Cowboy Codpiece is going to be hopping mad again

Maybe that will cause them to announce the capture of Izzat al-Douri.

Bob has the latest on Jose Padilla, with this note:

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress and that Bush could not designate him as an enemy combatant without the authorization.

Plug your ears, and don your flak jackets. Somebody told the little emperor he needs Congress' authorization to act.

(Well, we can just fix that little problem. We have 30 days to do it. The court directed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to release Padilla from military custody within 30 days )

Elaine Cassel has an excellent blog focusing on legal issues. A recent one provides a guest article on the issue of detainees, with this lead in from Elaine:

During a recent interview on a New Zealand radio broadcast, I was asked, "What is going on over there? This is not what we think of when we think of America."

The journalist was referring to Americans being held as enemy combatants, without lawyers, charges, or trials, and the 660 foreign prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I was glad he asked, for I rarely am asked that question by Americans, all of whom should be crying out for answers as to what, indeed, is going on here.

While Americans don't seem to care much about their brother citizens and aliens disappearing in the black hole of a law-free zone that Bush and Rumsfield have created in the name of the "war on terror," citizens from other parts of the world express alarm.

Bruce Jackson, State University of Buffalo Distinguished Professor of American Culture and English Literature, was recently asked to write about the American policy of detentions and arrests that the Bush administration has engaged in on several fronts since September 11 for an Italian journal. He has kindly allowed me to reprint the article in its entirety.

It is a sad time for America to be sure. When we don't care to ask what is going on here. And maybe some of us don't want to know, because we sense that it isn't good.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.