Court of Appeals and Censorship

Dear Friends,

It seems that the Obama Administration continues to behave like the Bush Administration when it comes to enemy combatants and the arguement that they can detain whomever they please.  The headline for an article in The New York Times today (here) was "Appeals Court Sides with Detainee". 

A federal appeals court has sided with a Guantánamo prisoner whose case prompted a major internal argument among Obama administration legal advisers last year over how broadly to define terrorism suspects who may be detained without trial. Belkacem Bensayah, an Algerian who was arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and accused of helping people who wanted to travel to Afghanistan and join Al Qaeda, cannot be considered part of the terrorist organization based on the evidence the government presented against him, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled.
“The government presented no direct evidence of actual communication between Bensayah and any Al Qaeda member, much less evidence suggesting Bensayah communicated with” anyone else to facilitate travel by an Al Qaeda member, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote in a 17-page opinion that was declassified late last week. Parts of the ruling were censored by the government.
Mark Fleming, a partner at the law firm Wilmer Hale who is representing Mr. Bensayah, praised the ruling and called on the Obama administration to send his client back to Bosnia, where his wife and daughters live.

Why must the Obama Administration continue to ignore the rule of law and our Constitution and continue the failed legal theories of the Bush Administration?

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Bears

Dear Friends,

My wife and I are at our cabin in northern Wisconsin for 10 days.  It is a wonderful place, and we are very lucky to have it.  Unfortunately, the internet connection via satellite has been spotty at best.  The response from the provider is that there are storms that are causing the problem.  After several calls, they are making a service call on Tuesday.  Tonight so far the connection has been stable so I am rushing to publish a blog or two.

Anyway we arrived here on Thursday and were sitting on our screened porch at about 8:30 pm when a mother bear and four cubs came strolling into our yard.  The mother knocked the top off the garbage can and finding no garbage moved on to the garage where she found nothing either.  Then she and her four cubs ambled up the driveway.  About 45 minutes later they returned and walked between our cabin and the lake and headed back into the woods.  The blueberries are in perfect season now so there is no shortage of food for the bears.

I have been coming here for over 40 years and this is the first time that I have ever seen bears.  What a thrill!!  Unfortunately, now I expect them to show up every night as we are finishing dinner.

Here are some pictures.

I know this has nothing to do with how the current administration is doing, but I am really excited that I saw the bears.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Ant, Banks and Boehner

Dear Friends,

President Obama is doing a better job of pointing out whose side the Republicans are really on.  Representative Boehner in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (here) said that the financial reform bill was like killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.  President Obama said that Representative Boehner could not be that out of touch.  Representative Boehner's staff commented that Representative Boehner has been raising lots of money for the Republicans, on average 1.5 events per day this year.  I thought that he was being paid by us to be a member of Congress.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal