Supreme Court Takes A Step Towards Restoring The Constitution

It truly is an amazing time in our country where it took a 5-4 decision to rule the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 unconstitutional. This Act from the last Republican Congress was a smack in the face to the tenets of our democracy, that everyone get a fair trial within the United States. Of course Republicans argued then as did the four dissenters on the Court today (Chief Justice Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia) that Guantanamo Bay isn't technically the United States. Thankfully the other five justices had warm hearts and clearly-thinking heads when they came down with the decision.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

The extraordinary time is that George Bush is in power, not so much the fact that the United States has enemies that aren't nation-states. We were fighting pirates in the late 1700s off the Barbary Coast and have repelled other threats since then. September 11th does not give Bush the right to strip our Constitution and allow unequal rights to detainees merely because they are not taken to one of the fifty states. We have had Guantanamo in our possession for over 100 years without interruption and in the minds of the five justices (and most Americans) that counts as being under the jurisdiction of the United States.

What The Traditional Media Won't Tell You

Project Censored is one of the best outlets to hear about what the traditional media will simply not report. Unless the regular media feel generous and give a couple minutes to real news instead of Britney, Lindsey or JonBenet Ramsey these are the top twenty-five stories from 2006-2007 you might not have heard about:

# 1 No Habeas Corpus for “Any Person”
# 2 Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
# 3 AFRICOM: US Military Control of Africa’s Resources
# 4 Frenzy of Increasingly Destructive Trade Agreements
# 5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
# 6 Operation FALCON Raids
# 7 Behind Blackwater Inc.
# 8 KIA: The US Neoliberal Invasion of India
# 9 Privatization of America’s Infrastructure
# 10 Vulture Funds Threaten Poor Nations’ Debt Relief
# 11 The Scam of “Reconstruction” in Afghanistan
# 12 Another Massacre in Haiti by UN Troops
# 13 Immigrant Roundups to Gain Cheap Labor for US Corporate Giants
# 14 Impunity for US War Criminals
# 15 Toxic Exposure Can Be Transmitted to Future Generations on a “Second Genetic Code”
# 16 No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11
# 17 Drinking Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations
# 18 Mexico’s Stolen Election
# 19 People’s Movement Challenges Neoliberal Agenda (Free Trade through Central and South America)
# 20 Terror Act Against Animal Activists
# 21 US Seeks WTO Immunity for Illegal Farm Payments
# 22 North Invades Mexico
# 23 Feinstein’s Conflict of Interest in Iraq
# 24 Media Misquotes Threat From Iran’s President
# 25 Who Will Profit from Native Energy?

Even as a news junkie, I have heard next to nothing about numbers 3, 6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 21 and 25. Now imagine if you only get your news from CNN and MSNBC, or worse, just from Fox News.

As Walter Cronkite said of the group, "Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism." If journalists won't listen, then we need to do some leg work ourselves. Thankfully you can click on this link and help open your mind to what is going on in this big, bad world.

Where Are The Dems On Habeas Corpus

It seems quite a few Democrats in the Senate have not added Habeas Corpus to their MySpace friends list yet. Twenty-eight Democrats plus Bernie Sanders have co-sponsored Arlen Specter's bill so far but there are still twenty-two that haven't formally pledged their support. Republicans aren't going to support the lone Republican who created the bill, so where are you guys and gals?

Bob Geiger asks the question:

With the addition over the last couple of weeks of Senators Byrd, Carper, Klobuchar, McCaskill, Menendez and Nelson (Bill), there are 28 Democratic Senators, along with Sanders, cosponsoring Specter's S. 185, which could very well come up for a vote next week as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill.

Here's the cosponsor list:

• Joe Biden (D-DE)
• Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
• Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Robert Byrd (D-WV)
• Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
• Ben Cardin (D-MD)
• Thomas Carper (D-DE)
• Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
• Chris Dodd (D-CT)
  
• Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Russ Feingold (D-WI)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Tom Harkin (D-IA)
• Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
• John Kerry (D-MA)
• Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
• Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Carl Levin (D-MI)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Barack Obama (D-IL)
• Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Ken Salazar (D-CO)
• Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

So I again raise the question: Where are the other Democrats?

We expect almost none of Specter's Republican colleagues to support his leadership on something so basic to our country's creed. The GOP long ago divorced itself of any commitment to our Constitution, so our standards for them have been lowered accordingly. But we expect more of Democrats and should ask why the others are not stepping up and cosponsoring this legislation along with 29 of their colleagues (including Sanders) in the Democratic caucus.

Thanks Bob for raising this issue. It would seem to be a no-brainer to restore fundamental rights to Americans. Habeas corpus is something we should all count on if god-forbid we are arrested and detained for no apparent reason. The detainees from abroad that reside against their will in Guantanamo haven't had access to those rights and the Republican Congress of last year blocked American citizens from that protection as well. We need that right restored, and we need it now.