As far as I'm concerned, McCain abdicated the better part of his moral authority two weeks ago, but that doesn't mean his character is down for the count.
To paraphrase the younger Skywalker to the elder in the last of the three Star Wars films that mattered, "I know there is good in you. The [imperial instinct] hasn't driven it from you fully."
I don't think we can expect a clean bout, but McCain vs. Clinton would look more like a fight sponsored by Michael Vick than one sanctioned by the IBF.
Also, for those keeping track: it took me a total of three days and ten posts to mention Star Wars.
4 comments:
The bill that Senator Mccain voted against was not just to ban the CIA use of waterboarding, but to force the CIA to use and be limited to the techniques found in the Army field manual. Senator Mccain has come out and said that waterboarding is torture and that ANYONE using such practices in the name of the United States be held accountable. Yes the bill would have made the use of waterboarding by the CIA illegal but it also would have limited them to the Army field manual, that is why Senator Mccain voted against the bill.
My friend Ernie wrote a great screenplay about Star Wars fans. Things were going well, but now the Weinstein company has re-shot the movie and cut out a major plot line. And Star Wars geeks are going NUTZ.
http://www.seeya.at/stopdarthweinstein/
Since McCain was the one who prompted the legislation to limit the Army to the Army field manual (after embarrassments like Abu Ghraib) and since the generals in the field are glowing over the progress that is being made since that development, I don't see why the CIA deserves special treatment. However, McCain's own justification for his vote was that he did not want to hamstring the CIA with respect to "certain" methods. Fine. Then vote for the bill and then draft legislation for the exceptions you seem to believe are necessary. Failing that, you are authorizing a blank check.
Also, I don't just have a problem with waterboarding. That is the "issue" the press is going ballistic over. Though reprehensible (and a crime for which three Japanese officers were executed following WWII), waterboarding is only one among many practices I find immoral. Hypothermia, sleep deprivation, sexual & religious humiliations, and, the one responsible for McCain's inability to raise his arms above his head: stress positions. So I leave it to Congress. And I acknowledge that special circumstances may require special methods. However, I'm tired of this administration breaking the law, tweaking it after, and then looking for retroactive immunity. It's lazy, it's opportunistic, and it's unconstitutional.
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