The Great Writ Debunked

An ineffecive piece of parchment as slick as the Constitution is solid. This, from Judging Crimes, promises to be a great read. HT Crime and Consequences

And here, read the most recent Ninth Circuit opinion(s) on whether the habeas law's standard of review violates the Constitution, Crater v Galaza

Here's a footnote from the opinion explaining how AEDPA, the current version of the habeas writ, got it's misleading nomenclature (translation: name).

1The statute’s imposing title is somewhat of a misnomer. The provision held constitutional by the panel—section 2254(d)(1), the centerpiece of the statute’s modification of federal habeas practice—has nothing to do with antiterrorism and little to do with the death penalty. Rather, § 2254(d)(1) restricts the rights of all habeas petitioners detained in state custody, including those, as in this case, who have neither been sentenced to death nor convicted of an act of terrorism. The title was, however, politically appealing in the wake of the bombing of the Oklahoma federal building, on which event President Clinton relied as justification for the bill of which § 2254(d)(1) was a part. President Clinton’s Statement on Antiterrorism Bill Signing, 1996 WL 203049, *1 (Apr. 26, 1996).

I LOVED Barack's comment --"we need to be as careful about getting out as we were careless going in" The media really loves him, but are afraid to piss off Hillary. Very afraid.

How many people were afraid not to vote for Bush, and look at what they got for their fears:
A failed Republican Party doing its best to run away from a well deserved reputation for re- distributing wealth from poor to the rich.

They've redefined the term compassionate conservative. Now it means starve'em and slaughter 'em.

Here, at America's most revered, The Nation, is the infamous Katrina Vanden Heuval on this very topic. It starts like this:

"We must ensure that all life is treated with the dignity it deserves," President Bush declared during his final State of the Union address. He then segued into a call to ban human cloning. He didn't talk about dignity in terms of ravaged pensions, working longer hours for lower wages, and the loss of healthcare and other benefits. He didn't talk about dignity in terms of the rise in poverty – 37 million Americans, one in eight citizens now living below the poverty line in the wealthiest nation in the world. And he certainly didn't talk about dignity when it comes to migrant workers in Immokalee, Florida . . .

Know what? Living under bridges doesn't sound half bad compared to how the tomato growers are being treated right under Florida's nose. Compassion kimchee!