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THE FOUNDATION: JUDICIARY

“The Constitution... is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”  - Thomas Jefferson

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“All hail the imperial court. In a bitterly divided 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in Boumediene v. Bush that alien enemy prisoners, waging a jihad against the American people and captured by our military in a war authorized by Congress, have a right - under our Constitution - to petition our courts for their release. So doing, the Court invalidated laws it had only recently implored Congress to enact, laws that provided these prisoners with generous protections never previously extended to enemy operatives in American history. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer, dictates that Americans must regard enemies as if they were mere criminal defendants, entitled to an exacting legal process - access to discovery, witnesses, counsel, etc. - that will, as a practical matter, make it impossible to detain them without shutting down interrogations prematurely and informing the enemy of our national-defense secrets. There can be no justification for this stunning conclusion... The runaway justices say that foreign al-Qaeda killers detained in Cuba can march right into the federal district courts and demand what, suddenly, are their constitutional rights. In those courts, judges - without guidance and emboldened by the high court’s usurpation of war powers - will be encouraged to make it up as they go along: More access to classified information? Subpoenas commanding the testimony (and cross-examination) of our soldiers regarding the circumstances of capture? Miranda warnings? Prompt access to counsel, which is certain to halt any questioning - and thus any revelation of lifesaving intelligence - before it can even start? Full-blown trials in the criminal-justice system with the same presumptions of innocence, privacy, and other privileges vested in American citizens? And who will adjudicate the resulting mess? Our imperial court, of course.”  - National Review

UPRIGHT

“Now that the Supreme Court has seen fit to affirm a variety of rights of terror suspects held at Guantanamo, a new book is out exposing the harsh realities of Gitmo - the diet on which detainees have gained weight - the soccer fields and basketball courts - the letters home about mild weather and beautiful sunsets - and the detainees who don’t want to leave.”  - James Robbins Break “Once upon another time, namely Franklin Roosevelt’s, most of a group of German saboteurs that had infiltrated this country were caught, tried by a military tribunal that was convened by executive order for that purpose, promptly convicted and then executed - all within seven weeks. Can anyone imagine that kind of swift and effective justice from this court?”  - Paul Greenberg

“Yet another U.S. Marine, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, had charges dropped Tuesday in the so-called Haditha massacre - bringing the total number of Marines who’ve been cleared or won case dismissals in the Iraq war incident to seven. ‘Undue command influence’ on the prosecution led to the outcome in Chessani’s case. Bottom line: That’s zero for seven for military prosecutors, with one trial left to go.”  - Michelle Malkin

“Whenever I’ve been asked to give examples of a fair, balanced and honest journalist, Tim Russert’s name was the first name that came to mind. This was a view shared by everyone and was the ultimate testimony to his professionalism. As a moderator he was in a league of his own, always knowing when to speak and when to let his guests do the talking. As an individual he was an absolute class act, and always a gentleman. The world of journalism is vastly diminished today.”  - Brent Bozell

INSIGHT

“He who does not bellow out the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.”  - Charles Peguy

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”  - Robert Louis Stevenson

“It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.”  - Dr. Samuel Johnson

“Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not always tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.”  - Lydia M. Child

DEZINFORMATSIA

Sympathy for the devil: “Next, we turn to the Supreme Court, which... handed the Bush administration a stinging defeat. The justices ruled 5 to 4 that foreign terror suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay prison do have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in court. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the president and the Congress can’t switch the Constitution on and off at will.”  - ABC’s Charles Gibson on the court’s spin on the Constitution Break “The ruling essentially tells the Bush administration no more halfway justice at Guantanamo, that the detainees there, according to Justice Anthony Kennedy, ‘have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus.’ That simple statement gives the 270 detainees the right to challenge their detentions, not at a military tribunal, but in front of a U.S. judge. ... Lawyers for the detainees called it a victory for America’s reputation around the world.”  - CBS’s Wyatt Andrews **Not to mention a victory for our enemies.
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Shield of faith?: “The important point the Obama campaign wants to make is that whenever an unfair charge or an untrue charge is leveled, they’re going to respond. They’re going to hit back hard. They’re colored by the experience of the Michael Dukakis Democratic campaign in 1988, of John Kerry’s campaign in 2004. In both those cases, the Democratic candidates were attacked by unfair and untrue charges but failed to respond and lost the election.”  - ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Obama’s new “smear” fighting Web site

Postcards from the Angry Left: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi long ago said impeachment is off the table. This is a joke. We have a President who has abused the power of his office over and over and over again. It’s what got the Democrats elected to the majority in Congress in 2006. The Democrats, no doubt, are worried what it will look like to many voters if they spend their time on impeachment. To h*** with what’s right or wrong.”  - CNN’s Jack Cafferty

“Tim Russert was one of the good guys. But the reason he was one of the good guys isn’t simply because he knew his beat better than almost everybody else, he was one of the good guys because he was fair. He was a blue collar guy who understood America and Americans a lot better than a lot of other people who work in journalism.”  - Bernard Goldberg

Newspulper Headlines:

Too Bad You Can’t Take It With You: “Refunds Due for Euthanization”  - Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot

Breaking News From 1917: “Bolsheviks Storm Russian Railways”  - Moscow Times

To Quote Harry Reid, ‘This War Is Lost’: “Barbara Boxer, Zoe Lofgren Battle ‘Brain Drain”’  - Contra Costa (CA) Times Web site

News You Can Use: “Nuts May Be Solution to Dirty Cattle Belches”  - Reuters Break “Don’t Listen to the Liberals - Right-Wingers Really Are Nicer People, Latest Research Shows”  - Daily Mail (London)

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Poll Shows Obama Leading McCain in New York”  - The New York Times Break “Gore Endorses Obama”  - Associated Press (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Totally clueless: “[The] Supreme Court decision [on detainees at Guantanamo] ensures that we can protect our nation and bring terrorists to justice, while also protecting our core values. The Court’s decision is a rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo - yet another failed policy supported by John McCain.”  - Barack Obama Break “Even when Nazis’ atrocities became known in the 1940s, we still gave them a day in court [at the Nuremberg trials.] That taught the entire world about who we are.”  - noted historian Barack Obama on the Gitmo decision

Second Amendment Security for Leftists: “If [Republicans] bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”  - Barack Obama, who also thinks guns never made anyone safer

Income confiscation: “Senator McCain wants to add $300 billion more in tax breaks and loopholes for big corporations and the wealthiest Americans and he hasn’t even explained how to pay for it.”  - Barack Obama, assuming that it’s really the government’s money to start with

Same old tune: “Opening our coastlines to offshore drilling would take at least a decade to produce any oil at all, and the effect on gasoline prices would be negligible at best since America only has three percent of the world’s oil. It’s another example of short-term political posturing from Washington.”  - Barack Obama on McCain’s call to allow offshore oil exploration

“We have, as a Republican nominee, a flawed candidate. His temperament is wrong, he’s wrong on the war, he’s wrong on the economy.”  - Harry Reid, who, if he had substituted the word “Democrat,” would have been right on the money
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VILLAGE IDIOTS

Victory for our enemies: “Until now, the Bush administration and Congress have been in a legalistic rain dance, hoping that some rationale for indefinite detention and the denial of habeas corpus [to captured jihadis] would fall from the sky. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling is a stark indictment of wrongdoing at Guantanamo.”  - Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA Break “Incredible ruling, can’t be overridden by Congress, can’t be overridden by the president. So we’re really excited that our clients can finally get a day in court.”  - Michael Ratner, lawyer for the Guantanamo Bay detainees

Completely unhinged: “The president behaved like a virtual criminal but we didn’t have the courage to sack him for fear of violating the American Constitution. We live in a dictatorship. We have a fascist government... which controls the media.”  - author Gore Vidal, who claims that it will take the U.S. “100 years to repair the damage” caused by President Bush

From the endorsement file: “Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges - including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.”  - the populist potentate of ecotheology Al Gore, endorsing Obama

SHORT CUTS

“Obama repeatedly said he wishes to meet with enemy/thug leaders without preconditions. But wait! He now says only if he decides to meet in the first place. And if he decides - to which he may not - he’ll do so without preconditions. And if he decides not to, his decision will have been made without preconditions, unless, of course, he decides to meet after all - but only without preconditions. And if he decides not to meet, he’ll make that decision without any preconditions, just as he would make the decision to meet without the precondition of no preconditions. But if he decides to meet, without preconditions, he’ll do so solely when, where and if he decides to - without preconditions. That’s change.”  - Larry Elder

“We now are down to two presidential candidates. One went to the Ivy League and Harvard Law School as a young man. The other spent years of his youth in a Vietnam Prisoner of War camp and suffered lifelong injuries. Guess which one whines more about his hardships? Barack Obama is many things - a senator, a gifted orator, and a charismatic figure. But he’s also a whiner.”  - Peter Schweizer

“McCain is OK at making his case with a teleprompter, but when he’s on his own, all he does is slogans. He says that Obama is a tax and spend liberal as in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I wouldn’t really bring up ‘60s and ‘70s, because nobody under 50 remembers the ‘60s. In fact, there are a lot of people over 50 who don’t remember the ‘60s either for other reasons.”  - Charles Krauthammer

“Katie Couric said the coverage of the Hillary Clinton campaign shows the accepted role of sexism in America. Other critics of the coverage cite liberal peer pressure to support a black man. Both sides agree something must be done about America being the world’s only superpower, the sad legacy of the straight white male.”  - Argus Hamilton

Jay Leno: Congressman Anthony Wiener of New York has introduced a bill that will grant immigrant status, immigrant visas, to supermodels that want to come here. Well, I have never been prouder to be an American. ... Hey, have you hear this story that Barack Obama and [actress] Scarlett Johansson are apparently e-mail buddies? Scarlett Johansson is quoted as saying, ‘My heart belongs to Barack Obama.’ How about that, huh? Barack’s not even president yet, still doing way better than Bill Clinton ever did. ... Not to be outdone today, John McCain admitted he had been exchanging flirty emails with Angela Lansbury. ... Hillary Clinton’s camp says she is not actively seeking the vice presidential nomination. Passive-aggressively seeking it, yes. ... The New York Times is reporting that Clinton associates are keeping an enemies list, an enemies list of all of the people who are considered Clinton traitors. And ironically, both Bill and Hillary are on each other’s lists. ... Barack Obama took some time out from campaigning recently to go on a date with his wife. And when Hillary Clinton heard about that, she said to Bill, ‘Why can’t you do something like that?’ So, today, Bill asked Barack Obama’s wife out on a date.

Veritas vos Liberabit - Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families - especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)