Excerpts from the verbatim text of the Bush torture indemnification bill submitted to Congress:

A BILL

To facilitate bringing to justice terrorists and other unlawful enemy combatants through full and fair trials by military commissions, and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the “Military Commissions Act of 2006”.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.(6) The use of military commissions is particularly important in this context because other alternatives, such as the use of courts-martial, generally are impracticable. The terrorists with whom the United States is engaged in armed conflict have demonstrated a commitment to the destruction of the United States and its people, to the violation of the law of war, and to the abuse of American legal processes. In a time of ongoing armed conflict, it generally is neither practicable nor appropriate for combatants like al Qaeda terrorists to be tried before tribunals that include all of the procedures associated with courts-martial.

(Emphasis mine: note how they’re all summarily “terrorists” a priori. Why even bother with trials? Just kill or Gulag everyone collared – after we finish torturing them, including the likely vast majority that are simply innocent.)

SEC. 2.(7)(B) exclude the use of hearsay evidence even though such evidence often will be the best and most reliable evidence that the accused has committed a war crime.

(So, if it’s all we’ve got it’s good enough, irrespective of any evidentiary weakness?)

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR MILITARY COMMISSIONS.

(a) IN GENERAL.—The President is authorized to establish military commissions for violations of the law of war and other offenses triable by military commissions as provided in section 4 of this Act (chapter 47A of title 10).

(b) CONSTRUCTION.—The authority granted in subsection (a) shall not be construed to limit the authority of the President under the Constitution of the United States or the laws thereof to establish military commissions on the battlefield, in occupied territories, or in other armed conflicts should circumstances so require.

(More “Unfettered Executive with Plenary Powers” BS)

SEC. 6. SATISFACTION OF TREATY OBLIGATIONS.

IN GENERAL.—(a) Satisfaction of the prohibitions against cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment set forth in Section 1003 of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (title X of Public Law 109-148; 119 Stat. 2739; 42 U.S.C. 2000dd) shall fully satisfy United States obligations with respect to the standards for detention and treatment established by section 1 of common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, with the exception of the obligations imposed by subsections 1(b) and 1(d) of such Article.

(Bush gets to simply stipulate that we are full compliance with Geneva.)

(b) RIGHTS NOT JUDICIALLY ENFORCEABLE.—

(1) IN GENERAL.— No person in any habeas action or any other action may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto as a source of rights, (emphasis mine) whether directly or indirectly, for any purpose in any court of the United States or its States or territories.

(2) CONSTRUCTION.—Paragraph (1) may not be construed to affect the obligations of the United States under the Geneva Conventions.

(So, nobody gets to invoke Geneva in any event, BushCo has totally covered its ass. Prohibitions against torture, consequently, are essentially moot)

SEC. 9. RETROACTIVE APPLICATION.

This Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply retroactively, including to any aspect of the detention, treatment, or trial of any person detained at any time since September 11, 2001, and to any claim or cause of action pending on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(More blatant and utterly obvious CYA.)

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I’m not a lawyer. But this piece of shit could not be more blatantly unaccaptable to our U.S. moral and constitutional heritage.

"Democrats making some serious progress in their bid to win control of the Senate in November..."

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Sorry, Karl Rove will simply not permit this to happen.

"I guess this is why people get expensive law-school educations: so they can grasp the higher logic of metaphysical paradoxes like these, which, to us ordinary schmoes, just look like plain contradictions."

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LOL!!

Yep, y'see us out here in The Great Jurisprudential Unwashed simply don't get the nuances of these things. We FULFILL our Geneva Convention obligations by simply re-defining them away and otherwise rendering them moot.

The Bushzis are right to be sweating the Hague.

WORST.PRESIDENT.EVER!