That Didn't Take Long

Looks like ol' Chimpy McHauptsturmführer couldn't wait to play with his new toys:

Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

In a notice dated Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act (MCA), it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future.

The Washington Post goes on to reassure us that these efforts are only valid against non-citizens while conveniently forgetting that if a citizen is labelled an enemy combatant, he won't be able to see a judge to get habeas corpus rights - that's what removing habeas corpus means.

"Conservatives", of course (quoted because real conservatives don't support torture and the removal of habeas corpus) rush to assure us that this is what that blue-ribbon horsefucker Georgie wanted all along - to get those criminal taxi drivers and falafel vendors and find out what they know, dammit! - and he'd never, never abuse this against American citizens. Nuh-uh. No way.

Yeah. Suuuure.

With this Act in place, by the way, Chimpy meets the definition of tyrant. God, how the world laughs at us. We finally give up on the Great Experiment, and our first post-democracy Leader is a chimp.