Maybeas Corpus

Bye-bye, due process. Nice knowin' ya.

Lindsay Graham finally just said no to that albatross known as habeas corpus. It had been a yoke on the exhausted shoulders of power since, oh, 1215, in that stupid Magna Carta thingy. And he wasn't gonna let it make its 800th birthday without finding someone he thought didn't deserve it. That's right: start with the terr'rists.

Last week, it passed as an amendment, in a 49-42 vote. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon, all Democrats, drew the line in the sand with him.

Republicans voting against were limited to Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

Haven't dug up thenine no-shows yet.

UPDATE: Seems like there has been a change of heart (shouts to the NYT for this digest):

The Senate also approved, 84 to 14, a compromise, announced Monday night, that would allow terror detainees some access to federal courts. The Senate had voted last week to prohibit those being held from challenging their detentions in federal court, despite a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary.

Now, I am very confused where things stand, I admit. It's bizarre that this is getting SO little attention. It must not be a big deal, because terror detainees in American prisons aren't American, or people, or whatever would make anyone notice, or care, or the slightest bit worried for their self-centered little selves...

And speaking of prisons...peep this for the latest on the prisons in Iraq that our government acknowledges. Total in prison is over 13,000, up from 5,673 in March, 2004, from a stated total of 35,000 taken to date. Of the grand total, only 4% have been tried, and 2% convicted of anything at all.

Think that any of those 22,000 released were less than pleased with the effectiveness of American war-fighting and ineffective systems of justice? Hmm, where to vent that anger...


UPDATE: I blogged too soon. This article says that the total prisoner count in the GWOT is over 83,000.

Bushie's GWOT: Now, with more fodder than ever before!