On 06-19-08, TIM RICHARDSON said to ALL:


I usually post up Ann Coulter's weekly column over in Ceppa's echo; and of
course recieve in return a waterfall of idiocy, usually led by `El Stupido'
himself (Ceppa), during which they trip over each other running down Coulter,
and\or taking verbal pot shots at me for posting it up.


When I read Coulter's column this week.....I realize it is on a subject, and
gives a message, that is far too important to give Ceppa and his lap dogs
first crack at it.


All they can come up with over there is bullshit swipes at Ann Coulter, false
accusations aimed at discrediting her standing as a column writer, and sneaky
little insults and put-downs aimed at me which, according to Ceppa, his echo
is supposedly free of that sort of shit.


Anyway......read this:


JUSTICE KENNEDY: AMERICAN IDLE


June 18, 2008


After reading Justice Anthony Kennedy's recent majority opinion in Boumediene
v.Bush, I feel like I need to install a "1984"-style Big Brother
camera in my
home so Justice Kennedy can keep an eye on everything I do.


Until last week, the law had been that there were some places in the world
where American courts had no jurisdiction. For example, U.S. courts had no
jurisdiction over non-citizens who have never set foot in the United States.


But now, even aliens get special constitutional privileges merely for being
caught on a battlefield trying to kill Americans. I think I prefer Canada's
system of giving preference to non-citizens who have skills and assets.


If Justice Kennedy can review the procedures for detaining enemy combatants
trying to kill Americans in the middle of a war, no place is safe. It's only
a matter of time before the Supreme Court steps in to overrule Randy, Paula
and Simon.


In the court's earlier attempts to stick its nose into such military
operations as the detainment of enemy combatants at Guantanamo, the court
dangled the possibility that it would eventually let go.


In its 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the court disallowed the Bush
administration's combatant status review tribunals, but wrote: "Nothing
prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority (for
trial by military commission) he believes necessary."


So Bush returned to Congress and sought authority for the military
commissions he deemed necessary -- just as the court had suggested -- and
Congress passed the Military Commissions Act. But as Justice Antonin Scalia
wrote in dissent in the Boumediene case last week: It turns out the justices
"were just kidding."


This was the legal equivalent of the Supreme Court playing "got your nose!"
with the commander in chief.


The majority opinion by Justice Kennedy in Boumediene held that it would be
very troubling from the standpoint of "separation of powers" for
there to be
someplace in the world in which the political branches could operate without
oversight from Justice Kennedy, one of the four powers of our government (the
other three being the executive, legislative and judicial branches).


So now even procedures written by the legislative branch and signed into law
by the executive branch have failed Kennedy's test. He says the law violates
"separation of powers," which is true only if "separation of
powers" means
Justice Kennedy always gets final say.


Of course, before there is a "separation of powers" issue, there must be
"power" to separate. As Justice Scalia points out, there is no general
principle of separation of powers. There are a number of particular
constitutional provisions that when added up are referred to, for short, as
"separation of powers." But the general comes from the particular, not the
other way around.


And the judiciary simply has no power over enemy combatants in wartime. Such
power is committed to the executive as part of the commander in chief's
power, and thus implicitly denied to the judiciary, just as is the power to
declare war is unilaterally committed to Congress. As one law professor said
to me, this is what happens when the swing justice is the dumb justice.


Kennedy's ruling thus effectively overturned the congressional declaration of
war -- the use of force resolution voted for by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry,
75 other senators as well as 296 congressmen. If there's no war, then there
are no enemy combatants. This is the diabolical arrogance of Kennedy's
opinion.


We've been through this before: Should the military run the war or should the
courts run the war?


I think the evidence is in.


The patriotic party says we are at war, and the Guantanamo detainees are
enemy combatants. Approximately 10,000 prisoners were taken on the
battlefield in Afghanistan. Of those, only about 800 ended up in Guantanamo,
where their cases have been reviewed by military tribunals and hundreds have
been released.


The detainees are not held because they are guilty; they're held to prevent
them from returning to the battlefield against the U.S. Since being released,
at least 30 Guantanamo detainees have returned to the battlefield, despite
their promise to try not to kill any more Americans. I guess you can't trust
anybody these days.


The treason party says the detainees are mostly charity workers who happened
to be distributing cheese to the poor in Afghanistan when the war broke out,
and it was their bad luck to be caught near the fighting.


They consider it self-evident that enemy combatants should have access to the
same U.S. courts that recently acquitted R. Kelly of statutory rape despite
the existence of a videotape. Good plan, liberals.


The New York Times article on the decision in Boumediene notes that some
people "have asserted that those held at Guantanamo have fewer rights than
people accused of crimes under American civilian and military law."


In the universal language of children: Duh.


The logical result of Boumediene is for the U.S. military to exert itself a
little less trying to take enemy combatants alive. The military also might
consider not sending the little darlings to the Guantanamo Spa and Resort.


Instead of playing soccer, volleyball, cards and checkers in Guantanamo,
before returning to their cells with arrows pointed toward Mecca for their
daily prayers, which are announced five times a day over a camp loudspeaker,
the enemy combatants can rot in Egyptian prisons.


That may be the only place left that is safe from Justice Kennedy.


COPYRIGHT 2008 ANN COULTER










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*Durango b301 #PE*