Habeas Corpus and Other things
I have several things I would like to talk about today; I’ll just list off the topics I’ll be writing about: habeas corpus, the economy, hiking and camping, moving. I’ll be breaking it up so you can just read the parts you are interested in.
Habeas Corpus:
Habeas corpus, also known as the “Great Writ” which is one of the few rights guarantied in the unamended Constitution of the United States. In Article One, Section 9 it states “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.”
This along with the sixth amendment gives us the right to trial and to have charges filed against us. To know what we are suspected of and, given the opportunity to prove our innocence.
On the 13th of November 2001, a Presidential Military Order gave the President of the United States the power to detain suspects, suspected of connections to terrorists or terrorism as unlawful combatants. This made it possible for a person to be indefinitely held with out charges being filed against them.
Since then there has been a constant legal battle with the Bush administration on the subject of habeas corpus.
Finlay in 2006 the House and Senate approved the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
In the bill it states that its “purpose” is to deal with “alien unlawful enemy combatants” however many parts of the bill simply referees to “unlawful enemy combatants” which does not explicitly exclude United States citizens.
Now even if this does indeed exclude US citizens, this still leaves us with living, breathing, thinking human beings being held with out access to rights to a court justice or attorney.
“No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.”
I of course contend that the right to habeas corpus sould be granted to any human being that is held by the government of the United States. I can not in good conscience justify denying the right to ask the courts for intersession, and the ability to prove my innocence to anyone even if they are accused of terrorism, or in combat against the United States.
Fortunately the on June 12, 2008 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Boumedievne vs. Bush that terror suspects detained by the United States have the right to seek a writ of habeas corpus.
I wish I had all of the transcripts for the reaction that President Bush gave to the courts decision, but to say the least he was not pleased to hear the news. John McCain also expressed his disappointment on the courts decision. I am however glad to see that our system of checks and balances worked in favor of human rights in this case.
Economy:
It has been interesting to watch the economy work recently. For one the stock market has gone up and down like a yo-yo while oil prices continue to rise, and home values continue to fall. On top of what I have already listed food prices have gone up and the Federal Reserve (commonly called the Fed) has cut interest rates in an effort to stimulate the economy, but that also increases the rate of inflation. These problems I’ve listed are in on way all that ails the national/word economy.
To me personally oil/gas prices have been the biggest hit to my finances, it has kept me gowned to the Provo, and Orem area for the most part. Because of my needs to save money I didn’t even go to the Gay Pride calibrations in Salt Lake City. (If I’m going to miss Gay Pride that should show you how much it costs to drive that far.) I have stopped traveling to lots of things that I would like to go to, and I have also again been riding my bike to work, but this has not saved me enough on gas to make the tips to see my friends in Salt Lake as often as I would like.
Hiking and Camping:
This is a fun story that I’m including in this blog entry. So a little over a week ago I was talking to my younger sister about going hiking that night, but she declined because she had to get up for work in the morning so we decided to do a night hike the fallowing week, and even camp out on the hike path. The plan we had discussed was to go to Squaw Peak. We were going to invite some of our friends so I proceeded to invite several of my friends.
By the day of the hike/campout my sister had been reminded that she was supposed to do something else with some of her friends (which also turned out to be a camp out) so our parties split and I went with my group up to the top of the mountain. We started at 9:30 pm, and met in the parking lot at the mouth of Rock Canyon and commenced the hike to the top. There were six of us and all of varying physical fitness, none the less we moved at a good place and made it to the top just before 1:00 am.
The view was amazing, and peaceful. Normally when I go hiking in this area there are many people on the trail, but at this time of night we were the only ones. At the top we enjoyed the view, ate our food sang and I played my penny whistle. Now most of my party had things to do in the morning so we elected not to camp out and we hiked back down the mountain at about 1:30 and made it bake to our cares at about 3:00. It was fun and for me worth it. Even my friends that had things to do at in the morning (one of them had to drive to a wedding at 7:00 am) said that he trip was fun and worth the late night.
Moving:
So my roommate is getting married and because he owns the place that I live at I will be moving before the end of the month. I had been having some difficulty finding and place and for other reasons I had also delayed looking (if asked I’ll give those reasons but they are not important to this story).
Anyhow I did recently find a place to live with a member of my LDS ward. Yes I have been still going to church, but I’ll confess that this is mostly due to the fact that it is one of the few consistent social outlets for me. The interesting thing is that the guy I’ll be living with is fairly new to the congregation, and I don’t think that he knows that I’m gay. If he has been told then he doesn’t seem to care, but if not I’m sure he will find out soon enough.
The reason I haven’t yet told him myself is because I like people to get to know me before they judge me for being gay. Not only does it help in making new friends, but when they do finally find out I feel that it helps them to see a gay person as a person or individual who happens to be gay rather then there preconceived notions of what it means to be gay.
Well that’s that.
Later,
XR4-IT
