The slow restoration of constitutional rights begins.
The Senate Armed Services Commitee has passed legislation “that would grant new rights to terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including access to a lawyer regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial.” It would also “narrow the definition of an enemy combatant and tighten restrictions on the types of evidence used to prosecute and keep a person detained.” The legislation “has raised red flags at the White House as potential veto bait.”
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38 Responses to “The slow restoration of constitutional rights begins.”
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Yes Bush will veto it, because he loves to have people tortured at GITMO and deny them any legal rights.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:02 pmit occurs to me that now that he knows about that veto thing chimpboy figured out that it’s more fun than most other things he can do with a pen.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:08 pmWhy do I have very little confidence that this will go anywhere…?
May 25th, 2007 at 11:11 pmYep! Leave it to the tiny mind’s of the reich winger’s to use a pen… Atlest Clinten thought b
May 25th, 2007 at 11:14 pmig and went for the cigar…Blessings
slooooooooowwwwww….
May 25th, 2007 at 11:17 pmWell, there you have it. Bush is going to threaten a veto. Democrats can’t override a veto, so they won’t even try.
Hell, why didn’t they filibuster the Military Commissions Act in the first place? They’re just as complicit in Bush’s War Crimes as Bush Himself.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:50 pmWhy is it we even have to talk about restoring Constitutional rights?
May 25th, 2007 at 11:52 pmHell, why didn’t they filibuster the Military Commissions Act in the first place? They’re just as complicit in Bush’s War Crimes as Bush Himself.
Comment by Briseadh na Faire
Yep.
May 25th, 2007 at 11:53 pmThe World Turned Upside Down
(Tradition has it that when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown (1781) the British played this tune. )
May 25th, 2007 at 11:58 pmWhy is it we even have to talk about restoring Constitutional rights?
Comment by Briseadh na Faire
Exactly. I don’t even recognize this country anymore!
May 25th, 2007 at 11:59 pmWhy is it we even have to talk about restoring Constitutional rights?
Comment by Briseadh na Faire
Exactly. I don’t even recognize this country anymore!
Comment by Zooey
Yep. ‘Bout time for a troll to show up, yes?
May 26th, 2007 at 12:02 amYep. ‘Bout time for a troll to show up, yes?
Comment by the republic of stupidity
You have just summoned at least one troll — it’s on your head!
May 26th, 2007 at 12:07 amHell, why didn’t they filibuster the Military Commissions Act in the first place? They’re just as complicit in Bush’s War Crimes as Bush Himself.
Comment by Briseadh na Faire
Yep +1.
Glad to see that more and more people are realizing that Democrats are just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans are.
BTW, I don’t see “Anonymous” Democratic Senators blocking votes via the magic secret hold that was used on the recent FOIA bill by an “Anonymous” Republican Senator.
I’m telling you guys, via the plethora of information available on the Internet, it’s becoming clearly evident that all US politics is NOTHING but theater to manipulate the masses. I’ve more or less felt this way for a long time, but I now realize that it’s far more prevalent then I ever could have imagined.
IT’S ALL STAGED!
May 26th, 2007 at 12:08 amYep. ‘Bout time for a troll to show up, yes?
Comment by the republic of stupidity
You have just summoned at least one troll — it’s on your head!
Comment by Zooey
blah, blah, blah…libtards…blah, blah, blah…surrender…blah, blah, blah…moonbats…blah, blah, blah…islamofacists…blah, blah, blah…
May 26th, 2007 at 12:10 amThere… are ya happy now?
May 26th, 2007 at 12:11 amThere… are ya happy now?
Comment by JPV
With that “troll?” Yes.
Heh.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:14 amHey, I didn’t do anything. I could just feel it coming, that’s all.
Whenever it rains, I can feel it coming hrs ahead of time. I am rarely if ever wrong. I drive my friends crazy when we watch movies. I’m forever telling them what’s coming or going to be said next.
I could just smell a troll hiding in the woodpile, that’s all.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:16 amIs it just me, or do the regular trolls seem to stop posting after business hours?
May 26th, 2007 at 12:29 amJPV, sometimes Mikey works overtime. Actually, I know nobody pays him. If Republicans are nothing else, they ARE good businessmen and Mikey doesn’t do anything to earn a living.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:38 amF*** THE WHITE HOUSE !!!
F*** ANY ‘ POTENTIAL ‘ VETO BULLSH*T !!!
SCREW THAT RED FLAG CRAP !!!
DO THE RIGHT GD THING !!!
JEEBUS CONGRESS IT IS TIME TO GROW A SET AND MAN THE F*** UP !!!!
May 26th, 2007 at 12:40 amHell, why didn’t they filibuster the Military Commissions Act in the first place? They’re just as complicit in Bush’s War Crimes as Bush Himself.
Comment by Briseadh na Faire
Lapdogs that roll over on queue is the only trick they know after the last 6 years. Problem is that too many of the Democrats in office went along for the last 6 years. Not one fillibuster supported. Those are the ones we need real progressives to run against and replace themwith someone that will DO THE RIGHT THING.
The Souix have something they say, when entering a sweatlodge and during other spiritual activities.
Mitake Oyasin, which means literally All my relations. It is meant universally, that we are all related. Not only to all people, but to every part of the earth and its life.
We need people that will look to the future and do the right thing for now and for future generations
Too many of the Democrats currently in office as well as most of the republicans need to be removed from office. Too many are owned to Big Money ( Organized Crime ).
Mitake Oyasin.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:45 amThe legislation “has raised red flags at the White House as potential veto bait.â€
The justice alert must be sounding right now.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:23 amToo many of the Democrats currently in office as well as most of the republicans need to be removed from office. Too many are owned to Big Money ( Organized Crime ).
Mitake Oyasin.
Comment by Wayne
That’s why I keep saying it’s time to RICO the friggin’ lot of ‘em.
I found it appropriately ironci that one of the bribes Duke Cunningham took was that antique French toilet. Kind of a fitting symblo for the whole shitty mess. In the end I was a lttile stunned at how LITTLE he actually willing to sell himself and the country away for.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:51 amThe Senate Armed Services Commitee has passed legislation “that would grant new rights to terror suspects held […]
Do they have any rights now?
And of course the White House sees this as veto material: The plebeians actually believed their rights were inalienable and now are rebelling against their Dear (mis)Leader.
Next thing you know, these commoners will demand to exercise their right to vote and that it be counted. Imagine the nerve.
May 26th, 2007 at 1:59 amGee, next thing you know they’ll start abiding by the Geneva convention and the Constitution and then the formerly great United States of America will be able to go back to being the sweet land of liberty that we used to know. What a novel and refreshing thought!
May 26th, 2007 at 2:36 amWhat constitutional rights does a non US citizen, on foreign soil, enjoy? What foreign nation’s laws are we subject to in the US?
May 26th, 2007 at 2:43 amIs it just me, or do the regular trolls seem to stop posting after business hours?
Comment by JPV — May 26, 2007 @ 12:29 am
Sorry I’m late, just left a D-Backs game and had to stop to watch a really lame peace demonstration near downtown Phoenix. At least the old folks are out making some noise, seems all the young ones are home banging on their keyboards like a chimpanzee.
May 26th, 2007 at 3:01 amThey’re called “Treaties” and we are a party to some of them. You should look them up. Under the U.S. Constitution, Treaties are part of the “supreme law of the land.”
In addition, there is an aspect of international law that goes beyond treaties. It’s called “jus cogens” and means an internationally accepted standard of behavior from which no country will be allowed to deviate. The prohibition against torture is so universal as to be a jus cogens of international law. In other words, even if a country legalizes the use of torture, the international community retains the right to hold the leaders of that country liable in an International Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity.
What you are arguing for is the right of the United States to kidnap foreign nationals, hold them in secret prisons off shore and torture them. If your position prevails, then every foreign country can legally do the same to U.S. citizens traveling abroad, or even kidnap citizens from their homes and take them away to some secret prison beyond the reach of any law and any standard of behavior.
The sad fact of the matter is, whenever any foreign person or group kidnaps or captures an American, then tortures and kills that American, they can truthfully say that America does the same thing to foreigners.
May 26th, 2007 at 4:41 amOhio inmate took twice as long to die
whatever the stuff you use for lethal injections its torture
A dog is put down more humanly
May 26th, 2007 at 5:09 amThis is good for encouraging the poor and misunderstood terrorists…
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
terrorists must have success
otherwise they were framed
May 26th, 2007 at 5:33 amin evil government plot
.
I personally would appreciate some rights being restored to ME> I am an American citizen just like Jessica Lynch. This war over in Iraq, disenfranchised people like me from the American health system albeit with a true lifelong disability. I pay for all my care now. Thanks Iraq thanks Bush et Cheney……. Thanks American senators and congresspeople,,,,,,,,, You do not even know the damage you are creating at home.
May 26th, 2007 at 6:47 amfrom The Smoking Gun two days ago
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/ archive/ years/ 2007/ 0524072torture1.html
MAY 24–In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like “blowtorch to the skin†and “eye removal.†Along with the images, which you’ll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters … (in) a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an “al-Qaeda torture chamber.â€
May 26th, 2007 at 7:55 am1. Our rights aren’t “Constitutional” rights—our rights, according to Jefferson and our founders come from our Creator.
2. The purpose of the government is to protect our unalienable rights.
3. A government which not only fails to protect our unalienable rights, but systematically violates them is a tyranny.
4. You do not “reform” a tyranny from within; you rip it out completely, roots and all.
5. WE THE PEOPLE change the government spotlighting it’s illegitimacy…and non-cooperation. General strikes, et. al…like Gandhi. Violence is not only wrong, but it is for pathetic immoral losers like the tyrants who rule this country and occupy Iraq. Violence also doesn’t work.
Let’s “restore” our Constitution by exposing and removing the tyrants. All of them.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:19 amWhat constitutional rights does a non US citizen, on foreign soil, enjoy? What foreign nation’s laws are we subject to in the US?
If you were an American, you would be familiar with the Declaration of Independence which declared that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights. (The “Bill of Rights” doesn’t grant us rights; it simply enumerates some of them.) That is, the government doesn’t grant rights—it protects them. And rights aren’t reserved for U.S. citizens. Our Creator (Nature or God) didn’t single out Americans for unalienable rights.
Everyone has rights.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:22 amWhy doesn’t congress just go home and play with their grandkids or whatever?
May 26th, 2007 at 11:14 amThey’re called “Treaties†and we are a party to some of them. You should look them up. Under the U.S. Constitution, Treaties are part of the “supreme law of the land.â€
Comment by Briseadh na Faire — May 26, 2007 @ 4:41 am
And what treaty was negotiated and ratified with a quasi-religious group of stateless individuals seeking our conversion at the “point of a swordâ€? What “international law†was Saddam Hussein operating under? How about Osama Bin Laden? Why don’t they have to “play by the rulesâ€? Do the Somalis retain the right to commit honor killings in Minnesota because it may be recognized in their home country? They have a lawyer arguing that case right now. “International law.â€
May 26th, 2007 at 1:56 pmYou seem to want to “play the game†according to the rules while allowing your opponent to make up the rules as they go along. Sadly, it isn’t a game though is it? There are actually people that mean you harm, and aren’t the slightest bit interested in your rules. On your headstone I’ll engrave “But I was better than them!â€.
Nothing like having a sociopath in the White House.
May 26th, 2007 at 2:34 pmTerrorists having more rights than average Americans. What a joke.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:58 pm