Juan Cole Asks Bloggers A Question

Professor Cole asks:

Why don’t bloggers do more posting of pieces like this AP video, below, about the 8 US troops killed on Monday. We are after all a tv network if we want to be.

I'll let Blue Girl give her answer, but when I post, I shy away from the video clips to illustrate certain points because they can be seized upon by people opposed to our viewpoints to make charges of bias. I don't show pictures of people who have holes blown in them because if you haven't figured out that people get holes blown into them by war, you're not paying attention anyway.

I'd love to show clips from al Jazeera--but that opens up a whole other can of worms.

I'd love to show clips of an incredulous Michael Ware going after John McCain--but we saw the smears perpetrated on Ware by the wingnut bloggers.

Then there's this fact:

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees is the culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush administration since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."

Bush & Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose their majority in Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill through Congress with little substantive debate.

Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who have been declared enemy combatants. Congress has the constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion. The habeas-stripping provision in the new bill is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will likely say so when the issue comes before it.

As much as I'd like to post more clips and more information, we have to be mindful of the fact that Habeus is missing. And don't tell me right wing bloggers aren't helping the DoD--they're very cozy.

Any casual examination of the "Bloggers Roundtable" will tell you that liberals are allowed in the door, certainly, but conservatives are the core audience they are trying to reach.