A Bright Room Called Day

Susan told me that she's lost sleep over the detainee legislation. It was strangely comforting to hear: I say "strangely" because I'm an informed citizen living in the nation's capital, and furthermore one surrounded socially and professionally (hell, even domestically) by writers and pundits, so a sharp opinion about the news shouldn't come as a surprise—strong opinions are never in short supply. And yet, our civic identities never really surface when we relate to one another. There's a shame to shrillness, and if there's only one redeeming quality to writing a blog, it's that they allow for imagined interchanges that are too embarrassing to contemplate in real life:

Q: How are you?
A: Really? I feel paralyzed by uncertainty about our nation. I feel stimulated by fear and intrigue nearly to the point of numbness. Did you read the piece in the WaPo about the expanded definition of "unlawful combatant" from an individual who "has engaged in hostilities against the United States" to one who "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" [emphasis mine]? Follow the hyperlink, but here's the relevant excerpt:

[H]uman rights experts expressed concern yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as the bill states, "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" or its military allies.

The definition applies to foreigners living inside or outside the United States and does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant.

And it's the executive branch's final decision that determines how these features of the legislation are ultimately decided, given the jurisdiction- and habeas-stripping provisions of the bill. The Congress has granted the White House has the power to torture and disappear people.

I'm entertaining suggestions about what more I can do than call Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, representatives who don't, in fact, represent me. I'm not much of a mobilizer; I did dream about camping out on the steps of the Capitol with a "SAVE HABEAS" sign, even that's also not characteristic of me. As a freelancer, my taxes aren't automatically deducted from my paychecks, so I could pretty easily refuse to support the regime financially.