I do not care for Senator John Kerry. I do not see him as a person strong enough to lead this country and I don't like his ideology. Sounds like I'm going to vote to re-elect President George W. Bush. Doesn't it? Maybe not.

Even though I believe President Bush has proven himself to be a strong leader for our country and even though I agree with his ideology about 40% of the time (which isn't bad) and John Kerry's about 2% of the time, John may get my vote. It all has to do with this administration's attack on the writ of habeas corpus. This can not be allowed to stand.

It bothered me some when all those folks in Afghanistan were grabbed and detained without access to legal counsel and shipped to Guantanemo Bay but those guys were trying to kill our guys in Afghanistan and the one's that were al Qaida were responsible for the attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Weren't they? But then what about Yaser Hamdi? He's an American citizen. Shouldn't that automatically give him some access to our courts? But then he was caught outside of the US fighting for the Taliban. Wasn't he? That's what the Afghan bounty hunters claim. Surely they wouldn't lie about this. Yeah, they would and this is where things really started bothering me. On top of all this let's look at Jose Padilla, the dirty bomber. Padilla has been held in a Naval brig since June of 2002, that's a year and eight months, without being allowed to speak to family or legal counsel. Padilla is a US citizen who was arrested inside the US. This is unspeakable.

Now, don't get me wrong, if any of the above were involved in any type of attack against my country I want them hung, but I want it done only after a court of law says that they are guilty, not just because they are accused of being guilty.

Harvey Silvergate and Carl Takei outline every one of the misgivings I have on this matter in their article Crossing the Threshold. This attack on the writ of habeas corpus can not be allowed to continue. It's power must be upheld by the Supreme Court or our notion of freedom and liberty has died.

So, it looks like who I find myself voting for in November all boils down to a Supreme Court decision. If this administration is powerful enough to get the support of the Supreme Court in their decisions on these three cases I must vote to put them out of power. However, if the Supreme Court does block this administrations attempt to walk all over the writ of habeas corpus I think I feel safe enough to vote for President Bush for a second term. I really don't mind a president who wishes to walk over the constitution as long as he isn't powerful enough to actually get away with it.