Torturing Logic
Sep 27th, 2006 at 9:03 am by Susie
It looks like some compromise version of the Whitewash Torture bill will go through this week, thanks to those cooperative Democrats:
Democrats, who have found themselves on the losing end of the national security debate the past two national elections, said the changes to the bill had not yet reached a level that would cause them to try to block it altogether.
“We want to do this,†said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader. “And we want to do it in compliance with the direction from the Supreme Court. We want to do it in compliance with the Constitution.â€
That Harry. Such a nice man!
I read someone point out in some comments today that this would probably mean suspending habeas corpus for accused American drug dealers, since they have previously been designated as “supporting the war on terror” by BushCo.
So we have that slippery slope thing going for us, which is nice.
I’m a constituent of Senator Reid. In a moment of frustration and anger I sent him the following.
Dear Senator Reid,
The recent proposed legislation to legalize torture and retroactively pardon the criminal actions of the Bush administration leaves me despondent. Where are the Democrats on this issue? I’ve been waiting for six years for the Democrats to pull us back from the brink of the collapse of our democracy. The Democrats are either complicit in the crimes of this administration or they don’t care. Torture is not an American value and as a veteran I feel great disgust that torture is now an official position of the U.S. Government.
Sir, I don’t expect a response. It’s possible that you’re being held against your will. If that is true, then please, the next time that you’re on public television wink twice with your left eye to let me know that you truly are a captive.
Respectfully,
Your humble constituent
[...] And a legal review:“This bill is simply outrageous.” And where will logic lead us? Plus half full or half empty? [...]
I vaguely remember reading about a conference call with bloggers a couple weeks ago where Reid assured everyone that the torture bill “wasn’t going anywhere.”
Or was it all a dream?