The Geneva Conventions, which have the force of law in the United States, require government to investigate officials who organize programs of torture. Why won’t Attorney General Eric Holder comply with the law?
Many Democrats currently in Congress capitulated to George W. Bush back in 2006 and voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act. It seems that many of these Democrats are too ashamed of their own moral weakness to work to undo their past mistakes.
The Special Criminal Contempt of Congress Procedures Act provides another route through which congressional checks against the Executive Branch can be reasserted. The act provides the ability to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue contempt charges when the Department of Justice refuses to do its duty.
The FISA Amendments Act completely unravels the fourth amendment to the Constitution. It makes protection from unreasonable search and seizure a mere privilege for those that please the government, not an inalienable right.
It’s especially important to conserve wild cats and dogs, because they’re predators. As such, they help to preserve balance within ecological systems. When predators go extinct, their prey species go through wild boom and bust cycles that endanger large number of animal and plant circles. So, the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act of 2008 is arguably the most important conservation legislation to be presented to Congress this year.
Many of these representatives are progressive Democrats, but some of them are right wing Republicans. Hank Johnson included people from both sides of the political spectrum because he realized that the human tragedy of the fighting in northern Uganda merited a unified approach that transcended domestic politics.
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