsfeld and his minions at the Dept of Def have got you covered: "The Def Dept asserted that the crt's sweeping ruling against the tribunals did not undermine the govt's argument that it can hold foreign suspects indefinitely and w/o charge, as "enemy combatants" in its declared war on terror, and officials added that they may soon begin to look harder for an alternative site for the detainees held at Guantánamo Bay." See boys? You just need to find some nice remote place far, far away where those pesky 7 out of 9 Republican appointed Sup Crt Justices can't rule. Somewhere like... 1 of those secret rendition prisons? And while I'm shocked that the SCOTUS ruled the way it did, one absolutely amazing quote stands out among all of the many pundit discussions about the ruling. It comes from James Carville, who was debating Bay Buchanan on The Situation Rm: BLITZER: Bay, what the Sup Crt said, which is a major setback for the admin's stance, is the Geneva Conventions & internatl law apply to these 450 detainees. BUCHANAN: And what was the decision? If the chief justice was voting, we all know it would be 5 to 4. So, the 4 conservatives were voting w/ the pres. The key here is, the Americans are going to side w/ the pres. They want an aggressive, tough stance against terrorists. CARVILLE: You just didn't say -I didn't hear that. I didn't hear you say it was a 5 to 4 decision. It was a 5 to 3 decision, but Bush is president b/c of a 5 to 4 decision. I am absolutely speechless, that someone would say that a 5 to 4 decision carries any less weight. BUCHANAN: This is the courts trying to say what a pres, who is a commander in chief at a time of war, can or cannot do. CARVILLE: Can you imagine a Sup Crt saying what the Constitution means? I can't imagine that they would actually try to interpret the Constitution." Heavens no? Can ya imagine that? I detest your despicable GOPer wife, Carville, but those bitchslaps were stone cold accurate and fierce. |