The Hall of Shame

I thought you'd like to know exactly who sold the soul of America in the name of "security."

Yesterday, at 6:37pm, the Senate voted to pass the Bush
Administration's Military Commission Act of 2006 without amendment. 
What does that mean?  

• They threw out habeas corpus for detainees (even if they are
  American citizens, even if they are detained on American soil, and even
  though it flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution).
• They rejected the amendment to provide Congressional oversight
  for certain CIA programs (thus providing no check to the power of the
  CIA)
• They decided not to place limits on the time military commissions (a.k.a. kangaroo courts) will be used for detainees.
• They rejected an amendment that would have offered legal protections to U.S. persons captured and tortured across enemy lines.
• They loosened the check on governmental power by giving the
  president power to establish specific permissible interrogation
  techniques.

The unamended Military Commission bill passed through the Senate by
a vote of 65 to 34.  All but one Republican voted in favor of the
bill.  That one, Sen. Snowe – ME, didn't vote at all.  12 Democrats
(mostly in hotly contested states) gave their "Yea" to the bill –
abdicating their own moral leadership and deciding instead to trust
Sen. McCain, who brokered the deal with the Bushies to pass the bill in
meetings last week.

So, they've done it.  I can barely
believe it but Bush is expected to sign this bill into law today and
once that pen hits the paper and scribbles George W. Bush on "the dotted line" we will live in a different world:

• A world where the rule of law is weakened on U.S. soil
• A world where Americans can legally be held without recourse for crimes they didn't commit.
• A world where Americans are expected to live under these
  conditions for as long as "the war on terror" persists – which will be for generations. 

Andrew Sullivan said in a 9/27/06 blog:

"The system we're talking about is to do with wartime. A president in
the past has had the option of seizing enemy combatants on a
battlefield and detaining them without charge as POWs. There's no
threat to liberty there. What's new is that in this war, enemy
combatants have been designated as such not just on the battlefield –
but anywhere in the world. What's new is that they are no longer
entitled to POW status. What's new is that this war is for ever. So any
changes are not just for a time-limited emergency but threaten to alter
basic balances in constitutional order. What's also new is that torture
is now allowed on the down-low, on the president's authority. And
what's also new is that an enemy combatant may or may not be an
American citizen.

 

Put all that together and you really do have the danger of taking
emergency measures for wartime and transforming a peace-time
constitution into an essentially martial system, where every citizen or
non-citizen can be apprehended at will and detained without charge. I
repeat: this is a huge deal."

So, I thought you'd like to know exactly who sold the soul of America in the name of "security." 

Because we believe every person is created in the image of God and endowed
with inalienable rights, we say "Shame on you!"  And for the Republican Senators and the 12 Democrats who abdicated their moral leadership for the sake
of re-election, we mount this Hall of Shame in your honor.  And we set
you on notice, November 7th is coming.

Grouped By Vote Position:

YEAs voted in favor of Bush's soul swap.

NAYs voted against it.