Posts
Re-posted, Thanks to the Liberator OnlineOn March 4 Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced one of the most tyrannical bills in modern American history: "The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010."
"It's probably the single most extremist, tyrannical and dangerous bill introduced in the Senate in the last several decades, far beyond the horrific, habeas-abolishing Military Commissions Act," says former constitutional lawyer and bestselling author Glenn Greenwald.
"It literally empowers the President to imprison anyone he wants in his sole discretion by simply decreeing them a terrorist suspect -- including American citizens arrested on U.S. soil.
"The bill requires that all such individuals be placed in military custody, and explicitly says that they 'may be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners,' which everyone expects to last decades, at least," Greenwald says.
...
Forget due process, the right to a trial, habeas corpus, and other Bill of Rights niceties. This is legalized lynching, legislated disappearing.
...
Thus far eight Senators -- including recently-elected Tea Party darling Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) -- have joined McCain and Liebermann as proud cosponsors of this monstrosity.
The fact that U.S. Senators would even dream of introducing and supporting something like this speaks volumes about American politics today. Could it become law? The Patriot Act did. The Military Commission Act did.
Perhaps one day you will be considered an "unprivileged enemy belligerent" and secretly grabbed and whisked away to some high-tech federal dungeon for making inflammatory statements like this one:
"No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ... In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."
That, of course, is from the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
And it's something that a shocking number of U.S. lawmakers no longer believe in.
[Editor's Note: We know the mainstream media help nominate McCain, but having the Twin Falls Republicans following orders from top down is unacceptable. We need a New Standard of Republicanism and we need leaders who are unplugged from the corporate media hype...Support the Restoration!]
GOP Resolution Against McCain Page 1 of 2
ReplyDeleteWHEREAS the Republican Party is founded upon the conservative political philosophy
derived from the principle that individuals are endowed not by the government, but by the
Creator, with certain unalienable rights; and
WHEREAS the Constitution of the United States is designed to guarantee the unfettered
exercise of those rights by strictly limiting the power of government, whose authority is
derived only from the consent of the governed; and
WHEREAS the Principles of Conservatism promote Liberty, Prosperity, and Individual
Freedom; and
WHEREAS the leading presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Senator John McCain,
has consistently demonstrated a record of public service counter to the philosophy and
principles of conservatism and the Republican Party as evidenced by the following facts:
1. He has a consistent pattern of shocking verbal abuse, including screaming profanities,
against Senate Republican colleagues who oppose his bills in any way; and
2. He has exercised scandalously poor judgment by intervening with the federal regulators
on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr. in the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s; and
3. He has worked against the principles of the Republican Party, promoting greatly
expanding federal regulatory authority in order to combat global warming in ways that
would greatly burden the American economy, contrary to free market forces; and
4. He has fought the Republican Party to create the Patient’s Bill of Rights, which allowed
the government to impose a set of burdensome mandates on insurance coverage; and
5. He has undermined the principles of a free market economy by voting for an amendment
that would authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement price
controls on prescription drugs under Medicare; and
6. He has worked against the Republican Party to make a mockery of the rule of law,
promoting amnesty for 20 million illegal immigrants; and
7. He has voted to subvert American Sovereignty by granting consulting rights to Mexico
concerning the erection of a southern border fence; and
8. He has undermined the Constitution and opposed the Constitutional duties of the Vice
President to break a tie on judicial nominations; and
9. He has worked against Conservative principles, undermining the First Amendment by
abridging the free speech of citizens partaking in the political process; and
10. He has consistently led efforts undermining Second Amendment rights by promoting
bills which regulate all sales at gun shows; regulations which force gun-owners to purchase
trigger locks, making their firearms useless for self-defense; regulations which restrict the
legitimate transfer of firearms over the internet; and regulations which extend the
restrictions of the Brady bill to pawn shops and gun repair shops; and
11. He has voted to use taxpayer funds to harvest stem cells from human embryos; and
GOP Resolution Against McCain Page 2 of 2
12. He has refused to take immediate and direct action to protect the life of the unborn; he
opposes the repeal of Roe v. Wade; and he opposes a constitutional amendment to protect
all human life; and
13. He sponsored and voted for a 282% tax increase on cigarettes that would have
unconstitutionally violated the First Amendment and increased the size of the federal
bureaucracy exponentially by giving the FDA unrestricted control over nicotine; and
14. He supports raising Social Security taxes; and
15. He has broken with the Republican Party in strongly opposing President Bush’s tax cuts
in 2001 and 2003. He also joined leading liberal senators in offering and voting for
amendments designed to undermine the tax cuts.