{"id":82,"date":"2006-09-28T09:39:28","date_gmt":"2006-09-28T16:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts-wp\/?p=82"},"modified":"2011-09-03T10:41:40","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T17:41:40","slug":"weve-lost-all-credibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/2006\/09\/weve-lost-all-credibility\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;ve lost all credibility&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a nation, we continue down a road of insignificance.&nbsp; Yesterday the House of Representatives passed HR 6166.&nbsp; This resolution allows the following things: (from the sidebar of this CNN Article)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Requires that a defendant being tried by military commission have access to any evidence given to a jury.<\/li>\n<li>Drops a section of the administration&#8217;s previous proposal that stated an existing ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment satisfies the nation&#8217;s obligations under the Geneva Conventions.<\/li>\n<li>Prohibits &#8220;grave breaches&#8221; of the Geneva Conventions. Defines grave breaches as acts such as torture, rape, biological experiments and cruel and inhuman treatment.<\/li>\n<li>Notes the president has the authority to interpret &#8220;the meaning and application&#8221; of the Geneva Conventions.<\/li>\n<li>Allows hearsay evidence.<\/li>\n<li>Allows coerced testimony if the statement was acquired before a 2005 ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and a judge finds it to be reliable. Bans coerced statements taken after the 2005 ban went into effect if it violates constitutional definitions of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.<\/li>\n<li>Bars individuals from protesting violations of Geneva Conventions standards in court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(Bullet points from the Associated Press)<\/p>\n<p>We are flaunting years of international agreements.&nbsp; We are damaging America&#8217;s reputation with the rest of the world.&nbsp; We are endangering our soldiers in future conflicts.&nbsp; And for a country that is supposably &#8220;Christian,&#8221; we are not acting like it.&nbsp; We will not be able to undo this legislation.&nbsp; Even if the Democrats try to change it after the mid-term elections, they will not have enough votes to over rule a Presidential veto. Plus 34 Democrats voted for this resolution (names and states represented below the cut).&nbsp; More than likely the Senate will pass this as well today and Bush will quickly sign it into law.<\/p>\n<p>Why doesn&#8217;t American care?&nbsp; What can we do?&nbsp; Are we going to see a theocratic American in my lifetime?&nbsp; These are my fears.&nbsp; Its almost as if some of the &#8220;Christian right&#8221; are trying to speed along the rapture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>US Senator Russ Feingold&#8217;s statement <em>In Opposition to the Military Commissions Act<\/em><\/p>\n<p>US Senator John Kerry speaks out as well as reported on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.thedemocraticdaily.com\/?p=4314\">The Democratic Daily<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>US Senator Hillary Clinton speaks as reported on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.crooksandliars.com\/2006\/09\/28\/hillary-clinton-says-no-to-torture\/\">Crooks and Liars<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>US Senator Barak Obama speaks as reported on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/atrios.blogspot.com\/2006_09_24_atrios_archive.html#115947158222373263\">Eschaton<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Update: The Bill passes the Senate 65-34.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>These are the Democratic Representatives that voted for the Resolution:<\/p>\n<p>Robert E. Andrews (NJ)<br \/>John Barrow (GA)<br \/>Melissa L. Bean (IL)<br \/>Sandford D. Bishop Jr. (GA)<br \/>Dan Boren (OK)<br \/>Leonard L. Boswell (IA)<br \/>Allen Boyd (FL)<br \/>Corrine Brown (OH)<br \/>Ben Chandler (KY)<br \/>Robert E. (Bud) Cramer Jr. (AL)<br \/>Henry Cuellar (TX)<br \/>Artur Davis (AL)<br \/>Lincoln Davis (TN)<br \/>Chet Edwards (TX)<br \/>Bob Etheridge (NC)<br \/>Harold E. Ford Jr. (TN)<br \/>Bart Gordon (TN)<br \/>Stephanie Herseth (SD)<br \/>Brian Higgins (NY)<br \/>Tim Holden (PA)<br \/>Jim Marshall (GA)<br \/>Jim Matheson (UT)<br \/>Mike McIntyre (NC)<br \/>Charlie Melancon (LA)<br \/>Michael H. Michaud (ME)<br \/>Dennis Moore (KS)<br \/>Collin C.Peterson (MN)<br \/>Earl Pomeroy (ND)<br \/>Mike Ross (AR)<br \/>John T. Salazar (CO)<br \/>David Scott (GA)<br \/>John M. Spratt Jr. (SC)<br \/>John S. Tanner (TN)<br \/>Gene Taylor (MS)<\/p>\n<p>Senate facts about the bill: (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/glenngreenwald.blogspot.com\/2006\/09\/george-bushs-vast-new-powers-of.html\">from Glenn Greenwald&#8217;s Blog<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Democrats in favor (12)<\/u><\/strong> &#8211; Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.) <\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Republicans against (1)<\/u><\/strong> &#8211; Chafee (R.I.).<\/p>\n<p>Jeffords (Independent) voted against. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a nation, we continue down a road of insignificance.&nbsp; Yesterday the House of Representatives passed HR 6166.&nbsp; This resolution allows the following things: (from the sidebar of this CNN Article) Requires that a defendant being tried by military commission have access to any evidence given to a jury. Drops a section of the administration&#8217;s &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/2006\/09\/weve-lost-all-credibility\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[193,359,49],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-global-world","tag-government","tag-human-rights","tag-politics","item-wrap"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/upload\/\/app_1_220086724709892_1567717122.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhinoblues.com\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}