Although not a big fan of terrorist and believe they should be tried as such if captured , Im thankfull for the courts for the time being ruling/upholding the constitution and due process.Im very concerned with the current trend of using executive orders and emergency powers measures aka patriot act and fema mandates to further decimate our constitutional rights concerning search and siezure, due process, right to privacy and whether someone excercizing free speech in the context of your average citizen not agreeing with the ruling party status quo gets arrested and labeled as a terrorist as we march toward a new world order via Bush and his ilk.

It is unfortunate that those who are critical of the Bush administration's handling of the "war on terror" feel they have to apologize for it. By engaging in the most egregious tactics dealing with suspected terrorists (including kidnapping, torture, and the detention of completely innocent people for indefinite periods of time, in one case for 5 years), they have given aid and comfort to our enemies, the terrorists themselves. No one has done more to justify and legitimize Al-Qaeda than George W. Bush. I heard him just yesterday claiming that the world is a safer place because we removed Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. I wonder why no one has called for him to receive a mental examination.

In fact, while Iraq itself seems to have entered a precarious truce, that seems to have more to do with their own perceived self-interest, than anything the United States has done. We are stuck over there, and yet lack the ability to influence the outcome in any significant way other than to refuse to leave until we're good and ready.

Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan (the real front-line of the war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban) is rapidly deteriorating, and we are on the verge of direct hostilities with our ally, Pakistan. While the Bush administration spends it's energy huffing and puffing at Iran over prospective nuclear weapons, we are now at significant risk that an extremist regime might come to power in Pakistan, and they already have nuclear weapons.

Furthermore, the price we are paying for this "safer world" that President Bush is claiming credit for, is a massive increase in debt, a declining dollar, and a foundering economy, with the worst seemingly yet to come as soaring energy costs ripple through it.

This country was founded on some lofty principles. Our record of living up to them has been spotty over our history, but never has it fallen to such a low as during the last 8 years, at the hands of a President unfamiliar with his own many limitations, and a thorough contempt for those same principles which he regularly invokes in his rhetoric.

We have about six months left of having to tolerate this man, I can only hope we make it to January 20th, 2009 with our country still intact.

I agree completely with ted in pdx's post.

I hope beyond hope we can escape the Bush/Cheney destruction of our constitution without further damage...but I doubt it.

disgusting and sad at the same time. these people are not americans. they are not covered under the us constitution.

to suggest othewise implies there is no differance between a citizen of the usa and the rest of the world. and that's the point isn't. to make us all sheeple, like the liberals

While I AGREE with today's majority opinion that "all enemy combatants detained during a war, at least insofar as they are confined in an area away from the battlefield, [but] over which the United States exercises 'absolute and indefinite' control, may seek a writ of habeas corpus in federal court," I also AGREE with Chief Justice Roberts (and his fellow dissenters) that the Writ can be suspended in time of war, such as the war on terror that we find ourselves involved in right now, and that suspension power belongs to Congress, such as Congress has exercised in this case, "as the Constitution surely allows Congress to [wield]."

While I AGREE with today's majority opinion that "all enemy combatants detained during a war, at least insofar as they are confined in an area away from the battlefield, [but] over which the United States exercises 'absolute and indefinite' control, may seek a writ of habeas corpus in federal court," I also AGREE with Chief Justice Roberts (and his fellow dissenters) that the Writ can be suspended in time of war, such as the war on terror that we find ourselves involved in right now, and that suspension power belongs to Congress, such as Congress has exercised in this case, "as the Constitution surely allows Congress to [wield]."

Is Scalia the activist judge to end all activist judges? His dissenting statement doesn't discuss the constitutional issues at all. He simply says any detainees who are released will come back and kill us. He gives no consideration to the detainess having to be tried in American courts. He gives no consideration to our intelligence and police organizations keeping track of these people. He just predicts the future and furthers the Bush/Cheney/Rove fear mantra, "Do as we say or die!" Bush is the worst, most arrogant president in history and Scalia is the worst, most arrogant justice in history. May they both burn in hell.

don't worry daikon, your ilk, your chamberlain world view has just about got us in hell, most likely during your pathetic lifetime.

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