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calendar   Friday - June 30, 2006

Drill, baby, drill

The U.S. House voted 232-187 lift the 25-year old ban on offshore drilling.

The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act would expand drilling options beyond the Gulf of Mexico, where searching for oil is already permitted. The bill would allow drilling more than 50 miles from the coast and gives states the power to allow drilling as close as three miles from the coast.

Predictably the environmentalists are having fits. In a press release titled House shreds offshore drilling moratorium the enviro-whiners say:

Ignoring Americans’ demands for smart, innovative, clean energy solutions, the U.S. House voted 232-187 today to lift the 25-year moratorium on offshore drilling, just as millions of Americans are headed to America’s beaches for the holiday weekend. The bill, H.R. 4761 sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), shreds the long-standing moratorium, makes states jump through bureaucratic hoops to regain protections they currently enjoy, would allow drilling as close as 3 miles to shore if states choose, and cost the federal government billions of dollars. Solutions as simple as making cars go farther on a gallon of gas and as innovative as harnessing the power of the wind and the sun were completely overlooked.

Perhaps we should point out the word moratorium means a temporary suspension. As for these alleged American demands for smart, innovative, and clean solutions, you forgot the word cheap. Raising the CAFE standards only results in flimsier, more dangerous cars. Wind and sun power are too expensive. Plus enviro-weenies don’t like wind farms where they live. Ain’t that right Senator Kennedy, who opposes one off of Martha’s Vinyard.


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Posted by Christopher   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 11:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsEnvironment •  
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Through The Looking Glass

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“Independence Day”


Memo From The Skipper: Everyone out there have a safe and happy Fourth Of July weekend. Especially you guys and gals over in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is because of you that we can celebrate our Independence Day this week. Keep the sand out of your boots and your ammo dry. There’s an ice cold beer (or two - or three - or more) waiting for all of you when you return. OOH-RAH!


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 08:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography •  
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Spamma-Lamma-Ding-Dong

First of all, I have to confess that I have four e-mail accounts: one for the blog here, one for the other blog, one for my business domain and finally, a personal account at Yahoo that I have only given to family members and very close friends.

I never give the personal e-mail out to anyone and I currently only know of seven people who have it - five family and two friends. The business domain has extremely tough filters and I never even see any of the spam that comes in there. Same here at this blog and the other one but not as stringent - I sometimes see spam that slipped through.

The personal account has amazed me though. I’ve had it for eight years or more and every year the spam gets worse and worse. Yet the address is never given out. How do they get these addresses unless Yahoo or Hotmail or whoever gives them out to them? Regardless, this is what a typical morning looks like in my personal e-mail. Every day! There can’t be that many Nigerians in the whole world and God forbid there are that many Viagra salesman ...

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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 05:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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Most Ridiculous Headline Of All Time

imageimageOK, boys and girls! It’s time for Uncle Reginald’s bedtime fun story. Today’s fun reading comes to us from Britain’s extremely prestigious, principled, honest and unbiased newspaper, The Record.

CRAP! I just broke my personal bullshit meter. Hang on a second, kids .... .... .... .... .... .... ....

OK, that’s fixed. Actually, The Record makes the NY Times sound like Rush Limbaugh. No kidding! The Brit loons** are a precious crop of Liberal asshats and their bile and venom toward anything conservative is world-class (much like the Brit soccer fans’ beer drinking abilities). I stumbled across this little gem while wandering around across the pond getting updates on reaction to yesterday’s Supreme Court vomitus extremis.

** Disclaimer: not all Brits are loons. Our British friends who visit here are a fine example of good Limeys. So there!

Within the space of just a few thousand words, The Record manages to:

(1) refer to Gitmo as “kangaroo courts” when they surely must know there are no marsupials in Cuba,

(2) accuse Tony Snow of “re-writing history” when the news of the ruling was still warm and hadn’t had time to age properly which is a requirement for becoming “history”,

(3) break the secret Conserva-Code used by the Bush administration to hide their evil designs in spite of the fact that all neo-cons who are “in the know” fully understand that the codes change daily,

(4) use “crucial sound-bite”, “right-wing punditry”, “ram through a bill”, and “ignore any language he dislikes” - all within one short paragraph,

(5) give us all a lesson on the Constitution from the many constitutional experts currently residing in Liverpool,

(6) claim that President Bush has obtained “grotesquely swollen powers”, and managed to do it without a single Viagra pill, and finally

(7) conclude this insightful analysis by referring to a South Carolina Senator as “sleazoid”, in spite of the fact that the Senator referred to has never gotten drunk, driven his car off a bridge and left a young lady to drown while he manipulated the system to avoid prosecution.

I say, old chap! I certainly hope our Brit friends here do not use this rag to wrap fish and chips in. That could cause anything from mild dyspepsia to extreme dysentary. Regardez-vous! I have included the convenient web page where you may reply to the author of this drivel at the bottom of this horse-shit. Be careful when writing though. If you use the word “sleazoid” you might offend and hurt this nice chap’s feelings. Now toddle on off to your reading assignment, kiddies ...

Supremes Axe Gitmo Kangaroo Courts
Thursday 29th June 2006 22:42 GMT

(THE REGISTER - UK) - The US Supreme Court has axed a pillar of the Bush Administration’s national security strategy by insisting that prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba not be subjected to the kangaroo courts, otherwise known as “military tribunals,” that the Bushies have attempted to use in disposing of terror suspects.

Within minutes of the ruling, during a press conference, the President graciously offered to “consider” the Supreme Court’s ruling. And within the hour, White House flack Tony Snow hastened to re-write history, claiming that the decision had “emphasized” the need for Congress to grant the President the authority he has thus far been wielding illegally. Actually, the issue came up most notably in a concurring decision by Justice Stephen Breyer, rather than the majority opinion. Nevertheless, Congressional rubber-stamping was “the most important” issue in the ruling, Snow explained.

It’s a complicated decision, with numerous dissenting opinions, Snow allowed. Therefore it will take some time for the White House to “figure out what it all means.” Which is code for “we’re going to interpret it in our own way and act on it however we please.”

But for now, at least, the White House has found its crucial sound-bite incantation: “Congressional authorization.” We will be hearing nothing else from the right-wing punditry until a popular myth is established to the effect that the Republican-controlled Congress need only ram through a bill legitimizing the existing system, to which the President can even append “signing statements” indicating his determination to ignore any language he dislikes.

In the near term, we will see a media blitz with the phrase “Congressional authorization” repeated ad nauseam, culminating in a hastily-drafted bill rammed through the House, plus a slightly more intelligent version making slower progress through the Senate, to be reconciled in Conference Committee and endorsed by the President with a classic “signing statement” indicating his profound contempt for the very laws that he swore an oath to execute faithfully.

It’s clear that the Bush Administration reads the Constitution of the United States with a contemptuous and very selective eye. It finds within it a plethora of concomitant rights for itself, such as the right to deny trials to so-called “enemy combatants,” to torture foreign captives, and to spy on innocent US citizens without a warrant.

All of these activities are expressly forbidden by the Constitution. Denying trials is forbidden by the Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Note the key phrase “no person,” as opposed to “no citizen.” The right to trial is not something that the Constitution grants in a conditional manner. It is not conditional upon anything, including citizenship. It is, rather, a hard restriction on government authority. Denying due process is something that the government simply cannot do legitimately. Period.

Torture is forbidden by the Eighth Amendment: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The restriction is unconditional. Torture is something else that the government simply cannot do legitimately. Period.

Warrantless spying is forbidden by the Fourth Amendment: “...no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.” Here again, we confront a thing - warantless spying - that the government simply cannot do legitimately. Period. Yet the Bush Administration does it with impunity.

The Constitution is paramount to all other laws: Congress can pass all the bills it pleases to create loopholes in it, but any such laws are invalid. And yet, the Bushies contend that the same Constitution, which plainly forbids all of these abuses, empowers it to enact all of these abuses. It has wrung enormous mileage out of Article II Section 2, which says simply that, “the President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual Service of the United States...”

From this single enumerated duty, the Bushies have extruded a plethora of imagined concomitant rights to ignore any part of the Constitution that inconveniences them. Said another way, the argument is that the President cannot be an effective Commander in Chief unless he’s got the (presumed, or concomitant) right to chuck any part of the Constitution that gets in the way of dispatching his duty, which he alone is free to interpret.

This leads to the bizarre conclusion that there are greater and lesser rights within the Constitution. But of course there are not. Congress is expressly forbidden to draft laws that violate its provisions, or even weaken them with wiggle room. (Not that this has ever inhibited it in doing so. The Fourth Amendment in particular has been gutted through the years, and the Supreme Court has capitulated repeatedly, which in practical terms means that we’re stuck with the situation.)

But today, the Supreme Court decided to defend the Constitution against executive abuse. It ruled that Article II Section 2, and the Congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force against terrorists, do not even “hint” at the grotesquely swollen powers that the Bushies have claimed.

The Court said it: the President does not have the power to violate the Constitution. And, we will add, Congress does not have the power to authorize the President to violate the Constitution.

This was made evident by the simple fact that the Supremes heard the case, which Congress had decreed it cannot do. The Court ignored the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which illegitimately attempted to strip the Supremes of jurisdiction over the Gitmo mess. (It also outlawed torture, but the President issued a “signing statement” informing the world that he had no intention of obeying it. Not that the Act, or the statement, matter; torture is already outlawed by the Constitution.)

When Justice Breyer wrote in his separate decision that “nothing prevents the President from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary,” he did not mean that Bush and his compliant Red-State yokels in Congress can collaborate to draft an unconstitutional law. Of course, this is precisely what the right-wing punditry will claim, but it is absolutely wrong.

The Supreme Court does not issue rulings that it intends to see violated. What Breyer meant is that the White house and Congress are free to seek an alternative to courts martial, so long as it satisfies the requirements of the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions, and the Constitution of the United States.

He did not mean, as a certain sleazoid Senator from South Carolina insisted, that Congress can “bless” unconstitutional kangaroo courts. So don’t be fooled as the right-wing media blitz arguing otherwise gathers momentum.

- You can send an e-mail to the author of this drivel at this web page ...


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 02:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsEUro-peons •  
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Judicial Nonsense Du Jour

Courts: By all means, let’s protect the rights of criminals. They are simply misunderstood victims of society having suffered a troubled childhood. We need to make sure they have every legal protection possible so that the poor dears can get a fair trial. In fact, we probably just need to sentence them to probation and time served. That way they can return to society and lead useful lives.

Skipper: HANG ‘EM!

imageimageimageJudge Tosses Out Couey’s Confession in Jessica Lunsford’s Slaying
Friday, June 30, 2006

INVERNESS, Fla. (AP) - The confession of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford isn’t admissible in court, but the discovery of her body can be used as evidence, a judge ruled Friday.

John Evander Couey, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, gave the confession to detectives, but also told them that he wanted to consult a lawyer. He wasn’t given the opportunity to do so. “This is a material and a profound violation of one of the most bedrock principles of criminal law,” Circuit Judge Ric Howard said in issuing the ruling Friday.

Jessica was found kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands tied with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive in February 2005. Two days earlier, Couey told detectives he had kidnapped, raped and killed the girl, and he told them where to find the body.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Couey, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, burglary, kidnapping and sexual battery. Jury selection for his trial is expected to start July 10.

Couey and Jessica both lived in the Homosassa area. After Jessica disappeared, Couey fled the area as the search for the missing girl zeroed in on registered sex offenders in the area. He was arrested in Georgia on an unrelated Florida warrant, and gave the confession in an Augusta, Ga., sheriff’s office to two detectives who traveled from Florida to interview him.

On the taped interview, parts of which were played in court, Couey spoke freely with the detectives about his criminal past, use of crack and relationship with his family. When the topic crept closer to Lunsford, however, Couey repeatedly mentioned wanting a lawyer. Detectives Scott Grace and Gary Atchison have testified that Couey’s mention of a lawyer came directly after Grace mentioned a polygraph test. They weren’t sure if he wanted a lawyer immediately or for a later polygraph test, so they kept questioning after Couey said he would talk about “some things,” Atchison testified.

Defense attorney Dan Lewan has portrayed the detectives as overzealous and unconcerned about Couey’s constitutional rights. When his client asked for an attorney, Lewan argued, the detectives spoke over him in a confusing interlude before simply dropping the issue. Lewan also asked the discovery of Jessica’s body be inadmissible in court because Couey told authorities where to find her. Prosecutor Ric Ridgway has said investigators would have found Jessica’s body anyway.

A consent search at the mobile home where Couey was living turned up a bloody mattress which tested positive for Jessica’s DNA the day they began excavating at the mobile home following the confession. Further, disturbed ground near a shovel in the yard was suspicious enough to investigate after officers had already singled Couey out as a person of interest, Ridgway said.

“With (DNA results) they would’ve gotten a search warrant for the home,” Ridgway said. Couey confessed to taking her from her house to the mobile home he was living in about 150 yards away, sexually assaulting and then burying the girl. Jessica had been missing for nearly a month after investigators found her body in the yard. The case sparked new laws that dramatically stiffened penalties for some sex offenders who target children, requiring lifetime electronic monitoring for others.


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 01:49 PM   
Filed Under: • CrimeJudges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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Don’t Bogart That Drumstick

Never let it be said that our police are not playing fair. Carefully read the last sentence ... then hand me one of those wings, dude.

imageimageDrive-Thru Pot Smoke Gives Pair Away
Pot Smoke Wafting Through Drive-Thru Window Gives Pair Away at a KFC Restaurant in Buffalo
June 29, 2006

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)— A pair of pot smokers picked the wrong day to use the drive-thru window at a KFC restaurant in Buffalo. Two men in their 20s pulled up to the restaurant’s window and asked for the Wednesday special.

Meanwhile, a couple of narcotics detectives were inside ordering their food. That’s when a cloud of marijuana smoke wafted into the restaurant. The detectives then spotted the two men smoking what one of the cops called “the biggest marijuana cigar your ever saw.”

The detectives went outside and arrested 23-year-old Charles Morris and 26-year-old Gregory Quick, both of Buffalo. The two men were charged with possession of marijuana and smoking it in public.

One of the cops said he got the cashier to refund the pot smokers’ money for the Wednesday special.


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 01:32 PM   
Filed Under: • CrimeStoopid-People •  
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The Rose of Peace

I was reading some W. B. Yeats poetry last night and this one just stuck in my head for some reason. It’s short and powerful. I wonder who he wrote it to.

If Michael, leader of God’s host
When Heaven and Hell are met,
Looked down on you from Heaven’s door-post
He would his deeds forget.

Brooding no more upon God’s wars
In his divine homestead,
He would go weave out of the stars
A chaplet for your head.

And all folk seeing him bow down,
And white stars tell your praise,
Would come at last to God’s great town,
Led on by gentle ways;

And God would bid His warfare cease,
Saying all things were well;
And softly make a rosy peace,
A peace of Heaven with Hell.

– W. B. Yeats 1893

Skipper, you need a poetry catagory.


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Posted by Christopher   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 10:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Literature •  
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Undecided

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Drew Sheneman - The Newark Star Ledger (NJ)

Those Justices who today disregard the commander-in-chief’s wartime decisions, only 10 days ago deferred to the judgment of the Corps of Engineers with regard to a matter much more within the competence of lawyers, upholding that agency’s wildly implausible conclusion that a storm drain is a tributary of the waters of the United States. See Rapanos v. United States, 547 U. S. ___(2006). It goes without saying that there is much more at stake here than storm drains. The plurality’s willingness to second-guess the determination of the political branches that these conspirators must be brought to justice is both unprecedented and dangerous.

-- Justice Clarence Thomas, Dissenting Opinion, Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, 548 U. S. ___ (2006)


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/30/2006 at 07:12 AM   
Filed Under: • HumorJudges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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calendar   Thursday - June 29, 2006

Through The Looking Glass

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“Pelicans On Parade”
Perth, Australia

Photo Courtesy: BigFoto.com

(click image for larger 1266x786 in popup window)


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/29/2006 at 09:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography •  
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Quote Of The Year

Further proof that Democrats aren’t afraid of stupid people. In fact they absoutely love stupid people. The stupid people are the only ones who are crazy enough to vote for Democrats like Kerry. Share the love with your base, Senator Kerry ...

“So I ask my fellow Senators, are we really that frightened of somebody’s willingness to go out and be stupid? In the United States of America, you have a right to be stupid.”

-- John Kerry, Congressional Record, June 27, 2006
Referring to flag burners and their right to be stupid

(-- hat tip to James Taranto at Opinion Journal for digging up this priceless quote --)


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/29/2006 at 08:09 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsStoopid-People •  
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You Light Up My Life

Those wacky Muslims! What will they think of next? My best guess is Mohammed’s friends figured he had his head up his butt and even worse ... was in the dark about it. Solution: give him a light. Either that or Mohammed is into some REALLY kinky sex ... and if so, I darn well don’t want to know the details. You however, are free to use your imagination to solve this mystery. Wash your hands and turn off the light before exiting the comments. Thank you.

Operation Removes Lightbulb From Anus
Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:34am ET14

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus. Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad’s misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.

“Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else,” Mohammad, a grey-beared man in his mid-40s, told Reuters from a hospital bed in the southern central city of Multan.

“We had to take it out intact,” said Dr. Farrukh Aftab at Nishtar Hospital. “Had it been broken inside, it would be a very very complicated situation.”

Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn’t know the bulb was there.

“When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this,” Mohammad said. “I don’t know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners.”

The doctor treating Mohammad said he’d never encountered anything like it before, and doubted the felon’s story that someone had drugged him and inserted the bulb while he was comatose.

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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/29/2006 at 06:51 PM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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Supreme Court Foul-Up

By now you all know the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld and you probably have guessed by now that SCOTUS produced another abominable decision even worse than the Kelo decision of last year. I have downloaded the full opinion of the court for you to view here or download for later reading. It is a 185-page PDF document that will make your eyes glaze over rather quickly.

Hamdan asserted that the military commission lacks authority to try him because (1)neither congressional Act nor the common law of war supports trial by this commission for conspiracy, an offense that, Hamdan says, is not a violation of the law of war; and (2) the procedures adopted to try him violate basic tenets of military and international law, including the principle that a defendant must be permitted to see and hear the evidence against him.

The court ruled that President Bush did not have authority to set up the tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and found the commissions illegal under both military justice law and the Geneva Convention. In addition, the Court concluded that the commissions were not authorized when Congress enacted the post-9/11 resolution authorizing a response to the terrorist attacks, and were not authorized by last year’s Detainee Treatment Act.

The vote against the commissions and on the Court’s jurisdiction was 5-3, with the Chief Justice not taking part. The Chief Justice was recused from the Supreme Court case because he had sat on the D.C. Circuit Court when it issued the decision that the Court overturned Thursday. On the Circuit Court, he supported the legalilty of the commissions. That decision was reversed today.

STEVENS, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I through IV, VI through VI–D–iii, VI–D–v, and VII, in which KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Parts V and VI–D–iv, in which SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. BREYER, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which KENNEDY, SOUTER, and GINSBURG, JJ., joined. KENNEDY, J., filed an opinion concurring in part, in which SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined as to Parts I and II. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS and ALITO, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SCALIA, J., joined, and in which ALITO, J., joined as to all but Parts I, II–C–1, and III–B–2. ALITO, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SCALIA and THOMAS, JJ., joined as to Parts I through III. ROBERTS, C. J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Surprise! The Liberal wing of the court hung together in the majority opinion on this case and the written opinion by Justice Stevens was a direct slap in the face by the court at both the President and Congress. The President for “overstepping his bounds” and Congress for “not setting clear bounds” The latter refers to the Detainee Treatment Act which Congress passed last year. The majority opinion picked that act apart with a steamshovel. Here is a summary of Justice Stevens majority opinion ...

The military commission at issue is not expressly authorized by any congressional Act. Quirin held that Congress had, through Article of War 15, sanctioned the use of military commissions to try offenders or offenses against the law of war. 317 U. S., at 28. UCMJ Art. 21, which is substantially identical to the old Art. 15, reads: “The jurisdiction [of] courts-martial shall not be construed as depriving military commissions . . . of concurrent jurisdiction in respect of offenders or offenses that by statute or by the law of war may be tried by such . . . commissions.” 10 U. S. C. §821. Contrary to the Government’s assertion, even Quirin did not view that authorization as a sweeping mandate for the President to invoke military commissions whenever he deems them necessary. Rather, Quirin recognized that Congress had simply preserved what power, under the Constitution and the common law of war, the President already had to convene military commissions—with the express condition that he and those under his command comply with the law of war.

That’s when the fun started. After reading Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion, I have the distinct impression that there were some very harsh words spoken in chambers between the justices over this. Scalia gives the Liberal justices hell in every flavor imaginable ....

On December 30, 2005, Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA). It unambiguously provides that, as of that date, “no court, justice, or judge” shall have jurisdiction to consider the habeas application of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. Notwithstanding this plain directive, the Court today concludes that, on what it calls the statute’s most natural reading, every “court, justice, or judge” before whom such a habeas application was pending on December 30 has jurisdiction to hear, consider, and render judgment on it. This conclusion is patently erroneous

Though the Court resists the Bruner rule, it cannot cite a single case in the history of Anglo-American law (before today) in which a jurisdiction-stripping provision was denied immediate effect in pending cases, absent an explicit statutory reservation.

But selectivity is not the greatest vice in the Court’s use of floor statements to resolve today’s case. These statements were made when Members of Congress were fully aware that our continuing jurisdiction over this very case was at issue. With regard to the floor statements, at least the Court shows some semblance of seemly shame, tucking away its reference to them in a half-hearted footnote. Not so for its reliance on the DTA’s drafting history, which is displayed prominently, see ante, at 14–15. I have explained elsewhere that such drafting history is no more legitimate or reliable an indicator of the objective meaning of a statute than any other form of legislative history. This case presents a textbook example of its unreliability.

Here, apparently for the first time in history, see Motion to Dismiss 6, a District Court enjoined ongoing military commission proceedings, which had been deemed “necessary” by the President “[t]o protect the United States and its citizens, and for the effective conduct of military operations and prevention of terrorist attacks.” Military Order of Nov. 13, 3 CFR §918(e). Such an order brings the Judicial Branch into direct conflict with the Executive in an area where the Executive’s competence is maximal and ours is virtually nonexistent. We should exercise our equitable discretion to avoid such conflict. Instead, the Court rushes headlong to meet it.

Antonin Scalia is a fiesty little cuss, ain’t he? We need about three more like him on the court and then we might be able to get this country back on course again. With any luck Justices Stevens or Kennedy will decide to kick the bucket before President Bush leaves office. We can only hope. In the meantime, this decision does not mean the terrorist prisoners will go free. If Congress can get off its butt and amend the DTA or pass a clear set of guidelines for detainee tribunals then the whole thing ends and the murdering thugs at Gitmo can rot in their cells ... after a fair trial, of course.

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More On This SCOTUS Decision At The Following Blogs:

SCOTUSBlog: “Decisions: Hamdan decided, military commissions invalid”

StopTheACLU: “Supreme Court Says Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions Are Unconstitutional; ACLU Calls Decision a Victory for the Rule of Law”

Michelle Malkin: “BUSH ON HAMDAN RULING”


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/29/2006 at 05:07 PM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-LawyersTerrorists •  
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Schlock And Awe

Gaza: in a ragged strip of land 28 miles long and 7 miles wide there live 1.4 million deranged creatures who can best be described as the pond scum in the human gene pool. They inhabit an area about twice the size of Washington, DC. No other country wants them, including Arab countries. They contribute absolutely nothing to human society except violence, bloodshed, hatred and conflict. They cannot support themselves and are an economic drain on the rest of the world. What little money they can beg and borrow from other countries is mostly spent on bombs, rockets and guns while the majority of the population is left to live in poverty and starvation by their leaders. They claim to be victims. That is the biggest lie in human history.

The humane thing to do would be for Israel to line up the bulldozers and tanks and slowly push them into the sea. It would not be genocide but rather euthanasia - putting them out of our misery. Do I shock you with that solution? Don’t worry. It shocks me too. It shocks me that the world has allowed the situation to come down to this. It bothers me that I would even contemplate such an act. Then I think - “what if the situation were reversed”? What if the Palestinians held most of the land with a large army and the Israelis were trying to survive in Gaza. What do you think would happen then?

If you guessed that the Jews would be swimming with the fishes, you are entirely correct. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. For nearly sixty years, the Arab states in the region surrounding Israel have tried to do exactly that. They have never tried to hide their intentions in that regard. War after war and an unending wave of suicide bombers have made it abundantly clear.

So what’s to stop the Israelis from drowning the Palestinian rats and fumigating the countryside? Humanity. Decency. Compassion. All things that their enemies have never shown them. When will it end? The sad answer is that it will never end ... until one group or the other is drowning in the sea. Let’s hope there’s a lifeguard on duty somewhere ...

imageimageIsrael Keeps Up Pressure On Gaza
Palestinian officials held; settler’s body found
Thursday, June 29, 2006 4:57 a.m. EDT (08:57 GMT)

JERUSALEM (CNN)—Striking from the air, land and the sea, Israeli forces Thursday fired on Gaza in the midst of intensified clashes with Palestinian militants who have been holding an Israeli soldier captive for four days, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Israel’s navy pounded northern Gaza, firing from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, while Israeli aircraft hit targets in the north and the south. IDF tanks joined in the barrage. The strikes came as Israeli security forces overnight arrested 64 Palestinians in the West Bank, suspected of being involved in terrorist activities, the Israeli army said.

Palestinian sources said those arrested included dozens of lawmakers from the ruling Palestinian party Hamas. Those arrested were not taken into custody as a bargaining chip for Cpl. Gilad Shalit’s release, the army said. The raids came amid word that a body found early Thursday near Ramallah was that of Eliyahu Yitzhak Asheri, 18, a West Bank settler seized by Palestinian militants hours after Shalit was kidnapped early Sunday, Israeli security sources.

The troops moved back into Gaza early Wednesday, and the operation continued Thursday with Israeli aircraft hitting targets in Khan Yunis in the south and in Gaza City to the north. Israeli intelligence indicates Shalit is being held in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. IDF distributed fliers in Beit Hanoun, Khan Yunis and the Sajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, warning that the Israeli army is operating in the area for an unknown period of time in order to bring Shalit home.

Israeli tanks could be seen firing into the area as dusk fell. An Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis targeted what the Israeli military said was a storehouse for Qassam rockets. Israeli warplanes have knocked out bridges connecting northern and southern Gaza and destroyed a power station in an effort to prevent militants from moving the captured soldier outside southern Gaza, according to the IDF.

Wednesday evening, Israeli jets buzzed the home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Ladekye, outside Damascus. Israeli television reported that the president was at home at the time. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres complained that Syria allowed the exiled Hamas political leader Khalid Meshaal—operating out of Damascus—to order the kidnapping of the Israeli corporal. The flyover was seen as an attempt to bring pressure on al-Assad to rein in Meshaal.


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/29/2006 at 09:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Paleswine •  
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A Serious Problem

Good advice: “steer clear of smokers and any of their drifting fumes.” Yes, those damned hippy Liberals burning the American flag do tend to stink up the place pretty bad. So by all means, keep your distance. There does appear to be “overwhelming evidence” that contact with these individuals and their burning and smoking habits can lead to many serious illnesses including voting for Democrats and believing Michael Moore.

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Steve Kelley - New Orleans Times-Picayune

Surgeon General: No Safe Level Of Secondhand Smoke
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:10 p.m. EDT (03:10 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP)—Steer clear of smokers and any of their drifting fumes. That’s the advice of the surgeon general, who on Tuesday declared the debate about the dangers of secondhand smoke over. “The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard,” said Richard Carmona.

There is no safe level of secondhand smoke—even a few minutes inhaling someone else’s smoke harms nonsmokers, he found. And separate smoking sections, even the best ventilated ones, don’t protect enough. Carmona called for completely smoke-free buildings and public places to lessen what he termed “involuntary smoking.”

More than 126 million nonsmoking Americans are regularly exposed to someone else’s tobacco smoke, and tens of thousands die each year as a result, concludes the 670-page study. It cites “overwhelming scientific evidence” that secondhand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer and a list of other illnesses.

The report is sure to fuel efforts by states and cities to ban smoking in workplaces and other public spaces. Seventeen states and more than 400 towns, cities and counties have passed strong no-smoking laws.

- More on the story at CNN ...


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Posted by The Skipper   United States  on 06/29/2006 at 08:40 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsHealth-Medicine •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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