September 24, 2006
AS THE DERANGED LEFT MORPHS INTO THE DERANGED RIGHT:
A Bad Bargain (NY Times, 9/22/06)
Even before the compromises began to emerge, the overall bill prepared by the three senators had fatal flaws. It allows the president to declare any foreigner, anywhere, an “illegal enemy combatant†using a dangerously broad definition, and detain him without any trial. It not only fails to deal with the fact that many of the Guantánamo detainees are not terrorists and will never be charged, but it also chokes off any judicial review.The Democrats have largely stood silent and allowed the trio of Republicans to do the lifting. It’s time for them to either try to fix this bill or delay it until after the election. The American people expect their leaders to clean up this mess without endangering U.S. troops, eviscerating American standards of justice, or further harming the nation’s severely damaged reputation.
THE SILENT PARTY (Charles P. Pierce, Tapped)
You worthless passel of cowards. They're laughing at you. You know that, right?The national Democratic Party is no longer worth the cement needed to sink it to the bottom of the sea. For an entire week, it allowed a debate on changing the soul of the country to be conducted intramurally between the Torture Porn and Useful Idiot wings of the Republican Party, the latter best exemplified by John McCain, who keeps fashioning his apparently fathomless ambition into a pair of clown shoes with which he can do the monkey dance across the national stage.
Don't Vote Democrat (Greg Saunders, 9/22/06, Huffington Post)
I'm not kidding. If the last week is any indicator of what we've got to look forward to in a Democratic Congress, then don't bother. The last time they were in charge we got the Patriot Act, the Iraq War resolution, and the Medicare drug bill. Now with every poll supporting the Democrats and the Republicans on the ropes, these cowards are still afraid to throw the first punch.Instead, we see the torture issue (yeah, that's how far we've sunk) being co-opted by a group the media have dubbed the Republican "Rebels" whose grand act of rebellion consisted of giving the President the right to do whatever he wants.
These guys are no less estranged from America than the crew at National Review who thinks Republicans shouldn't vote for Republicans. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 24, 2006 10:56 AM
1) These Huffington chaps bear watching: they are showing a rather good understanding of Rovian Wasp larvae.
2) Pierce got the part about us laughing at them right. We need to tone down the volume on the guffaws.
3) The question of "judicial review" of war crimes tribunals needs clarification. We certainly to not need Article III courts fooling around with this business, but due process,and, Isuggest, International law, require some procedure for review and what corresponds to what civilian law thinksof by "appeal."
The review process of the UCMJ, should satisfy these requirements, and may be adapted, mutatis mutandi. We could say that we were guided by French and Chinese appellate procedure, and then let "world opinion" say that that were not ggod enough.
--who keeps fashioning his apparently fathomless ambition into a pair of clown shoes with which he can do the monkey dance across the national stage.--
Even a stopped clock.............
We should double our support of the National Review and the Huffington Post. I'm looking forward to the days that the far lefts and the far rights stay home. Only those who want the best for the country, not for their own parties, will vote.
Posted by: ic at September 24, 2006 2:44 PM