Guantanamo detainees see legal progress reversed
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 25th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
Guantanamo detainees see legal progress reversed
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington has repeatedly overturned lower court decisions favoring the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, making it increasingly unlikely that many of the men will win their freedom through legal action.
The appeals court has not affirmed a single decision ordering the release of a detainee, nor has it reversed any decision that favored government lawyers. The Justice Department even won a case this month in which it had little expectation of victory.
A 2008 Supreme Court ruling allowing those held at Guantanamo Bay to challenge their detention was followed by an initial round of district court rulings that ordered the release of dozens of suspected militants after the government’s evidence was found wanting.
Is Bristol Palin’s new memoir the story of a rape survivor speaking out?
It can be hard to take Bristol Palin seriously. The young mother turned reality TV star is a bundle of contradictions — or hypocrisies, depending on whom you talk to.
She was paid more than $300,000 to be an abstinence spokesperson for the Candie’s Foundation, but she has said that abstaining from sex is “not realistic” for all teens. She has framed herself as an average hard-working teen mom, but she has jumped at seemingly every publicity opportunity that’s come her way, be it selling her engagement story to Us Weekly, shimmying on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” or getting plastic surgery (excuse me — “corrective” surgery) a la former reality star Heidi Montag. Just this past week, Palin even filed to trademark her name.
Nevada presidential debate postponed in hopes of Perry candidacy
The organizers of the next presidential debate, scheduled for mid-July in Las Vegas, postponed the event Friday in anticipation of the entry of Texas Gov. Rick Perry into the race.
“We’re waiting for Perry,” said Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, which is co-sponsoring the debate with conservative Web site The Daily Caller. Norquist would not elaborate on how certain he is that Perry will run for president. But since former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney decided not to attend and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman is also unlikely to participate, it made sense to wait to see if Perry jumps in.
Republican candidates squeezed on both sides over Medicare
Strategists always contend that the best stance for candidates to take on a controversial issue is none at all. That seems like particularly good advice for Republicans when it comes to the 2012 budget plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
But that counsel is also rapidly becoming unrealistic as the Ryan plan, passed by the House in April, is evolving into the litmus test for Republican candidates fighting key 2012 Senate primaries in places like Florida, Missouri and New Mexico. The outcome of those races could help determine the shape of Congress in 2013.
President Obama hasn’t always agreed with Senator Obama
On Capitol Hill this year, one of President Obama’s most troublesome critics has been Senator Obama.
President Obama, for instance, wants Congress to raise the national debt limit. But his opponents have brought up a statement then-Senator Obama made in 2006: the first-term Democrat representing the state of Illinois said even debating a debt-limit increase was “a sign of leadership failure.”
Now-President Obama insists that he has the right to dispatch U.S. forces to the conflict in Libya without authorization from Congress, a position that is likely to cause him a rebuke in the House Friday when that chamber is expected to pass a resolution stripping funds for offensive action like U.S. drone strikes in that country (the measure is unlikely to pass the Senate).
