three layer hummus
I... don't have the energy to do this justice right now, but I feel like I should bring it up anyway. So, the condensed version:
Heard of a thing called Guantánamo Bay? If not, the coverage on This American Life was pretty good, Habeas Schmaebeas. Right. Well, in June, the Supreme Court made a ruling (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld) that certain things there violated our own Uniform Code of Military Justice in addition to some treaties we once signed in Geneva. Hooray, score one for freedom, right?
This evening the Senate passed S. 3930, Military Commissions Act of 2006 (or perhaps we should refer to it as the McCain Torture Act?). Which, and this is where I am going to skimp on the details, does all sorts of horrible things. See Cos's post, titled with Kucinich's summary of the bill, "Everything we don't believe in."
This afternoon I took a break from the politics of making Web application protocols to watch how the guys in the big leagues do their protocol-making. Things I learned:
Last week, there was, apparently, a more bi-partisan version of this bill. Seems it was re-written over the weekend by "White House lawyers." There was a fair amount of "this is no longer the bill I supported and I won't vote for it" noise.
Senator Byrd made what sounded like a relatively modest proposal to amend the bill to require it be reviewed after five years. The argument against was along the lines of "we don't know how long the war on terror will last, five years might not be long enough, we can't let the terrorists go in five years." Byrd responded that he wasn't talking about letting anyone go, he just thought it would be a good idea for Congress to review this rather significant piece of legislation. That with five years more experience, they can decide whether or not it this was still a good way to go about doing this. Opposition argues: "but terrorists!" Amendment fails. Along straight party lines, I think. (I will try to remember to link this to primary source once today's congressional record comes online.)
Okay, I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Just thought I'd let you know, since I know a lot of you are like me and don't get exposed to much of this news on a daily basis unless it falls in your face. Me, I didn't even know that spinach was deadly until after it was over!
p.s. rest of world, we're still sorry.