So, there will be a mote around Baghdad, a fence around America, and torture as an interrogation technique. As Digby noted:
The bill introduced Monday dropped the words “outside the United States,” which Democrats said meant that prosecutors could ignore American legal standards on search warrants within the country. The bill also broadened the definition of an unlawful enemy combatant, from anyone “engaged in hostilities against the United States” to include anyone who “has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.”
I fully expect that this will be used on us, leftwing bloggers, before the decade is out.
Republicans will construe 'speech' (and writing) that they perceive as critical of them to be 'supporting and assisting' terrorists.
Do you remember this? I had forgotten that this was also Joe Lieberman's group. On the day that McCain, Warner and Graham were huddling with Dick Cheney on this legislation, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Lynn Cheney had a hand in the "compromise" that wasn't.
To the DLC, we on the left are the scourge of the Democratic party. They see us as the skunk at their garden party. We get in the way of their having a dandy time at their workplace, enjoying the power that comes with their offices (despite their minority status in Congress) with their counterparts across the aisle. Check out the society magazines in D.C. sometime, and see who is partying with whom. See what goes on outside the view of CSpan's cameras. This is what rarely gets reported outside the beltway. Politics in Washington is like high school, where everyone secretly would like to hang out and be accepted by the `cool and popular' kids. Including the journalists. It is the most incestuous lot, and journalists see nothing wrong with socializing with their subjects. They honestly do not think that it affects their being able to cover them objectively and without bias. `Embedded' doesn't just apply to the battlefield in wartime.
The very idea that anybody in either party in America (much less the Democratic party), would consider legislation like this says it all about the individuals themselves, who they are and their values. They can sign on to such legislation because they don't see themselves as ever having to be subject to it. They're above it, they're no longer one of the people. That's the danger of career politics and no term limits.
Filed under: torture, McCain, Warner, Graham, Lynn Cheney, Joe Lieberman, Digby, Hullabaloo, Washington Life
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