War - Day 2

As I described to you, gentle reader, on Labor Day, the War for Congress 2006 has begun. El Presidente did not disappoint, opening up the Fall election season with an entirely political move to circumvent the recent Supreme Court Hamdan decision that went against their unconstitutional policies:

Last November, reporter Dana Priest revealed in the Washington Post that the Bush administration has "been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives" in secret CIA-operated prisons, known as "black sites," located in Eastern Europe and elsewhere around the globe. Shortly thereafter, ABC News reported that one of those prisoners was Mohammed, the al-Qaida member who the Bush administration claims was the "mastermind" of 9/11. ABC also reported that in one of the black sites, Mohammed was subjected to "waterboarding," a practice the White House describes as an "enhanced interrogation technique" but that many human rights advocates consider to be a form of torture.

Although the Bush administration refused to confirm or deny Priest's story, it has claimed generally since 9/11 that members of al-Qaida are not prisoners of war, but instead are "enemy combatants," and therefore are entitled to no protections under the Geneva Conventions. That theory would legally justify secret detentions or any other treatment of al-Qaida detainees. But in July, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that claim in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, ruling that the Geneva Conventions apply to all detainees, including al-Qaida members. That ruling forced the administration's hand with regard to the CIA's "black sites," as it would be illegal under Hamdan to continue to hold detainees in secret prisons beyond the reach of the law.

So after a year of denying the existence of such prisons, punishing those who revealed the Administration's crime and lying about the U.S. engaging in torture, "Bush admits the CIA runs secret prisons".

One has to admire the shamelessness with which El Presidente and his crooked cronies lie about everything and then, when forced to admit the truth, appear to feel absolutely zero shame. I attribute this lack to shame to their sense of entitlement; after all, they are the oligarchy itself. The only class of cronies in America that has profited materially from the GOP's homicidal foreign policy.

El Presidente is attempting an end-run around the Hamdan decision bu moving the 14 most definitely identified terrorists to the U.S. prison on Guantanamo Bay, where he expects to finally hold some sort of kangaroo court trials. I characterize his intention that way because he doesn't want the defendants or their lawyers to have access to the same evidence that the prosecution does. Because the last thing George Bush has ever been able to handle in his life is a fair fight.

Bush opens his mouth, another lie comes out:

Bush insisted that the detainees were not tortured.

"I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world: The United States does not torture," Bush said. "It's against our laws, and it's against our values. I have not authorized it, and I will not authorize it."

Yet in the same conference he said:

"I cannot describe the specific methods used; I think you understand why."

Yes, why wouldn't America and the World trust a man who had lied to everyone over and over and over again? Even in the same speech where he reveals his own lie, he smugly demands the public trust yet again. Suckers, he must think. Rove as well, if not moreso.

And if we go with him, they're right.

What exactly is King George the W. trying to get his GOP lapdog Congress to do? Per Marty Lederman in what he calls "the Administration's Cruel Treatment and Torture Authorization Act":

These techniques are -- at least in many cases -- "cruel treatment and torture" prohibited by Common Article 3. Thus, this bill would in effect authorize the United States to breach its treaty obligations. Perhaps that's something we should do -- perhaps not. But if so, we shouldn't pretend that we're not engaged in such cruelty and torture, and we shouldn't engage in the fiction that we are in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. The decision to authorize such horrifying techniques, and to thereby be the first nation to adopt breach of Geneva as official state policy, is a solemn one, and it should be treated with the seriousness that it deserves -- without euphemism or obfuscation.

Why the renewed lie-fest and Constitution assassination attempt by Bush/Cheney/Rove? Because the GOP has proven itself so disastrously unfit for governing, they are in mortal danger of losing at least one House of Congress. The Dems are even polling neck-and-neck with them in their own previously safe districts.

So if they've done nothing tangible for the rest of us American people during their four years of complete U.S. government control, what do they have left that they possibly think they can run on?

Oh, I remember:

The Republican Party will spend the next 30 days trying to make you afraid. It is the Republican midterm election strategy.

For the rest of September, until the moment Republican leaders gavel the Congress into adjournment, Republican speakers will rise and implore the American people to be afraid.

Let's play it one last time:
Fear.