Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives voted to approve legislation that would do the following things:
- revoke habeas corpus
- create a secret committee appointed by Bush and Rumsfeld that has the power to declare any person - even a US citizen - to be an enemy, instantly depriving them of their legal rights. There will be no appeal allowed.
- allow police to search your home without a search warrant
- revoke protection of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions
- give George W. Bush amnesty for any war crimes he has committed
- allow for people to be put on trial in front of a kangaroo court military tribunal, even if they aren’t in any military, and have not engaged in military attacks against the USA
- allow the government to convict people of crimes on the basis of secret evidence that the accused never sees
- make it legal for the government to use testimony extracted through torture
- end the legal right to be protected from forced self-incrimination
- allow the government to imprison people without telling them what crimes they are being charged with
- remove the right to cross-examine witnesses
- allow for the records of trials to be kept secret from the American public
- enable trials to begin even before a thorough investigation of the alleged crime has taken place
- take away the right to a speedy trial
Almost every Republican, with a few courageous exceptions, voted for this legislation.
34 Democratic traitors voted for it too.
For the record, the following are the Democratic members of Congress who voted for this bill to take away huge numbers of your freedoms:
Robert Andrews of New Jersey
John Barrow of Georgia
Melissa Bean of Illinois
Sanford Bishop of Georgia
Dan Boren of Oklahoma
Leon Boswell of Iowa
Allen Boyd of Florida
Sherrod Brown of Ohio
Ben Chandler of Kentucky
Bud Cramer of Alabama
Henry Cuellar of Texas
Artur Davis of Alabama
Lincoln Davis of Tennessee
Chet Edwards of Texas
Bob Etheridge of North Carolina
Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee
Bart Gordon of Tennessee
Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota
Brian Higgins of New York
Tim Holden of Pennsylvania
Jim Marshall of Georgia
Jim Matheson of Utah
Mike McIntyre of North Carolina
Charles Melancon of Louisiana
Michael Michaud of Maine
Dennis Moore of Kansas
Collin Peterson of Minnesota
Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota
Michael Ross of Arkansas
John Salazar of Colorado
David Scott of Georgia
John Spratt of South Carolina
John Tanner of Tennessee
Bennie Taylor of Mississippi
These Democrats didn’t just betray their supporters. They betrayed the democratic values of the United States of America.
If you are a Democrat represented by one of these Democrats, you ought to know that your representative is up for re-election this year… and does not deserve your vote.
