Sometimes I wish I was a political blogger so I could go ape-shit crazy over what's going on in Washington DC these days. I can not believe this:
The bill rejects the right to a speedy trial and limits the traditional right to self-representation by requiring that defendants accept military defense attorneys. Panels of military officers need not reach unanimous agreement to win convictions, except in death penalty cases, and appeals must go through a second military panel before reaching a federal civilian court.
By writing into law for the first time the definition of an "unlawful enemy combatant," the bill empowers the executive branch to detain indefinitely anyone it determines to have "purposefully and materially" supported anti-U.S. hostilities. Only foreign nationals among those detainees can be tried by the military commissions, as they are known, and sentenced to decades in jail or put to death.
At the same time, the bill immunizes U.S. officials from prosecution for cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees who the military and the CIA captured before the end of last year. It gives the president a dominant but not exclusive role in setting the rules for future interrogations of terrorism suspects.
So the lessons we have taken from history are to do things the wrong way - to live in fear, to remove the rights and protections of individuals, to become, very much, like the countries (Soviet Union, China, etc.) we have so long maligned. I don't understand who supports this government anymore, or what being an American is anymore, or what in the hell we could possibly be thinking, on a national scale, that makes any of this alright.
Safety my ass. Safe only for certain people, determined by certain other people and only as long as some people decide. Sanctioning torture, suspending habeas corpus rights for some foreigners held by Americans (and please don't tell me foreigners have no rights in this country - let's not go there, it's a slippery slope that leads to bad places), allowing heresay evidence and testimony gained from torture, this is all so not the way to be free. It has nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with imprisonment. We are locking away what America was supposed to be in exchange for fences and cages and standards of abuse. This is not how I want to live - not how I want to be.
Shit. Did I just make this a political blog?
September 29
2006
03:24 PM
Colleen..
What no one is asking is what type of individual will be doing the torturing? Do we advertise in the paper: Wanted a person who enjoys hurting others, no limit on the pain you can inflict to get the results..you want. Great benefits..a government position. I recently watched the View and the president of Chile was on and talking about her experiences. This amazing woman..yes I said woman was tortured while in prison by the last government in her country. Her comments on the total lack of dignity during this period of her life and the importance for a democratic country to respect Global Laws ie: the Geneva Convention was very impressive. What has happened to our Country when what was once considered unthinkable has now become the norm?
MauriKAy