GOP Senators concede: It's only abuse if it "shocks the conscience"

[Rose Siding]

White House Gains Concessions in Senate Measure on Tribunals
...
The Senate bill for the first time includes language supporting the administration's position that detainee abuse can be prosecuted only if it, in effect, "shocks the conscience." Legal experts say that instead of setting an absolute standard for conduct, the bill's language would leave room for judges to weigh the urgency of the information extracted from detainees during rough interrogations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101162.html

So: If the info is really really good, have at it Bruiser, and since NOTHING shocks me anymore, you are home free!

Oh, AND:

snip>
The revised Senate bill also would bar detainees held by the United States from bringing legal action against the government to challenge the legality of their detention or treatment. It would bar the collection of damages by detainees for violations of the Geneva Conventions, which set the minimum standards for wartime treatment.
<end snip

You REALLY held your ground there, Huckleberry Graham. The Supremes are going to be the last hope on this travesty.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Please contact your Senators and Rep against this bill.

Laws for humane treatment of prisoners are meaningless if prisoners can't sue.

Contact info for Congress at:
www.vote-smart.org

[BattyDem]

5. The GOP is once again trying to circumvent the law

They'll leave the "anti-torture" laws in place and simply write other laws that say the victim has no right to restitution. :grr:

It's only a matter of time before they pick off the Bill of Rights one by one. "Yes, Mr. Jones ... your First, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights were indeed violated, but the law says that you can't do a damn thing about it!"

Laws are meaningless if there's no way to enforce them and no penalty for breaking them.

[Eric J in MN]

9. Yes, laws need to be enforceable to be meaningful.

We should contact Congress.

Contact info at:
www.vote-smart.org

[TheMadMonk]

15. First (deliberate?) step on a slippery slope.

Unmeaningful/unenforc(ed/able) laws fall into misuse and eventual irrelevance.

[bobbieinok]

2. blank check since bushco has NO conscience to be shocked

[AspenRose]

4. My thoughts exactly

Katrina pretty much proved that

[smtpgirl]

3. Nothing but a bunch of sadists

Maybe those people coined the Redskin term

[mindwalker_i]

6. With their heads

so far up Bush's ass, it's amazing they haven't all dies of asphyxiation.

-mwalker

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. Then the Bush Admin. constitutes abuse. n/t

[BattyDem]

8. Who decides if it "shocks the conscience"

:shrug:

[hughee99]

10. What if it "shocks the genitals"? n/t

[Eric J in MN]

11. We've had the right of habeus corpus since at least 1305...

...but now Republicans are taking it away from us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

[TahitiNut]

12. Handy for zealots lacking conscience, compassion, or empathy.

... like the sociopaths in this mal-adminstration.

[MissMarple]

13. ah...Saddam Hussein's conscience.

Well...I can't agree to that, can I. Hmmmm....? Well, I must say, that doesn't speak well for them.

[OneBlueSky]

14. um . . . shocks WHOSE conscience? . . .

mine? . . .

yours . . .

or George Bush's? . . . which I would have a real problem with, since he doesn't seem to have one . . .

[Javaman]

16. I know what shocks the conscience, a swift kick in the nuts for these

moron repukes.

[Marnieworld]

17. Who's conscience? Dr. Mengele's?

Certainly not the conscience of the one being "interrogated". When will this nightmare end?

[ContraBass Black]

18. Ha ha ha.

They're putting those words into a LAW?