Back to Reality

The "Dump Lieberman (Oh, yeah, Lamont, you're a handy millionaire)" campaign has been great fun for the last few news cycles, but Billmon quickly jerks us back to reality. The whole thing, because it is short and perfect:

I guess this is Shrub's idea of "faithfully executing" the laws -- he wants to take the War Crimes Act out and shoot it with Dick Cheney's shotgun.

The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments . . .

"People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope," said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.

This is like letting John Gotti rewrite the RICO statute.

I guess somebody finally was able to make Shrub understand what was in that Hamdan ruling:

Once Common Article 3 applies to the conflict with al Qaeda, the legal framework within which we analyze the various interrogation and torture allegations changes dramatically, as does the . . . potential liability of various U.S. officials under the War Crimes Act.

So now we have the shameful spectacle of an American president asking his rubber stamp Congress to redefine the meaning of "war crimes," lest at some future date and in some future place he and his flunkies be forced to account for theirs. Just call it the Milosevic Amendment.

Is there a pit of slime so filthy these moral cretins won't drag us through it? A cup of national humiliation so bitter they won't make us drain it to the dregs?

Apparently not.

But I really wouldn't worry about it that much if I were one of the boys. With a bit of luck they should be able to push their CYA legislation through while the heelclickers are still in the majority.

Besides, even if they fail, and the legal situation does goes south on them, there's always Brazil. Who knows? Dick and Rummy might even make a few friends down there.

The Boys from Brazil

Yes, dear readers, Bush knows what his administration is doing is wrong and is trying to avoid incarceration. They have led the nation into war crimes. And the majority of the American public was more than happy to go along as long as we were on the "winning" side.

In short, just as Lieberman was the obvious and deserving candidate until the punditocracy and the snoozing last minute voters realized they were supporting a loser, the US public didn't give a shit how awful Bush policies are until they are clearly demonstrated as losing propositions. No moral judgment, no principled stance, just wanting to be on the "winning" side.

Republicans are going to lose this electoral cycle not because the voters actually reject fascism but because the Rethugs look weak. Appearance is reality.

Anglachel