President George W. Bush was presented with a plant by students on his trip to Northern Ireland (further elaboration and caption rendered unnecessary).

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected unconstitutional George W. Bush-era detention policies - locking up terrorists indefinitely without trial.

One would think, from the reaction of the certain justices, presidents and aspiring presidents, that we had just set hundreds of terrorists free and given them our expressed, written consent to plot another 9/11 catastrophe.

But there 5-4 decision in the case of Boumediene v. Bush merely gives enemy detainees a constitutional right to habeas corpus.

In short, enemy combatants held in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere may now challenge the legal basis for their detention in a federal court.

Here’s a brief breakdown of what the decision - once again the product of a crucial swing vote by Justice Anthony Kennedy - does and does not do.

• The ruling DOES uphold the fundamental right to habeas corpus, part of the legal system for, oh, a few centuries. The long and short of it, as a legal expert explains to us - the government cannot arrest and detain you without a legitimate reason, basically. Sorry, George.

• The ruling DOES ensure that Guantanamo cannot be the lawless society the administration has made it (and which is why detainees have been held at the base, away from actual U.S. soil, for six years now).

• The ruling DOES say that laws enacted by Congress at the administration’s urging do not circumvent individuals’ right to habeas corpus.

• The ruling DOES NOT close Guantanamo.

• The ruling DOES NOT order all detainees who have not been charged with an offense to be released, nor does it set a timetable for this.

• The ruling DOES NOT specify what factors the courts should consider when deciding whether the government can hold them, despite its stating that enemy detainees are entitled to a “prompt habeas hearing.”

In short, because the Boumediene v. Bush decision is rooted in the actual United States Constitution (imagine that) and not federal statutes, it’ll be much harder for Bush and Congressional cronies to continue doing what they’ve been so diligent at - drafting new laws to keep the courts out of this.

Dennis Kucinich is a phenomenal human being.

The scrappy Ohio Congressman and two-time Democratic presidential hopeful has 35 different reasons for the impeachment George W. Bush.

Atop his list of impeachable offenses is “Article I: Creating a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq.”

Determined to see Bush thrown out of the White House, Kucinich took to the House floor a 35-count impeachment resolution against the President on Monday, the most thorough and powerful such case made to date.

He outlined a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors and showed without a shadow of a doubt that George W. Bush deserves to be impeached.

Dennis Kucinich made clear that Bush has violated his oath of office and his Constitutional duty that the laws be “faithfully executed.”

Kucinich and others argue that Bush and Dick Cheney lied to Congress and America about Iraq (up to 935 times, some believe), thus committing crimes against this nation and facing a laundry list of clearly defined impeachment grounds.

The rest of Congress may not have the spine to back him up, but Dennis Kucinich is still going after George W. Bush out of pure principle.

As of this posting, 4,100 Americans are dead and a staggering 500,000 (at least) Iraqis have also died as a result of the Iraq war.

If these travesties have occurred as a result of lies and deceit, as Scott McClellan corroborates in his new book, then Kucinich isn’t merely posturing. He is pushing for something just - and something few have the balls to stand for.

Say what you will about the 61-year-old political oddball - he is nothing if not honest, refreshingly courageous and principled.

While it’s easier to take such stands when your seat is safe and you have no chance of winning the presidency, Dennis Kucinich deserves our respect.

Forget his stirring speech on Tuesday night. One of the most talked-about moments marking Sen. Barack Obama’s finally clinching the Democratic nomination was his fist-bump on stage with wife Michelle Obama.

Asked about the knocking of knuckles, Barack Obama said that despite all the publicity and stress, he and Michelle “still do silly things.” Indeed!

A fist-bump alone won’t carry Barack and Michelle Obama to the White House, but it does show that the aspiring commander-in-chief is actually kind of cool.

That factor sure didn’t hurt Bill Clinton in 1992. Just saying.

On the flip side of the coolness scale, we have President George W. Bush, who recently went chest to chest with an Air Force Academy graduate.

Okay, we hate to say it, but that was, maybe, just a little bit cool as well. Political opinions aside, we have to credit G-Dubs on his form …

An Air Force grad gets an appropriate send-off from the President.

In his controversial new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan reflects on some of the outright lies told to the American people.

Equaled only by the quagmire that is the Iraq war, the most devastating of George W. Bush’s many failures as President was his response (or lack thereof) to the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

According to Scott McClellan, the famous photos taken of George Bush overlooking New Orleans from his plane after the storm were entirely staged.

The brainchild? You guessed it, former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. Bush’s brain, the sultan of sleaze and master of media manipulation recommended taking the photos to show just how much Bush cared. *sniff*

The duplicity of Rove and Bush has tarnished the office of the presidency more than any two photos can adequately describe. But the staged images below are some of the most chilling examples of this culture of deception …

George W. Bush poses for the cameras as he surveys New Orleans.

When George W. Bush took shots at Barack Obama and others over foreign policy last week, it played straight into the likely Democratic candidate’s hand.

Linking George Bush to John McCain, the GOP nominee, is a can’t-miss Democratic strategy - and the issues of Iraq and terrorism give Obama his best chance to illustrate the undeniable, alarming connection between the two hawks.

These photos don’t hurt either…

John McCain and George W. Bush: Rivals or old chums?

There was no love lost between George W. Bush and John McCain in the 2000 election, and the latter isn’t a Bush carbon copy on every issue.

When it comes to their world view, however, the two are frighteningly similar.

Think George W. Bush struck a nerve this week?

The lamest duck of all was thousands of miles away from American soil, yet inserted himself into the presidential race in a big way.

A brief rundown:

• In Israel commemorating that great nation’s 60th anniversary, Bush says Democrats favor “appeasement” of terrorists, who he likens to Nazis.
• Barack Obama, though not mentioned by name, issues a statement rejecting Bush’s comments and saying they distort his views.
• John McCain blasts Obama’s comments in a speech to the NRA.
• Obama slams Bush again, saying the president “did something that presidents don’t do” and that “alienates us from the rest of the world.”
• Republicans say Democrats are overreacting; McCain criticizes Obama’s experience and questions his judgment.
• Obama blasts McCain for “embracing” Bush’s attacks.

Not bad for 48 hours!

After the war in Iraq and seven years of Bush foreign policy, his remarks in Israel on Thursday left the entire Democratic party fuming.

Their likely presidential candidate was quick to fire back in kind.

“After almost eight years, I did not think I could be surprised about anything that George Bush says, but I was wrong,” Obama said. “The president did something that presidents don’t do - launch a political attack targeted toward the domestic market in front of a foreign delegation.”

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After a brief layoff, fear-mongering is back in full effect!

President George W. Bush did not name Sen. Barack Obama by name, but it’s undeniable that his remarks today were aimed at the Democratic Party’s likely presidential candidate and others.

The thinly-veiled attack Thursday was made by Bush in Jerusalem, where he was marking the 60th anniversary of Israel’s sovereignty, but went so far as to suggest that Democrats actually favor the “appeasement” of terrorists.

NOTE #1: For some perspective, this is not only the least popular president in U.S. history talking, but a man who believes the best show of solidarity with troops sent to wage an unnecessary war is to quit golf.

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said, speaking to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

“As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Doubts about Obama with Jewish Americans were stoked earlier this month by Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee-to-be in the 2008 race, who dubiously called Obama the “favored candidate” of Hamas.

Continue reading this article …

President George W. Bush warned in an interview that Democratic candidates’ plans to withdraw abruptly from Iraq could “eventually lead to another attack on the United States” and would embolden terrorists.

“The United States pulling out of Iraq or pulling out of the Middle East or not maintaining a forward presence would send all kinds of signals throughout the Middle East,” he told the Politico and Yahoo! News.

“And it would shake everybody’s nerves, and it would embolden the very same people that we’re trying to defeat.”

For the first time, Bush revealed a deeply personal and important choice he made to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families.

Bush said he made this critical policy decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad:

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

NOTE #1: Starting an unnecessary and endless war, however? That signal is cool. This is also the first time we’ve seen the act of playing golf equated with disrespect for U.S. soldiers. Anyone want to buy a set of used clubs?

NOTE #2: The picture above was taken in 2004! Not only is Bush’s argument probably the dumbest thing we’ve ever heard, it’s not even true!

Follow the jump for more amazing George W. Bush quotes from the interview …

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Special thanks to a reader who sent us the link to this photo. A French translation of a tag on an American company’s clothing sold in France speaks for itself.

Please remember to wash with warm water, dry flat and not to iron it - and that 48.3 percent of us voted for John Kerry.

Because it’s real, this photo may be our all-time favorite - even better than our previous favorite, the photo-shopped, faux “Welcome to Connecticut” sign apologizing for George W. Bush being born on Nutmeg State soil.

Follow the jump to see that classic…

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