Federal Appeals Court to Bush: Ha-Ha!

A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that an American citizen must be treated like an American citizen.

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) said Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress and that Bush could not designate him as an enemy combatant without the authorization.

..."As this court sits only a short distance from where the World Trade Center stood, we are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat al-Qaida poses to our country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials bear for protecting the nation," the court said.

"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum, and this case involves not whether those responsibilities should be aggressively pursued, but whether the president is obligated, in the circumstances presented here, to share them with Congress," it added.

So, no, Mr. Bush, you cannot do whatever you want.

Don't get me wrong, I truly hope they put this guy away for awhile. But to think that Jose Padilla is getting treated differently that, say, this man, or this man, or hey even this man is astounding.

Padilla is Hispanic. Those other three guys were white.

It really makes you go hmmmmm. You know, what an amazing coincidence that three white terrorists get trials in US court while the Hispanic terrorist is held indefinitely without a trial. I'm shocked!

But probably not that much. You get used to things like this after awhile.