Democratic Convention Highlights Real?

I ran into a local progressive (whose identity I'll protect, for reasons that will become clear) at the video rental place last night. I kidded 'Citizen X' "aren't you watching the Democratic convention?" He said that since it was day one, it wasn't so important to watch and if the Democrats run the White House the way they were running the Congress, he was done with party politics. I hear you, brother. When you count the victories that the Democrats have had since 2006, it does seem relatively paltry, but then again, George Bush still is the president and there are not a majority of Democrats in the senate.

Still, after I got home, I tuned into the convention in time to hear Senate legend Ted Kennedy, first-spouse-in waiting, Michelle Obama, Minnesota Senator Amy Kolbuchar, former Iowa Rep. (R) Jim Leach, and Missouri Senator, Claire McCaskill speak. Admittedly I am a sucker for conventions, for the same reason that I love reading vision statements, they bring the best out in people.

I can't imagine anyone who wasn't moved by Ken Burns' filmed tribute and Caroline Kennedy's introduction for her "Uncle Teddy," but the presence of the senior senator and the holder of the Kennedy legacy was quite moving. Having seen him champion his party and the causes such as health care as a right, not a privilege for many years, it was nevertheless inspiring to hear him address his fellow Dems with his words:

"For me, this is a season of hope," he said. "New hope - and this is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, and west, young and old - will have decent, quality, affordable healthcare as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

"The torch will be passed again to a generation of Americans," Kennedy said, his voice straining slightly, echoing the era of his late brother's presidency, cut short by assassination in 1963. "The work begins anew. The hope rises again, and the dream lives on."

Then to hear Michelle Obama speak so very eloquently about her husband with the "funny name" and her own story and her values and beliefs:

"All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack's journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope."

For me, the star of the evening was Jim Leach, whose seat our own Dave Loebsack now holds. There is nothing more compelling than a convert speaking on behalf of an "across-the-aisler" to stir the coals. Leach, who has always been an internationalist, recognized that Obama is the best candidate to get the U.S. back on solid ground in the world community and that his own party has fallen away from its heritage:

"In troubled times, it was understood that country comes before party, that in perilous moments mutual concern for the national interest must be the only factor in political judgments. This does not mean that debate within and between the political parties should not be vibrant. Yet what frustrates so many citizens is the lack of bipartisanship in Washington and the way today's Republican Party has broken with its conservative heritage.

The party that once emphasized individual rights has gravitated in recent years toward regulating values. The party of military responsibility has taken us to war with a country that did not attack us. The party that formerly led the world in arms control has moved to undercut treaties crucial to the defense of the earth. The party that prides itself on conservation has abdicated its responsibilities in the face of global warming. And the party historically anchored in fiscal restraint has nearly doubled the national debt, squandering our precious resources in an undisciplined and unprecedented effort to finance a war with tax cuts."

Political conventions allow politicians to simultaneously let their hair down and get their dander up. It is a place where dichotomies reign supreme. Where else can you go to a event sponsored by lobbyists and roundly beat them about the head on the convention floor?

This may be part of the frustration that my friend was alluding to at the video store. Without recognizing the the very nature of party politics, to game the system as it were, how can we hope to have a more perfect union...particularly at the relative snail's pace it takes to get there?

Biden and Kennedy Propose Bills to Curb Waterboarding

From McClatchy News Service

The practice of waterboarding would be outlawed specifically, along with other extreme interrogation techniques, under legislation pushed by two Democratic senators.

The measures would repudiate the Bush administration’s policy on torture. The CIA reportedly has used waterboarding — or simulated drowning — when questioning terrorism suspects. It’s also used exposure to extreme temperatures and other methods that are expressly forbidden by the Army Field Manual. The proposed bills would require that all U.S. personnel — including the CIA — use only interrogation techniques authorized by the Army manual.

Last month, President Bush’s choice for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, refused to say whether waterboarding was torture and therefore illegal. And an executive order that President Bush released in July on what techniques the CIA could use was silent on whether waterboarding and other extreme measures were among them.

Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., have offered separate bills that make the Army manual the standard for all U.S. interrogators. All members of the military by law already must abide by the manual. The proposed law would require civilians to do the same.

However, it’s unlikely that the Senate will debate the matter before the end of the year. The legislative calendar is jammed, sponsors of these measures must round up support and Republicans may be reluctant to tie the CIA’s hands against the Bush administration’s will.

Similar legislation is expected soon in the House of Representatives.

“We need to send a clear message that torture, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees, is unacceptable and is not permitted by U.S. law. Period,” Biden said in a letter to senators.

Michael V. Hayden, the director of the CIA, argued at a Council on Foreign Relations talk in September that the CIA shouldn't be limited to the Army Field Manual’s requirements on interrogation.

“It's clear that what it is we do as an agency is different from what is contained in the Army Field Manual. I don't know of anyone who has looked at the Army Field Manual who could make the claim that what's contained in there exhausts the universe of lawful interrogation techniques consistent with the Geneva Convention,” he said.

U.S. law and international treaties have long banned torture. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 said all U.S. personnel must not treat detainees in cruel, inhuman and degrading ways. But backers of the proposed bills say they’re needed because the Bush administration has interpreted the law in a way that leaves open the possibility that the CIA can use the extreme techniques.

Biden said his bill would end “the administration’s semantic games on what constitutes torture. . . . There is no place for the administration’s bad faith interpretation — of waterboarding and other forms of torture — to gain a toehold.” He also warned that “continuing to equivocate about torture” would weaken the coalitions needed to fight terrorism, fuel terrorist recruitment and place Americans in jeopardy.

Biden’s legislation also would close the “black sites” outside the United States where detainees have been held, grant detainees at Guantanamo the right to challenge their imprisonment in court and require the administration to go to a special court and make the case that any non-American terrorist suspect it wants to send to another country wouldn't be tortured there. Kennedy’s bill is limited to interrogations.

“This involves taking on the administration in a very big way,” said Elisa Massimino, an international rights expert with the advocacy group Human Rights First.

The White House’s July order allowed the CIA to restart its secret detention and interrogation program, which had been put on hold in 2006, Massimino said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the proposed restrictions on CIA interrogations were unnecessary. Graham, a judge advocate general in the Air Force Reserves, said he was briefed on how the CIA interrogates suspected terrorists. “I think the president’s CIA program has found the right balance,” he said “It’s lawful; it’s effective. It’s different from the military’s, but still within bounds.”

Graham said he believed that waterboarding was illegal for any branch of government.