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Posted by Speed Gibson:

http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1184563197.shtml


   Many have commented on yet another pass issued to Rep. Keith Ellison
   by the uncurious, all-forgiving Minneapolis Star Tribune. Granted,
   it's on the Editorial page, but that isn't a license for printing
   false information. This is why I dropped my subscription of what - 35
   years? - to this paper. As long as statements like this appear:

     Bush and his team seem intent on enlarging his authority and
     defying those who would challenge him or his administration. Geneva
     Conventions? Quaint^1. Habeas corpus? Flexible^2. Court approval of
     wiretaps? Outmoded^3. Rising calls to replace a secretary of
     defense? "I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know
     the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."^4

   I added the superscripts as references to the following points.
    1. The Geneva Conventions, written in the plainest of language,
       plainly do not apply to our battle with Islamic terrorists. It is
       Bush's opponents that are trying to reduce Presidential and
       Executive Branch constitutional authority, not Bush trying to
       increase it.
    2. Habaeus Corpus is for American citizens, not foreigners and enemy
       combatants captured on the battlefield. Congress and the Courts
       attempts to expand its constitutional scope and meaning is again,
       an attempt to reduce Executive constitutional authority, not
       President Bush's to increase it.
    3. The word "wiretap" was falsely expanded by most of the press and
       Bush's opponents to include even pattern recognition of telephone
       numbers. But even so, the Patriot Act only expedited a well-known
       legal practice going back many administrations, including that of
       Jimmy Carter. The fact that the left insists that there is no
       difference listening to a foreign terrorist calling America vs an
       American calling the Home Shopping Network is very telling. Again,
       the President is not doing anything different than prior
       administrations like Carton and Clinton of which the Strib
       approves. The Bush Administration obvious has done more of it
       given 9/11, but it's essentially the same process and not a power
       grab.
    4. Is the Strib serious? All Cabinet officers serve at the pleasure
       of the President, short of impeachment and conviction, and it's
       been that way since 1791 when the Constitution was adopted.
       Where's the power grab?

   Remember the larger context, that we are to wrong to believe Keith
   Ellison didn't mean exactly what he said. It's our problem for taking
   him out of context, only there is no context here, none whatever,
   that, oh, "sands off the truth" here.
   My argument isn't with Keith Ellison here. He's free to say and think
   and vote as he sees fit, but has no reason to think he can fool the
   adults in the room, even with the Star Tribune's help.
   No, it is the Star Tribune that has truly stepped in it once again
   here. Just as their loaded coverage of Ellison's campaign was the
   final straw that ended my subscription, this continuing insistence on
   printing provably false information precludes any re-subscription
   soon.