Last night Nature Lover quoted the first lines of William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming” by way of announcing his happiness “that in some small way justice triumphs” in U.S. v. Scruggs.
Yes, it’s good to have one act of this play nearing completion. But to my mind, we’re a long way from the triumph of justice in the Scruggs story. Until we see tried in a court of law the whole network of activity that involved Ed Peters, Bobby DeLaughter, Trent Lott, Mike Moore, P. L. Blake, and who-knows-who-all-else, we can’t say whether justice will finally triumph over Dickie.
But you know what? Yesterday in Washington, D.C., something else happened that, for me much more directly than anything Scruggsian, evoked Yeats’ poem.
The Senate voted 80-15 for cloture on the FISA bill. The vote to pass it will probably come today. Seems Harry Reid cut a deal with Bush: telco immunity stays in, in return for unspecified ‘strengthening of oversight.’ Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold have amendments to strip immunity, but they’ll be brushed off. The result, Ken Strickland writes for NBC: ”It may now never be known if the Bush administration broke the law or sidestepped the Constitution when it launched its secret surveillance program shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.”
Voting against cloture: Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Cantwell (D-WA), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Harkin (D-IA), Kerry (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Menendez (D-NJ), Sanders (I-VT), Schumer (D-NY), and Wyden (D-OR).
Not voting: Byrd (D-WV), Clinton (D-NY), Kennedy (D-MA), McCain (R-AZ), and Obama (D-IL).
Byrd and Kennedy have medical excuses, but what about those three who’ve been busting their butts to prove themselves “leaders”? In particular: Senator Obama, m’man, where were you yesterday that was so freaking important, you couldn’t possibly get back to the Senate to show us where you stand?
And look where we’ve been “led”:
The number of Americans who would condone torture, at least when used on terrorists in order to save lives, has risen over the past two years and now stands at over 40 percent, according to a new opinion poll.
After years of revelations that we’ve been buying not just dangerous jihadis but also many innocent bystanders from the ISI (Pakistan’s very Taliban-friendly intelligence service), and sticking them into blackholes for human experimentation in torturing techniques, our Congress and Presidential candidates have run so far from the issue that they’ve ‘led the nation’ into bipartisan acceptance of torture.
We have a Department of Justice that through all the years of torture and illegal wiretaps and partisan prosecutions and killing off habeas, not once stood up to say NO to any of that but instead vilified the JAG officers and anyone else who has tried to impede America’s slide into depravity.
Yes, dammit, look where we’ve been “led.” Look at our options in “leaders” going forward.
Hit it, W.B.!
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
No doubt that “justice” in the Scruggs related matters, and other matters not involving him, is not yet complete. Hopefully, this is just Act 1, and more necessary prosecutions will follow.
Lotus, keep in mind that FISA was designed for criminal prosecutions. It was not designed, nor is it often appropriately effective, when trying to prevent terrorist acts from happening. And in those circumstances, we are not as concerned about criminal prosecution as we are about saving lives. No one has been prosecuted as a result of “warrantless wiretaps” outside of the FISA procedures. It is a tradeoff to prevent another 9/11 type attack. Say what you will, but we have not had another attack against the US on our soil since 9/11 on Bush’s watch. As imperfect as some of us think our intel gathering to be, so far it has been good enough.
When the rubber hits the pavement, it will be very difficult for any President (including a president Obama) and any Congress (including a Democratic controlled Congress) to undo and tinker much with the Patriot Act and other intel gathering changes implemented under the Bush administration in response to 9/11. There may be a few changes, but nothing very substantive or dramatic. Why? No US citizens’ constitutional rights are being violated by the procedures and laws, and what we are doing seems to be working. Also, fear of creating conditions for another attack under their watch, upon which any changes that weakened our protections would be highly scrutinized by the public , perhaps triggering a serious backlash against those who voted for such changes.
That’s a wonderful poem, one of the best.
I’m hunting Mary for you again, afotl.
You know, roger, if we had nothing else of his canon, I think this one poem could secure Yeats’ reputation as a Great.
Lotus, I agree. He is a Great.
We ought to start discussing poetry to go along with the music posts.
Always open to guest posts, roger! Do us some on poetry, and I’d love some on Faulkner from iratetoday. Shoot, from anybody on anything . . .
Lotus, I know a lot more about FISA than I did Uighurs. So, bring it. LOL.
unfortunately I think afotl is right that, if another attack did occur after any changes supported by Democrats, the WH could and would successfully spin it so blame would land at the feet of those who supported those changes. Seems to me this is all about political protection.
Love that poem. One of my favorites along with the Dylan Thomas one, “The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower.”
No doubt about how the WH would spin it, ducky and afotl. Some doubt about whether that would succeed right across the nation (though positively it would in MS).