America, What's Become of You?

Two excellent posts about the "compromise" torture bill currently heading steadily toward Dubya's desk. First up is Glenn Greenwald with a post about the true scope of the legislation, which does apply to U.S. citizens as well as foreign nationals, a fact seemingly lost on pretty much 100 percent of the mainstream media. As Greenwald says, this minor little inconvenient bit of the trivial gives Dubya everything he needs to become a tyrant in a nice, legal manner.

"As [Law Professor Bruce] Ackerman put it: 'The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.' Similarly, [Law Professor Marty] Lederman explains: 'this [subsection (ii) of the definition of 'unlawful enemy combatant'] means that if the Pentagon says you're an unlawful enemy combatant -- using whatever criteria they wish -- then as far as Congress, and U.S. law, is concerned, you are one, whether or not you have had any connection to 'hostilities' at all.'

"This last point means that even if there were a habeas corpus right inserted back into the legislation (which is unlikely at this point anyway), it wouldn't matter much, if at all, because the law would authorize your detention simply based on the DoD's decree that you are an enemy combatant, regardless of whether it was accurate. This is basically the legalization of the Jose Padilla treatment -- empowering the President to throw people into black holes with little or no recourse, based solely on his say-so.

"There really is no other way to put it. Issues of torture to the side (a grotesque qualification, I know), we are legalizing tyranny in the United States. Period. Primary responsibility for this fact lies with the authoritarian Bush administration and its sickeningly submissive loyalists in Congress. That is true enough. But there is no point in trying to obscure that fact that it's happening with the cowardly collusion of the Senate Democratic leadership, which quite likely could have stopped this travesty via filibuster if it chose to (it certainly could have tried)."

In other words, thanks Congress you grave, disgusting embarrassments to everything the founders of this country envisioned and created.

Meanwhile, Tristero over at Hullabalo, offers a fascinating and frightening analysis of exactly what's motivating Congress to turn Bush's every dictatorial wish into law. Basically, members of Congress have realized they have no effective power to reign in the President, so they are passing the legislation in a desperate attempt to keep up the appearance that they are still a functioning branch of the government.

"The truth is that there is a rogue presidency and there has been, since January, 2001 (earlier, if you count the stolen election). Certainly, everyone in Washington knows it, but no one dares to admit it. The bill legalizing torture merely enables Congress to pretend they still have some influence over an executive that from day one was governing, not as if they had a mandate, but as if Bush were a dictator. If, for some miracle, the bill didn't pass, every congress-critter knows Bush would keep on torturing.

"Better to vote to pass and preserve the appearance of a working American government, the thinking goes. For the very thought that the US government is seriously broken - that the Executive is beyond the control of anyone and everyone in the world - is such a truly awesome and terrifying thought that it can never be publicly acknowledged. If ever it is, if the American crisis gets outed and Congress and the Supremes openly assert that the Executive has run completely amok and is beyond control, the world consequences are staggering. It is the stuff of doomsday novels."

The neutering of Congress, Tristero says, is driving the country toward an inevitable crisis that will determine whether the U.S. reaffirms its core principles or denies them.

Of course, most Republican members of Congress are so corrupted they'll never truly stand up to Bush. As far as we give actions any weight, many Democrats also apparently believe being an accessory to the murder of the Constitution is a more comfortable option than acting in a way that might bring on a fight with the Executive Branch. Go-along-get-along Dems might be screwing themselves up to oppose this bill, but their record isn't encouraging even if there is some evidence the "compromise" is distasteful to them.

One can only imagine the hazard that has to have been created in the capitol building. Surely the incessant wringing of pale, palsied hands must be leaving a slick film of stale sweat on the floors.