I FEEL THAT THIS IS TOTAL BULLSHIT AND I FEEL LIKE BUSH SHOULD GO TO JAIL BECAUSE IT IS AGAINST THE INTERNATIONAL LAW TO TORTURE ANY HUMAN BEING FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY ,STATE,OR CITY FOR THAT MATTER AND I FEEL LIKE THAT IS VERY VERY WRONG TO ME AND IF BUSH DON’T LIKE IT HAVE HIM CALL ME ‘CAUSE I’LL SET HIM STRAIGHT.

Please take the time to read Richard W. Behan’s September 30th entry in commondreams.org titled “How George Bush Admitted His War Crimes”. Buried in the 94 pages of the Military Commissions Act, the Bush Administration tactically admits it has committed war crimes.

Because the June 29th Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruled that tribunals were in violation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, Bush wasted no time in getting a law drafted to legalize military “commissions”.

It’s all a smoke screen and, in essence, a “get-away car”. Everything is retroactive, allowing the act to take effect prior to 9/11 (11/26/1997, according to Behan), as if enacted on that date. The law’s primary purpose is to immunize the Bush Administration from prosecution. Now Bush, et, al, can not be tried and imprisoned for acts of crimes against humanity, as Slobodan Milosevic had been following the Balkans war.

It’s the “get away car”. No doubt, certainly something more, but definitely, nothing less.

The truly scary part is that, as near as I can tell, TruthDig is the only news organization in the country to put an accurate headline on this story. congress, and the President, just sign a bill to legalize torture and coerced confessions. It is hard to imagine a law any more fundamentally un-American as this one is, and yet we seem to have fallen into some sort of Orwellian black hole where the ‘free press’ censors itself and simpy regurgiates whatever gibberish Bush II spews. I guess we can mark Oct. 18,2006 on our calendars as the day that the American experiment in liberty finally died after a long illness. It is a very sad day indeed.

Desite falling approval ratings Bush continues to win the big ones.There’s very little opposition to his ongoing ‘shred the Constitution’ campaign. Republicans and Democrats alike (with few exceptions) just won’t take him on. It began with the vote to launch an attack on Iraq. Much hand wringing but most signed on. Nothing much has changed. A few objections to whatever the vote is about. And then everyone does what they’re told. I hope some new faces make a difference, but I’m not betting on it. Thanks, ANNA

Oh boo hoo, ACLU. Sob, sob, Russ Feingold. Everyone’s so sad: “Our civil liberties are going bye bye”, they cry. The just-signed-into-law Military Commissions Act of 2006---which eliminates Habeas Corpus rights for accused terrorists, permits warrantless arrest and detention of American citizens, and legalizes the harshest forms of interrogation for incarcerated individuals---is making all of the Democrats and all of the Liberals so sad. Sniffle, sniffle, whine, whine.

Truth be told, the new law means absolutely nothing. Nada. Don’t you listen to your President? “Over the past few months, the debate over this bill has been heated, and the questions raised can seem complex. Yet, with the distance of history, the questions will be narrowed and few: Did this generation of Americans take the threat seriously? And did we do what it takes to defeat that threat?” The President and his circle in Washington see the world, and their destiny to save it, very clearly. First and foremost they all agree that winning the war on terror---which includes making sure that no rogue nations join the nuclear fraternity---is the only option. There is, simply put, nothing more important that this. Secondly they believe---as Richard Nixon did before them---that all actions taken by the President in defense of the nation are legal.

Sure, George Bush will lean on the Military Commissions Act as he defends his future actions---arrest and detention of American activists, suspension of the 22nd Amendment, implementation of Martial Law---but the truth is that George Bush and his guys would carry out these actions regardless of Congresses’ rubber stamp of approval. (In case you haven’t been paying attention: they already have.)

We are so fantastically stupid. We get all huffy and puffy and hot under the collar about minutia like the Military Commissions Act and, in the process, we totally miss the big picture. George Bush and his Washington junta must laugh themselves to sleep every night as they watch as have a collective temper tantrum about any number of Red Herrings---while quietly, and with a self-assured sense of their own righteousness and moral duty to the nation, they plan the systematic deconstruction of our American Republic.

I happen to think that it’s too late to change this course. We’ve waited too long. We’ve given our President 6 years to become completely entrenched in his delusional sense of moral destiny. He is long gone. Crying about a silly little law only presents him with more children to pat on the head and to tell that he knows their upset, but he’s the dad and he knows what’s best. 

Dan Weintraub
Quechee, VT
802-295-6360

From the “Texacutioner” governor of Texas to the
Whitehouse, this asshole is taking away everything this country has stood for for generations including making the writ of Habeus Corpus null and void. Any one, you and I, can be
imprisoned at the whim of this power,power hungry
man (?). He’s always talking about the war on terror when he himself is a terror to this country and the sanity of it’s citizens. I think
this madman should be impeached and sent to Guantanamo for the rest of his miserable life!

“The Depths of Depravity”

They think they are pretty slick. They think the law is for ‘other’ people, but not them. They think the Constitution is just an old scrap of paper. They think they can cheat the game by changing the rules after the hand has been played. They think God is on their side if they only say so. They think everyone outside their circle is ignorant, stupid, & fools. They think they can do whatever they please as long as they stay in power. They think they are justified in lying, cheating, & stealing, murdering, deceiving, & propagandizing, intimidating, torturing, & threatening just to stay in power. They think they can take advantage of Americans forever and get away with it.

BUT, did they ever think what would happen if America woke up to their crimes? Apparently so, or they wouldn’t have forced this act through at the eleventh hour before we put them out of office, AND into a criminal docket where they belong.

Although I don’t like what happened today, when Bush signed this act into law, I’m not fearful of the action because just as the War Crimes Act was undone today, it can also be re-instated. I don’t believe the vast majority of Americans will disregard the values that made/make our country the beacon of liberty & fair play. Our high ideals demand from all of us we don’t demean ourselves by sinking to the low standards of our enemies. If through making torture & disregard for the laws of civilized society (Habeas Corpus) we think we are better than the barbaric people we eschew, we are actually no better than they, and we are the real losers; actually we become the terrorist ourselves.

I want no part of this madness, but will fight this madness to my last breath, as is my patriotic moral & constitutional duty. I hang my head in shame today for what this President has done, although I shouldn’t because by his actions he has proven himself Un-American while I am an American. George Bush and Congress should be the ones hanging their heads in shame---shame on you all! What side of the fence of right and wrong do you want to stand on?-PMS

A DAY OF SHAME FOR AMERICA AND FOR THE WORLD!

Imagine this! With this barbaric law one can get the death penalty based on hearsay!

This never happened even in the darkest ages of human history! But thanks to the drunk behind the wheel-intoxicated George Bush, and the sleepers in the cave- majority Americans, it is happing in twenty-first century America! What a sad regression for the march of civilization!

However, the worst of this is that it will give a new lease on life for international terrorism! Wait and see how terrorism will increase many folds in the coming few months!

Just In From:

DOHWAM

(Department Of Hey WAIT A Minute)

We should ‘make it EXPLICITLY known’ that:

THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT’S FEET WILL BE HELD TO THE FIRE TO FULLY INVESTIGATE, ‘SECRETLY’ AND OPENLY, ALL ACTIVITIES AND INTERCONNECTIONS, (CORPORATE, INC$IDER TRAITOR, ETC) OF WHAT CAN AND SHOULD NOW BE EMPHATICALLY DEFINED AS ‘THE ENEMY WITHIN’--I.E., ENEMIES DOMESTIC, FEDERALLY-EMPOWERED ‘NON-COMBATANTS’ IN, OF, BY, AND FOR-- THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ITSELF. 

THAT WE WILL SEE TO THE TABLE TURNED.

THAT THE DAYS OF HOUSE BU$HELZEBUB ‘FREE-RANGE’ CHICKENHAWK$ ARE NOW ‘NUMBERED’…

THAT THE TOOLS SO CLAIMED BY THEM WILL IN FACT BE USED IN BRINGING THEM TO HISTORIC, BITTERSWEET JUSTICE:  NOT IMPEACHMENT, FOLKS: PRISON.

WHILE NONE OF COURSE WOULD EVER ACTUALLY BE “EXECUTED”, SOME HAVE ALREADY PLAUSIBLY ‘EARNED’ --THROUGH HIGH TREASON--A BITTER END ON DEATHROW OF ‘NATURAL CAUSES’…

THAT ULTIMATE TRUE JUSTICE BE DONE SHOULD LOOM INCREASINGLY AS THEIR DEEPEST FEAR--SHARPENED BY THE IRONY OF THE ‘LEGAL MEANS’ THEY FOUGHT TO GIVE US, USED AGAINST THEM UNFLINCHINGLY.

Now Nancy Pelosi has someting else to do (ahem, undo) in her first 100 hours.

I remember the day JFK died - Nov 22, 1963
I remember the day Armstrong set foot on the moon - Jul 20, 1969
I remember the day the Towers fell - Sep 11, 2001
I WILL ALWAYS remember today - Oct 17, 2006 - the day the American experiment failed.

Now Americans will never again have to ask how it happened in Germany.

We have our generations version of The Enabling Act.

Bush has been crowned king.

Every congress member who voted for this atrocity should be tried for treason, since their constitutional duty and that which they swore to do, is to “protect, preserve and defend” the constitution.

This legislation eviscerates the constitution (though this effort to nullify the constitution is certainly unconstitutional as the constitution can only be modified by amendment) but with the best judges money can buy stacking the courts I don’t have much hope .

No one presently in office deserves to retain their “job” but DIEBOLD (tm) will see to it they do.

FUCK YOU ALL you sellouts.  I hope your children and grandchildren enjoy the world you’ve made for them.  NOT

i’m not afraid of you, boy, you’re rich, soft and spoiled and your accent is fake. you’re from connecticut, which is a no-soul insurance company, rich white CIA kind of place. those of us who have to struggle are all tougher than you, and wiser as well. we value knowledge, justice and wisdom.
we’re going to put you in prison, and seize your family assets. this will make the 21st century great and progressive after all.
This attempt to bully the whole world was your biggest mistake, BOY.

The U.S. just became a facist country where people can be detained in perpetuaty without anyone knowing or anyone questioning. The next time the U.S. leadership talks about human right, as if they actually mean it, they would hear a laughter. Every facist country cited national security as a reason. The right wingers have always wanted it.

Today he is reversing laws that were aimed at none other than the man himself Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.  These laws were forged at the Nirenberg trial to assure the world that the atrocities of the WWII would never happen again. This would be funny if it weren’t true.  You would think Bush would never want his name used in the same sentence as Hitler. Yet they are both guilty of the same damed thing. Torture.  Now G.W. has made it sort of legal to kind of lean on someone more than just a little and if they die it may be OK.

Welcome to the end of true freedom in this country. You or I can now be detained indefinitely at the whim of the “President.” Maybe we should start calling him Dear Leader instead.

Can someone please post this bill in its entirety (or post a link)? Was it the House or Senate version that Bush signed? I know that they didn’t create a compromise bill, so which one was it?

I wonder, as an American living in Europe, I can claim asylum in any European country, now?

I know if I were to go back to the USA I would be most outspoken about Bush and what has become of America. Most likely leading myself into conflict with Bush supporters, eventually being accused of aiding and abetting the enemy, and then disappearing, to be tortured until I confess to what ever the government wants me to confess to, prosecuted then thrown into prison for the rest of my life, or possibly execution.

I use to believe America could never be like a Chile under Pinochet, or an Iraq under Saddam, or, as it is now becoming, a Germany under Hitler.
I hope you Americans, especially those who support Bush, are proud of what you have allowed to happen to America.

You’ve given up your souls to the devil just for a false sense of security.

Goodbye America, the land of what use to be of the Free and the Brave!