Bob F wrote:

Republicans tend to accept the end if it follows the stated rules,
Democrats tend to adjust the rules to accomplish the desired results.

Boy is this a pile. The republicraps are the ones who are ignoring
the law and the constitution when it suits their purposes.

I've heard this before. Usually regarding the folks at Guantanamo and always
by people who have only rudimentary understandings about the Constitution
they say is being trashed.

1. The constitutional rights that are said to be being violated are those
that apply to criminals (i.e., "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused
shall enjoy the right to a speedy trial...").

2. The people being detained by the military are not criminals. They have
broken no criminal law nor have they been arrested. They are "unlawful enemy
combatants" (UEC) and not entitled to the constitutional protections
afforded criminals: no lawyer, no trial, no indictment by a grand jury, no
witnesses, nada. Neither are they POWs. They fall into the same group as
spys, saboteurs, guerrillas, fifth-columnists, and other nasties caught on
the battlefield. They are not protected, nor even mentioned, by the Geneva
Conventions on War nor any of the similar protocols. Our nation's UEC was
Major Andre, who was hanged by George Washington.