Just when you thought the Bush regime couldn’t attempt to extend
unchecked executive power any further, just look at what’s going on in
the Padilla
case. Jose Padilla has been held since 2002 in military detention
without charges on the orders of President Bush (“trust me, he’s a bad
guy” – yes, those are his actual words). This past November, in a
blatant and manipulative attempt to prevent the Supreme Court from
hearing Padilla’s case, criminal charges were finally brought against
Padilla. (The charges, incidentally, have nothing to do with the
justification given for holding Padilla for so long). The 4th Circuit
Court of Appeals, which is quite conservative and almost always rules
in favor of the government, including in cases of national security,
saw through this move to manipulate the courts to serve the Bush
regime’s aims, and denied the transfer of Padilla to civilian court.
Now, in utter hypocrisy, the Bush regime is appealing this decision to
the Supreme Court.
In
a nutshell, the Bush regime is determined to use the courts however it
desires, and when court rulings don’t meet their satisfaction, they
either take it to a new court, or just use executive orders. The
justice department even had the nerve to complain that the 4th Circuit
Court is overstepping its authority, when in fact the opposite is true.
Think about it: this is a regime that demands unchecked power in the
hands of the executive branch to carry out torture, indefinite
detentions, spying, and more, and is ripping up the rule of law to do so. This is
a regime for whom the highly secretive and Orwellian FISA court wasn’t
fascist enough. This is a regime that cannot be allowed in power any
longer, both because of the crimes they have already committed, and the
deadly trajectory they are taking the world.
Bush: step down, and take your program with you!
(source: “Supreme Court is Asked to Rule on Terror Trial”, NY Times , 12/29)