WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Jim Kouri
Date:  July 3, 2006

Topic category:  Other/General

Judicial Activism and Sunday Demagogues

by Jim Kouri, CPP

Sunday is always an interesting day for political discourse, especially on the tube. One after another, the usual suspects parade before the cameras in their attempts to curry favor with the American people. The goal of the entire exercise is the expansion of their power -- their own personal power and power of their respective political parties.

Sometimes, the hosts of the Sunday morning shows try to expose these demagogues, but more often than not they are part and parcel of the Sunday spin. After all, look who hosts these news shows: George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton aide; Tim Russert, a former Johnson aide; and Chris Matthews, a former Carter aide. Democrats all.

So they will book the Democrats, who are known as the most vicious and dishonest Bush-haters, and Republicans who sometimes sound more liberal than the Democrats.

In order to be fair and balanced, I've chosen two senators -- Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican John McCain -- who have chosen to look the other way while the justices on US Supreme Court grab more power for themselves.

Taking advantage of what he sees as a ripe opportunity to hurt the Commander-in-Chief and betray the American people, Sen. Charles Schumer is urging a review of every one of President Bush's anti-terror programs. Schumer sees fit to ignore the language used in Thursday's Supreme Court decision on military tribunals and attempts expand its meaning until it reaches the level of absurdity.

Instead of being outraged over the the left-wing judges of the Supreme Court grabbing more power for nine black-robed lawyers, Schumer looks at the decision as a repudiation of the President's war on terror strategies and tactics.

Schumer, a New York Democrat and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for the establishment of an "independent commission to scrutinize the president's war on terror." Of course, there is no such thing as "independent" in Washington.

"I am growing increasingly concerned about the Administration's stubbornly unilateral approach to these types of issues," Schumer wrote Sunday in a letter to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. That lets Schumer out of being named to such a commission. He's as partisan as they come.

"The Administration has not only largely ignored the Congress, but has also badly miscalculated how its efforts would be evaluated by the Supreme Court..." Schumer does have a point. Who would have guessed the US Supreme Court would arrive at Thursday's decision?

Before Gonzales could read and respond to Schumer's misleading letter, he also released the letter to the news media just in time for all the Sunday morning news shows and Sunday newspapers.

The Supreme Court had ruled 5-3 on Thursday that the president's attempt to use a type of military trial violates US military law and the Geneva conventions that set international standards for dealing with people captured in armed conflicts.

The first part of the court's decision calls for a simple retooling of the military tribunals. The SCOTUS did not say military tribunals are unconstitutional; it said it did not agree with the way the tribunals are setup. The New York Times and their cohorts in the news media appear to hallucinate whenever they read court decisions that impact upon the Bush Administration and/or the war on terrorism.

As for the part of the SCOTUS' decision dealing with the application of the Geneva Conventions, this is the most outrageous abuse of power I've seen since Roe v. Wade. These left-wing justices used legalistic gymnastics to rationalize this distortion of the Conventions' provisions. If anything, terrorists are the antithesis of what's described as prisoners-of-war in the Geneva Conventions.

In the world of Senator Schumer, the SCOTUS is correct in their convoluted -- bordering on psychotic -- interpretation of the Conventions. In other words, these five left-wing lawyers on the nation's highest court chose to ignore the provisions of the Geneva Conventions while telling the US military -- including the Commander-in-Chief -- that they must adhere to those very same provisions. The court didn't adhere to them in order to tell the government to adhere to them. Calling it psychotic is being kind.

Then we have Senator "Amnesty" John McCain. "The president has said he'd like to see Guantanamo shut down, but it's not Guantanamo itself, it's the status of these detainees," McCain, an Arizona Republican, told ABC's "This Week'' host George "Clintonista" Stephanopoulos.

"If we use the Supreme Court decision correctly, we will move forward and adjudicate these cases,'' he said.

Until last week's ruling, "the system has not been moving." Congress plans to hold hearings to craft legislation that addresses the court's ruling that tribunals weren't explicitly authorized by Congress and didn't protect the rights of the accused, McCain claimed.

McCain is the man responsible for defining torture as making a detainee to stand in the corner of an interrogation room for hours. In fact, he gave the media the best soundbites to use as ammunition against the hated Commander-in-Chief. Suddenly, placing women's panties on the heads of prisoners is akin to bamboo shoots under their fingernails.

McCain's take on Thursday's SCOTUS ruling is that we should close down Gitmo by ajudicating over 400 cases. No where in the already misinterpreted decision did the five left-wing justices even allude to the idea of closing Gitmo, nor did they put a time limit or deadline in their decision.

Releasing 450 detainees is ridiculous. Trying them in US courts is even more ridiculous. According to the US military, of the detainees previously released from Gitmo, 15 have been killed or captured waging war against the US and its allies. And those are the ones we know about.

It's troubling to hear Democrats and Republicans such as Schumer and McCain, who are more concerned with protecting the rights of terrorists and thugs than with protecting Americans. When two American soldiers were tortured and brutally murdered in Iraq, I don't recall seeing McCain and Schumer rushing to the TV cameras to denounce the terrorists noncompliance with the Geneva Conventions.

As far as danger to Americans, the most dangerous place on earth is standing between Sen. Schumer and a TV camera.    

Jim Kouri
Chief of Police Magazine (Contributing Editor)


Biography - Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for a number of organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional.


Copyright © 2006 by Jim Kouri
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