Looks like even some Republicans are breaking ranks:
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday voted 15-9 to recommend a bill -- over the objections of the Bush administration -- that would authorize tribunals for terror suspects in a way that it says would protect suspects' rights.
The bill was backed by Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
It differs from the administration's proposal in two major ways: It would permit terror suspects to view classified evidence against them and does not include a proposal that critics say reinterprets a Geneva Conventions rule that prohibits cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees.
And they're not alone. Colin Powell sent a letter to John McCain expressing support for the bill and taking the administration to task for trying to weaken the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Clearly these prominent Republicans hate America and want the terrorists to win, right STACLU? Yep.
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Those who consider McCain and Powell "RINOs" won't be swayed by your "prominent Republicans" gambit -- and there are a lot of those people.
Grumpy,
Maybe. But there are also alot of people (myself included) who respect the opinions of McCain and Powell on military matters.
It will be interesting to see which, if any Republican vote for/against which warrentless wiretapping bill(s). Even the 2nd Feinstein bill is awful (spelled offal?), though not as bad of course as the main bill. Best would be to leave FISA alone, do nothing, and let court action proceed. No chance of that with Republican congress.
Less know so far is HR2679: says ACLU: - The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the House Judiciary Committee to reject H.R. 2679, the "Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005" (PERA). The panel is expected to vote on the legislation today. The bill would bar the recovery of attorneys' fees to citizens who win lawsuits asserting their fundamental constitutional and civil rights in cases brought under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. "If this bill were to become law, Congress would, for the first time, single out one area protected by the Bill of Rights and prevent its full enforcement," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Proponents of the measure claim that the bill is needed to protect religious freedom, when in fact, the bill would undermine it. We hope that the committee will stand for the Constitution and reject this unwise proposal." The ability to recover attorneys' fees in civil rights and constitutional cases, including Establishment Clause cases, is necessary to help protect the religious freedom of all Americans and to keep religion government-free. People who successfully prove the government has violated their constitutional rights would, under the bill, be required to pay their own legal fees -- often totaling tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I agree with James; if a former 4-star general and an ex-POW are against it, a lot of us veterans are going to sit up and take notice.
Oak Leaf over at STACLU has a post where he argues that the only opinions that should matter on this are the opinions of soldiers. Then he dismisses John McCain's opinion because he was tortured as a soldier, which somehow makes him "not capable to offer an objective analysis on this subject." I'd say it makes him more capable of offering an objective analysis. He's been through torture at the hands of a brutal enemy. If anyone has the credibility to demand that we not treat others that way, it's him. And of course, he also dismisses Colin Powell, who was only a highly decorated 4 star general. Of course, the notion that soldiers are the ones who should get the say is absurd; we have civilian control of the military for a reason. When it comes to legal and policy decisions, we must follow the constitution and the treaties we've signed, and the opinions of soldiers don't change that a bit. Your average soldies knows as little about the legal, moral and diplomatic issues involved as the average mechanic. Why their opinion should matter more than a mechanic's opinion is beyond me.
Please, please let soldiers like John McCain, John Kerry, Rep. Murtha, and Colin Powell make the rules.
Throw the chickenhawk draft dodgers (Rumsfield, Cheney, and Bush) out on their @#%^$.
The pro-torture Republicans come from an ideological background wherein God is angry and authority is unquestioned.
One military man who has also weighed in on this in support of Warner, McCain, Graham, Powell, et all is four star General Vessey, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Reagan years. And like Powell, he's not a West Pointer. Instead he's a guy who volunteered as a grunt in WWII and rose up through the ranks to chair the Joint Chiefs, serving 46 years in the Army, longer than any other soldier in history. Twenty nine other retired generals and admirals have also written a joint letter to Warner supporting the Warner/McCain position. The joint letter is at http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06913-etn-military-let-ca3.pdf I haven't found a copy of Vessey's letter yet, but I'm sure it's out there.