Monday, October 02, 2006
Do Nothing Republican Congress Does Something: Sue Kelly & Co Vote for Torture
The ignominious 109th Congress, dubbed the "Do Nothing Congress", unfortunately got active and passed the Military Commissions Act in the days just before going on recess to campaign for our votes. And what did they accomplish with this? Let the New York Times (Rushing Off a Cliff, published: September 28, 2006) tell you:
Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly important bill to serve the mindless politics of a midterm election: The Bush administration uses Republicans’ fear of losing their majority to push through ghastly ideas about anti-terrorism that will make American troops less safe and do lasting damage to our 217-year-old nation of laws — while actually doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists. Here are some lowlights--the worst of the worst parts of this abominable bill:
Enemy Combatants: Legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, could be subject to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted.
Habeas Corpus [established in the year 1215 AD] is no longer available: Detainees in U.S. military prisons lose the basic right to have a court (and not George Bush) determine the lawfulness of his imprisonment (i.e., habeas corpus would provide some protection from Bush and his cronies randomly pulling an individual off the street and throwing him into jail to show the world how “tough” they are on terrorism).
Judicial Review: The courts would have no power to review any aspect of this new system, except verdicts by military tribunals. All Mr. Bush would have to do to lock anyone up forever is to declare him an illegal combatant and not have a trial.
Coerced Evidence: Coerced evidence [evidence obtained by torture] would be permissible if a judge considered it reliable — already a contradiction in terms — and relevant.
Offenses: The definition of torture is unacceptably narrow, a virtual reprise of the deeply cynical memos the administration produced after 9/11. The bill would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture.
The Republicans made it clear that they’d use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. Which brings us, as ever, to SUE KELLY. Voting in lockstep, rubber stamp in hand, Sue helped the House pass this Un-American and probably unconstitutional bill. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll491.xml
. . .Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration. They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly important bill to serve the mindless politics of a midterm election: The Bush administration uses Republicans’ fear of losing their majority to push through ghastly ideas about anti-terrorism that will make American troops less safe and do lasting damage to our 217-year-old nation of laws — while actually doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists. Here are some lowlights--the worst of the worst parts of this abominable bill:
Enemy Combatants: Legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, could be subject to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted.
Habeas Corpus [established in the year 1215 AD] is no longer available: Detainees in U.S. military prisons lose the basic right to have a court (and not George Bush) determine the lawfulness of his imprisonment (i.e., habeas corpus would provide some protection from Bush and his cronies randomly pulling an individual off the street and throwing him into jail to show the world how “tough” they are on terrorism).
Judicial Review: The courts would have no power to review any aspect of this new system, except verdicts by military tribunals. All Mr. Bush would have to do to lock anyone up forever is to declare him an illegal combatant and not have a trial.
Coerced Evidence: Coerced evidence [evidence obtained by torture] would be permissible if a judge considered it reliable — already a contradiction in terms — and relevant.
Offenses: The definition of torture is unacceptably narrow, a virtual reprise of the deeply cynical memos the administration produced after 9/11. The bill would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture.
The Republicans made it clear that they’d use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. Which brings us, as ever, to SUE KELLY. Voting in lockstep, rubber stamp in hand, Sue helped the House pass this Un-American and probably unconstitutional bill. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll491.xml
. . .Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration. They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
