it's these infringements on our GUARANTEED CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS that really pisses me off about this administration more than anything. the fact that there are people that actually support these decisions doesnt piss me off, it freightens me.
FWIW, going back and reading them (w/the exception of Padilla, which was absurdly procedural it appears that the initial assesssment of the AP and other wire services, that the Bush administration "won" the right to hold these guys is a pyrrhic victory at best, if not outright wrong. They seemed to have lost on habeas corpus and due process, everybody gets some sort of hearing. They lost on the fact that Guantanamo is extrajudicial or extraconstitituional, it wasn't held to be; and everybody, except oddly Padilla (the easiest case IMO), got at least part of what they wanted. I would change the thread title, IMO. I don't think Bush can hold anybody without trial indefinitely after reading these, in fact I think it's the opposite.
Excellent points. Any president who slashes freedoms and uses technicalities to get around the U.S. Constitution should be impeached and kicked out on his ass. Saddam Hussein should be the one who locks up citizens, tortures them and holds them indefinitely -- not us. Being America isn't always easy, but it shouldn't be. We should hold ourselves to the highest standards, not weasel around laws we find inconvenient. Wars and terrorists will come and go, but freedom and liberty will ring through the ages. It's our legacy, and we're allowing it to be destroyed one right at a time.
