You hear that sound? That's the sound of the Constitution being burned

Check out this story from the AP via the Chicago Sun-Times:

Court: Military panels to try detainees

July 15, 2005

BY PETE YOST ASSOCIATED PRESS
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WASHINGTON-- A federal appeals court put the Bush administration's military commissions for terrorist suspects back on track Friday, saying a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison who once was Osama bin-Laden's driver can stand trial.

A three-judge panel ruled 3-0 against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose case was halted by a federal judge on grounds that commission procedures were unlawful.

"Congress authorized the military commission that will try Hamdan," said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The protections of the 1949 Geneva Convention do not apply to al-Qaida and its members, so Hamdan does not have a right to enforce its provisions in court, the appeals judges said.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled last year that Hamdan could not be tried by a military commission until a competent tribunal determined that he was not a prisoner of war.

"We believe the military commission is such a tribunal," said the appeals court.

President Bush created the military commissions after the Sept. 11 attacks, opening a legal channel for alleged al-Qaida terrorists and their associates to be tried for war crimes.

But just 15 of the 520 detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been designated for such trials and only four have been charged.

The rest face indefinite detention, and the Bush administration refuses to grant any of the detainees prisoner-of-war status, a decision that has fueled international criticism of the United States.

Hamdan, a mechanic with a fourth-grade education, says he left his home country of Yemen looking for work and wound up in Afghanistan, working for bin Laden from 1997 until the U.S. attack in Afghanistan in 2001.

Hamdan denies conspiring to engage in acts of terrorism and denies he was a member of al-Qaida.

Hamdan's lawyers say he simply wanted to earn enough money to return to Yemen, buy his own vehicle and support his family as a driver.

The issue of military commissions has been eclipsed by alleged mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, putting the Bush administration-- and some of its loudest critics-- on the defensive.

Sen. Dick Durbin apologized a week after comparing interrogation at the Guantanamo Bay prison to the methods of Nazis and other repressive regimes.

Muslims protested overseas after U.S. officials acknowledged in May they had substantiated five cases in which military guards or interrogators mishandled the Quran. The human rights group Amnesty International condemned conditions at the prison camp, calling Guantanamo "the gulag of our time," a description that President Bush dismissed as "absurd."

I'm not a gambling man anymore, but I'd be willing to put $20 down that, if the appeals court had ruled the other way, the righties would be screaming (C'mon everyone, it's singalong time! You know the words!) "activist judges", "promoting their own political agendas", "undermining the President's efforts in the war on terror", etc.

Just once, I'd like to hear them criticize judges when they need it, in cases like this when they wipe their asses with the United States Constitution. The Constitution was written with a system of checks and balances so that no one branch of the government becomes too powerful. This system, which has been working for over two hundred years, is being systematically dismantled by far-right ideologues who want to install the principles of totalitarianism in our society.

More doubletalk from conservative libertarians

There are some people at CelticRadio.netwho define themselves not as Republicans, but as Conservative Libertarians. Libertarians, both Conservative and Liberal, are people who just want to go on living their daily lives with minimal governmental interference. Yet one of the Conservative Libertarians at CelticRadio.net, who goes by the screen name Fiddler, posted this:

Once again, anyone who uses logic and verifiable facts to prove his position is vilified. We are all adults here but if there were any youngsters about , they would quickly understand the logic put forth by the likes of Shamalama. If more of our children were subjected to Shama's form of logical thought in school this country would not be in the shape it is in today.

They call themselves Libertarians, yet they support our esteemed President (the blogger said sarcastically). Bush has done more to eradicate individual liberties (under the guise of "national security" or "protecting freedom") than any other President in history. He has denied the Constitutionally protected right of due process for hundreds of Americans who are of Arabic descent, violated the rights of detainees that were agreed upon in the Geneva accords, and boasted that he, not the courts, had the power to decide executive privelege. The last President to make that assertion was Nixon. He thought he was above the law too. Look what happened to his career.

Anyway, back to these Conservative so-called Libertarians.

Reread the post above. Does it sound the same to you as it does to me?

Indoctrinating children into a form of thinking? Isn't that a major facet of totalitarianism?

They get their panties in a bunch when they find out that schools are teaching why Johnny has two mommies (I don't think it should be taught in schools either, but not for the same reason right-wingers do (aka the illlogical fear that the public schools will become a breeding ground for homosexuality)), but they see nothing wrong with forcing idealistic sychophancy down our kids' throats.

Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot And Other Observations

This is from today's Chicago Sun-Times:

Teens seek debate vs. Limbaugh
May 13, 2005

BY KATE N. GROSSMAN Education Reporter

Rush Limbaugh said on his nationally syndicated radio show that Evanston Township High School students “don’t know anything about World War II” and “they’ve probably never heard the name Adolf Hitler” because they’re so focused on a multicultural curriculum.

Some Evanston kids want to show Limbaugh what they know. They want to debate him on American history.

“I think [a debate] would be great because then we’d prove him wrong and open up his opinion a little bit,” Sarah Loeb, an ETHS sophomore, said Thursday.

‘Balkanizing this country’

Limbaugh’s comments came after he read a Christian Science Monitor article Tuesday that profiled global studies courses required at ETHS. Limbaugh railed against multicultural education generally and singled out the North Shore school.

“What multiculturalists is, is balkanizing this country,” Limbaugh said Tuesday. “People are coming here from various parts of the world and they’re bringing their cultures with them and the multiculturalists are saying ‘your culture is better than the American culture. The American culture is discriminatory, it’s racist, sexist, bigot, homophobic.’ ”

Limbaugh’s producer did not return a call on whether Limbaugh would agree to a debate.
“Maybe he might be a little intimidated because I don’t know his basis for saying we don’t know anything,” Sarah said. “But I think he might be interested if he wants to live up to his reputation and back up his ideas so he doesn’t look stupid.”

All ETHS sophomores choose among several “global perspectives” courses covering the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Russia. In the Middle East class, for example, students adopt a new identity for the semester—a Syrian baker or a medical student in Qatar—and try to view what’s transpiring in the region from that perspective.

In 2003, ETHS won an excellence in international education award from the Asia Society and the Goldman Sachs Foundation. ETHS offers seven languages, including Japanese and Hebrew, and has several clubs with an international flavor, including Model United Nations and Amnesty International. Students and staff also point out that the school requires yearlong courses in U.S. history and Western civilization.

“It’s funny to me that someone would say we don’t know about World War II—we live in a large Jewish community,” said Jane Biliter, a senior. Each year, the school hosts activities for Holocaust Remembrance Week. “Until 10th grade, all we did was U.S. and European history. It’s just so false that what he says is funny.”

School officials haven’t decided how—or if—they intend to respond to Limbaugh.

Tests show he’s wrong

“It struck me as incomprehensible that somebody would think multiculturalism antithetical to American values,” Supt. Allan Alson said. “I was stunned that he had such certainty that our kids were not knowledgeable about basic American history when in fact our student do extremely well” on standardized tests in that area. “It’s a shame he lets his conclusions determine his evidence.”
Aaron Becker, who teaches the Middle East class, said his students also are considering sending Limbaugh essays they’ve written on American history.

“This is a perfect teachable moment,” Becker said. “Kids are angry and want to respond by showing they know a lot, that it’s not a zero-sum game, that you can learn about more than one history.”
Becker said the kids will decide how best to respond.

“It’s not even worth responding to,” said Aaron Hamilton, a senior. “He has nothing to say about my education and my future. He’s just a guy talking on the radio.”

Here's the hyperlink: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-limbaugh13.html

Evidently, research is not part of "Excellence In Broadcasting".

United Airlines Gets To Dump Pensions, Push Further

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Judge allows United to drop pension plan

May 11, 2005

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Business Reporter