november

The weekend roundup: habeas schmabeas

Monday, June 16th, 2008

gitmo

Last Friday, hot on the heels of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their imprisonment in the US Court System, Sen. John McCain called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.

Really, John?  Was that hyperbole, like when your mom orders the Monte Cristo and calls the lunch “the worst I have ever had” because the cole slaw had too much mayo?

Or the type of “worst decision” that one would apply when discussing the needless squandering of international political capital in the Arab world in the face of an extensive McClatchy Newspapers investigation which shows the Gitmo boogeymen were (and are) not, as you and your misinformed brethren insist, “the worst of the worst”?

If the former detainees whom McClatchy interviewed are any indication — and several former high-ranking U.S. administration and defense officials said in interviews that they are — most of the prisoners at Guantanamo weren’t terrorist masterminds but men who were of no intelligence value in the war on terrorism.

In addition to claiming that legislation he helped passed all but assured the civil treatment of detainees at Gitmo — or en route there — McCain also claimed that of the people let go, several were apprehended attacking US forces in Iraq, proving their nature as dangerous individuals.

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Indiana Max and the crystal ball

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

crystalball

It’s late October.  It’s 3 a.m. There’s a phone ringing…

This sounds oddly familiar.

Right in the twilight of October, while we’re warming up to Winter’s fate, Obama and McCain will try to make the case: a vote for their ticket will be a vote to keep this country in perpetual Spring, the literary season of ebullience, and out of a Bushian season of perpetual folly.

It’s October and this thing is completely up for grabs. My predictions are only that, predictions. But I did buy my crystal ball at Staples. So that was easy.

The 527s will be around this election. You remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? They were a 527, named for the section of the tax code that allows them to exist.

Lunatic fringe groups like these will liken McCain to Bush on every point, and smear Obama as a loony lefty. This will go on. By October, these attacks will be meaningless. Judging by the length of this 16-month campaign, by October 2008 the guilt-by-association attacks won’t stick. The difference in the candidates’ visions will matter more than a reverend’s endorsement.

Obama will catch a lot of heat over his willingness to meet with foreign leaders. The McCain forces will do whatever it takes to distort Obama’s point and make voters choose fear rather than nuance. And while credible criticisms exist, the Weekly Standard and the old guard will drown them out.

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