Sunday, July 02, 2006

Gitmo? No.

In a ruling that gives cheer to the friends of liberty around the world, the United States Supreme Court has ruled, in a 5-3 decision, that the secret trials going on in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba violate the rights guaranteed people under the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Republicans have packed the Court with men and women they were sure would be willing dupes, bent to their will. But even their ostensible fellow travellers have drawn the line. This is not democracy. This is not liberty. This is not the breath of Western civilization. While I know I am hardly the first citizen of the Republic of Letters to register my satisfaction with the ruling, I feel compelled to congratulate the Court for its wisdom, and celebrate with the progressives of the United States in this victory: it reaffirms what we as Westerners really believe, what we really stand for, and what will see us through to another century hence. There are limits. There are dark places we will not go. No matter the storms that torment us, we walk in light.

9 comments:

Polt said...

Don't get too conratulatory, the decision was 5-3. Roberts had to sit it out cause he was involved in earlier parts of it, but he WOULD have made it 5-4. The thinking justices (Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and the dude from Vermont who's name eludes me) all agreed this way, and Kennedy, the moderate swing vote joined them. But the hard-headed, foaming at the mouth conservative block (Scalia, Alito, Thomas) were in lockstep against it. they were AMAZED, amazed I tell ya, that the Supreme Court would have the audacity to intervene in an Executive act. I supposed they never heard of JUDICIAL REVIEW! I mean it's only the entire reason for the SUpreme Court's existance!

Just remember, we're a heart attack or stroke away from Bushie getting another regressive on the court, and then all bets are off.

Hopefully, with a Democratic takeover of the Senate in November, we won't have to worry about that so much.

Oh, BTW< saw your pics from the PRide parade! Man, it looked like a blast! I'm sorry I missed it. Maybe next year I'll make it up! :)

laura k said...

Excuse me, Polt, but Supreme Court rulings don't have to be unanimous to be important and celebrated. None of the big decisions in US history were unanimous, to my knowledge. The only reason to hold off celebrating this decision is that the prisoners are still being held at Gitmo. The ruling itself is golden.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Laura, Polt... a win is a win is a win. :) Whatever secures civil rights and plain old civility is a friendly victory for humanity. With this action the United States confirms itself among the community of nations, and chips away at the exceptionalism that only damages its historic reputation. Come Tuesday, set off a firework or two (if that's legal in your state!). :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, yes, BTW, forgive my lapse of manners... thank you for the kind words over my Pride photos. I hope you'll make it next year, and that you'll let me know if you do! Be nice to link up.

Polt said...

YOu're right, this is a great ruling. Any ruling FOR civil liberties and against Bushie's fascism is a great thing. I didn't mean to sound like I thought differently. (although, if I'm correct, Brown vs BOard of Education was a unanymous verdict)

What I was writing about was perhaps complacency? Thinking that everything is grand, when in fact, it only takes the death or retirement of one moderate justice and everything will change, drastically.

No, I didn't mean to ignore the outcome of THIS ruling, but perhaps to warn that we must still be viligant about the court, and perhaps a bit fearful of what the future holds if Bushie gets to appoint one more justice.

Anonymous said...

First, the only woman on the Court was nominated by a Democrat, so the statement is already false.

Mmm, yes... Republicans, nominating women... what was I on? Whatever it was, it evidently made me overly generous. Thanks for straightening that out.

...it is obvious that you have no conception of judicial adjudication, so you resort to assuming that anyone who votes for a policy preference that you don't share is a moron...

Well, try not to take it too personally. I might be wrong.

Overall, not a very deep analysis of the Court's opinion.

Ohhh, if only American politics nowadays required anything like a deep analysis. When it's as deliberately black-and-white and as facile as a man who actually uses terms like "evil-doers" in public like some deep South Dudley Do-Right, analysis hardly enters the picture. American politics these days is about as subtle as a speeding Mac truck. It either runs you over at the constitutional red light or it doesn't. Every time the courts actually keep someone from being run over, count on me to cheer.

Anonymous said...

Who nominated the first woman EVER to the Supreme Court?

Who broke the $1T debt mark? Who's raised it to $8T? Who's given you 2500 dead and over 10,000 crippled soldiers in order to raise gas prices by over 50% in just three years and "democratically" push an otherwise stable Arab nation to the brink of civil war? If you want to chalk up credits and debits, even a Canadian like me is all set.

Anonymous said...

The only way you could acknowledge that a deficit in the US could affect you would be to admit that you need that US as a world-wide economic stabilizer.

Who said it affected me? We have our own currency. It's doing fine relative to yours; and 95% of the customers on Earth don't live in the US. All we need to do is start hustling to sell to them, instead of contenting ourselves in shoveling pies at an economic gourmand due for a massive coronary. In sucking up the world's savings in return for increasingly worthless currency with all the scarcity of buy-one-get-one-free coupons in the local pennysaver, I'd hardly call the US a force for economic stability.

Just what is a "stable arab nation?"

Pretty much any of them before you clowns show up to shoot democracy at their civilians.

Polt said...

Actually, the American dollar is doing much WORSE against the Canadian dollar than in recent years. At one point, when I went to Toronto, I could get $1.67 for each American dollar. The last time, it was $1.33.

Nonetheless, Primate, please allow me to apologize. This type of thinking is our problem in America now.

I have no issue with someone thinking differently, people can agree to disagree. but too much of the arguments coming from the right now aren't just, "you think differently than I do, and he's why I think the way I do." too much of it is, "You don't think like I do, therefore, you're unpatriotic, un-American, evil, and helping the terrorists! AND I'll call you every name I can think of and spout angry statements at you instead of have a civil discourse with you!"

*SIGH* When you have no arguement to make, you resort to name calling. Typical bully on the playground behavior. We can only hope that the American people wake up and see what's happening and vote in people who will do something about it.