According to Ackerman...

This must be a first. I'm actually referring to and linking to a post by Spencer Ackerman over at FDL. Hm. I'm sure Spencer is always very well informed and astute but I have never been able to make head nor tails of much of what he writes for them. Does anyone have a decoder ring?

This post is (apparently) about the likelihood that the New Model Congress assembling in January will "revisit" the AUMF under which Our Glorious Imperial Project is being prosecuted.

Well, isn't that special?

In fact, the 2001 AUMF has little or nothing to do with the current Imperial Project under way and any close reading of it (or even a superficial glance thereat) shows that continuing to use it for the purpose of violently stamping out any resistance or opposition to American Imperial Overlordship is less than satisfactory.

That's what the Imperial Project is about at its base, destroying resistance/opposition to Our Glory. That's the Mission they keep yabbering about. That's the Job that's never "finished."

"We must Finish the Job, we must Complete the Mission," quoth the Generals and their civilian flacks, and even quoth the troops, but neither Mission nor Job is ever clearly specified. Just what is it they are Over There to DO exactly? And all we can tell from what transpires is that they are there to liquidate Natives who resist the imposition of Glory from Above, Glory imposed directly or through local puppets and surrogates. That is all.

It has nothing to do with the Designated Enemy -- AQ-Wherever or Whatever -- any more than the Indochina Wars of my day had anything to do with the Dreaded Commonists (as they were known). It has to do with resistance to Overlordship. Resistance must cease. Period. Full Stop.

So Spencer, apparently (though I haven't quite decoded his post), believes the AUMF under which the Imperial Project is being pursued will be replaced by some other, more specific, measure that better spells out both the scope of the "war" under way and the status and treatment of the captives thereof. In other words, those already captured who cannot be tried either because they would say something embarrassing or because they are acknowledged to have been tortured for "information." That is to say, false confessions. One can assume that unless further false confessions are necessary, any future captives will simply be... disposed of.

What's kind of interesting about this is that there is apparently no consideration of removing the Powers and Authorities granted the Imperial Presidency under Bush and now continued under Obama. No, just clarifying and updating them somewhat and perhaps extending them "forever". Nor has there been the slightest fretting on the right that His Serenity might be misusing other Authorities and Powers such as domestic spying that the Civil Libertarians have been up in arms about since Bush.

In other words, despite all the kabuki over Obama's "socialism" and whatnot, when it comes to the Domestic National Security State and the Imperial Project Overseas, this Obama fellow seems to be just fine in the eyes of the Right and the Owners.

Just. Fine.

Ponder that for a while.