In a 5-4 en-banc ruling, the US 4th Circuit ruled that the President has authority to arrest and indefinitely detain US citizens, or whomever (s)he should designate as an "enemy combatant" even in US soil proper.
In a different 5-4 decision though (one judge flipped), they ruled the particular complainant had not been given an appropriate hearing in which to challenge his status as an "enemy combatant."
Before I analyze some aspects of this party line and fairly contemptible ruling, let me use this opportunity to visually remind everyone what is at stake with this election as this picture becomes ever more red:
I want to highlight a theme running through the election because it could have some significant (bad) consequences if John McCain gets his way and progressives fail to understand the implications.
"Give me the pen, and I'll veto every single pork-barrel bill Congress sends me, and if they keep sending them to me, I'll use the bully pulpit to make the people who are wasting your money famous,"
As much as anyone else, I dislike parochialism and seeing money ill spent to prop up endangered incumbent congress members. But down this road is a massive executive power grab. As such progressives must understand that McCain is proposing not to end pork but to transfer all earmarking authority to the executive branch.
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