Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Tough and Smart

by digby

Democrats have put their trust in Senators Graham, McCain and Warner to push back against the White House, and Thursday they signaled that they intended to continue cooperating. “Five years after Sept. 11, it is time to make the tough and smart decisions to give the American people the real security they deserve,” said the Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.

Still, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he would press to change a provision in the proposal that would deny detainees a right to challenge their captivity in court.

If you’d like to ask your Senator to support the Specter-Levin Amendment to preserve habeas corpus, you can go here for information and directions.

Update: Here’s some more of that old time clarity:

On the key issue of detainee treatment that had caused the impasse between the White House and the dissident Republicans, the two sides agreed on a list of specified crimes that would provoke prosecution of CIA interrogators and others. They also agreed that past violations of the Geneva Conventions, an international treaty barring degrading and humiliating treatment of detainees, would not result in criminal or civil legal action.

The White House, for its part, yielded in its demand to adopt, with congressional approval, a restricted definition of its obligations under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. That article requires humane treatment of detainees and bars “violence to life and person,” such as death and mutilation, as well as cruel treatment and “outrages upon personal dignity.”

The compromise language gives the president a dominant — but not exclusive — role in deciding which interrogation methods are permitted by that provision of the treaty. It also prohibits detainees from using the Geneva Conventions to challenge their imprisonment or seek civil damages for mistreatment, as the administration sought.

[…]

The biggest hurdle, Senate sources said, was convincing administration officials that lawmakers would never accept language that allowed Bush to appear to be reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions. Once that was settled, they said, the White House poured most of its energy into defining “cruel or inhuman treatment” that would constitute a crime under the War Crimes Act. The administration wanted the term to describe techniques resulting in “severe” physical or mental pain, but the senators insisted on the word “serious.”

Negotiations then turned to the amount of time that a detainee’s suffering must last before the treatment amounts to a war crime. Administration officials preferred designating “prolonged” mental or physical symptoms, while the senators wanted something milder. They settled on “serious and non-transitory mental harm, which need not be prolonged.”

These definitions appear in a section of the legislation that specifically lists “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions that might bring criminal penalties.

For lesser offenses barred by the Geneva Conventions — those lying between cruelty and minor abuse, putting them at the heart of the intraparty dispute — the draft legislation would give the president explicit authority to interpret “the meaning and application” of the relevant provisions in Common Article 3. It also requires that such interpretations be considered as “authoritative” as other U.S. regulations.

But the language also requires that such interpretations be published, rather than described in secret to a restricted number of lawmakers. That provision was demanded by the dissident lawmakers, who resented the administration’s past efforts to curtail the number of members who were told of its policies. The provision also affirms that Congress and the judiciary can play their customary roles in reviewing the interpretations, a statement that Senate sources say the White House vigorously resisted.

A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in an interview that Bush essentially got what he asked for in a different formulation that allows both sides to maintain that their concerns were addressed. “We kind of take the scenic route, but we get there,” the official said.

So the good news is that these fine Republicans were all able to sit in Dick Cheney’s Senate office and hash out what “amount of time that a detainee’s suffering must last before the treatment amounts to a war crime” in the last three days. We can sleep better tonight knowing that they decided that the suffering must do “serious and non-transitory mental harm, which need not be prolonged.” Excellent. And now we know that “cruel or inhuman treatment” that would constitute a crime under the War Crimes Act is comprised of “techniques resulting in ‘serious’ physical or mental pain, rather than ‘severe.'” That’s just the kind of “clarity” they’ve been looking for. On with the interrogations.

Oh and they will leave it up to the president to decide if standing shackled naked in a cold room with ice water splashed randomly on you for 72 hours is torture. Or if being forced to walk around on a leash like a dog or have fake menstrual blood smeared all over your face is degrading. (I wonder what he’ll say?)

The best part is that they might let the prisoners see classified evidence used against them that’s been redacted or summarized, nobody who was tortured will be able to sue the government or hold anyone in it legally liable and there’s a nice fat habeas corpus loophole so these embarrassingly innocent people down in Gitmo will stay under wraps.

It’s tough and smart for St John and the Republicans, for sure. For reasonable people, not so much. This is a terrible bill and I don’t think the Democrats will get any benefit from backing it.

Update: The NY Times Editorial Board doesn’t think it’s much of a bill either.

.

Speaking Of Torture

by digby

In the event of conflict, America also accepts our responsibility to protect innocent lives in every way possible. We’ll bring food and medicine to the Iraqi people. We’ll help that nation to build a just government, after decades of brutal dictatorship. The form and leadership of that government is for the Iraqi people to choose. Anything they choose will be better than the misery and torture and murder they have known under Saddam Hussein.

Uhm:

Torture in Iraq is reportedly worse now than it was under deposed president Saddam Hussein, the United Nations’ chief anti-torture expert said Thursday.

Manfred Nowak described a situation where militias, insurgent groups, government forces and others disregard rules on the humane treatment of prisoners.

“What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand,” said Nowak, the global body’s special investigator on torture.

“The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein.”

Nowak, an Austrian law professor, was in Geneva to present a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, as well as to brief the UN Human Rights Council, the global body’s top rights watchdog, on the situation of torture in countries around the world.

He said that some allegations of torture in Iraq he received were undoubtedly credible.

Government forces were among the perpetrators, Nowak said, citing “very serious allegations of torture within the official Iraqi detention centres.

“You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed,” Nowak told reporters at the UN’s European headquarters. “It’s not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you’ll find by private militias.”

Nowak has yet to make an official visit to Iraq, and said such a mission would not be feasible as long as the security situation was so dangerous. He based his comments on interviews with people during a visit to Amman, Jordan and other sources.

“You find these bodies with very heavy and very serious torture marks,” he said. “Many of these allegations, I have no doubt that they are credible.”

Punked

by digby

The “compromise” will, as I predicted, allow the “tough interrogations” by amending the war crimes act. And they will reportedly create a new JAG office to review classified information and determine if terrorist suspects can see it if it’s being used against them in a trial. We already know they have devised some habeas corpus loophole to keep innocent people imprisoned without any due process.

Republicans are happy.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said…”If this language becomes law, the Congress will have given us the clarity and the support that we need to move forward with a detention and interrogation program that allows us to continue to defend the homeland, attack al-Qaida and protect American and allied lives,” he said in a written message to agency personnel.

The Republicans are now standing shoulder to shoulder having worked this whole thing out — they are strong, they are tough, they are moral, and they are willing to work together to form a compromise that they can all live with. Aren’t they great? This is why we should vote Republican.

Now watch this drive.

Ed Rogers on Hardball said Bush got to look both tough on terror and effective in bringing the senate along. Kweisi Mfume says McCain looks good to Democrats and independents and Bush looks good to Americans in general.

Can anyone in the know explain to me how letting McCain run with this torture debate benefitted the Democrats in any way?

Here’s how the optics look to me:

McCain, the Republican rebel maverick, showed that Republicans are moral and look out for their troops.

Bush, the Republican statesman and leader, showed that he is committed to protecting Americans but that he is willing to listen and compromise when people of good faith express reservations about tactics.

The Democrats showed they are ciphers who don’t have the stones to even say a word when the most important moral issue confronting the government is being debated.

Unless the Dems ready to threaten to filibuster a national security bill a month before an election — which I doubt — I expect that the Republicans are going to rush this through the conference and force through this piece of shit bill in a hurry, just like they forced the AUMF through in October 2002 and give the republicans a big honking “victory” in the GWOT.

The Dems are all going to be twisted into pretzels and look like they have no backbones as they struggle with a united GOP saying that McCain and Huckleberry Graham made sure “the program” is moral and necessary. Vote for it for for the terrorists. So they’ll end up voting for it without getting any benefit from it.

I honestly think it would have been much, much better if they’d have forced their way into the debate and taken a firm stand — if only to show they give a damn. This is a turn-out election and I have a feeling many a Democrat’s stomach will turn as they see this triumph of GOP “leadership” in action. Why bother to vote when the Democrats don’t bother to show up?

Update: MSNBC

The accord between President Bush and Republican Senate leaders announced Thursday afternoon on tribunals for al Qaida detainees at Guantanamo Navy Base sets up litmus-test votes both in the House and Senate next week.

These votes fit into the Republican strategy of scheduling showdowns that will highlight differences between the two parties in the run-up to the Nov. 7 elections.

The effect may be to put Democrats in close races on the spot — Democrats such as Sen. Bob Menendez in New Jersey and Rep. Sherrod Brown, who’s running for the Senate seat now held by Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio.

Just a few hours before the deal was announced, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid had held a press conference in which he mocked GOP leaders for being unable to come up with an agreement on detainee interrogation and tribunals.

He scoffed at the Republican “do nothing Congress.”

I don’t know for sure, but it sure looks to me as if Reid got rolled by McCain.

But now it seems likely that Republican leaders will have at least two significant bills to vote on next week, a Mexican border fence bill and the detainee tribunal bill.

Who won? Who lost?

[…]

Political winners, assuming the detainee deal is drafted and goes to a floor vote in the the House and Senate:

* Bush: In return for making some concessions, he gets clear guidance for CIA interrogators on what they can and can’t do to detainees and he ends an intra-party impasse.
* McCain: Conservative commentators had attacked him for blocking Bush on the detainee tribunals but now he can resume his courtship of the GOP rank and file as he looks to the 2008 presidential nomination.

Probable losers: Civil libertarians who may still object to the tribunals and Democrats who have been laying low on the issue, apparently assuming that McCain-Bush impasse would prevent any deal. “They painted themselves into a corner,” said GOP Senate aide Don Stewart. “They said, ‘I’m with McCain,’ and now McCain has reached an agreement.”

Goddamit, I told you so. I couldn’t be more unhappy that I was right.

Update:

Marty Lederman: Senators Snatch Defeat From Jaws of Victory: U.S. to be First Nation to Authorize Violations of Geneva

Clarification: When I wrote “why bother to vote” I meant it in a purely rhetorical sense. Of course you must vote and you must vote for Democrats. I don’t believe they are playing this well in a turnout mid-term election but we simply have no choice but to try to stop the people who are actually ordering this torture and degradation.

Send your representatives letters and let them know what you think. But vote! Unless you’re leaving the country the only choice you have is to fight.

.

Breakthrough

by digby

I’m waiting on the edge of my seat to hear what the “bipartisan compromise” on the torture and detainee legislation between Rebel McCain and the white house is. The one thing I noticed in the tiny bit of the press conference I just saw on CNN in passing was that this great “deal” didn’t include even one Democrat.

Can we all see how horrible the optics of that are?

So far, when it comes to the nation’s policy on torture and terrorist detainees, the Democrats are not just soft, they are completely irrelevant. I’m not sure that’s a great idea — but waddo I know?

.

Thank You Big Gumint!

by digby

My internet service has been disrupted since last night and my laptop is on the fritz so I’ve been offline until this moment — where I am blogging from the beautiful new Santa Monica public library.

The place is crammed full of people, in the stacks, online at the 50 or more modern computers that are available to the public or sitting comfortably in easy chairs in this free wifi environment with their laptops — some of them ancient but still servicable. There are a whole bunch of kids in the great children’s sections being taught how to read and love books. And there are a ton of elderly who are hanging out in a nice peaceful, comfortable environment in the presence of other people instead of sitting all alone.

Can I just say how valuable these kinds of public services are to a community and how much those who are usually lucky enough to be able to afford all these luxuries like broadband or wi-fi or new computers take such things for granted? This is the type of thing our tax dollars pay for and when we “starve the beast” it’s the first thing that goes. Yet without it we will further stratify out society and make it impossible for a vast number of people to be productive, informed, connected citizens.

This is one of those great examples of important government functions that Bill Sher suggests we talk about in his book “Wait! Don’t Move To Canada.” So I’m talking about it.

Today, I’m one of those people who needs this public service. I’m damned glad to have it and proud to pay my taxes to support it.

(Of course, this is Santa Monica, so I can buy a delicious soy latte right here too. Is this a great blue state or what?)

.

Party Like It’s Fall, 2002!

by tristero

I wonder: Did anyone at the Times realize that the facts in these paragraphs contradict the Bush-dictated propaganda spin in their “reporting”?

When President Bush and his advisers decided to allow President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran into the country to address the United Nations, their strategy was simple: containment.

There would be no visits to other cities where he could denounce Washington or question Israel’s legitimacy. There would be no opportunities, beyond his speech to the General Assembly, to turn questions about his nuclear intentions into repeated diatribes about America’s nuclear arsenal.

It turned out that Mr. Ahmadinejad had a Plan B.

The scope of his determination to dominate not only the airwaves but the debate became evident yesterday evening, when he entered a hotel conference room on the East Side with a jaunty smile, a wave and an air of supreme confidence.

Sounds to me like the only person trying “to dominate not only the airwaves but the debate” was George W. Bush who did everything he could to, in the Times’s own words practice “containment” of Ahmadinejad.

The issue of whether it was a good or bad thing to provide Ahmadinejad an opportunity to yak it up in public is a separate one from the issue of whether the Times is once again kowtowing to Bush propaganda directives. It is perfectly consistent to be revolted by Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and be horrified by the notion that the American media has once again capitulated to pressure from the Bush administration. I may address the former in a day or so [I do so below in the second update], but the notion that the newspaper of record would report, with a straight face, that Bush tried and succeeded in totally suppressing Ahmadinejad’s access to American media, but characterize the Iranian president, and not Bush, as the one trying to dominate the debate, is simply bizarre. And freaky. And very scary.

The prospect of living through a repeat of 2002/2003, when it was simply impossible to determine the truth from any American media source of influence – my God, please, not again.

[Update: I want to add that I know the people at the Times are not stupid and probably did see the contradiction, yet chose to print Bush propaganda spin anyway. Why? I suspect word has come down from above that discussion is over (not that there ever was any in the way Americans understand it), the die is cast, it’s happening. Bush is not planning to go to war, but is going to war with Iran, and with that in mind the Times doesn’t wish to appear to be coddling this season’s black hat.

Don’t bother praying that the Bush/Iran war will be short. It won’t be. As to what to do, I haven’t the foggiest idea. But I think I can detect the outline of what Bush is up to. Unlike 2002, there won’t be some 7 months of what Rice laughingly called “diplomacy.” It was, from Bush’s standpoint, a pointless, useless, exercise and a waste of time. Who says Bush doesn’t learn from his mistakes? This time the official New New Product launch seems, in a word, imminent.

And man, there is nothing that would please me more than, two months from now, for all of you to write me and accuse me of being entirely wrong, irresponsible, and alarmist.]

[Update: After some serious thought on the issue, informed as always by the commenters here, I think I’ve sorted out what I think about providing Ahmanidejad with a platform in the American press. It is a difficult call and I may change my mind as I think about it some more and learn more.

Ahmanidejad’s Holocaust denial is odious and inflammatory, but that is all it is. It is not fact-based, of course, and therefore, it is not news and not interesting and should be noted, en passant, unless directly relevant to other issues. Please note the “directly.” I am not saying to “hide” his views; I’m saying that there is no newsworthy reason to harp on them (by the way, several commenters urged me to consider that Ahmanidejad’s been poorly translated. I’m sure he has, and I’ve read some of Juan Cole’s posts on the subject and while it’s important to understand exactly what he’s saying, the gist is perfectly clear. Whether Ahmanidejad’s a properly understood anti-Semite or a misunderstood one really is not the point: it is difficult either way to make a case that he likes Jews (let alone Israel) or even that he’s merely indifferent to Jews (and yes, I suspect you will let me have it in comments, but you will have to show me stronger evidence than a misconstrued remark to convince me Ahmanidejad is not anti-semitic as well as anti-Zionist). What is germane is whether his anti-semitism directly informs his remarks and actions on issues critical to Iran’s self-interest, and the world’s, including Israel.)

While his Holocaust denial has neither truth nor value as news, Ahmanidejad’s view of the present world situation, and Iran’s place in it, is an extremely important view for Americans to have unexpurgated access to. Therefore, Americans need to hear quite a bit from Ahmanidejad and other Iranians. Journalists, however, would be derelict if they reported only his most inflammatorily stupid remarks, and neglected to report also what he says about crucial issues to US/Iranian/Middle East relations.

While this clearly makes sense to me, there are others who feel quite strongly that permitting Ahmanidejad a platform to say anything to the American people tacitly condones his anti-semitism. It’s not an entirely bogus argument – it’s quite true that providing proponents of “intelligent design” creationism a microphone imbues them with a false credibility they don’t deserve. A similar argument could be made with Ahmanidejad.

However, it’s not Ahmanidejad we must hear from. It is the president of Iran who happens, right now, to be Ahmanidejad. The benefits of hearing from the president of Iran trumps any concerns about elevating his presumed status through exposure on CNN and the networks. When and if Ahmanidejad is again an anonymous nobody with no power or influence, then it is no longer necessary to listen to anything he has to say. Before then, we simply have an obligation to listen.

“Would you say the same if this was 1934 and his name was Hitler?” Of course I would. Listening to Hitler wasn’t the problem. It was refusing to understand that Hitler was Hitler that led to catastrophe. Hitler both lied and was simultaneously quite candid about his intentions, but the only way to separate one from the other was to study Hitler and that took, among other things, listening to and reading him. If Ahmanidejad has even the slightest chance of harming the world as badly as Hitler did, it behooves us to learn as much as we can about him. And by us, I don’t mean “the Government,” I mean you and me. It is our duty to be informed and vote for informed representatives who will take our informed opinions into account. The fact that this is true only in principle -and non-existent under Bush – doesn’t relieve us of our duties as citizens, however.

Here’s another argument that could be made in support of keeping Ahmanidejad from conducting interviews with the press and others. While many folks seem to have forgotten this, many former hostages believe Ahmanidejad was directly involved with the Iranian hostage crisis. When the story broke, I took one look at the pictures and felt that it was a virtual certainty he was one of the captors.

While I fully understand, and partially share, the revulsion of those who were held hostage in Iran by Ahmanidejad and his buddies, I’m afraid that, like it or not, his position as a powerful Iranian makes it imperative to hear from him.

But again, not everything he says is interesting. His opinions on the Holocaust are as batty as Crazy Mel’s and don’t deserve news-space. His call to debate Bush is hilarious. But there are hundreds of questions that could be asked, hundreds of things he could be told about the situation in the US, all of which might be helpful in lessening tensions.

He must be heard from and he must be engaged.]

Six Paks

by digby

So Blitzer interviews the codpiece today and actually makes some news.

But before that, here’s what we heard:

Blitzer: Osama bin laden is still at large. Ayman al Zawahiri is still at large. What went wrong?

Bush: (agitated) A lot went right. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, if we can get a good bill out of the senate and the house is gonna go on trial. Ramzi bin al-Sibh. Abu Zubaydah

Blitzer: The main guys are still at large

Bush: (more agitated) Well, no question Osama bin Laden is at large, but the men who ordered the attack ann about 75-85% of the Al Qaeda that was involved in the planning and operating the attacks are in jus…

Blitzer: But the United States is the most powerful country in the world

Bush: (pissed) … can I just finish?

Blitzer: Why can’t we find these guys?

Bush: (red-faced) Wolf, Wolf. Thank you. Give me a chance to finish… Uuuh…

Osama bin Laden is in hiding.

And we’re still spending a lot of time trying to find him. But the key thing the American people have gotta know is that security comes not only with getting him which I’m convinced we will, but also doing other things to protect ’em. One is to dismantle Al Waeda. Two is to listen to phone calls of Al Qaeda calling the United States and responding to that. Three is to get information so we can prevent attack.

Getting bin Laden is important but doing, putting thins in place, putting procedures in place that protect you is equally important and we’re doin’ both.

Did everyone get that? Bin laden is in hiding which is why we can’t find him. And we’ll put “KSM” on trial if Bush can get a “good bill” out of the senate. Otherwise … he’ll have to keep him at Gitmo forever without a trial

It’s becoming more and more evident that Bush’s war on terrorism consists of getting the country sucked into middle east quagmires and institutionalizing random torture, endless detention and warrentless wiretapping of Americans. I feel so safe.

Meanwhile, Bush went on to say that he think Musharref is a good guy who wants to bring Al Qaeda to justice because they tried to kill him. Several times. (This is how the decider thinks of all global politics — it’s all about the leaders’ personal feelings.) Blitzer asked if there were others in Pakistan who might not have the same committment. Bush answered:

Eeeeee…maybe. Maybe. There no queastion there’s a kind of hostile territory, the remote regions of Pakistan that makes it, uh, easier for somebody to hide. But we’re on the hunt. We’ll get him.

Blitzer asked if he would give the order to kill or capture bin Laden if they had actionable intelligence that he was in Pakistan. Steely-eyed rocket man looked in the camera and said “absolutely.”

Musharref was not amused, apparently. He was asked about this at a press conference and said:

We would not like to allow that at all. We will do it ourselves. We would like to do it ourselves.

Bush knew he wasn’t supposed to say that but he couldn’t help himself. This was the correct talking point, from his press conference last week:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Earlier this week, you told a group of journalists that you thought the idea of sending special forces to Pakistan to hunt down bin Laden was a strategy that would not work.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q Now, recently you’ve also —

THE PRESIDENT: Because, first of all, Pakistan is a sovereign nation.

Let’s all get the laughter out of our system, ok? Ok.

Continue:

Q Well, recently you’ve also described bin Laden as a sort of modern day Hitler or Mussolini. And I’m wondering why, if you can explain why you think it’s a bad idea to send more resources to hunt down bin Laden, wherever he is?

THE PRESIDENT: We are, Richard. Thank you. Thanks for asking the question. They were asking me about somebody’s report, well, special forces here — Pakistan — if he is in Pakistan, as this person thought he might be, who is asking the question — Pakistan is a sovereign nation. In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation, we’ve got to be invited by the government of Pakistan.

Secondly, the best way to find somebody who is hiding is to enhance your intelligence and to spend the resources necessary to do that; then when you find him, you bring him to justice. And there is a kind of an urban myth here in Washington about how this administration hasn’t stayed focused on Osama bin Laden. Forget it. It’s convenient throw-away lines when people say that. We have been on the hunt, and we’ll stay on the hunt until we bring him to justice, and we’re doing it in a smart fashion, Richard. We are. And I look forward to talking to President Musharraf.

Look, he doesn’t like al Qaeda. They tried to kill him. And we’ve had a good record of bringing people to justice inside of Pakistan, because the Paks are in the lead. They know the stakes about dealing with a violent form of ideological extremists. And so we will continue on the hunt. And we’ve been effective about bringing to justice most of those who planned and plotted the 9/11 attacks, and we’ve still got a lot of pressure on them. The best way to protect the homeland is to stay on the offense and keep pressure on them.

See, “the Paks” are supposed to be in the lead. Bush just couldn’t force himself to say that again when Blitzer cornered him on the issue. And Blitzer cornered him on the issue because this weird stuff about Waziristan and Pakistan’s deal with al Qaeda is very hard to square with our alleged committment to fighting the next Hitlerstalinfascists.

How Bush is able to get away with playing the Codpiece card when he’s obviously completely stymied with Afghanistan, Pakistan and al Qaeda is beyond me. It takes guts to do it, you have to give him that. And in the six weeks before an election in the United States of the 21st century, guts are the only thing that matters.

.

A Liberal’s Handbook

by digby

Bill Sher of Liberal Oasis has a new book and it’s a great guide for those who are looking for common sense arguments to use as an activist and in your every day life.

Here’s an example:

Promote the Three R’s of Liberal Government

Don’t refer to “the government” and feed the image of a distant, oppressive entity. Always speak of “our government,” to accurately paint government as an extension of the people that we control and direct.

Don’t accept that the core debate between Democrats and Republicans is whether government should be big or small. Define liberal government as representative, responsive, and responsible and conservative government as elitist, callous and reckless.

In conversations about politics, cite examples from your community where our government makes a positivie difference in people’s lives, such as when veterans receive good medical care from a veterans Administration facility or children get access to the Internet at school or in a library thanks to federal funding. At the same time, point out instances where the lack of government involvement made a situation worse, such as when electricity deregulation increased rates and degraded service.

Don’t leave it to anti-government conservatives to criticize our government in places where it is not working well. The more we lead the charge for reforming ineffective government, the more credibnility we will have when proposing effective government solutions and the harder it will be for conservatives to exploit those examples and fan overall distrust of government.

The book is full of down-to-earth advice like this as well as a thorough analysis of our goals and prospects. And it’s written in the clear and entertaining prose you find on Liberal Oasis every day.

I’m sure you already know that Bill Sher is one of the sharpest bloggers around. His insights are always invaluable and this book very nicely distills his best stuff into one inspiring, but practical, guidebook.

Support your local blogger by buying this book.

Update: The Talking Dog interviews the man himself about the book and other matters.

.

Running With It

by digby

A lot of people have questioned why I think the Democrats have decided to let McCain run with the torture issue. It’s because that’s what the press was reporting last week.

Here’s one example:

So there you have the president’s, perhaps, chief foe on this issue, again, as dug in as he is. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats, Wolf, have been pretty much trying to sit back and let John McCain and his colleagues fight it out for them. The senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, who is in charge of getting Democrats elected and reelected this Fall, here is what he had to say. He said “when conservative military men like John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Colin Powell stand up to the president, it shows how wrong and isolated the White House is.”

So, Democrats are happy to have John McCain fight their political fight for them right now. As for Republicans, who are allies of the president here, and there are a lot of them on Capitol Hill, they have been meeting behind closed doors, trying to figure out the best strategy to echo the arguments that Mr. Bush is making in the Rose Garden today, because, as you noted, this legislation will be on the House floor next Wednesday and possibly on the Senate floor, which is where there will be a big fight as early as next week as well, Wolf.

Schumer’s statement doesn’t mean he’s going to vote for whatever McCain comes up with, but it sure sounds like it’s possible. In any case, the bill that was passed out of the armed services committee is terrible, so even if McCain “succeeds” Democrats still can’t, in good conscience, vote for it.

Here’s the Center For Constitutional Rights on this issue

President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ratner said today: “The Warner-Graham-McCain bill denies habeas corpus to all aliens held outside the United States and currently in U.S. custody. And ‘outside’ includes Guantanamo.

“However in the case of those who have been found to be unlawful enemy combatants by Combatant Status Review Tribunal (combatant status review panels used at Guantanamo) it gives a meaningless court of appeals ‘review’ — a review that examines whether or not the U.S. complied with its own procedures — but not … a real court hearing with factual development as habeas corpus requires.

“For those aliens detained outside the U.S. that have not had CSRT hearings — the high majority — in facilities like Bagram in Afghanistan, the Warner bill simply abolished habeas or any other court review.

“The consequences are breathtaking. The U.S. can pick up any alien, even a legal permanent resident in the U.S., and take them to an off-shore prison and hold them forever without any kind of court hearing.

“While all the attention on this legislation has focused on Geneva conventions and military commissions, the Warner alternative, like the administration bill, authorizes lifelong detention without habeas or any genuine review whatsoever.”

They
have an action recommendation that’s worth doing:

The debate around these bills misses the point: both versions strip away the fundamental right to habeas corpus, the right to challenge your detention in a court of law, not to be locked up under the President’s say-so, guilty or innocent, never to be heard from again.

An amendment in play could take out this dangerous measure – please use our site to fax your senators and tell them to support the Specter-Levin Amendment on habeas corpus when it gets introduced. The bills are S.3901, The Military Commissions Act of 2006, sponsored by Senator Warner and S.3861, The Bringing Terrorists to Justice Act of 2006, sponsored by Senator Frist. Please call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 IMMEDIATELY, especially if they are among the 26 we’ve identified below as critical in this fight.

This is what is happening to innocent people under our system today. It’s right out of Kafka and it won’t change because St John the Annointed and Huckelberry Graham stage a fake fight with the president. The whole scheme is untenable and the Democrats need to delay this legislation at the very least until after the election.

This rush to pass it before Novemeber should be everyone’s first clue that this thing is a sham. Unless somebody puts a poison pill in the McCain/Warner/Graham legislation that we haven’t seen, I have a feeling a bunch of Dems are going to roll on this piece of garbage and another step toward American becoming a rogue superpower will have been taken for political reasons. That’s how we got into Iraq, after all.

And, sadly, this whole thing will end up giving John McCain one more notch in his belt as the savior of the republic.

You can access a simple form and the addresses and phone numbers of senators at the link above if you want to let them know that you expect them to support the Specter-Levin amendment.

.

Torture Trap

by digby

Blow me over with a feather. It looks as if the White House may have “compromised” on the torture bill. Let’s just say I’m not shocked.

A couple of days ago I quoted this MSNBC article

McCain and the other GOP senators have indicated they would be willing to amend domestic U.S. law, especially the War Crimes Act, to permit at least some “enhanced” CIA techniques. They are also willing to pass legislation that would deny many rights to detainees at Guantánamo Bay and allow them to be held indefinitely.

and then commented:

Bush has always said that he wanted to “clarify” Article III and I predict that they will soon have a “breakthrough” that says they have found a way to do just that — by amending the War Crimes Act.

The NY Times reports:

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee who has supported the president’s legislation, said Tuesday morning that the White House had agreed to work within the War Crimes Act to refine the obligations under Common Article 3.

“There’s agreement on the goal,” Mr. Cornyn said, “that is, that we continue to comply with our international treaty obligations and all of our domestic laws, but at the same time not tie the hands of our intelligence officials.”

[…]

The senators propose to provide clearer guidelines for interrogators by amending the War Crimes Act to enumerate several “grave breaches” that constitute violations of Common Article 3.

That’s the Kabuki. Here’s the rub:

Several issues appeared to remain in flux, among them whether the two sides could agree on language protecting C.I.A. officers from legal action for past interrogations and for any conducted in the future. Beyond the issue of interrogations, the two sides have also been at odds over the rights that should be granted to terrorism suspects during trials, in particular whether they should be able to see all evidence, including classified material, that a jury might use to convict them.

I predict that McCain and Graham are prepared to do the big el-foldo on all that and take the “victory” on amending the Geneva Convention which was never really in dispute in the first place. They will be heroes, the president will claim victory like he always does and everyone will get exactly what they need. (Man, I’ll bet Joe Lieberman is kicking himself that he didn’t get a piece of this. It’s his kind of bipartisan deal.)

But regardless of how this Geneva/torture Kabuki comes out, let’s not forget that the McCain, Warner, Huckelberry bill is already a very, very bad bill that no Democrat can in good conscience support.

From Jack Balkin:

It’s important to understand that although Senators McCain, Graham and Warner are getting a lot of great press on their disagreements with President Bush, and are being widely championed as brave defenders of human rights, the bill they have authored in the Senate is not a good bill; it is merely less terrible than the one the President is pushing. The press has either been hoodwinked on this score or has been complicit in downplaying this aspect of their handiwork. I choose to believe that it is the former: hence this post.

In particular, the McCain-Graham-Warner bill, like the President’s, would prevent anyone detained in Guantanamo Bay (or any other detention facility outside the U.S.) from challenging what has been done to them in court except as an appeal from the decision of a military commission.

That means that if the government decides never to try an individual before a commission, but just holds them in prison indefinitely, there is no way that they can ever get a hearing on whether they are being held illegally– because they are not in fact a terrorist; or a hearing on whether they are being treated illegally– because they have been abused or tortured or subjected to one of the Administration’s “alternative sets of procedures”– a.k.a. torture lite.(read on)

I think Bill Kristol’s partially right about how this plays politically in his essay called “The Trap:”

There is now a clear and live contrast between Bush and the Democrats on an important issue in the war on terror.

Wait a minute, you say–it’s not just Democrats who oppose Bush. Four Republicans joined the Democratic senators–John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins. Colin Powell is with them. So the Democrats have cover.

No, they don’t. The fact that McCain has badly damaged his 2008 presidential chances doesn’t mean the Democrats can’t be hurt in 2006. True, there could be a dozen GOP votes for the Democratic alternative on the floor of the Senate next week. There were a dozen Democratic votes for Bush’s tax cuts in 2001. It didn’t prevent Republicans from distinguishing themselves from Demo crats on taxes. A few defections won’t prevent Republicans from saying–truthfully–that there is a real difference between the two parties on the war on terror, and that they stand with Bush and against Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic candidates will respond that McCain also stands with them. It won’t help. The American people don’t agree with McCain on this. And they’re not going to be persuaded by some of the arguments made by Bush’s critics. Let Democratic candidates try to argue that, unless we go even further than required by the 2005 legislation sponsored by McCain (which Bush’s proposal embraces), al Qaeda might react by not treating Americans decently. Let Democratic candidates try to defend the notion that we’ll get lots of credit in Europe by going the extra mile–as if the 2005 detainees legislation generated any good will there. Let Democratic candidates align themselves with world opinion (as interpreted by Colin Powell), and join in expressing doubt about “the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.”

I don’t think it’s quite the electoral smash for Republicans he thinks it is nor has Mccain “badly damaged” his chances in 2008. Bush is going to give him a big sloppy kiss when this is all done and everything will be forgiven. But it’s still a trap. I think the Dems are thinking that McCain et al are going to get this bill delayed until after the election. Maybe they will. Or maybe they can stall it in conference and they have their fingers crossed that they will win in November and can derail the thing.

But what in the hell are the Dems going to do if McCain makes a deal and this thing gets to the floor? Are they actually going to vote for a bill that eliminates habeas corpus for terrorist suspects? Because if they don’t, you know what the Republicans are going to be saying, don’t you? After all, the saviors of the republic and guardian kinghts of the constitution say this bill is ok. The only reason the Dems can possibly have for opposing it now is that they are terrorist loving cowards.

I have to assume the Dems have good reasons for letting McCain run with this. But they are certainly placing a lot of trust in a man who is running for president from the opposing party. If Democrats in 2006 end up voting for this McCain/Warner/Graham monstrosity based on nothing but McCain’s word they have learned nothing. Unless they are willing to filibuster a month before the election, which I seriously doubt, the Republicans will have backed them into exactly the same corner they did with the Iraq war resolution and the Homeland security bills in 2002. I’m not going to believe it until I see it with my own eyes, but I’m worried.

Update: The Senate Majority project has started a McCain Weasel Watch on Detainees. Probably a good idea…
.