Banks win again: The banks have beaten us all in the senate yet another time, having succeeded in gutting legislation to ease bankruptcy of its central measure that would have allowed judges to lower the amounts owed on home mortgages. It would appear that the administration, in failing to push for the provision, has concluded that its economic strategy is succeeding on a macro level and is willing to sacrifice the interest of individual homeowners in order to keep the bankers, and their lobbyists, happy. Yesterday’s New York Times had the story.

Grieving for Dr. Tiller: Not all Christians and Christian groups are opposed to abortion — not all even to late term abortion. Last Monday my church hosted a local memorial for Dr. George Tiller sponsored by Faith Aloud. Well over 200 attended, and we learned later that many more did not attend because they were fearful about security. The Rev. Rebecca Turner, Faith Aloud Executive Director, remarked truly, I thought, that the presentation of Randall Terry’s statement by CBS News, was like asking the head of the Ku Klux Klan to comment on a lynching. Media Matters comments on the Randall Terry polemic by remembering a Leslie Stahl piece that links Terry directly to violence. Judith Warner’s column in yesterday’s New York Times is moving indeed.

Answered: A question I asked a couple of posts back has now been answered. The Obama administration is considering proposing legislation to allow five Guantanamo detainees to plead guilty to capital crimes. These five were allegedly involved in the 9/11 plot and have been extensively tortured and held without trial for many years. Today’s New York Times quotes David Glazier, who has written critically about the commission system in the past as saying: “This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility.” But according to Maj. David J. R. Frakt of the Air Force, a Guantanamo defense lawyer, the government is “trying to give the 9/11 guys what they want: let them plead guilty and get the death penalty and not have to have a trial.” These five detainees “have seemed to be daring the United States to put them to death,” according to New York Times reporter, William Glaberson.

Here’s the most interesting paragraph in Glaberson’s piece about this.

The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention.

Interesting, because it suggests a program of leaks designed to contextualize whatever decision the administration finally takes about the Guantanamo detainees. There seem to be no good choices open. The matter of Guantanamo and the fates of the prisoners there is so seriously compromised by the depredations of the former administration that no actions remain that are simple, legal, or just.