- Am I missing something or did the Military Commissions
Act pass the Senate using fuzzy math? Please explain to me how 65
votes out of 99 Senate votes cast equals two thirds majority? Seems they
missed by one vote.
-
- According to the link at Wikipedia (below) the Torture
Bill breezed through the House of Representatives with a passing vote.
Such luminaries as Florida representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, self-styled
critic of Cuba' s torture regime, voted to continue the US government-sponsored
torture sessions at Quantanamo prison in Cuba. Not content with Gitmo,
IRL and her co-conspirators voted to add MORE torture provisions to the
US government here in the country that gave her shelter. From torture.
-
- Then the good old boys in the Senate got to vote on the
Torture Bill. Championed by other victims of torture like John McCain,
they followed the example of Ros-Lehtinen, figuring that what was good
for Communist military dictatorships overseas must be good for America
.
-
- So these worthies stomped on the Bill of Rights and
pissed on the graves of REAL patriots like Madison, Jefferson and Franklin,
and passed a bill into law allowing state security (SS) orgs to arrest
anyone, torture them and hold them indefinitely without recourse.
-
- But wait.
-
- Did the law really pass?
-
- I counted 65 votes of approval from the Reichstag,
I mean Senate. Here are the House votes (HR 6166) and the US Senate votes
(S3930).
-
-
- To pass, the Senate would have needed at least 67 Ayes.
Or 66-33 if one senator abstained. Correct? GOP Senators Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.),
Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) signaled their support
but, at the last minute, Snowe dodged the vote by being absent. Guess the
good people of Maine must have flooded her office with calls. Thank
you Maine .
-
- At least two-dozen former military leaders penned a letter
to the Senate Armed Services Committee outlining their objections to the
bill (But, who gives a damn what high-ranking military leaders think, right?)
They rightly believed the bill would put U.S. military personnel---captured
soldiers as prisoners of war--- at risk in current and future military
conflicts. Some expressed their concern that the bill would weaken the
moral authority of the U.S. in the War on Terror.
-
- But NEARLY two thirds of US Senators, lacking in spine
and moral authority, and having no grasp of history or the US Constitution
(That goddamned piece of paper), decided to vote for 666, otherwise known
as the Military Commissions Act.
-
- BUT wait once again. They were still a few quislings
short.
-
- 34 Senators voted No while Olympia Snowe remained a no
show. So, it seems as if the Act never passed and whatever goddamned piece
of paper GWB signed into law was illegal.
-
- USAF veteran and Constitutional Rights Scholar (actually
just an Intern) Douglas Herman writes regularly for Rense. Email him if
you know how the MCA passed. Douglasherman7@yahoo.com
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