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Indybay Feature
What's to Stop Him? Bush's Assaults on Freedom
On June 29 the US Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision ruled that President Bush's effort to railroad tortured Guantanamo Bay detainees in kangaroo courts "violates both US law and the Geneva Conventions."
Better late than never, but it sure took a long time for the checks and balances to call a halt to the illegal and unconstitutional behavior of the executive.
The Legal Times quotes David Remes, a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling: "At the broadest level, the Court has rejected the basic legal theory of the Bush administration since 9/11--that the president has the inherent power to do whatever he wants in the name of fighting terrorism without accountability to Congress or the courts."
Perhaps the Court's ruling has more far reaching implications. In finding Bush in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the ruling may have created a prima facie case for charges to be filed against Bush as a war criminal.
Many readers have concluded that Bush assumed the war criminal's mantle when he illegally invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The US itself established the Nuremberg standard that it is a war crime to launch a war of aggression. This was the charge that the chief US prosecutor brought against German leaders at the Nuremberg trials.
The importance of the Supreme Court's decision, however, is that a legal decision by America's highest court has ruled Bush to be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
There are many reasons to impeach Bush. His flagrant disregard for international law, US civil liberties, the separation of powers, public opinion and human rights associate Bush with the worst tyrants of the 20th century. It is true that Bush has not yet been able to subvert all the institutions that constrain his executive power, but he and his band of Federalist Society lawyers have been working around the clock to eliminate the constraints that the US Constitution and international law place on executive power.
More
http://counterpunch.com/roberts07012006.html
The Legal Times quotes David Remes, a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling: "At the broadest level, the Court has rejected the basic legal theory of the Bush administration since 9/11--that the president has the inherent power to do whatever he wants in the name of fighting terrorism without accountability to Congress or the courts."
Perhaps the Court's ruling has more far reaching implications. In finding Bush in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the ruling may have created a prima facie case for charges to be filed against Bush as a war criminal.
Many readers have concluded that Bush assumed the war criminal's mantle when he illegally invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The US itself established the Nuremberg standard that it is a war crime to launch a war of aggression. This was the charge that the chief US prosecutor brought against German leaders at the Nuremberg trials.
The importance of the Supreme Court's decision, however, is that a legal decision by America's highest court has ruled Bush to be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
There are many reasons to impeach Bush. His flagrant disregard for international law, US civil liberties, the separation of powers, public opinion and human rights associate Bush with the worst tyrants of the 20th century. It is true that Bush has not yet been able to subvert all the institutions that constrain his executive power, but he and his band of Federalist Society lawyers have been working around the clock to eliminate the constraints that the US Constitution and international law place on executive power.
More
http://counterpunch.com/roberts07012006.html
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kind of cool...I'm responding to this, after seeing it as a front page head-line on Google News........... of late, have been seeing a lot of indymedia sf articles there.
In case you still don't know. WE ARE AT WAR!!! We did not start this war. The enemy attacked us. Did you forget about 911 or are you wishing for more 911's to happen. What do you want??? The enemy is ruthless. I know from personal experience. You are just sitting there in you airconditioned office fighting your own country instead of helping. What's up with that???!!! Who the hell cares about the guantanamo detainees? Maybe you do and why?? Are you the enemy? Are you on their side. OK so you don't need to tell us. We can tell which side you're with.
Ahh! All those exclamation marks (from the above poster) hurt my eyes.
How else can the president be held accountable if not by the democracy he claims to serve?
Most Americans don’t want to see the democracy they know & believe in ruined by avarice, the willingness to commit torture & the parody of truth. I imagine there are a lot of disenchanted people out there. Now isn’t the time to be disenchanted. I think the test for America is to really see how it rises above its present state. Don’t give an inch to the ideology of fear & retribution. Protecting any real & lasting democracy starts & ends at home.
People need to find the heart of the causes of terrorism. It's not "because they hate us" without cause or reason. But the reasons are far too extensive to be understood by the current administration. They're unwilling to take that further step to understand the reasons. Acknowledging the causes of terrorism is highly not profitable for them.
Until someone brave enough steps up to address the underlying causes, the situation won't improve. Security will never be attained & democracy will remain threatened. But not from the outside. Open your eyes. No decisive victory is in sight until the aims of those stealing freedom for profit are cemented, & the illusion of freedom is created. By then freedom will sound strange & hollow. To prepare the public for the long haul, the Bush administration has started calling the war on terrorism the Long War.
But I don't believe in that future. I believe people will do the right thing. Perhaps this is my weakness. I choose to not believe in fear. I choose to hold onto hope, perpetual hope, without capitulating to anything less. I can't accept that committing a little evil for a greater good is the best way of doing something. I believe democracy is worth fighting for.
I refuse to just "make do" with the current state of things. It's my choice.
How else can the president be held accountable if not by the democracy he claims to serve?
Most Americans don’t want to see the democracy they know & believe in ruined by avarice, the willingness to commit torture & the parody of truth. I imagine there are a lot of disenchanted people out there. Now isn’t the time to be disenchanted. I think the test for America is to really see how it rises above its present state. Don’t give an inch to the ideology of fear & retribution. Protecting any real & lasting democracy starts & ends at home.
People need to find the heart of the causes of terrorism. It's not "because they hate us" without cause or reason. But the reasons are far too extensive to be understood by the current administration. They're unwilling to take that further step to understand the reasons. Acknowledging the causes of terrorism is highly not profitable for them.
Until someone brave enough steps up to address the underlying causes, the situation won't improve. Security will never be attained & democracy will remain threatened. But not from the outside. Open your eyes. No decisive victory is in sight until the aims of those stealing freedom for profit are cemented, & the illusion of freedom is created. By then freedom will sound strange & hollow. To prepare the public for the long haul, the Bush administration has started calling the war on terrorism the Long War.
But I don't believe in that future. I believe people will do the right thing. Perhaps this is my weakness. I choose to not believe in fear. I choose to hold onto hope, perpetual hope, without capitulating to anything less. I can't accept that committing a little evil for a greater good is the best way of doing something. I believe democracy is worth fighting for.
I refuse to just "make do" with the current state of things. It's my choice.
First of all, the simplistic "they attacked us on 9-11" talking point fails to address the fact that it wasn't Iraq that attacked us...in fact, it wasn't Afghanistan either! Try reading (not listening/watching some right wing loonies spout lies on Fox or AM radio). Most of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudis. Saddam had no WMD's--when he did have them back in the day, guess who helped him get them? Yep. The U.S. See the they hypocrisy that would do you well to learn to question. Notice that the U.s has no problem w/ gross human rights violators as long as it is good for business...
How come B. Uratmo be P. Ukimo? Are you sure you know what you are talking about? Listen Ummah, that's you in case you don't know. This country was attacked by Islamo-Fascists! If you are a true left leaner, Ummah, you should help us avenge this terrible attack on humanity instead of crying all over saying that your President LIED!! Your President is doing the right thing. You are a fake! You call yourself a left leaner yet you don't even know Soviet history for which I am proud to be part of.
A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever. The leftwingers have been good to me. It is so much easier to take their money. As you know America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. If we can convince the right to think like the left then there will be no problem getting more.
Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change. I want you to work and keep working the people. This is the way to bring down what is up and bring up what is down.
Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.
Whoever calls the left girlie man must be a total fool. Fight the war. Fight Walmart. Raise the minimum wage and the world will be better for it. The world will be better for it. THE WORLD WILL BE BETTER FOR IT!!!
Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change. I want you to work and keep working the people. This is the way to bring down what is up and bring up what is down.
Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.
Whoever calls the left girlie man must be a total fool. Fight the war. Fight Walmart. Raise the minimum wage and the world will be better for it. The world will be better for it. THE WORLD WILL BE BETTER FOR IT!!!
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indybay has conducted it's self deplorably these last two years.
they have wasted money on luxuries.
they have taken over several smaller Locally friendlyIMC's
and forced them into a one size fits all format.
they are taking on the business ethics of Wal-Mart.
the staff have proven to be petty dictators that step on
their workers for self gratification. in this we ask you
DO NOT GIVE TO INDYBAY !
NOT ONE THIN DIME!
indybay has conducted it's self deplorably these last two years.
they have wasted money on luxuries.
they have taken over several smaller Locally friendlyIMC's
and forced them into a one size fits all format.
they are taking on the business ethics of Wal-Mart.
the staff have proven to be petty dictators that step on
their workers for self gratification. in this we ask you
DO NOT GIVE TO INDYBAY !
NOT ONE THIN DIME!
"indybay has conducted it's self deplorably these last two years.
they have wasted money on luxuries."
like what?
"they have taken over several smaller Locally friendlyIMC's"
several? i can only think of two imcs that are on this site- indybay and santa cruz imc.
"and forced them into a one size fits all format."
the old santa cruz site did have a different format, because they used a different cms. indybay didn't take over santa cruz-- sc imc still has the same editors as before, and the northern bay area people don't work on their page.
"the staff have proven to be petty dictators that step on
their workers for self gratification."
please explain.
they have wasted money on luxuries."
like what?
"they have taken over several smaller Locally friendlyIMC's"
several? i can only think of two imcs that are on this site- indybay and santa cruz imc.
"and forced them into a one size fits all format."
the old santa cruz site did have a different format, because they used a different cms. indybay didn't take over santa cruz-- sc imc still has the same editors as before, and the northern bay area people don't work on their page.
"the staff have proven to be petty dictators that step on
their workers for self gratification."
please explain.
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