Senator Graham, stop being Bush's JAG lawyer and start being a US Senator!

Senator Lindsey Graham(R-SC). We know him very well, don't we? Well, I happened upon his senate web-site today to see what the old Bush neocon enabler was up to, and low and behold, he was in full attack mode against our presumptive nominee, Barack Obama. Grab a bag of popcorn and a cream pie(or cowpie) and follow me under the fold. You're going to love this one folks.

Graham Responds to Senator Obama's Claim Habeas Petitions are "Not Designed to Free Prisoners"

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today responded to a comment made by his colleague, Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois), on the recent Supreme Court ruling bestowing habeas rights on terror suspects.

Senator Obama incorrectly stated habeas corpus, "is not designed to free prisoners." Here is the full statement.

"They are not serious about this. Because if they wanted to have a serious conversation about it then they would know for example that the issue of Habeas Corpus is not designed to free prisoners, what it's designed to do is make sure that prisoners who are being held, have at least one shot to say, ‘I’m being held wrongly." (ABC News, June 17, 2008)

Graham responded below, and his eschewed take on our Constitution and our SCOTUS is an eye-opener, but certainly no surprise coming from him:

"Contrary to Senator Obama’s statement, the Supreme Court’s bestowal of constitutional habeas rights on terror suspects has given them the green light to sue for their release. And yes, federal judges are now empowered to release terror suspects from American custody. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion makes this fact clear.

Kennedy wrote,

"...the habeas court must have the power to order the conditional release of an individual unlawfully detained -- though release need not be the exclusive remedy and is not the appropriate one in every case in which the writ is granted." (Boumediene v. Bush, page 50)

Look Senator Graham, even a first-year law student knows that the SCOTUS interprets the Constitution; it doesn't have the power to legislate from the bench. And the right of habeas corpus was embedded in centuries, centuries of common law, before this gang of war criminals came on the scene and subverted the very same Constituion they have thwarted at their every turn, along with the help of tyranny-enablers like you!

I call bullshit, Senator Graham. Let's be brutally  honest here, shall we? You couldn't care less about whether these POWs are innocent or guilty. If our military captured them, either by hook or crook,that's all the proof that you need; that's good enough for you-and the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof of the military tribunals(show trials) under the MCA to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt be damned!

"Senator Obama supports the Supreme Court ruling, but it appears from his comments he does not fully grasp the ruling’s effects

.

No, these are the "full effects": Senator Obama supports the Constituion and the rule of law. You apparently do not!

"Senator Obama should acknowledge federal district court judges do have the power to release terror suspects based upon their habeas petitions. And maybe he will acknowledge that on second thought, the Supreme Court’s granting federal judges this enormous power isn’t such a good idea.
"I look forward to his response on this important subject".

No, Senator Graham, it is you who misunderstand the law, and I don't think you're going to like what Senator Obama's response will be. The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, not the military! And if they release so-called "terror suspects" (emphasis on "suspects") have you thought that maybe, just maybe, they weren't terrorists in the first place?

Senator Graham, shows his abject ignorance of our form of constitutional democracy, and digs himself further into his ditch:

"I continue to find it mind-boggling that civilian judges -- in some of the most liberal district courts in the country – are now empowered to determine who is a military threat to the United States . Simply put, federal judges who have virtually no training in military or intelligence matters should not be making these decisions. We need to blunt their ability to do so."

And he knows this because? All of our judges never served in the military or were privy to any intelligence reports their whole lives? This is patently ridiculous on its face. I'm the son of a General officer, and a veteran, and I've studied the Constitution my whole life, but I've never attended the first day in law school. And even I can recognize a rat when I smell one! And this new concept of "guilty until proven innocent and even then we're still not going to release you-EVER", stinks up to high heaven!

Like the rest of the neocons, Senator Graham would like us to believe that we live under a military junta, where the military trumps the centuries-old concept of civilian rule, not military rule. That's why we have civilian control of the military and a civilian Commander-in-Chief, albeit the one we have now likes to believe he's our king.

Our military doesn't interpret the law, or have the right to decide such matters of law, because we have a Supreme Court who is the last court of judicial review-not Mister Bush; it is only the SCOTUS which constitutionally empowered to make such habeas corpus or probable cause decisions.

The framers never gave the military the power over the three branches of government, in spite of all of the Bush neocons' wildest dreams. That's why it's called a coup d'etat and high treason when they do so! And that's why Senator Graham is dead wrong!

Until the Constitution is amended or overthrown, Senator Graham, you're just going to have to accept the cold, hard reality that we are still a nation of laws-not men. And you're going to have to learn to hang-up your JAG officer's uniform long enough to start obeying your senatorial oath of office to protect the Constitution regardless of your politcal allegiances, and stop being a representative of Mister Bush and his military kangaroo courts!

Senator Graham needs to leave the Constitutional powers of the Judiciary right where they are, in the Courts.  I question if he is qualified to remain a US Senator, when he doesn't even understand the basic principles of jurisprudence written into our Constitution by our Founding Fathers.

And I will continue to accept the judgement of a former constitutional law professor over a Bush neocon shill who wouldn't know the difference between a probable cause hearing and a kangaroo court, even if he was questioned by simulated drowning(waterboarding) himself.

You will find his statement on the following link to his senate homepage:
http://lgraham.senate.gov/...