Random tidbits

I've been in a blogging slump recently. Here are a few things I should have written about more extensively.

1. It turns out that I like bikes. My friends Greg and Peggie are into mountain biking. They have told me on several occasions that they think I also would like mountain biking. While Greg was out of town this past weekend, I borrowed his bike. Because of the recent rain, the mountain biking trails at Shawnee Mission Park were closed, so we rode on paved trails. I liked it. Now I'm checking out craigslist to see if I can find a decent, cheap mountain bike of my own. I wish I had done this while I still lived in Washington. The logging roads near my house would have a perfect place for a beginner to ride.
2. Obama is still great. There is a reason why this politician with center-left policy proposals is attractive to conservatives. Here is what he had to say about Father's Day.
   
3. George Bush loses his third Supreme Court ruling in a row over his detainee policy in Boumediene v. Bush. While I do have some questions about how the Constitution should apply to non-US citizens, most of the criticism of this decision has been of the "now the bad guys are going to eat our children" variety. What the Supreme Court actually decided was the Bush Administration does have to show some just cause for holding the detainees. What those critics of this decision miss is how Guantanamo Bay not only is an example of extreme immorality on behalf of the US, but it also weakens our national security. The traditional conservative George Will wrote today about how the right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which the Supreme Court upheld in its decision, is so fundamental to our entire system of government. I frequently disagree with Will, but other than his crack about McCain-Feingold, I wholeheartedly agree with every word in his column.
   

   ...No state power is more fearsome than the power to imprison. Hence the habeas right has been at the heart of the centuries-long struggle to constrain governments, a struggle in which the greatest event was the writing of America's Constitution, which limits Congress's power to revoke habeas corpus to periods of rebellion or invasion. Is it, as McCain suggests, indefensible to conclude that Congress exceeded its authority when, with the Military Commissions Act (2006), it withdrew any federal court jurisdiction over the detainees' habeas claims?

   As the conservative and libertarian Cato Institute argued in its amicus brief in support of the petitioning detainees, habeas, in the context of U.S. constitutional law, "is a separation of powers principle" involving the judicial and executive branches. The latter cannot be the only judge of its own judgment...

4. The McClatchy newspapers, whose reporters have consistently provided the most thorough investigation of the Bush Adminstation's foreign policy since 9/11, is in the midst of a series about Guantanamo Bay.

   An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.

   It is depressing to read, but explains why the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush is actually a step towards improving US national security. It is almost impossible to successfully wage a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaead while we continue to hold and torture innocent Afghanis. If Bush has to respond to a writ of habeas corpus, then perhaps we would finally begin (after years!!) the process of sorting between the innocent and those who truly are terrorists and would be a continued threat if they were released.