About the beyond-shameful Senate torture bill just passed (no thanks to twelve ("dirty dozen") approving Democrats), the following two quotes from law professors sums things up nicely:

University of Texas constitutional law professor Sanford V. Levinson described the bill in an Internet posting as the mark of a "banana republic." Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh said that "the image of Congress rushing to strip jurisdiction from the courts in response to a politically created emergency is really quite shocking, and it's not clear that most of the members understand what they've done."

Yes, this administration continues to turn back the clock on our forward progress as a nation, instead opting for methods and tactics preferred by two-bit dictators and tyrants, whether it be policies favoring the rich and well-connected cronies or hazy rules that allow enormous room for interpretation, thus inviting horrific abuse.

The second quote by Koh, Dean of Yale Law School, is perhaps even more disturbing, with our elected representatives increasingly spending less and less time actually reading the legislation on which they're voting. Koh states, "it's not clear that most of the members understand what they've done," this conclusion based on his shock and dismay for what actually passed.

Two months ago, the Sunday Boston Globe had a front-page story on this very topic, entitled "Classified intelligence bills often are unread."

Only about a dozen House members scheduled time this year to read the classified sections of the intelligence bill, according to a House Intelligence Committee spokesman. The estimate dovetailed with a Globe survey sent to all members of the House, in which the vast majority of the respondents -- including eight out of 10 in the Massachusetts delegation -- said they typically don't read the classified parts of intelligence bills.

That's just great, flying blind, back in time.