Bush says Supreme Court approved Guantanamo detentions by silence

[kurth]

"They were silent on whether or not Guantanamo -- whether or not we should have used Guantanamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantanamo, the decision I made."

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/bush-says-supreme-court-approved.php

[acmavm]

1. Such desperation shows such a guilty mind. Mens rea, actus rea.

They are war criminals.

[Ioo]

2. SCOTUS Has Also been Silent on Gay Rights - So they must Approve?

Yah, warpped logic can make the workd a better place.

[DistressedAmerican]

3. Tell It to The Judge(s) Douchebag!

Somehow I doubt that reasoning will sway them much! Asshats!

"freak"

[HereSince1628]

4. Classic Corpo-Corruptican examining the edge of the fence

to see where they can reach over and take what really isn't intended to be theirs.

[rosesaylavee]

5. Nice. So chimpy doesn't understand how the

SCOTUS works and how it makes decisions on laws brought to them from the lower courts. Be afraid, people. Be very afraid.

Someone toss him a high school govt text, ok?

[Roland99]

18. Suppose if they'd been activist judges & issued a ruling beyond the scope

of the case presented before them, he'd have been just a-ok with it.

[rosesaylavee]

19. Of course - as long as he agreed with the ruling.

It IS very scary what he doesn't understand.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Maybe . . . just maybe, the Supremes did not rule on the issue because

the original litigant did not raise the issue during trial and/or in his/their appellate briefs. The Supreme Court is restricted in ruling on legal issues that are in contention from the lower courts and may not add extrajudicial issues on their own initiative.

Everyday * offers proof of his ignorance of the Constitution and its application.

[Golden Raisin]

7. What? How convenient. So in Bush's mind

all of a sudden, (and when it might help him out), he's pompously concluded the other 2 segments of our government (Judicial & Legislative) suddenly carry some weight afterall? Now he's suddenly a believer in Constitutional checks and balances? After doing everything in his power for 6 years to consolidate power into an imperial Executive branch --- castrating the Congress with his "signing statements" and stacking the Supreme Court so as to lean heavily towards the right? This guy truly is a piece of work. This administration is EXACTLY what the Founding Fathers lived in fear and dread of.

[pooja]

8. Where's the comic bubble around his head.. oh wait he really said that

:banghead:

[DemonFighterLives]

9. Silence means a green light in bushworld

The silence of the democrats has given him the full speed ahead signal.

He already covered his dumbass with the signing statements- he will torture if he sees fit.
:argh:

[Peace Patriot]

10. I think Bush is absolutely right. They could have, and should have, shut

down Guantanamo and released its prisoners (or placed them within our lawful judicial system) long ago. Guantanamo--and associated secret prisons and torture dungeons--are a complete and total outrage against civilization, and all of its developed law. The Supreme Count can, indeed, reach around the limits of the cases it CHOOSES to review, in order to right great wrongs. And it has enormous influence in what cases are brought before it, and what issues are developed in the lower courts. I thought their recent decision against Bush carried the implied content that they actually approve of these illegal incarcerations (and the inevitable and even inherent torture that they generate)--and that they don't mind about the military tribunals that VIOLATED their previous rulings. This current ruling is very, very late-in-the-day slap on the wrist, and furthermore includes a cowardly loophole for the Diebold Congress to step in and AUTHORIZE the tribunals.

They SHOULD HAVE called for immediate release of all of these prisoners from military and thus presidential control. They didn't! So, how meaningful is this ruling? It means NOTHING TO THE PRISONERS, some of whom have DIED in the meantime (from ill health, torture or suicide), some of whom have no doubt gone insane, all of whom have suffered greatly, and NONE OF WHOM HAVE BEEN CHARGED OR CONVICTED OF ANY CRIME. And we know from some of the releases obtained by other governments that many are innocent bystanders. Nearly three years of imprisonment for NOTHING--and more years of imprisonment and torture to come.

Nope. Bush is right. If they meant it, they would have done something about it! A slap-on-the-wrist with a loophole. That's all it was. Sickening, but true.

I'm not sorry they ruled the way they did. It may help the defense lawyers in saving a few of these people. It might also help some of Bush's deluded minority of supporters to start thinking for themselves, and may bolster the Left a bit in its anti-Bush arguments. But it is largely meaningless and ineffective. It will not result in change to the status and condition of the prisoners. It will not stop the Bush junta from doing as it damn pleases. So what if it's illegal? What do they care? They'll quickly find their way around that. There is no enforcement; there are no consequences; and Bush's "pod people" in Congress can simply trump it all. (And don't be deluded that they care about public opinion--why would they?) Further, it might even be a RUSE--a way of creating the ILLUSION of "balance of power" with no reality to it.

63% of the American people oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May 2004). The military opposes torture. The CIA opposes torture. Torture violates the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions (which we wrote!), and all human decency. Indefinite detention without charge IS torture. And more direct forms of torture always, inevitably, inherently accompany it. What Bush has done is to create a category of non-human. Non-humans get batted around--and beaten to a pulp. They get experimented on. They get starved. They get abused and humiliated in every way. That's the nature of secretive imprisonment. It's bad enough when you are lawfully convicted, and your name is known. But to be put in jail with no lawful process is equivalent to being considered an animal. And that's just how the guards treat you. You have NO human rights.

Human rights groups have had to battle JUST TO GET THE NAMES OF THE PRISONERS--let alone to get them decent treatment. And then there are the secret prisons, and secret flights, and renditions.

What the Bush junta has done is HORRIBLE. That the Supreme Court could rule on this matter, three years into this abomination--and MERELY SAY, "oh, oops, your legal process is faulty there--better get a real court"--is also HORRIBLE. And Congress's inaction is beyond horrible. It is the most cowardly and treasonous malfeasance in the history of our country. A week on flag-burning. A quiet $3,000/year added to their own salaries. Get rid of the Voting Rights Act, and go on vacation. What do they care about the subhumans in Guantanamo Bay?

Well, I maintain that jail is not the answer for this lot in Washington DC--I want FINANCIAL RECOMPENSE, and COMMUNITY SERVICE. I want to see Bush & his Cabal., the Supreme Court justices and members of Congress serving food to homeless vets, and cleaning toilets in convalescent hospitals for the indigent elderly, AFTER they fork over ALL their profits to the people of this country. And I hope that's what we go for, after we throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor.'

[Arkham House]

13. My word. Every once in awhile--

--someone will post something that just hits the nail totally on the head, and all there is left for anyone else to do is applaud. So: I'm applauding. Really, really well done, PP...this says it all...

[Peace Patriot]

15. Thank you, Arkham House! I feel very strongly about this. And I know

how easy it is to slip and slide down the Bush/Corporate War road into thinking THEIR way, in THEIR terms, in which the memory of decent lawful government fades away, and we no longer EXPECT the right thing to be done, because we have ever disappearing memories of good government. Is horror and indecency now to become a fait accompli? I recoil at the thought. I know there were cheers around here when the decision came down. I was glad about it myself. But I started thinking of it from the prisoners' point of view. It means, quite literally, nothing to them, I'm afraid. I also have in my own living memory a Supreme Court that truly defended human and civil rights. This court is a disgrace. And their failure to shut down this prison--and Congress' failure--will live in infamy.

The truth is these prisoners have ALSO been directly tortured (in addition to torturous detention), and that is why they will never see a legal justice system. There would be no way to hide what has gone on there (and also in their apprehension, of which there are tales of unbelievable horror). So the Diebold Congress will dick around with this matter, and in the end keep these prisoners in military detention. Most will never see the light of day again. If they are guilty of anything (and, I'm sorry, but I don't think defending your country against invasion, in and of itself, is a crime), there simply cannot be a fair trial. They have been extremely coerced and tortured. How can anyone trust what they say in these conditions--even if they "confess" to something? It would be inadmissible in any real court, and would be highly suspect just by common sense. Also, IF Bush's military had ANY EVIDENCE of any real crime--such as conspiring on 9/11--we would have heard loud shouts about it long ago. So, the suspicion is that there is no evidence, and that most are completely innocent of any crime whatsoever. And if they are innocent, they should be on the other side of the table--suing Bush & Co.! And I think we will have to restore transparent elections here, before we can see that happen.

It is a Kafkaesque nightmare. Bush has taken us down into Dante's circles of Hell. How do we ever bring the light back into our society, after this? Well, I know it can be done. South Africa did it--and they were dealing with decades of horror. (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission.) But you have to START. What the Supreme Court did is not a start--not from what I can see. It smooths the way for continued horror. If we ever get our sovereignty back, as a people (our right to vote--and I have hopes on that score), THEN we might be able to use this ruling to impeach or prosecute Bush/Cheney, and Rumsfeld and others. That's one of the reasons that it's better to have this ruling, than to have the opposite ruling (court approval of the tribunals). And maybe it won't be so easy for Bush & Co. to get tribunals out of Congress, at least before November. But who knows, if we have another Diebold Congress after November? Isn't that when they're planning to loot Social Security?

Yikes, I'm getting rather gloomy. And I don't mean to be. I just think we need to face truth and reality, all of it--and know fully what we are up against. It is not going to be easy to get our country back. But I do think we will.

[formercia]

11. The Skull and Bones code of ethics

If it ain't illegal, then it must be legal.

Their Motto: Don't get caught

322 all the way...

[formercia]

12. and some current history to put things in perspective

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0122-10.htm

ALEXANDRA ROBBINS: Yeah. I actually want to back way up and talk about, at least as mention exactly what Skull and Bones is, because while some people on the East Coast have heard about the society, other people across the country have no idea that we are looking right now if the polls are correct, at what would be the first Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones presidential election. That's pretty weird. Skull and Bones is America's most powerful secret society. It's based at Yale, where it's headquartered in a building called the Tomb, and Skull and Bones has included among its members, presidents, including presidents George W. Bush and his father, as well as William Howard Taft, Supreme Court Chief Justices, C.I.A. officials, cabinet members, congressmen and senators. What makes it so staggering that we could have a Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones, Kerry versus Bush election is that this is a tiny tiny club. There are only 800 living members. Only 15 per year. It's staggering that two of them could be facing off for the presidency and so many of them have achieved positions of prominence. One of the interesting and I think disturbing things about Skull and Bones is that its purpose is to get members into positions of power and have those members hire other members into prestigious positions. This is something we have seen with George W. Bush since his ascendancy to the presidency, he has put several Bones members into prestigious positions, such as Bill Donaldson, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The number two and number three guys in the Justice Department, the guy that puts out all of Bush's secrecy memos. His assistant Attorney General is a major Bonesman. Bonesman Frederick Smith was Bush's top choice for Secretary of Defense until he had to withdraw for health reasons. The general council of the Office of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defense’s representative to Europe. The list goes on and on and on. That's something that's interesting, because George W. Bush likes to feign his distance from Yale, from Bones, from Northeastern establishment elite connections, and yet he's going ahead and following Skull and Bones to the letter.

[bullimiami]

14. This goes along with the notion that if they can get away with it, its ok.

Detention, torture, murder, plunder, starting a war...

If it wasnt ok, someone would have stopped them.
It is a very very sick mindset.

[Richard Steele]

16. What an utterly ridiculous thing to say. Complete nonsense.

To me, this only proves that he KNOWS he's breaking the law.

What's his next excuse, that most SC rulings don't apply to him
because they don't specifically mention him by name?
It is just as VALID an arguement at this.

Which is to say: not at all.

[Roland99]

17. He's now making ORAL versions of signing statements on SCOTUS decisions?!?

:banghead:

[chill_wind]

22. Great observation. Sounds precisely like it now that you say that!

Go ahead, Bush. Antagonize them. Piss em off with your stupid sH*#-slinging ignorance and hubris. Really_piss em off.

[chill_wind]

20. So the megalo is now slinging self-insulating poop at his own SC now??

"If I violated the GWC or presided over a war-criminal government, it's their fault, not mine, because they didn't stop me. So I'm innocent, see."

Is the Misleader starting to get a little scared?

Go ahead, Junior. Hide under the skirts of as many other government entities as you can, suddenly. It won't get you off.

You were The Decider, see.

[Triana]

21. bu$hit! (n/t)

[Elidor]

23. We didn't really expect Dumbass to pass civics class anyway

Anyone who thought he understands what he's talking about will no doubt be SHOCKED! SHOCKED! at the ignorance.