Fake Deal

Ed Rogers, maybe the world's biggest jackass, is on Hardball right now talking about this so-called "deal" on torture, saying how Bush looked so great because he was so tough on the terrorists. And Kweisi Mfume is now agreeing that the President looked SO very Presidential in acquiescing and agreeing to this deal.

What planet are they on?

In this deal, the Congress would change the War Crimes Act to retroactively immunize those who have tortured before, and allows such torture to go forward. On military commissions, detention subjects would get arbitration on what evidence they can look at through a third-party JAG officer.

And what about the writ of habeas corpus? Without it, all of this is meaningless, since we'll never know what the CIA is actually doing because the detainees will have no opportunity to petition a court. Well, NONE of the early articles so far even mention habeas corpus.

Why does the media have their heads so far up their asses on this? This whole thing was a shadow play, destined for a fake compromise which completely hid the actual substantive problems. And nobody's saying a word.

Memo to the Democrats: time to step up. The "compromise" has been reached, once again without any single Democrat involved (this is known as "bipartisanship" according to the media). Time to explain specifically where you stand on habeas corpus. Do you stand with the Constitution or Dick Cheney?