Syzygeist

Signal Amid the Noise

As the Attorney General confirmation process continues, Democrats in Congress pushed the nominee to say whether he believes "waterboarding," a relatively old torture dating back to the Spanish Inquisition, is illegal under the Constitution. Described as a "very exquisite torture" by Senator John McCain, who was himself tortured as a POW in Vietnam, it has been used by the US government on suspected Al Qaeda members, (and the Japanese were prosecuted after WWII for using it against Americans). The nominee, federal judge Michael Mukasey, professed not to know what waterboarding is and was quoted saying, "I don't know what's involved in the technique," adding, "If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional."
Anyone conversant with the controversy - should agents of the US be allowed to torture suspects? - should know by now that waterboarding is simulated drowning, quite well represented in one of the recent Bourne movie dramas, as well as in the history of intelligence techniques. A White House spokesman suggested Judge Mukasey would not know what the technique was until he could read classified documents, which would not be possible until he was confirmed.
Is anyone hearing a signal in the noise here, about the kind of government the US is developing? The nominee does not know what we are talking about? Perhaps he would need to experience it himself to understand it well enough to form an opinion. His evasive response is a disturbing signal about the nature of transparency we might expect under his authority were he to be confirmed. 

Rule of Law

I did not arouse the national protest I imagined when I called for a citizen demonstration at noon on Columbus Day. This did not surprise me, for two reasons. Blogs are far less read and effective than bloggers like to believe, and I was asking for something rather large - for people who abhor torture and believe in the democratic rule of law to go outside and bang on a pot with a spoon or otherwise make noise to signal a call for the resignation of the Bush Administration.

Why? Because of disclosure that the administration and its Attorney General believed they had authority outside the law to torture terrorists as they see fit, contrary to law, the Geneva convention and Congressional rule.

Now Yale University Professor Jed Rubenfeld has eloquently pointed out why Judge Michael Mukasey, newly nominated by President Bush to be the next AG, and who just testified in Congress, should not be confirmed. Judge Mukasey testified that he believes the President can act outside of federal law "to defend the country."

Profesor Rubenfeld says Mukasey should either retract this statement or be denied the position by Congress.

I agree, and so would now like to invite those who believe, as Prof. Rubenfeld does, that the rule of law applying to everyone, including the President, lies at the very heart of the Constitution. The president has no supreme authority to do anything outside the law. For those of us who witnessed the decine and fall of President Richard Nixon, for abuse of executive privilege and flagrant disregard of federal law, this is an obvious point, and one the Congress must assert and defend.

Never mind the pot and pan this time. Just make your convictions felt. Is that so much to ask of a fellow citizen? Your Congressperson is just an email away.

ENOUGH!!

I am filled with outrage today over disclosure that the Bush administration through his Attorney General Gonzalez - forced out for political misbehavior - secretly approved the harshest torture techniques that could be conceived despite constitutional prohibitions and Supreme Court and Congressional disapproval.

I implore every conscientious person in the US (and the world) who disapproves of torture and believes in the Democratic rule of law to go outside in a public place at noon EST on Monday - Columbus Day - and make loud noises of protest. I personally favor a large kitchen pan and a metal spoon - or banging a powerful drum - but a car horn or an air horn would also do. Shouting "Bush should resign" is another option.

I believe Bush should have been impeached some time ago for so damaging the US stature in the world and flagrantly disrespecting the spirit and letter of the Constitution. I have not been  surprised by his behavior, having known him personally in a Phillips Academy dormitory we shared when he was 17. He was then a contemptuous, arrogant, mean-spirited and insecure teenager of limited gifts who took pleasure in the discomfort of others. And the man does not grow so far from the boy. That he grew

up to be US president was a source of astonishment to me but that he has become the worst president in US history is no surprise at all.

A widespread public demonstration calling for his resignation - and that of his officers and cabinet - would signal to the world that the US has neither lost its heart nor its mind. Bang the drum, not slowly, but loudly.

Enough is more than enough.