Friday, September 29, 2006

A BLACK DAY FOR AMERICA RawStory: "The US Senate has passed the Detainee Treatment and Trials bill (S. 3930) by a vote of 65-34. Twelve Democrats voted in favor of the Senate bill: Tom Carper (DE), Tim Johnson (SD), Mary Landrieu (LA), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Joe Lieberman (CT), Bob Menendez (NJ), Bill Nelson (FL), Ben Nelson (NE), Mark Pryor (AR), Jay Rockefeller (WV), Ken Salazar (CO), and Debbie Stabenow (MI) One Republican, Lincoln Chafee (RI), and the lone independent, Jim Jeffords (VT), voted against the bill. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) did not cast a vote." This means that Congress has given Bush the right to torture and detain people forever. But it is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court will have to intervene. Firedoglake: "Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution states as follows: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. It expressly forbids suspension of the writ of habeas corpus except under very specific and highly limited circumstances - and as we are neither dealing with a case of rebellion or invasion at the time of this attempted enactment of this torture law in Congress, I am really wondering on what leg they propose to stand when arguing constitutionality at the first legal challenge to this law." Firedoglake: "Retired CIA officer Larry Johnson, in conjunction with 16 other intelligence professionals, has posted a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee: 'No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years, hard years, tells us that.'" UnclaimedTerritory: "During the debate on his amendment, Arlen Specter said that the bill sends us back 900 years because it denies habeas corpus rights and allows the President to detain people indefinitely. He also said the bill violates core Constitutional protections. Then he voted for it." Huffington: "It's a red-letter day for the country. It's also a telling day for our political system. The people have lost confidence in their president. Despite that small recent uptick in the polls, Bush remains deeply unpopular with the American public, mistrusted by a majority, widely considered out of touch with the nation's real priorities. But he's still got Congress wrapped around his little finger." One last comment: this is also the last nail in George W. Bush's coffin. He has personally chosen to breach the Constitution and must be held responsible for that. It is treason which deserves the ultimate penalty. George W. Bush must stand trial for this in the US and before the International Criminal Court for his war crimes. 12:44:59 PM

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