Friday, December 19, 2003

One Step Forward FEATURED ARTICLES - Bush Overruled on 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect, AP - People For the American Way Foundation Hails Appeals Court - National Lawyers Guild Praises Second Circuit - Happy Holidays From Homeland Security, By Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com QUOTE OF THE DAY "Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here, that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?" - - Former US President Woodrow Wilson (1919) WEBSITE OF INTEREST:  "Baghdad Burning" Girl Blog from Iraq... let's talk war, politics and occupation. ... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend... http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ KNOW YOUR HISTORY - DECEMBER 19th 1842 -- US recognizes independence of Hawaii. 55 years later, the US unilaterally annexes Hawaii. 1950 -- Tibet's Dalai Lama flees a Chinese invasion. 1989 -- The US invades Panama & after much ado, captures Manuel Noriega. Sound familiar? 1998 -- President Clinton impeached on 2 counts, Articles 1 & 3, by the Republican-controlled House, for perjury & obstruction of justice. The 42nd US chief exec became the 2nd in history to stand trial in the Senate, where, like Andrew Johnson before him, Slick Willy was acquitted. RHINO HERE: Some good news Relatives! (Meaning those who the Rhino relates with.) On Thursday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals stood up for The Constitution against the pressures of the shrub gang. In the case of Jose Padilla (Padilla v. Rumsfeld), the Court held that Bush (the lesser) does not have unilateral authority to hold American citizens taken into custody on our soil as "enemy combatants". Today I offer an AP report on the decision & press releases from People For the American Way, who'd filed an amicus brief in the case ( http://www.pfaw.org ), & The National Lawyers Guild ( http://www.nlg.org) , founded in 1937, comprising 6,000 members dedicated "to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests." Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE, by Bill Berkowitz of WorkingForChange, reports that The DHS, Department of Homeland Security, is very much alive and doing business, organizing conferences for companies looking to cash in on lucrative homeland security contracts. The article, "Happy Holidays From Homeland Security" also tells of several hundred asylum-seeking immigrants waiting for their applications to be processed living in a detention center with no windows, heat or air conditioning, no access to the internet,  they 're not allowed to receive gifts (including books or writing paper) & have no privacy in the bathroom. If they leave to be treated by a doctor, they're shackled in uniforms that say "Department of Corrections." And these folks have committed no crimes. There's more. The state of Wyoming receives $38.31 per person in counterterrorism funds from DHS while  $5.47 is spent on each New Yorker. One step forward. Two steps back. Bush Overruled on 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer , Thu Dec 18 NEW YORK - President Bush does not have power to detain American citizen Jose Padilla, the former gang member seized on U.S. soil, as an enemy combatant, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. Bush Overruled FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, DECEMBER 18, 2003 People For the American Way Foundation Hails Appeals Court Rebuke of Bush on Enemy Combatant; Judges Cite Law Against Detaining American Citizens WASHINGTON - December 18 - In a ruling today, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed with the arguments raised in the amicus brief filed by People For the American Way Foundation and others that President Bush cannot indefinitely detain American citizens seized on American soil because Congress specifically legislated in 1971 against such action without its explicit authorization. Signatories to the brief included such unlikely allies as the conservative Rutherford Institute and the Cato Institute. The Court ordered that the Department of Defense release Padilla within 30 days. Padilla could be released to civilian authorities for criminal prosecution. "This ruling is an impressive rebuke to the president's astonishing claim that he can unilaterally decide to indefinitely imprison and suspend the constitutional rights of American citizens in the name of the 'war on terror.' More than anything, it reaffirms the absolute authority of the Constitution during this time," said People For the American Way Foundation President Ralph G. Neas. "The Second Circuit made it clear that the president's powers do not include indefinite detention of American citizens on American soil. As I said when we filed our brief, the war on terrorism must go on, but this administration cannot abandon the Constitution and the laws of this nation when it sees fit." "This ruling is a ringing endorsement of the Constitution and the rule of law. Under siege, we are still a democracy, and in a democracy, citizens have rights," said Neas. "This ruling will help restore our critical system of checks and balances, which has been under attack since September 11th, 2001." http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/1218-04.htm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, DECEMBER 18, 2003 National Lawyers Guild Praises Second Circuit Padilla Decision WASHINGTON - December 18 - The National Lawyers Guild announced today that it was thrilled with the decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Padilla v. Rumsfeld, holding that President Bush does not have the unilateral authority to hold as "enemy combatants" American citizens taken into custody on our soil. Michael Avery, the President of the National Lawyers Guild and a constitutional law professor at Suffolk Law School in Boston, said that several of President Bush's actions in pursuit of the "War on Terrorism" suggest that the President holds the American constitutional system of checks and balances in contempt. "It is essential in our democracy that the Judicial Branch review the actions of the President and require that he obey the Constitution," Avery said. He continued, "The President has arrogated to himself the right to hold both citizens and immigrants prisoner, without any judicial determination of probable cause that they have committed crimes, without affording them the right to see lawyers, without giving them rudimentary due process of law, and with no prospect of bringing their cases to trial in proper courts. This is completely foreign to our constitutional system. The fact that the court rejected the government's position and ruled in favor of Mr. Padilla's rights is heartening."... MORE AT: http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/1218-10.htm 8:21:03 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Happy Holidays From Homeland Security Happy Holidays From Homeland Security By Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com, December 2, 2003 It may seem like decades, but it was just about a year ago that President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head. To celebrate the anniversary, Secretary Ridge was scheduled to stop by and see David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show." But if you are one of those who are concerned that you haven't heard from Secretary Ridge in much too long and are yearning for the good old days when you could depend on an alert elevation every few weeks - especially during the holiday season - rest easy. Over at the Dept.'s Web site - where the catchphrase is "Terrorism forces us to make a choice. Don't be afraid... Be Ready" - there's plenty in the works. The reason you haven't learned about many of the homeland security projects is because since the February 2003 duct tape/plastic sheeting brouhaha that emptied hardware store shelves across the country of duct tape and provided the nation's comedians and political cartoonists with a barrelful of new material, the Department has been keeping somewhat of a lower profile. (For more on duct tape, see Duct tape fantasies: Americans are ducting up and freaking out. Are you happy now, Mr. President?, and for a whole bunch of duct tape-related cartoons, see octanecreative.com.) Cashing in on Homeland Security I'm not sure how much of it is related to making you and your family safer, but homeland security is providing business opportunities galore. The "2004 Homeland & Global Security Summit," organized by Equity International, "the leader in facilitating the corporate involvement in homeland security programs," will hold a major gathering of White House, Congressional, Defense, Administration, and homeland security experts in Washington, D.C. from March 31-April 1... MORE AT: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17298 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:52:14 AM    comment

© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.