In one of the greatest attacks on civil liberties in this country’s history, Democratic and Republican Senators voted yesterday to approve a measure as part of the $662 billion defense bill that would allow for the military to hold both citizens and non-citizens indefinitely without trial — even those arrested on U.S. soil. In a welcomed change, President Obama has committed his Administration to fighting the measure as inimical to the rule of law. The measure was pushed by Carl Levin (D – Michigan) and John McCain (R – Arizona). While some members of Congress like Ron Paul (R., Texas) have denounced the bill, the measure passed at the same time that Administration lawyers publicly declared that the military and intelligence agencies alone should decide whether a citizen should be killed without a charge or hearing (including killing citizens on U.S. soil) — a position supported by President Obama who has ordered the killing of U.S. citizens under his claim of inherent authority.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, tried to pass an amendment that would have limited it to suspects captured “abroad” — a measure that still raised constitutional and international law problems. However, even that modest amendment failed on a vote of 45 to 55. Here is the voting roster, which includes Democrats Begich (D-AK), Casey (D-PA), Levin (D-MI), Inouye (D-HI), Landrieu (D-LA), Manchin (D-WV), McCaskill (D-MO), Pryor (D-AR), as well as independent Lieberman (ID-CT). A watered down amendment was then passed 99-1 that left the matter (it would appear) to the Administration. The provision merely states that nothing in the provisions could be construed to alter Americans’ legal rights. Since the Senate clearly views citizens are not just subject to indefinite detention but even execution without a trial, the change offers nothing but rhetoric to hide the harsh reality.
Virtually all Democrats and Republicans voted to strip citizens of their rights in a vote of 93-7.
What is fascinating is the Senators insisted on passing the provision despite the fact that the Directors of the FBI and CIA, the secretary of defense, and the director of national intelligence have all opposed it on national security and legal grounds. Nevertheless, people like McCaskill who are running for reelection want to prove that they are tough on terrorism by stripping citizens to the right to basic due process rights. The fact that the Democratic and Republican Senators took this step without even holding a hearing is a testament to the state of civil liberties in the United States.
It is unclear whether the President will have the integrity and courage to carry through on this pledge to veto this pernicious bill. For civil libertarians, we have reached our Alamo moment where the most basic principles of the rule of law are at stake. The Congress has long been indifferent if not hostile to civil liberties, but as discussed in an earlier column (and here), civil liberties has reached one of the lowest ebbs in both politics and policy in this country’s history. Such measures are now met with a gigantic and collective shrug from an indifferent populace.
The national debate has become positively otherworldly for civil libertarians. As the Senate set about rolling back civil liberties, Administration lawyers — CIA counsel Stephen Preston and Pentagon counsel Jeh Johnson — publicly explained to an audience this week that the decision whether to kill a U.S. citizens anywhere and anytime must be left solely to the discretion of the military and intelligence branches. President Obama has supported this view and claims the right to kill any citizen on his unilateral and unchecked executive authority. I discussed this horrific policy in a prior column (and here).
How did we come to this place? Well, it took the joint efforts of both parties and a country that has been lured into a dangerous passivity by years of war rhetoric. We now appear to define ourselves by our lifestyle rather than our rights. Being American appears to be treated as conclusory and self-evident — untethered to our defining principles. So in comes to this. The loss of the most basic right of citizens met not by applause but, even worse, a collective yawn.
Here is the Senate bill: BILLS-112s1867pcs
Source: Newser
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/trump-to-moderate-republican-debate/
anon,
I don’t need you to tell me anything.
HenMan,
is the Madison Strangler still up to his old tricks?
O.S. and Raff-
As a life-long Wisconsinite, I would like to say that Scott Walker’s lawless acts will be struck down in the courts. However, in Wisconsin, as in many other states, the majority of the Supreme Court justices no longer interpret the State Constitution. They interpret and support the whims of the Republican Party. The last 3 Supreme Court justices elected in Wisconsin were all Republicans and all three faced charges of ethics violations. None were removed from office.
Let me guess….. Did LabCorp make a big campaign
payoffcontribution to somebody?Blouise,
Heard today the Ohio legislature has a bill to drug-test welfare recepients. The leader in this, whose name I don’t remember, said something to the effect of “If they have nothing to hide. . . .” Did this sillyness go anywhere in florida?
Kasich, Ohio’s joke of a Governor and great provider of Government Welfare to needy/greedy republicans … is trying to privatize the Ohio Turnpike … all those grasping little republican businessmen who wouldn’t be able to make it in any business without the help of a government handout, are falling all over themselves trying to form a line to get the first ladle full of Turnpike soup in their tin-bowl.
(Sigh) … one more battle to fight
@rafflaw
“It is scary to think that Scalia is on the correct side of this issue! Disastrous bill and it should be vetoed. I am shocked that Levin would have voted for this piece of crap.”
Instead of being “scared” about Scalia and “shocked” about Levin, you may wish to consider this an enlightenment moment, and wonder what other sorts of bullshit you have been led to believe.
OS,
That is just one more amazing story from that criminal, Scott Walker. I cannot believe that his restrictions on the cost of someone utilizing their First Amendment rights is constitutional. He is on a very short leash and sometime next year the people of Wisconsin will be removing him.
“CALPURNIA : Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
And graves have yawn’d, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.
CAESAR : What can be avoided
Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
CALPURNIA : When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
CAESAR : Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard.
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Re-enter Servant
What say the augurers?
Servant : They would not have you to stir forth to-day.
Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
They could not find a heart within the beast.
CAESAR : The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
We are two lions litter’d in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible:
And Caesar shall go forth.
CALPURNIA : Alas, my lord,
Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.
Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear
That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
We’ll send Mark Antony to the senate-house:
And he shall say you are not well to-day:
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.
CAESAR : Mark Antony shall say I am not well,
And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.
Enter DECIUS BRUTUS
Here’s Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
DECIUS BRUTUS : Caesar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Caesar:
I come to fetch you to the senate-house.
CAESAR : And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my greeting to the senators
And tell them that I will not come to-day:
Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser:
I will not come to-day: tell them so, Decius.
CALPURNIA : Say he is sick.
CAESAR : Shall Caesar send a lie?
Have I in conquest stretch’d mine arm so far,
To be afraid to tell graybeards the truth?
Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
DECIUS BRUTUS : Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laugh’d at when I tell them so.
CAESAR : The cause is in my will: I will not come;
That is enough to satisfy the senate.
But for your private satisfaction,
Because I love you, I will let you know:
Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statua,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it:
And these does she apply for warnings, and portents,
And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begg’d that I will stay at home to-day.
DECIUS BRUTUS : This dream is all amiss interpreted;
It was a vision fair and fortunate:
Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.
This by Calpurnia’s dream is signified.
CAESAR : And this way have you well expounded it.
DECIUS BRUTUS : I have, when you have heard what I can say:
And know it now: the senate have concluded
To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
If you shall send them word you will not come,
Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
Apt to be render’d, for some one to say
‘Break up the senate till another time,
When Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams.’
If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper
‘Lo, Caesar is afraid’?
Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love
To our proceeding bids me tell you this;
And reason to my love is liable.”
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, Sc. II
SwM,
I know … the amendment votes gave cover and Brown voted “properly” on all of them but… this turning the entire country over to the CIA under the guise of “a strong defense” is totally un-American and, quite frankly, I’m so ticked off I’m willing to have the whole Senate identified as a terrorist group.
In the ongoing War Against The Constitution, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has decreed that protests of four or more people will be charged $50.00 per hour for each police officer assigned to provide security, including officers brought in from outside the city. There are other restrictions as well, but you can read about it here:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/walkers-new-plan-charge-protesters-big-money.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
On the bright side, recall petitioners have already collected more than 300K signatures of the approximately 500K needed to recall Walker.
I am amazed that Levin voted for this shit….I suppose this was a payback of some sorts….
Maybe the complacency that allowed the Third Reich to gain power, and the Neo-Con Corporatocracy to take control today, was/is really a collective catatonia. The stunning realization that even our own representatives have no intention of representing us, our military and police have no intention of protecting us, our employers have no intention of enlivening us (if one is even employed), and that our government’s emerging and overriding intention is to subdue and subtract from us. How do we go forward, unify, and empower ourselves? How long can this collective stultification last before we ultimately either succumb or revolt only time will tell it appears.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/justice_department_official_defense_bill_still_harms_counterterror_efforts.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
What a bunch of traitorous mother fuckers…let’s start with getting rid of them!
Blouise, I think the votes on the amendments were the key votes. If they voted against the entire bill, they would be viewed as being anti the troops.
Moving to Scotland (or a few other choice locations) is looking better and better these days. I worry for my kids and grandchildren.
So, you thought your Senator was one of the good guys? Read it and weep:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00218
Depressing
“The next thing that happens is a deranged Dutch Communist named Marius van der Lubbe burns down the Capitol Building and the President suspends Congress and rules by decree until the danger is over.”
HenMan,
Your mordant comment is I fear a 70/30 prospect on how this will play out in the long run. However, despite egregious errors by Obama on civil liberties, he won’t be the one in office when this occurs. That is the possible plan for the next President, who will be White and Republican. My own opinion for years has been that the country is heading for a Fascist Feudalism, spurred on by industrialists like the Koch Brothers, just as Hitler was backed by the Krupp’s and others in his bid for power.
I agree with most of the other comments here except in one respect. What is occurring here is the result of a long term conspiracy arising from way before Eisenhower cautioned us to beware of the Military/Industrial Complex. A strain of thought running through American politics has always held that running the government is too complex a task to be left to the whims of the people. This loosely connected group sees themselves as not only the ones with sufficient understanding of the “needs” of this country, but also as the creators of its greatness. To their minds they are the Elite and thus the natural rulers.
In the broad realm of foreign policy and terrorism the Elite believes that they truly understand the dangers to this country and that is why you get seemingly level headed Senators voting for this abomination. Through “inside” briefings, by purported experts, they have become convinced that the dangers to this country are far greater than reality indicates and so require extraordinary measures to keep us safe. Many of these “insiders” have been swayed by “Top Secret” information that is skewed to frighten them.
In the end what is really going on is massive ego-centrism on the part of the
Elite, that allows them to self-justify their actions and move us all towards a
Feudal State that is Fascist in nature. They see this as democracy, not in its modern sense, but as it was practiced in Athens, where voting was limited to a narrowly defined citizenry that thought themselves the only ones with the perceptiveness to lead.
I can’t blame the America people for their indifference and their eagerness to be led astray. Propaganda practiced on a large scale can convince anyone of anything, especially if you scare them first. The propaganda of the frightening “other” is a timeworn method of controlling the majority of populations and having them accede to the most horrible things.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/newt-gingrichs-neocon-army.php