We really have the worst Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, in living memory. It’s not even close.
In two votes Friday morning, the House backed the president’s powers to indefinitely detain terror suspects captured on U.S. soil.
Lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have barred military detention for terror suspects captured in the United States on a 182-231 vote, beating back the proposal from a coalition of liberal Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans led by Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.).
Instead, the House passed, by a vote of 243-173, an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) sponsored by Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Jeff Landry (R-La.) and Scott Rigell (R-Va.) that affirmed U.S. citizens would not be denied habeas corpus rights.
Smith and Amash had hoped to attract enough support from libertarian-leaning Republicans to pass their measure, but only 19 Republicans voted for it, while 19 Democrats voted against.
We’re a nation of bedwetters. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
I really just don’t understand how* so many people can reconcile their ideals of ‘rugged individualism’ with shit like this.
* – ok, yeah I know – not everyone’s brain behaves in a logical fashion, and they simply aren’t capable of seeing their own cognitive dissonance. But still, that doesn’t mean I can personally understand it.
It’s strange to see Congress support a more expansive position on executive authority than the President himself, especially when it’s a President from the other party that they insist on so empowering.
It’s because their underpants are filled with pee.
also, too, their heads are made of shit.
It really is an irrational “Daddy, save me!” response.
Military courts don’t even work. Military detention isn’t really any safer than our (quite brutal, thank you very much) high-security federal prison system. They aren’t even trading Constitutional principles and reliable due process for the purpose of tightening security.
Maybe it’s a type of “security theater” for right-wing members of Congress.
Because that Congress expects their own guy — if not Romney, then whoever’s up in 2016 — to retake the White House for the Truth Justice & American Way party and put such powers to good use stamping out any and all dissent from TJ&AW.
That’s the obvious answer, but even the deluded Republicans have to realize that there will be a Democratic President about half the time.
I think it’s a genuine difference of opinion about the rightful powers of the executive, and even moreso, about the underlying issue of detention, between the two parties.
I think we ARE ashamed of ourselves, we’re just too ashamed to admit it.
We should replace Uncle Sam with a pair of Fraidy Pants.
What do you mean, “we”?
What gets me is that the biggest bedwetters live in East Bumfuck, Red State USA. The Islamist terrorists have no intention of striking there; they target places like NYC and DC — you know, places that matter.