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POPSAn Election Without Meaning Props, gossip, accusations, and public relations. It is impression management from a candidates’ perspective. How can we fool the most people into believing that we stand for something? It is billions of dollars of gravy for the media folks and continued profit maximization for the war machine, Wall Street, and insurance companies, no matter who is determined the winner in November.
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POPS SCOTUS Admits Blunder on UCMJ, But Says "Nevermind" 
and shows again, how Obama's model judges pull constitutional law from thin air. That was spectacularly clueless, and one of the many occasions on which Obama has demonstrated that for all his fine degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law, he's ignorant of world history. First, no one at Nuremberg was permitted to file a habeas corpus petition in the American courts. Second, the Military Commissions Act provides substantially greater procedural and substantive protection than what any of the Nuremberg defendants had. Rights for foreigners accused of being terrorists that even our own service personnel don't get. A "living, breathing" Constitution whose answers, are blowin' in the wind. You do get an indirect vote on whether that's what you want — but you have to cast it through your choices for POTUS/VPOTUS and (even less directly) U.S. Senators. Judicial appointments are just one more issue on which this year's presidential election presents you with a stark, vivid choice.
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POPSThe Twelve Lies Of Sarah Palin the rest of the list: (go to site for the proof links) She has lied about pressure on Alaska's public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She has lied about when she asked her daughters for their permission for her to run for vice-president She has lied about her alleged tolerance of homosexuality She has lied about the use or non-use of a TelePrompter at the St Paul convention She has lied about what Alaska's state scientists concluded about the health of the polar bear population in Alaska
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POPSObama: "That's what we're protecting!" Writer says: "This is what first drew me to Obama: his ability to speak fearlessly and unapologetically on behalf of truth and of the principles that make this country a place worth living in."
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POPSAvoiding ‘CSI Kandahar’ they’ve just invalidated — decided the job is better done by politically unaccountable courts … the better to spare Nadler and his cohort from telling voters exactly what protections they’d lavish on the people trying to kill us. The attorney general begs to differ. The justices ruled that detainees get judicial review, but, as he posits, they “stopped well short of detailing how the habeas corpus proceedings must be conducted.” Many significant questions remain open, and, Mukasey rightly insists, “it is well within the historic role and competence of Congress and the executive branch to attempt to resolve them.” LAYING DOWN MARKERS The Justice Department has to live with the chaos caused by Boumediene’s dumping of approximately 270 combatants on the district courts with no guidance about how the cases should be handled. Fans of Kennedy & Co. laughably point to this as a demonstration of the high Court’s restraint. In Justice Antonin Scalia’s apt dissenting phrase
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POPSMy Country, Tis Of Thee, Sweet Land Of Liberty Long before the Hamdan trial, we already knew that we were offered bin Laden in transit from Sudan to Afghanistan. But we did not want him. Our lawyers had no battle, our leaders no mettle. Most of us, though not all, have learned nothing. After thousands smote and seven years of war, we are back to our superior ways, demanding Habeas Corpus and noting in the very first trial that bin Laden’s deputy was read no Miranda rights upon his capture - or was it arrest? They say history repeats itself. Never before has it applied so swiftly, within the same generation and within the same conflict. A selfish society incapable of sacrifice is equally incapable of self-defense. Our greatest concern is not the pursuit of madmen or the states which feed them. It is not even the cost of oil and its affect on our economy and future.
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POPSBaldwin makes a call for impeachment hearings
We have seen this administration fabricate the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and allege, despite all evidence to the contrary, a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida. These lies dragged our country into a preemptive and unjustified war that has taken the lives of more than 4,000 U.S. troops, injured 30,000 more, and will cost our nation more than a trillion dollars. We watched as this administration again undermined national security by manipulating and exaggerating evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and openly threatened aggression against Iran, despite no evidence that Iran has the intention or capability of attacking the U.S. We have looked on in horror as the administration suspended habeas corpus by claiming the power to declare any person an "enemy combatant," ignoring the Geneva Convention protections that the U.S. helped create. We have seen torture and rendition of prisoners in violation of international law and stated American policy and
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POPSSentient Beings Protected I'd say it's high time that we got off our high horse and recognized other sentient beings that we share the earth with and grant them limited rights such as freedom from torture. Ethically, it is the right thing to do. In part, we can blame religion for this ethical blunder.
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POPSWhen Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans The 300 apes in Spanish zoos would not be freed, but better conditions would be mandated. Meanwhile, even in democracies, the law accords diminished rights to many humans: children, prisoners, the insane, the senile. Teenagers may not vote, philosophers who slip into dementia may be lashed to their beds, courts can order surgery or force-feeding. Spain’s Catholic bishops attacked the vote as undermining a divine will that placed humans above animals. One said such thinking led to abortion, euthanasia and ethnic cleansing.
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POPSThe Real-Life '24' "We are once again distracted and unprepared while the Taliban and bin Laden’s minions multiply in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This, no less than the defiling of the Constitution, is the legacy of an administration that not merely rationalized the immorality of torture but shackled our national security to the absurdity that torture could easily fix the terrorist threat. That’s why the Bush White House’s corruption in the end surpasses Nixon’s. We can no longer take cold comfort in the Watergate maxim that the cover-up was worse than the crime. This time the crime is worse than the cover-up, and the punishment could rain down on us all."
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POPSSupreme Court Ruling Inspires New TV Series :) Here is some of what is set to air during the presidential elections in the fall of 2008. Check your local listings. Fast-paced and wildly comedic, the series confronts social issues, while it indoctrinates the viewers with correct progressive messages. Three major American networks are about to launch new legal drama series that feature lawyers litigating in defense of armed Muslim bystanders picked up on the battlefield and wrongly accused of being enemy combatants. Quick spin-offs of such successful shows as Law & Order and Boston Legal are in the works at ABC and NBC, while CBS promises an original sitcom about a lawyer who not only defends accused terrorists, but is himself a terrorist.
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POPSLike I said, we won't need SCOTUS no mo'!
If one more "R" gets on SCOTUS we can all say TOOTLES to civil liberties & HELLO to Fascism. A statement from an everyday Alarmist? No its serious! The court now in lockstep with the "R" ideology which protects the wealthy and gives a nose-thumb at those who need help. The kind of social order they wish to spread across our land, is not democracy. Not with, cruel punishment for those who can't pay their way out of a guilt accusation. Not with, melt down of habeas corpus. Not with, stripping a woman of her right to choose what's best for her body & circumstances. Not with, laws, claiming Voter Id's before one can vote. Not with, reducing punitive damages to large corp. who will become more reckless not having to face large losses to their beloved capital. Not with, dismantling gun-control laws putting all at risk of being murdered by the disgruntled, the disturbed who should never possess lethal weapons. Remember 1 or 2 more "R" justices and you can kiss your, you-know-what bye-bye:-(
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POPSoriginalism vs. policy judgments good point being made here. Breyer's thinking depends on estimate of a policy's outcome, something he piously refused to consider when thinking about other rights. .
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POPSScalia’s Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’ All you have to do in America is tell people a lie, let it sink in and then apologize later. So many people will continue to believe and spread the lie that the damage has already been done and no amount of apologizing will undo it. This is why many still believe Saddam had anything to do with 9/11, why so many middle-Americans still believe Obama is a Muslim; the list could go on and on. This particular lie serves the purpose of adding weight to the habeas corpus arguments raging in congress (did I say arguments, I meant lip service). The more people that believe the lie, the easier it is to steamroll over the constitution. As a bright young man named Chuck D once said "Don't believe the hype!"
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POPSOne justice away from tyranny I'm really sick and tired of the people who see this as giving the enemy rights; this protection of constitutional standards. So many people are willing to give up their own freedoms and rights under the fear that international bogymen are going to pillage their women and rape their lands ;P I see people who believe this to be the real, tangible enemy. I can point to a Bush apologist and say "That man right there, he wants to erode my constitution. He is therefore my enemy."
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POPSDemocrats give Bush the powers of a King. The country I live in is not the one I grew up in. The country I was raised to cherish is in the past. These are the proverbial Chinese' "interesting times" we now live in. There was no fight, we gave it away and now must make sense of this strange new frontier.
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POPSMcCain Strongly Resents Supreme Court Ruling Not that I expected differently from Bush's Heir to the Presidency. Now imagine Mr. McCain going to HoTse Minh City, former Saigon, or Hanoi. Our relations with them have just begun to improve and prove to be of vital interest.
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