FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN

Election year show trials

Monday, June 25, 2012
Justinian in Citizens United, Drones, Guantanamo, Habeas, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Roger Fitch Esq

US Supremes summarily dismiss review of Citizens United ... Judicial appointments frozen ... Obama's drone frenzy makes him "hit-man-in-chief" ... Guantánamo trials seek to neuter Republican bellicosity ... The sham of habeas hearings ... Our Man in Washington reports 

Obama: launched six times as many drones as "lawless yahoo Bush"

IT'S an election year, and Mother Jones has a handy list of how much a seat in Congress will cost you.

These calculations are not mere cynicism, as the 2010 Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court has made unlimited corporate money the essential medium in US elections.

Now the Supreme Court's conservative majority has just dismissed in a single paragraph attempts by Montana, or any other state, to impose restraints on corporate election spending. 

Meanwhile, the lower courts remain clogged with around 70 judicial vacancies remaining to be filled. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST....

THANK YOU JIMMY CARTER

As a much younger friend asked me today- "why didn't you reelect him back when I was in diapers"...
yes, I too am sorry about that...but read this great patriots opinion piece on the dismal human rights record of the good ole U. S. of A.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/americas-shameful-human-rights-record.html?_r=3

ONLY ONE SENATOR THAT CARES ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION?

Maybe we should consider ourselves fortunate that there is one Senator out there who gives a shit about things like the Constitution but it is depressing that this is the only one...Read this whole article to get a better understanding about how our government works these days....secret committee meetings- votes without discussion...this is supposed to be our government but the powers to be are keeping their work secret from us....and you have to ask yourself, who are they protecting? it ain't me, I can tell you that for sure...
Emptywheel has more here....

"The Story"

Today I was on Dick Gordon's "the story" once again- this time talking about my client Razak Ali and the frustrations in dealing with our courts and the government as they aside what used to be a pretty grand system of laws in this here U.S. of A.
You can listen to it here.

Habeas Corpus is officially DEAD

Once the cornerstone of the free world- Habeas Corpus -the centuries old proposition that, in essence, allows one to come before the court and demand to be told why they are being held- is now dead. The D.C. Circuit, which is the appellate court for all of the Guantanamo cases has ruled against the men held at Guantanamo in every single case, basically finding that any reason (OR NO REASON) that the military/executive branch states for holding someone is good enough-- and today the Supreme Court refused to review any of the seven cases that were seeking to overturn the DC Circuit.
Emptywheel has a nice tidy summary here and ScotUS blog has a more in depth look here.

ALGERIA ACQUITS TWO FORMER GITMO DETAINEES

My remaining client at Guantanamo is Algerian so I have been anxiously awaiting the news from Algeria regarding the fate of two former Guantanamo detainees who were returned home and quickly charged by the Algerians for being connected to terrorists "because the Americans said so." Today we learned that the final two were acquitted by the Algerian court after finding there was no evidence they belonged to a terrorist group.
You can read more here.
I feel very confident that my client would have the same fate if only I could get him home-as our government has absolutely no evidence that he was tied to any illegal or terrorist activity. Unfortunately our Government has no interest in sending the men who remain at Guantanamo and COULD go home, back to their homelands... so my client remains.
Shame on my country.