Musgrave Votes For Torture, Against Constitution

See here. Musgrave votes to approve the Torture Bill (which also wreaks havoc on the right of Habeus Corpus). This bill as presented directly violates two Constitutional provisions; from Article I, Section 7:

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.

And, as detailed below, the 8th Amendment:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Musgrave Must Go

What Part of the 8th Amendment Don't You Understand?

Here is the entire text of the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Note that this is a blanket prohibition. Nothing in this Amendment says "on the People" or "by Congress". Therefore, cruel and unusual punishment is absolutely forbidden. You cannot torture citizens. You can not torture non-citizens. You can not torture convicts. You can not torture suspects.

I urge you to call your Congressional representatives and ask them whether they plan on supporting the oath or affirmation they gave when they took office, as Article VI of the Constitution requires:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

If they approve the President's request to give him "permission" to torture, they have clearly violated their oath or affirmation, and should be removed from office at the first possible opportunity.

And if you have any doubt that this government is performing cruel and unusual acts, see these images.

The Road to Recovery From 9/11

I finished watching 90 minutes of this "docudrama" and alternated between being bored and being frustrated, and will not watch any more of it. I was bored by the director's and/or editor's amateurish obsession with artsy framing shots of people's lower eyelids and nostrils. And bored by the interminable "smoke filled office" scenes. I was frustrated by the obvious political message of the producers.

Although not as bad (in those first 90 minutes) as I feared, it was still pretty bad in places. At least twice, characters voiced the opinion that "this was a different kind of war" and that our Constitutional freedoms (i.e. freedom from warrentless searches) were preventing us from "catching bad guys" and were keeping us from being safe.

If this really is the view of the majority of the country, the terrorists have already won. Even if it's not, those who hold and promote this view are veering perilously close to collaborating with the terrorists to sow terror.

Our Constitution was written in a time of extreme insecurity - we had just finished a bloody War of Independence - we were engaged in various frontier terrorist skirmishes - and we still existed at the mercy of many larger European nations. And, yet, our Founding Fathers still saw fit to list some of our most basic rights, in very clear language. For a country that survived that period, and survived the Civil War (which is quite definitively the worst tragedy this country has experienced, well surpassing 9/11) to pee its collective pants about "terror" just shows how far our country has fallen.

I hope to see it get back up again. Please remember to vote in the 2006 midterm elections, and vote for Senators and Representatives who will remember and support Congress's Constitutional role in restraining an out-of-control exectuve.