hope that the president is in a good mood….

…..because if you are arrested for anything that could be seen as a crime against the United States, you can kiss your rights goodbye. Thanks to today’s signing of new detainee rights legislation, the president now has sweeping powers over prosecution of persons detained during anti-terrorist or so-called “wartime” activities. Habeas corpus be damned – at least that’s what BushCo thinks.

The GOP rubber-stamp congress passed this legislation with almost passive disinterest, and now it’s law. And all citizens of the United States are now at risk, both at home and abroad, thanks to the signature of a spineless, gelding oaf who believes he is the emperor or “Americaland” and the world.

Standing behind Bush at the signing were other war criminals: Vice President Cheney, one of the architects of the botched military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq; Attorney General Gonzales, who openly advocated torture (potentially to the point of death) as an “effective tool” of interrogation of suspected enemy combatants; and a slew of Senators and Representatives, all of whom apparently don’t have any family members fighting on the front lines (of course they’re not – no well-heeled theocon would dare let his kids be put in harm’s way – leave that to the urban and rural poor).

A footnote: the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended before, during the Civil War and reconstruction. In 1861, President Lincoln suspended habeas in order to quash riots in western Maryland and parts of southern Indiana. This temporary suspension of the writ allowed Union forces to maintain prder in Washington.

In the early 1870s, President Grant suspended habeas corpus to assist in protecting freed slaves against the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina. This was done to allow the freed slaves equal access in polling places and to government services – something that, as Keith Olbermann pointed out tonight, still hasn’t entirely happened in this country.

And an additional footnote: don’t believe for a second that I think that the Democrats come off all rosy over this legislation, as some voted for it, and far too many who voted against the legislation did nothing to speak out against it – the “miracle” of poltical triangulation in an election year.

Fellow Democrats who are running for office, both now and in the future: show your convictions, grow a spine, and speak out!