This past Friday Governor Sarah Palin jolted the 24 hour news cycle into wall-to-wall coverage of John McCain’s unexpected choice for his VP slot, all but burying the Democratic National Convention speeches and aftermath. Something else wound up conveniently buried at the same time. Running on page 8 of Saturday’s NY Times was an article by Eric Lichtblau that detailed news to which very few, if any, MSM outlets paid notice in the flurry of fevered talking head babble regarding Palin’s attributes and shortcomings:
Bush Seeks to Affirm a Continuing War on Terror
WASHINGTON — Tucked deep into a recent proposal from the Bush administration is a provision that has received almost no public attention, yet in many ways captures one of President Bush’s defining legacies: an affirmation that the United States is still at war with Al Qaeda.
Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush’s advisers assert that many Americans may have forgotten that. So they want Congress to say so and “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”
The language, part of a proposal for hearing legal appeals from detainees at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, goes beyond political symbolism. Echoing a measure that Congress passed just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, it carries significant legal and public policy implications for Mr. Bush, and potentially his successor, to claim the imprimatur of Congress to use the tools of war, including detention, interrogation and surveillance, against the enemy, legal and political analysts say.
Some lawmakers are concerned that the administration’s effort to declare anew a war footing is an 11th-hour maneuver to re-establish its broad interpretation of the president’s wartime powers, even in the face of challenges from the Supreme Court and Congress.
The proposal is also the latest step that the administration, in its waning months, has taken to make permanent important aspects of its “long war” against terrorism. From a new wiretapping law approved by Congress to a rewriting of intelligence procedures and F.B.I. investigative techniques, the administration is moving to institutionalize by law, regulation or order a wide variety of antiterrorism tactics...
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24/7 news channels and the MSM dailies’ tight focus on McCain’s unusual choice of running mate seems to have shielded GWB & company from even cursory accounts of this story that might have leaked through the unending Palin analysis. The rare exceptions, as many times is the case, are found on the internet:
From John Byrne @ Raw Story-
Bush quietly seeks to make war powers permanent, by declaring indefinite state of war
...Bush's open-ended permanent war language worries his critics. They say it could provide indefinite, if hazy, legal justification for any number of activities -- including detention of terrorists suspects at bases like Guantanamo Bay (where for years the Administration would not even release the names of those being held), and the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program...
From Bmaz posting @ Emptywheel-
Bush Re-ups War, Obstructs Accountability as Nation Twitters Over Palin
...In all the flurry and bustle of the conventions and Palin, not to mention back to school and Labor Day weekend for the nation, this could be lost in the flow. It must not be. This provision has all the potential implications, problems, and potential for abuse that the Authorization For Military Force (AUMF) had in 2001. And with a Cheney/Bush Administration still in power, and with their known predilection for abuse, this simply cannot be allowed.
This is but another callous and cynical play by the Administration to manipulate timing and political posture for craven gain. Cheney, Bush and the GOP enablers are going to parry this against the Democrats during election season and try to fearmonger them into approving it...
One last quote from Lichtblau’s article, from Bruce Fein, always an astute critic of the Bush administration and its machinations:
For...Bruce Fein, a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration, the answer is simple: do not give the administration the wartime language it seeks.
“I do not believe that we are in a state of war whatsoever,” Mr. Fein said. “We have an odious opponent that the criminal justice system is able to identify and indict and convict. They’re not a goliath. Don’t treat them that way.”
My thanks to Pat for urging me to post here at SST on this story after I emailed him about it yesterday.
-Maureen Lang
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_seeks_to_institutionalize_war_powers_0830.html
To Serving Patriot : I salute you, sir!...too bad you can't see it.
Posted by: Yours Truly | 01 September 2008 at 12:36 PM
"This past Friday Governor Sarah Palin jolted the 24 hour news cycle into wall-to-wall coverage of John McCain’s unexpected choice for his VP slot..."
Apparently things are getting more unexpected for Mrs. Palin & John McCain with every passing day:
Palins Announce That Teen Daughter Is Pregnant-
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/51389.html
Posted by: Maureen Lang | 01 September 2008 at 03:25 PM
OK I should NOT be reading more of this stuff...
And I agree with Obama that we should all drop the talk about pregnancies and babies and such....
but there is this little animation in a DKos comment thread that says it all - our id in motion - work safe, not obscene:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/9/2/02913/38245/483#c483
Made me laugh...
Back to being serious and concerned and determined to take the high road (chortle, chortle)
Posted by: Leila Abu-Saba | 02 September 2008 at 02:58 AM