| Wednesday, October 18, 2006 |
| The Congress that lost the Constitution |
 When the history of the 109th Congress is written, they will go down in American lore as the body that swept us backward more than 200 years, handing George Bush Jr. the powers the Founding Fathers quite deliberately took away from King George III.
Under the newly passed Military Commissions Act of 2006 (Wikipedia version here), the president of the United States has the unilateral power, unchecked by any court, or even by the flaccid Congress itself, to arrest and detain any person, citizen or non-citizen, hold them as an "enemy combatant," subject them to "water boarding" and other torture techniquest to obtain a "confession," try them before a military commission without telling them why, or presenting evidence against them to their attorneys (assuming he allows them to be represented by an attorney of their choice,) obtain a conviction based on evidence derived from torture (indemnify the participants in that torture from prosecution,) and subject the detainee to the death penalty. And the president can do this, not only for suspected terrorism, but also for the crime of "providing material support to terrorists." If you are one of the many journalists routinely derided by the authoritarian crowd as stoking jihadis by not writing pro-Bush propaganda about the war or the so-called "war on terror," that last part should ring particularly bitterly in your ears.
This Congress, including the so-called "moderate" Republicans who capitulated to it, the rabid, right wing GOPers who pused it, the weaselly Democrats who supported it, and those who failed to stop it with a fillibuster (not to mention the Democrats who were strangely silent after its signing), will go down as the most feckless, the most cowardly, and the most brazenly disdainful of the Constitution of any that has sat on Capitol Hill. They threw away their power, and handed dictatorial powers to the president, not because it somehow makes the country better -- and despite the fact that this bill, by suspending habeas corpus, violates the plain language of the Constitution -- but because they believe it will help them stay elected. Our rights, and the one thing that separates this country even from our allies, making us special -- our Constitution -- tossed aside by a den of cowards and thieves simply for political expediency, and we have to suspect, to keep the doors open to their own hog-slovenly graft.
Among the few heroes in this sordid mess were Senators Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, Jay Rockefellar and Carl Levin, who pushed hard for amendments that would have sunsetted the bill, preserved habeas corpus, and outlawed waterboarding and other torture techniques. (Ole Arlen pushed an amendment too, but when it failed, he voted for the damned bill anyway...) They were also among the few Democrats who had the guts to come out against the bill publicly. For all his "liar liar" tough talk, I didn't hear a peep from once and future presidential also-ran John Kerry. (On the House side, I'm proud to say our South Florida congressmen, Kendrick Meek, Alcee Hastings and Debbie Wasserman-Scultz, along with Tim Ryan in Ohio, Ben Cardin in Maryland and other Dems, were among the 170 patriots who voted no.)
Meanwhile, the likes of John Ashcroft says we'll just have to trust President Bush not to abuse his powers. And as awful a president as he is, I guess we'll also have to trust that we the voters don't do even worse than him, and that the next president, and the next, and the next, can be "trusted" to only waterboard the "bad people," too. And his successor? Oh, he's the guy who wrote a memo saying it's perfectly acceptable for the U.S. to put aside the "quaint" niceties of the Geneva Conventions so long as we don't cause organ failure in our detainees.
So now, under this mad president and this shameful Congress, the federal government has the power to:
Check your library reading and even access your credit report without your knowledge (USA Patriot Act II)
Conduct a "sneak and peek" search of your home without ever informing you they were there (Patriot Act II)
Compel others, including your frriends, employer and your ISP, to turn over information about you to the government (Patriot Act II)
Arrest you and hold you for trial as an "enemy combatant" on the whim of the president and his self-appointed "judicial board" (Military Commissions Act of 2006)
Subject you to the death penalty without ever telling you what you are being charged with or what evidence they have that you are a terrorist (Military Commissions Act)
Track your phone, cellphone or email account, whether or not you are an American citizen (NSA warrantless surveilance program)
And now, theye're coming for your ISP. The latest wrinkle is that the Bush FBI wants to track what you're doing on the Internet.
Oh, but only "the terrorists" will be targeted ... not the good people who support the president.
That's what we're down to, America.
Congratulations.
Update:Just for posterity, here were the Senate "no" votes:
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island was the only Republican no voter. Even my favorite Republican, Chuck Hagel, voted for this monstrosity. What a disappointment. (Olympia Snowe sat out the vote).
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Tags: Keith Olbermann, CountDown, MSNBC, War On Terror, News, Politics, Bush, habeas corpus |
posted by JReid @ 1:25 PM   |
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