Final Passage
I feel a chill in the air. It's the chill of a global chilling effect. As Glenn Greenwald (whom I'm apparently obsessively livemetablogging today) puts it, "Final passage of the torture/detention bill was 65-34."
According to the Financial Times (by way of MSNBC),
So long, Habeus, they hardly knew ye...
Of course, as someone who can't vote in US elections, I'm worried about the international repercussions of this bill. I'm afraid it could be a "shot heard round the world" in terms of national behaviour. Also, I'm interested in a sort of "car crash rubbernecking" kind of way to see what the fallout will be. Are any nations serious enough about standing up to US hegemony (and that is what it is, especially now) as to start withdrawing economic support (someone has to buy all those dollars!), imposing trade restrictions, and generally cooling down the level of diplomatic contact.
Given the current government here, those things happening here are about as likely as getting taken out by a piece of falling space junk while simultaneously the 747 you're riding in makes an unscheduled uncontrolled departure from its flight plan into the ground. In other words, dream on, Interrobang.
It's going to take a while for the dust to settle from this one. We shall see what happens. Whatever happens, it isn't going to be pretty.
According to the Financial Times (by way of MSNBC),
The legislation includes a provision that no court or judge would have jurisdiction to hear or consider "an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant."
So long, Habeus, they hardly knew ye...
Of course, as someone who can't vote in US elections, I'm worried about the international repercussions of this bill. I'm afraid it could be a "shot heard round the world" in terms of national behaviour. Also, I'm interested in a sort of "car crash rubbernecking" kind of way to see what the fallout will be. Are any nations serious enough about standing up to US hegemony (and that is what it is, especially now) as to start withdrawing economic support (someone has to buy all those dollars!), imposing trade restrictions, and generally cooling down the level of diplomatic contact.
Given the current government here, those things happening here are about as likely as getting taken out by a piece of falling space junk while simultaneously the 747 you're riding in makes an unscheduled uncontrolled departure from its flight plan into the ground. In other words, dream on, Interrobang.
It's going to take a while for the dust to settle from this one. We shall see what happens. Whatever happens, it isn't going to be pretty.
posted by Interrobang at 9:35 PM
1 Comments:
I seem to recall at some point, when the French (IIRC) were pissed off over something the US was doing that they didn't like, they threatened some kind of targeted sanctions that would hit the red states the hardest.
That kind of strategy would be interesting - it would punish the states most responsible for the insane Republican rule we're suffering under, but I suspect it would just strengthen their the-whole-world-is-against-us-so-we-need-a-strong-leader-now-more-than-ever resolve. Sigh.
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