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From the New York Times “Bill Puts Scrutiny on Detainees’ Lawyers:”

WASHINGTON – A provision tucked into a defense bill before Congress would direct the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate any suspected misconduct by lawyers for Guantánamo Bay detainees, opening a new chapter in a recurrent political controversy over legal ethics and the representation of terrorism suspects.

(snip)

Lawyers for Guantánamo detainees have reacted with outrage to the proposal, saying it would have a chilling effect on their efforts to help detainees get habeas corpus hearings or to defend them in military commission trials. They are organizing to try to persuade Congress to strip the language before enacting the final bill, which must also still pass the Senate.

“No lawyers could possibly predict what conduct might fall within the law,” said David Remes, who represents several detainees. “It would therefore be impossible for Guantánamo lawyers to represent their clients effectively and zealously.”

We’ve already seen journalists banned from Guantanamo for reporting the name of an interrogator that had already been made public.

First the Pentagon came for the journalists.  Now lawmakers are targeting the defense lawyers.  Not just Republicans, though it was a Republican who introduced the legislation – Congressional Democrats in the House Armed Services Committee unanimously allowed this provision to be added to a defense bill “that the full House of Representatives is expected to begin debating this week.”

Anyone see a pattern here?

Accountability for those who ordered torture?  Nope.

Accountability for those who lied us into war?  Nope.

Accountability for Cheney’s top secret energy meetings that have resulted in the mess we now see in the Gulf, the mess that was once our Department of the Interior?  Nope.

Unfair power mongering towards those who defend the rights of human beings we tortured?  Yep.

Unfair power mongering towards those journalists who allow us to be an informed citizenry?  You betcha!

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Poem huddled

between two strings of html.

I used to be a typesetter

in the days before there was

desktop publishing.

I was apprenticed

to printers who had worked

hot type but I ended up

working for a company

using the new fangled

cold type

Still, if you wanted

to see something in actual

fonts, you couldn’t just

do that at home, well

you could use stencils

or practice calligraphy,

but it’s not the same.

* * *

When I read printed type

informing me of crimes

against the planet,

hatred arises!

There is nothing at all

wrong with that.

Images also arise

of mean faces and

arrogant gestures,

of giant granite towers

blocking the way

Fear arises,

and great apprehension,

looming as it

arises.

Well you get the picture.

What appear to be negative

phenomena, they arise.

And I believe in love!

And compassion!

Oy vey!

I do not wish

to make light of this,

of course.

Everything in the mind

arises from the mind.

The obstacles as well.

There is nothing

wrong with that.

We create these obstacles

in order to strongly avoid

becoming that which

causes hatred and pain

to arise

in the mind.