Why don’t the Democrats speak up?
Over the weekend the gremlins in Washington got to work adding a few refinements to the pro-torture “compromise” bill, chief among them the fascinating proviso that habeas corpus no longer applies in the United States. The Washington Post and Glenn Greenwald have good summaries, but here’s the CliffNotes version from Greenwald:
Put another way, this bill would give the Bush administration the power to imprison people for their entire lives, literally, without so much as charging them with any wrongdoing or giving them any forum in which to contest the accusations against them. It thus vests in the administration the singularly most tyrannical power that exists — namely, the power unilaterally to decree someone guilty of a crime and to condemn the accused to eternal imprisonment without having even to charge him with a crime, let alone defend the validity of those accusations.
The bill does not distinguish between foreign nationals and American citizens. It applies to anyone who “supports hostilities” against the United States. Anyone can be arbitrarily declared an ‘enemy’ of the United States, subjected to torture, and locked away for life. No legal charges necessary; the President just has to decide that you’re a bad guy.
The conventional wisdom is that Democrats cannot risk opposing this bill because they will be seen as “soft on terror.” I do not understand this. Seriously, I don’t. If I were a leading Democrat right now, I’d be all over television with this simple message:
Why don’t the Democrats do that? Plain language, telling people exactly what the bill is about.
14 Responses to “Why don’t the Democrats speak up?”
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Mandos says:
Because they think it will make them sound soft on terror. Obviously the President needs wide discretionary powers to imprison the people who harbour ill will for Minot, ND. Why? Do you worry about being imprisoned by the President? What do you have to hide?
September 26th, 2006 at 11:56 pm EST -
Violet says:
The current Republican administration ought to be a dream come true for the Democrats. It’s tough to run against an incumbent who’s successful and popular, but the Republicans are neither. And not only are they unsuccessful and unpopular, they’re spectacularly so. They’ve screwed up everything they’ve touched, their poll numbers are scraping bottom, and now they’re quite openly dismantling the Constitution and making themselves dictators. Jesus Christ, if I were a Democrat I’d be thrilled. How could you not win against a bunch like that?
Why can’t the Democrats see that all they need to do is talk plainly and loudly?
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gordo says:
Violent–
I hate to say it so close to the election, but maybe the problem is that the Democrats in congress are more like the Republicans than we care to imagine.
It was only 6 years ago that everyone’s new hero, Al Gore, selected Lieberman as his running mate. John Kerry would have taken John McCain, if McCain had agreed to it.
It seems like being anti-torture and pro-freedom would be a winning issue, though, especially now that Bush’s foreign policy is blowing up in his face.
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flawedplan says:
Sad to say I agree with that. This is a vindictive admininistration, it’s siezed power beyond imagination, and controls all three branches of government. Poor scared democrats, too intimidated to tangle with the powerful and vindictive Rethugs, since ultimately their careers come first and BushCo could destroy them.
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love2all says:
A little OT but just wanted to post this link in case anyone at all was wondering if our media has any bias. Looks like these guys on on the Fox side.
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love2all says:
Nerd time. The first “on” in my post is supposed to be the word, “are”.
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Paul Tergeist says:
The democrats have lost all their confidence. They are wallowing in indecision and incompetence, and they cannot work their way out of it because Karl Rove has the CIA bugging everything they….and YOU do.
The preliminary steps to armed revolution are in play.
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Infidel says:
Where have all the “Where have all the flowers gone” singers gone?
Long time passing
long time ago
oh when will they ever learn? -
Violet says:
The preliminary steps to armed revolution are in play.
I don’t think most people care enough. As long as they’ve got cable and a sofa, they’re fine.
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Infidel says:
…gone to blogging everyone.
oh when will they ever learn,
oh when will they ever learn. -
Paul Tergeist says:
I don’t think most people care enough. As long as they’ve got cable and a sofa, they’re fine.
VSThey will begin caring when King George starts a nuclear war with Iran. That will trigger an Iranian response, not on the US, but on Israel. That, if successful, will trigger an Israeli response which will be to toss cobalt-salted nukes on the mid-east OPEC oil fields rendering them unusable for about a thousand years.
The next day there will be only three sources of oil with Venezuela being the primary source. The government will say everything is under control.
The day after that America will go bankrupt. The day after THAT, most of the world will enter a depression. By the third day there won’t be any more food at the stores and no fuel for the trucks to bring it. The government will say it will take another day to straighten things out. The lights and power will go out.
The NEXT day there will be widespread looting and total chaos. Then Rome will fall.
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richard cherry says:
but there’ll still be cable, right?
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richard cherry says:
infidel, I fear that you are about to win my blog’s comment of the month contest (purists may contend that it hasn’t been a month since I announced my last winner, the nitpicky may point out that you didn’t post it on my blog, and the sour grapes party may still be miffed that even though they are a doctor an all they still haven’t won it - or perhaps got the rules straight yet)
I say, facts be damned! I love your ‘where have all the ‘where have all the flowers gone?’ singers gone?’ comment if only because it would be a devil to render in oratio obliqua if I were still at prep school, but more because it makes me think of a man we need today Lennie Bruce and his ‘Where is the ‘thank you, masked man’ man?’. and because your follow up reminded me that the liberals and folk singers (both derided by Phil Ochs - another one we could do with having back) are now the bloggers. -
Infidel says:
Save the tram tickie, Richard, the teaming masses yearning will be on Mother Englands shore afore long and I’ll need to get around.
