Constitution Day Quotes

And Also: I was out, so missed all but the end of the last NY game today. Overall, apparently, no great loss (but lots of losses) except for a great come from behind victory by the Giants. You know, the one they failed to obtain vs. the Colts. Meanwhile, apparently, the Mets decided not to clinch until they are at home. How else to explain being swept by the Pirates? They swept them when they had to in '99 -- to get to the one game playoff for the Wild Card. Except for the Red Sox, back when they were good, who else swept the Mets in a three game series all year? It annoyed me at first, but I see their game.

On September 17, 1787, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their final meeting. Only one item of business occupied the agenda that day, to sign the Constitution of the United States of America.

-- Constitution Day [shifts to next business day, if it falls on a weekend]

In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries. ...

As bleak and hidden as the Iraq lockups are, the Afghan situation is even less known. Accounts of abuse and deaths emerged in 2002-2004, but if Abu Ghraib-like photos from Bagram exist, none have leaked out. The U.S. military is believed holding about 500 detainees — most Afghans, but also apparently Arabs, Pakistanis and Central Asians.

-- U.S. war prisons legal vacuum for 14,000

Just look at the things we're debating -- whether the U.S. Government can abduct and indefinitely imprison U.S. citizens without charges; whether we can use torture to interrogate people; whether our Government can eavesdrop on our private conversations without warrants; whether we can create secret prisons and keep people there out of sight and beyond the reach of any law or oversight; and whether the President can simply disregard long-standing constitutional limitations and duly enacted Congressional laws because he has deemed that doing so is necessary to "protect" us.

-- Yoo Are So Lame

And then there's the torture bill. On one side, we have the awful Warner/Graham/McCain bill, which strips habeas rights from anyone we detain outside the US, provides immunity for various war crimes committed since 9/11, and does other bad things. On the other, we have the vastly worse administration bill.

-- Update On Our Existential Struggle Against Ourselves

I have no doubt that McCain and Bush will stand together, all smiles, at a bill signing ceremony some time in the not too distant future. And then the president will issue a signing statement designed to cover his ass and everyone elses ass and John McCain will run for president as the man who saved America's soul.

-- "Compromise" Alert?

Why study the Constitution? Study the Constitution because it is both the foundation and the guardian of our liberties. Study it also with the knowledge that as strong and enduring as our Constitution has been, it is nevertheless a fragile, almost intangible thing that cannot survive without the dedication and constant support of citizens. The statement of Benjamin Franklin, made in 1787, is still true today. This is a Republic, if we can keep it.

-- Sen. Byrd