American Hero
If America is going to survive, it's going to take more than M. Moore satire or Janeane Garofalo talking on the radio.
It's going to take honest Americans, regardless of whether they are Republican or Democratic (or better yet, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, neither).
Yesterday, one of them stepped up, and took a stand. Judge Henry F. Floyd is that honest American. Appointed by Dubya himself in 2003 to the Federal Bench in SC.
All Judge Floyd did really was affirm that we are indeed a nation of laws. He held that Joe Padilla cannot be detained indefinitely on the Presidents order. He can be charged, or he can be released. Remember Joe? He might indeed be a traitor to his country, but he is a citizen, and he was arrested on American soil, and he has certain rights, to specifically quote the founders, we are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". One of them is the right to a trial before his peers.
Judge Floyd even used conversative speak against the Soviet like behaviour that Bush is trying to import. He said that it would be "judicial activism" to allow JP to be held without charges.
The judge said "The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold petitioner as an enemy combatant,"...he went on "To do otherwise would not only offend the rule of law and violate this country's constitutional tradition, but it would also be a betrayal of this nation's commitment to the separation of powers that safeguards our democratic values and individual liberties."
So, next time you sit down for a drink, toast this hero. Because if we stand alone in this, we will fall.
It's going to take honest Americans, regardless of whether they are Republican or Democratic (or better yet, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, neither).
Yesterday, one of them stepped up, and took a stand. Judge Henry F. Floyd is that honest American. Appointed by Dubya himself in 2003 to the Federal Bench in SC.
All Judge Floyd did really was affirm that we are indeed a nation of laws. He held that Joe Padilla cannot be detained indefinitely on the Presidents order. He can be charged, or he can be released. Remember Joe? He might indeed be a traitor to his country, but he is a citizen, and he was arrested on American soil, and he has certain rights, to specifically quote the founders, we are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". One of them is the right to a trial before his peers.
Judge Floyd even used conversative speak against the Soviet like behaviour that Bush is trying to import. He said that it would be "judicial activism" to allow JP to be held without charges.
The judge said "The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold petitioner as an enemy combatant,"...he went on "To do otherwise would not only offend the rule of law and violate this country's constitutional tradition, but it would also be a betrayal of this nation's commitment to the separation of powers that safeguards our democratic values and individual liberties."
So, next time you sit down for a drink, toast this hero. Because if we stand alone in this, we will fall.
posted by Johnny Lightheart at 9:50 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home