The Restoration

Convinced, no doubt, by rhetoric found in this space last weekend, strong Republican Senators on the Armed Services Committee passed a bill by Senator McCain which, if enacted, will complete the job the Supreme Court began earlier this year of restoring the United States to a Constitutional Republic. The President pouted that he’d stop interviewing suspected terrorists if the committee’s bill became law. Of course, Senator Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader and the President’s comfort woman in the moral wars will attempt to derail the new bill. Whatever happens, to see Senators remember their job descriptions is more than a relief.
This past Monday, Moazzam Begg published a memoir of his three years in the custody of the United States at Bagram Air Force Base and Guantanamo Bay. He was released in 2005 at the request of his government in the United Kingdom, uncharged with a crime. Mr. Begg had some unsavory seeming acquaintances but with his case we are left with two alternative possibilities: Either he was demonstrably and actively a threat to innocent people but was released to plot anew through submission to political pressure; or he was not demonstrably a terrorist in which case he was wrongfully imprisoned for three years without access to counsel or due process. When the United States was founded, the constitution was written especially for the purpose that the second case would never occur as it may have hundreds of times (the number of detainees held and released from Guantanamo without charges brought.) The purpose of an independent judiciary, and the bill of rights, and congressional oversight and popular election and building the capitol in a malarial swamp is to insure that the government isn’t so demonstrably and actively incapable.
This week’s column will not argue Begg’s, lament his internment nor chastise the administration for its failure to comply with national and international law. Instead, your correspondent wishes to serenade the sexier topic of management science. Along with evolution, global warming and the attraction between two massive bodies, the theory that transparency and accountability are crucial to good performance in large organizations has been verified enough times to be called be obvious. Whatever our morals say about human dignity or our laws about due process, our interest in the success of government endeavor demands that courts review all detainments, congress the activities of the administration and that voters rid themselves of elected officials who fail to do their jobs. Oversight is more important than the tools the administration seeks for accomplishing the government’s goals.
The Supreme Court’s HAMDAN decision and the McCain bill do not exist as punishment of the administration for incompetence. The administration is incompetent as punishment for the secrecy its been allowed. The Republican party is corrupt not by nature but because the voters have have failed to insure transparency and provide accontability. The upcoming election will be our last chance to punish the current regime for it’s mysterious methods and obvious failures although the strategy of the opposition remains a carefully guarded secret.

The Prattler Wordbook
UDDER, n. A bovine election.
UFO, n. A vanguard for contact between religion and science.
UGLY, adj. Repulsive, as the mind of a beholder of beauty.
UGLY DUCKLING, n. A young ugly duck.
UH-HUH, int. UH-UH, more or less.
UKULELE, n. A musical instrument based on the cheese slicer.
ULCER, n. The local expression of worldly success.
ULTERIOR, adj. Sincere.
ULTIMATE, adj. Final, as a lie or perfect as an excuse.
ULTIMATELY, adv. Never
ULTRAISM, n. The dogma of idle philosophers and video game players.
ULTRAMODERN, adj. Obsolete.

Saturday, September 16, 2006