Take three minutes to watch these clips from a briefing on military commissions held on Capitol Hill Monday.

Vladimir Bukovsky, a Soviet torture victim, tries to remind us why we are better than our enemies.  And why we should strive to stay that way.

If America’s leaders want to hunt terrorists while transforming dictatorships into democracies, they must recognize that torture, which includes [cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment], has historically been an instrument of oppression — not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering. No country needs to invent how to “legalize” torture; the problem is rather how to stop it from happening. If it isn’t stopped, torture will destroy your nation’s important strategy to develop democracy in the Middle East. And if you cynically outsource torture to contractors and foreign agents, how can you possibly be surprised if an 18-year-old in the Middle East casts a jaundiced eye toward your reform efforts there?

In the year I was born, 1976, the word “disappear” went from being an intransitive verb to a transitive verb in the world’s vocabulary. Objects no longer just disappeared. Now people could disappear objects. It didn’t make grammatical sense. But in light of the numerous victims of military dictatorships in South American countries, notably Argentina, it became acceptable to refer to someone who had been disappeared; meaning abducted by government forces, tortured, and in many cases, never seen again.

30 years later in the US, the Senate and White House are working together on a bill that will decide how the US will treat “enemy combatants”. How are they treated now? Well, we can glean some information from people who have been through the system.

One such case is that of German citizen Khaled el-Masri. The CIA suspected he was involved in 9/11. And so he was kidnapped by the CIA, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan, and tortured for four months, until the CIA decided he wasn’t a threat and released him. It’s our normal justice system in reverse, with beatings and cold cells thrown in.

There are other confirmed accounts of Canadian and British citizens being designated as enemy combatants and undergoing this process the CIA calls “extraordinary rendition.” You may ask, “How does one become an enemy combatant?” This designation is at the sole discretion of the President. The detainee does not get to argue that he may not be an enemy combatant. In fact, the detainee may not even be allowed to see the charges against him.

As a result of these White House-sanctioned practices, CIA agents may face legal charges in the countries from which they abducted their detainees.

But this isn’t Argentina. It’s not Chile or the Soviet Union. This is America. And the US Congress is here to make sure that no one gets sued.

Yes, that seems to be a major focus of this legislation. The White House wants to prevent CIA agents from being sued or possibly prosecuted for war crimes. (No doubt they would also like to protect themselves since they are giving the orders.)

The President has been pushing hard to legalize what the CIA has been doing under his orders. At a recent press briefing, the President told reporters, “As long as the War Crimes Act hangs over their heads, they [CIA interrogators] will not take the steps necessary to protect [Americans].” It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that he could order them not to commit war-crimes.

This past weekend my dad came over to give me a hand on framing the deck. As you can see from the picture, we got the job done. Within three hours, the frame and inner joists were in place and waiting for the top to be attached.

But before the top boards can be screwed on, I’ve got to get more gravel into the pit. That means hauling ten bags of gravel at a time from Lowes in the trunk of my Mazda. So if I’m able to make enough trips to Lowes this week, I could be putting the top boards on the deck by this weekend.

I made a little progress on the shed project Wednesday. All of my concrete footings have cured, so I was able to put down landscape fabric to prevent weeds from growing under the shed. Click on the picture to see my shed’s future home looking rather formal and ready for a night on the town.

I swear the pace will quicken now that the concrete is cured. Rainy weather can hold me back no more!