Where's the Body?

Ahh, the conscience of the conservative. So difficult to spot, so small and so mean. It's best to try and see it out of the corner of your eye - if you stare directly at it, it darts away like a frightened squirrel. Sometimes, when difficult decisions are to be made, a conscience is called on - by others. People like Americans and, more broadly, civilized humans, must make difficult calls and base them on things like ethics and the rule of law.

Conservatives have no such qualms. They wonder "is it profitable?" If it is, than it's always a 'go.' "Is it ideological? Will the Biblical goofballs like it?" If so, it must then meet the first test. Usually, you just have to make sure it doesn't cost anything before giving it the green light. When faced with the challenges of governing, the question becomes: "is it hard?" Because, as we've seen time and again, nothing that's difficult to do will be done by this Junta. The easy way - or whatever appears easy - will always be the road of the conservative.

Case in point is the so-called War on Terror. The easy part for the fat politicians was to order the military into the Middle East to wage war. That was fun like a pants-less roller-coaster ride. Then came the occupation: yuck. Boo-ring. And the State Department had like a zillion-page book on how to do a reconstruction and occupation. Wo could read that much?

Way too hard. Much easier to simply use your ideology as a guide and let the whole thing play out as proof that your ideas are right. If it all goes to hell, remember that it's the traitors who oppose you and not your beliefs that have caused the failure.

And when you round up the 'usual suspects' in downtown Baghdad, or pay a bounty hunter a few grand for some top Al Qaida floorsweepers, it's fun to bang them up in secret prisons and torture them like they just stole your kid's bike.

You can play make-believe and treat every one of them like they're Mohammed Atta, but sooner or later you're going to end up with a whole slew of Muslims that you got no use for. What are you supposed to do with them?

The hard thing to do - which Bubba did so successfully - is prosecute them. If they're really terrorists, they've committed crimes (even going to Al Qaida training camp is a criminal offense) and if you're diligent and hardworking, you'll nail them.

Of course, Georgie's boys are neither. Laziness and sloppiness are the watchwords of our neoconservative masters. It's way too hard to get convictions - so why try? Plus, you've allowed them to be tortured for four years - a real trial will expose your own criminality. Can't have that. Just bury them in Cuba, outside American law.

But a bunch of those smart-ass lawyers have started taking their cases to federal court. The Supreme Court even said these guys had rights - rights! They're terrorists! Okay, well some of them are just bystanders that got scooped up under a SALA charge (Standing Around Looking Arab).

Still - isn't it the basis of our system of justice that a person is presumed guilty until proven innocent?

Exactly, so the supreme Court said: "Hey! Habeas Corpus, you morons!"

But, to Junta members, that ruling somehow makes us less free. And how can we address this abridgment of our freedom to abuse others? Exactly.

The Senate, where Bill Frist stalks the halls with a rubber chicken and a loaded magnum, passed a bill revoking - and here I'm not kidding - the ancient right of habeas corpus from the 500 detainees at Gitmo. Yep - you though that the 'don't torture them' thing was a no-brainer, right? You thought that surely anyone understanding any of our ideals would be against torture and indefinite imprisonment without charge.

You were wrong.

Under the provision, proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo no longer would be allowed to challenge their detentions in federal court. Most of the detainees were captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and many have been held for almost four years without charges.

The provision would reverse a 2004 Supreme Court decision that held that the detainees have the right to sue. Almost 300 detainees have filed petitions in U.S. district court in Washington since.

The Graham proposal also likely would block Monday's Supreme Court decision to hear some detainees' challenges to military trials set to be held at Guantanamo. It also could stop a case now being considered by the U.S. Court of Appeals on how habeas corpus cases should be handled.

Good thing he got it in now, before the Court found that human beings have certain 'inalienable rights.' Graham's bill passed 49-42, which means there were 49 Senators who were too hung over to uphold America's tradition of freedom, and 9 who were still drunk and couldn't be coaxed to the Senate chamber to cast a vote.

Of course, anything that will deny non-rich humans their rights is okay by Georgie.

The White House, which previously has opposed oversight of Guantanamo by Congress and the courts, supports the Senate action, spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said Friday.

Wow. Day after day it's worse. This Junta has succeeded in something I've never thought possible: they've turned America into Mexico. We're a one-party state which routinely tortures and imprisons people for no reason. We are Franz Khafka's worst nightmare (and that's saying something). We're at the point where simply righting the ship back course isn't enough. Our standing in the world is lower than Egypt - at least they admit to being a constitutional dictatorship.

At least we are working toward a more enlightened view of our fellow citizen's rights. Right? Right?

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which has enforced the nation's anti-discrimination laws for nearly half a century, is in the midst of an upheaval that has driven away dozens of veteran lawyers and has damaged morale for many of those who remain, according to former and current career employees.

Nearly 20 percent of the division's lawyers left in fiscal 2005, in part because of a buyout program that some lawyers believe was aimed at pushing out those who did not share the administration's conservative views on civil rights laws. Longtime litigators complain that political appointees have cut them out of hiring and major policy decisions, including approvals of controversial GOP redistricting plans in Mississippi and Texas.

At the same time, prosecutions for the kinds of racial and gender discrimination crimes traditionally handled by the division have declined 40 percent over the past five years, according to department statistics. Dozens of lawyers find themselves handling appeals of deportation orders and other immigration matters instead of civil rights cases.

Yep. Under the Junta, Civil Rights means the right to be civil while the fire hoses are knocking over a grammar school class. Don't think this is some sort of soft country where you can sue for discrimination and have any government lawyers on your side. In this Junta, when our Shysters open their brief cases, it's on the same table with the Wal Mart lawyers.

Of course, the department spokes-robots disputes it. The Junta must govern by lies, remember. They can't come out and say: "we don't believe in enforcing race discrimination cases." They have to come out and say" "Hey, we're doing a great job! Look at the made-up numbers! Made-up numbers don't lie!"

Remember: at no time can the governed be told what the government is doing.

And don't think because you're frozen out of Republican-controlled redisticting you have anybody to complain to. That's the whole point of redistricting, dummy. The Congress needs to stay as white as the NHL. Don't try to fight it.

And G-d help you if you end up at Gitmo, because nobody else will.