Important stuff
Please make some calls on the Habeas Restoration amendment today as well. (S.185 has morphed into S.2022 as a potential amendment to the defense bill currently under debate.) I am told through the Congressional grapevine that a vote on the amendment is likely for Tuesday — that’s tomorrow! — and that pressure needs to especially be applied to the following Senators: Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Hagel, Lugar, Craig, Collins, Snowe, Coleman, Voinavich, Sununu, Landrieu, Gordon Smith, and Alexander.
Please, call your own Senators and voice your support for the restoration of habeas rights and respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. And throw in an extra call or two for the Senators on the waffling list above. For why this is important — and why it needs our support now — read here.
So to all you Mainiacs, Hoosiers, Nebraskans, etc., please take the time to call your respective senators and tell them to vote “YES” on the Habeas Restoration Act. We need to fix the damage that the Bush administration has inflicted on our country over the past six-plus years, and passing this act is a perfect place to start.
Okay, even with those “waverers” firmly in the YES column, I’m still not seeing how this gets to the 60 votes likely needed for cloture, let alone the 67 necessary to override the President’s veto. I mean, really, what sort of pressure can we bring to bear when “Democrats want to give special rights to terrorists” will be thrown around yet again, and yet again there will be no effective counterattack? But I guess it’s important to at least make Mr. Twenty-something Percent and the Republican minority demonstrate how much they hate the Constitution. Just as all that masterful public pressure by Congressional Democrats shamed Republicans into supporting the Webb amendment, aka “Support the Troops, Puppies, Babies, and Apple Pie.” No? Well, at least all the headlines have been screaming “Senate Repubs Flip Bird at Military Families.” No? Huh. Then what the fuck is the point of all this “showmanship,” when no show ever actually occurs?
I’ve been beating on these clowns for months now. I’ve got DiFi and Babs, so my local senators are firmly on board. But I’ve been bugging the snot out of ’em so much I actually got a non-autogenerated email from Pat Leahy’s office. Keep up the pressure…
mikey
Er, well, okay, if this actually happens, and Senate Democrats are prepared to go to the cots for genuine Filibuster Theater about anything, I’ll take it all back.
Already dropped a note to Sen. Reed this morning as per Crooks & Liars. I know he already favors it, but, you know, keep at ’em.
It’s worth it, mds — mikey’s experience is not unique. I’ve had responses from senators on the other side of the country. As for “no effective counterattack,” I see one pretty good one: Every single elected official swore to uphold the Constitution. We claim to value and honor it, but through both action and inaction, we have desecrated it. Enough is enough; we believe in the Constitution and we want it back. It’s only showmanship if it’s a lie.
On the other hand, if we leave well enough alone, eventually President Hitlery can send Mark Steyn to Club Gitmo, which, compared to his current situation, would really work out quite well for him.
That’s a good argument Mortician. I go with this:
This is not about THEM. It is not about whether they are criminals, or warfighters, soldiers or murderers. It is not about whether they DESERVE the “priviledges” of the Geneva convention, let alone whether they even HAVE rights under the American Justice system. This is not about war and peace, or law and justice.
This is about us. Who we are. What do we mean when we call ourselves American? What kind of society do we want to have? And once we arrive at an answer, the rules can’t change. In order for the rules to count for anything, they have to be inviolate, set in stone. We know we don’t want to be Stalinist Russia or Mao’s China. We know who we aspire to be. We understand our values and our traditions. We must not let fear and hatred change our precious society. We must aggressively defend the rights of those we most fear and loathe, for to do anything less makes a mockery out of the courage of past heroes, renders meaningless the blood of our brothers and fathers.
Because if we win the war but along the way we lose our identity, if we live, but in so doing are somehow lessened, if we become that which we are fighting, then we don’t win. They do. We lose.
American values have been worth the shedding of blood over the centuries. This is a tradition we honor and keep. How can those values not be worth a little risk?
mikey
amen brother
Did I fall asleep and miss something? The presnint suspended habeus corpus and no one said anything. Dear me, this is tragic. I know slippy slidey slopes when i sees them. You give them bastards an inch and they take a whole gallon. I’ll have none of it… Really. Don’t you think we should challenge it in the Supreme Court????? just wondering.
Take my habeus corpus and pretty soon they’ll be spying on us like we were dirty fucking hippies or something. I got an idea. let’s all go down to the courthouse and burn us some fags, I mean flags. Sorry, and yeah, everybody bring one of your gay friends, and a Mexican too. We”ll sing songs and smoke pot and make love in the park. SNAP!
You want to know something really sad and it really isn’t anything against anyone, but I have yet (in 50yrs) to even begin to feel like something is being accomplished besides the same old shit with different labels every few years. Forgive me my cynicism, but that is me and I’ve been at it for a long long time. Habeus Corpus, shit people, this is a given. I truly am amazed that Congress is voting on this. Who would vote against it?
Are we that far gone that we have to call our Senators to remind them to maybe uphold The Constitution. This is exactly what has been going on for pretty much my whole life. I call it, “Oh shit, what the fuck did those morons do now,” and then I go on until the next, “Oh shit, what the fuck did those morons do now,” moment. ad infinitum
I have to wrap this bumblefuck up and I will by saying that over the course of my life every president (starting with Johnson because I was just formulating sentences when Kennedy and Eisenhower did their terms) except Carter has done something major enough, in my mind, to deserve impeachment. And, no, it wasn’t the BJ for Clinton… And, yes, this asshole of a president makes the rest look like saints.
sorry about the rant, but even cynics get pissed.
sorry about the rant, but even cynics get pissed.
Yes. We do. And I do appreciate the rant Ebon.