Rush Limbaugh Live Thread Thursday 09-28-2006

Republicans pushed a bill supported by President George W. Bush to set rules for interrogating and trying terrorism suspects through the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday and Senate Republicans were expected to follow within a day.

The House passed the bill 253-168 largely along party lines, dismissing warnings from Democrats that courts would strike down the plan for failing to meet judicial standards.

Republicans who control both chambers want to send the bill to Bush by the weekend, when lawmakers head out to campaign for November elections that will determine control of Congress.

The bill sets up procedures to try foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Supreme Court struck down Bush's original plan, saying it violated U.S. and international standards.

As Senate debate on the bill got under way, Republicans defeated an attempt to pass an alternative that Democrats said would meet Supreme Court standards and help restore America's image, damaged by harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The Senate was expected to pass the bill on Thursday, after considering several other amendments.

Republicans, seeking to polish their terrorism-fighting credentials in the final days of their campaigns, depicted the new rules as tough but fair.

"By formally establishing terrorist tribunals, the bill provides a critical tool in fighting the war on terror and it provides a measure of justice to the victims of 9/11," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, said the bill provides "basic fairness in our prosecutions but we also preserve the ability of our war fighters to operate effectively on the battlefield."

But Human rights groups and many Democrats said the deal gave Bush too much latitude to allow harsh interrogations and to deprive detainees of legal rights.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat, said agreeing to "such an ambiguous compromise would allow the president to define torture when and how he sees fit."

Rep. Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat, said the bill sends a signal that "America's leaders are willing to abandon our values ... in favor of thuggish tactics they hope might make them safer for a little while."

Democrats also predicted the courts would find the bill unconstitutional because it deprived detainees held without charges of the right to file legal challenges to their imprisonment.

Under a compromise worked out last week, the CIA will be able to continue aggressive interrogations, but supporters of the bill said agency interrogators would comply with the Geneva Conventions' requirement for humane treatment.

The bill also expands the definition of "enemy combatants," who can be held indefinitely without charges, to include those who knowingly support terrorist groups with arms, money and other activities.

Backers of the bill said that provision would choke off supplies to terrorist groups, but critics said it was too broad and could subject many more people to indefinite detention.

Changing the subject but I thought this was interesting:

A MOM DIES - FORGIVING SON OF SAM
By ANDREA PEYSER

September 28, 2006 -- SHE survived the death of her husband and all three of her children - includ ing Stacy Moskowitz, the last person gunned down by David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz.

Neysa Moskowitz, who remained fiery and funny in the face of unspeakable tragedy, was sustained by the belief that, one day, she would join her family in the afterlife.

Now she will. Neysa died Tuesday at home in Miami Beach. She was 73.

A friend told me she suffered from breast cancer. The Dade County Medical Examiner's Office will perform an autopsy because of a suspicious amount of drugs in her system - although foul play is not suspected.

She has no close survivors - except, incredibly, Berkowitz. The killer lives, fat and happy, in an upstate New York prison.

When Berkowitz struck in 1977, Neysa had already buried the first of her three daughters, Jody, a decade before. Friends said she evidently committed suicide.

Then came the event that would define the rest of Neysa's life. Her daughter Stacy, just 20 years old, was murdered as she sat in a car with her date, Robert Violante, watching the moon over Bath Beach, Brooklyn. Violante, who was shot and blinded, survived.

Neysa used to talk about her last conversation with Stacy, as the flaxen-haired beauty prepared to go out.

"She told her, 'Stacy, be careful,' " Neysa told friend Vincent DiMino.

"And Stacy said, 'Don't worry, mom. He's not after blondes.' "

In the mid-1990s, Neysa moved with her husband, Jerry, to Florida. Jerry died of a heart ailment. Her youngest daughter, Ricki, developed scleroderma, a fatal disease of the immune system. Ricki died about seven years ago.

Alone in the world, Neysa never lost her spark, despite failing health that cut her weight down to some 90 pounds. She had already developed into an unofficial spokeswoman for murder survivors. In fact, 29 years ago, over a drink with The Post's Steve Dunleavy, she vowed vengeance on Berkowitz.

"I don't believe in turning the other cheek when you take a child from a mother," she said at the time.

Years later, that changed.

"She would say things like, 'This kind of anger can make you sick. Don't let anger eat you up,' " said her close friend and neighbor, Sharon Denaro.

For a while, she seemed to make peace with Berkowitz. He sent her letters and a Mother's Day card. But she did not support his bid to be let out of prison on parole.

Neysa lived her final days in a Miami co-op, surrounded by pictures of her girls, whom she talked about constantly.

"But she said she did forgive everyone," Denaro said. "She needed to relieve herself of anger to be able to move forward with her life."

Her friends are gathering for a memorial service in Miami Beach on Tuesday.

Neysa would have liked that.

andrea.peyser@nypost.com

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