A Chilly Breeze

Tuesday 1 June 2010 - Filed under Government + Journalism + POTUS + War on Terror

Though I doubt that the residents of hell are seeing ice crystals form, it’s fair odds that they felt a chilly breeze when the The New York Times lamented that a Federal Court recently upheld unprecedented amounts of executive power.  An anonymous editorialist:

One of the most vital jobs of the federal courts is to check excessive claims of presidential power. The courts have stepped up to the task at important times since President George W. Bush embarked on a campaign after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to create an imperial presidency. Sadly, a recent ruling by a federal appeals court on the American military prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan was not one of those times.

What makes the ruling especially distressing is that the extravagant claim of executive power upheld by the court — to create a law-free zone at the Bagram lockup — was dreamed up by Mr. Bush and subsequently embraced by President Obama.

And while they lamented, the Times also seemed to uphold the plainly obvious fact that there is very little difference between Republitard and Demotard rule.

2010-06-01  »  madlibertarianguy