Can't Get There From Here

Bench Slapped - review of major newspaper coverage of the SCOTUS rebuke of presidential over-reaching (I love that title!)

Here are some excerpts from some nice writeups on the Hamdan decision:

"Secrecy for its own sake, arrogation of power for its own sake, is not a sufficient executive argument." and "The administration isn't really asking for constitutional blank checks. Why should it, when the president thinks he has his own constitutional Swiss bank account?" - Dahlia Lithwick on Slate (she's my fave SCOTUS analyst. The fact that I have a fave -well, that's just sad, I know)

"This administration has taken the astounding position that if the president has "inherent authority" to do and act whenever Congress is silent, then it follows that any act of Congress that regulates such an authority is an invalid impingement on his "inherent power." This conflation of what a president can do if no law prohibits his action and what he can when the law forbids it is a truly insidious legal doctrine." - Walter Dellinger

"What the Court has done, rather is use the democratic process as a lever to discipline and constrain the President's possible overreaching. Given this Administration's history, that's not necessarily a bad thing." - Balkinization


"Moreover, in the eyes of the world, this decision by his hand-picked Supreme Court simply makes Bush look more and more like the little American Dictator he really is." - Hoffmania.com

On a down note, most reports are now saying that Roberts would have backed the gubmnet - but I'm going to double-check that. (googling) Shit - the bastard is not the level-headed guy I thought he was. At least he recused himself - that's somewhat redeeming. Even if he had participated, the shrub still would've gone down in flames.

Oh Loren - Unlce Tom read his dissent to "show his strong disapproval of the decision." whatever.

The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down

SCOTUS tells him no! My my this is not working out the way Shrub intended at all. heh heh And his ace in the hole, John Boy, didn't participate because he heard the case on the appeals court last year - where he voted against the administration - so this was was very, very very sharp rebuke - essentially 6-3(counting Roberts).

I'll post excerpts of the opinion as they are released - I bet John Paul Stevens or Ginsburg wrote it. And I'd wager a $1 that Thomas, Scalia, and Alito sided with the government.

This is huge - if the admin defies the Supreme Court and keeps Guantanamo prisoners in cognito and refuses to implement habeus corpus, which I think is essentially what the justices will nail them on, that and a breach of seperation of powers - that's coup d'etat - at least the beginning of one. We'll see how much Shrub respects the Constitution won't we. If he defies them - man, there will be some pissed off conservatives - and I think that Roberts is actually extremely able as a jurist and will have no problem coming down like a hammer on the admin is it comes to that.

oooh - I love Constitutional law! I wonder what Paula thinks.

UPDATE I was right - Stevens wrote the majority and the three stooges dissented.

Stevens: "The military commission at issue is not expressly authorized by any congressional act . . . [the tribunals] must be understood to incorporate at least the barest of those trial protections that have been recognized by customary international law. . . . In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive (Bush) is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction."

Bush's response: "To the extent there is latitude to work with the Congress to determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which to give people their day in court, we will do so."

Dude Looks Like a Lady

This is, well, truly New Orleanian

Purple Rain

Abandon it!

Obviously, the fact that the nation's capitol was built on a drained swamp (conveniently owned by Geo. Wash.) and is inhabited by noxious creatures necessitates it's immediate evacuation and subsequent abandonment.

Tom Joad

(this is a cross post from Flamin' Field of Collards)

Core price reading jumps more than projected, fueling fears of further Fed rate hikes; worker wages aren't keeping up but Rove says Republicans should run on the strength of the economy. What a tool. I guess as long as you don't want your middle class and young to have viable economic futures, you would see the economy as perfect.

Although Lou Dobbs is speaking in the context of illegal immigration, I think he is onto something when he says "President and Senate allied with 'corporate supremacists." Another name for fascism is corporatism after all. If a conservative bulwark like Dobbs is naming that evil that dare not speak its name, then how far down that path are we really? Can we truly come back? I'm beginning to truly wonder if there is a way, given the compromised integrity of our political system. I truly fear a coup - and not one as relatively benign as what happened in 2000 and 2004. It keeps me up at night. The web of connections between this administration the slimey underbelly of our military is frightening. Any bright cheery news would be most welcome.

A Fount of Scintillating Insights

It's not often you see a historian profiled in the MSM - I've always kinda' liked Hofstader, but he is a bit dated in some regards. I've always admired his ability to meld his politics with history, but come off as balanced and objective. That's not easy. Anyway, the article is interesting. So there ya' go.

Happy Rapture to Me!

Yes - my family loves me so!

I feel these people's pain

Taxman, yeah, I'm the Taxman

There is a fascinating debate going on in the Slate forums about the issue of inflation. There are apparently several well-read history buffs and economists who are making some very valid and provocative points. Worth a looksee anyways.

White Rabbitt

I read something incredibly creepy last night - it's linked off this blog which is maintained by a rather interesting fellow from NOLA. It took me a while but then WHAMMO! Nazis.

oh and here is an uplifting bit of evangelical fare - a shooter game based on the Left Behind series. They characters shout Praise the Lord everytime they kill someone.

How do we get back through the looking glass?

A.