What a hero against torture McCain is!

He grandstanded about it for three days, taking the reins on the issue. Then he promptly signed onto the Military Commissions Act which gave Bush infinite power to torture, to decide what constitutes torture, and to suspend the centuries-old fundamental law of habeas corpus.

All hail the moderate maverick McCain!

I'd call what McCain did much worse than "absurd."

He took an issue that was reaching a flashpoint, used his hard-earned (to say the least) and unique credibility on the matter to command effective ownership of it... and then promptly ushered in one of the most shameful actions an American Congress has ever committed.

Your criticisms of disappointing behavior by the Democrats are most worthy. As Lambert, my estimable fellow fellow at Corrente, often makes the point, one of our highest callings -- maybe the highest -- is to make Democrats feel the heat when they sell out the Constitution, much like the GOP base puts the screws to its party leaders to give them the theocratic and xenophobic red meat they crave. (Our bases have rather different basic interests, eh?)

But if we think there's a special circle in Hell for so-called progressives who cave in to and enable the GOP's authoritarian madness, there must be one, too - and at least as hot -- for the self-appointed consciences of the Republican Party who seize rare opportunities for moral authority... only to reenact the Lucy-with-the-football trick.

McCain's support for the Military Commissions Act is one of the few betrayals comparable to Colin Powell's eating his objections and selling the war to the American public and media, and to well-meaning (it seems), handwringing Arlen Specter's bottomless cup of capitulation.

One of the things, though, that I think the antiwar crowd has not considered is that, if we're putting the Americans right within their arms' reach, they don’t have to come to Wall Street to kill Americans. They don't have to knock down the trade center. They can do it around the corner, and convenience is a big factor when you're a terrorist.

[Didn't mean that to be anonymous...]

[The key distinction] "between you and the guy you are torturing is that he might be innocent, but you are not." -- Sideshow blog commenter thebewilderness

"It's fine to be a religion man. But if you get too much of the religion, you get out of your mind and do stupid things." -- an accused Fort Dix terror plotter

"I'm not angry as a taxpayer, I'm angry as an attention payer." -- Jon Stewart re: Dick Cheney's fourth-branch-of-government claim

"There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat." -- George Tenet

"Presidents who win are usually very athletic. Bush runs like a seven minute mile! And Clinton liked hamburgers but he worked out. Those are the little things that actually matter." -- Karen Hanratty

"So many military believe that Republican administrations are good for the military. That is rarely the case. And we have got to get a message through to every soldier, every family member, every friend of soldier, that the Republican Party, the Republican-dominated Congress has absolutely been the worst thing that has happened to the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps."--Paul D. Eaton, Maj. Gen. U.S. Army (Ret.)

"I’m sorry this, frankly, has bubbled to the surface the way it has.... But that’s Washington, D.C. for you. You know, there’s a lot of politics in this town." -- George W. Bush, about the exposure of the politically based DOJ firings

"What's worse, that the government knew, or that the government didn't know?" -- George W. Bush

"Money trumps peace sometimes. In other words commercial interests are very powerful interests...." -- George W. Bush

"People are going to look back and say, you know, how come they couldn't see the impending danger? What happened to them?" -- George W. Bush

"I can only tell you what people on the ground whose judgment, it's hard for me in the, living in the uh, this beautiful White House to give you an assessment, a first-hand assessment. I haven't been there. You have, I haven't." -- George W. Bush

IMHO, it's unfair to say Hillary Clinton has "provoked the most intense hatred."

She's the recipient of the conservative movement's irrational hate for her family. I can't think of a single thing she's done to "provoke" the rightwing hate that's being dumped on her.

http://www.correntewire.com/on_not_hating_hillary

http://www.correntewire.com/obamas_bidens_and_the_msms_bipolar_misdiagnosis_of_hillary_clinton

Liberals, including yours truly, have a bone to pick with her on policy matters and a few disappointing statements on the campaign trail, but I don't feel particularly provoked to hate her, either.

No disagreement from me on any of those points.

I propose that the telecoms get immunity if and only if those who asked them to commit the illegal acts confess in a court of law.

http://correntewire.com/the_sorry_news_sorry_about_bipartisanship

The "Sorry About Bipartisanship" rant was more apropos for your great post yesterday, but I arrived a little too late.

http://correntewire.com/the_sorry_news_sorry_about_bipartisanship

With the Dem race down to two trianguators, this theme can't be emphasized enough. Thanks!

http://www.correntewire.com/triangulation_the_next_generation