Debbie Stabenow Lies to Constituents About Torture Bill
It is bad enough that Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow joined forces with George W. Bush to vote for the Military Commissions Act. This law has been called “the Alien and Sedition Acts of our generation”.
Worse than that, Senator Stabenow lied to Michigan voters about it. Oh, she admits that she voted for the Military Commissions Act. She lied, however, when explaining that betrayal to voters.
When I say that Senator Stabenow lied to voters, I’m being charitable. It is also possible that Senator Stabenow voted for the Military Commissions Act without reading it, and still has not read it, and is merely ignorant on the most dangerous legislation to pass through Congress in our time.
In a letter she sent out to Michigan constituents justifying her vote for the Military Commissions Act, Debbie Stabenow wrote, “This bill does not amend the Geneva Convention in any way.”
That statement is plainly and obviously false to anyone who has read the bill. The Military Commissions Act gives George W. Bush the unlimited power to engage in de facto amendments to the Geneva Conventions. The text of the law includes the following provision:
“The President has the authority for the United States to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions”
Everyone, including Senator Debbie Stabenow, knows what this means. President Bush attempts to amend laws all the time by means of such interpretation, through signing statements. President Bush has shown a willingness to interpret a law outlawing torture in such a way that it actually allows him to torture people whenever he wants to. President Bush has in the past interpreted the legislation that makes the Geneva Conventions legally binding in American law in order to claim that the President has the power to apply Geneva Conventions however he wants, or not at all. The Military Commissions Act gives that power to the President when it did not exist before.
That’s one way that the Military Commisions Act amends the Geneva Conventions - by giving the President the power to amend it however he sees fit. Another way that the Military Commissions Act amends the Geneva Conventions is seen in another selection from the law, below:
“No alien unlawful enemy combatant subject to trial by military commission under this chapter may invoke the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights.”
This part of the Military Commissions Act is certainly a dramatic amendment to the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions applies to all people on a battlefield, without distinction between alien and citizen or lawful and unlawful. Well, at least that’s how the Geneva Conventions used to work. Now, thanks to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act, that is no longer true - not for the United States of America.
Oh, but it gets worse. If you think that you’re safe because you’re a citizen, well, you’re plain wrong. Read the following additional clause from the Military Commissions Act:
“In General- No person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto in any habeas corpus or other civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States is a party as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its States or territories.”
Let me shorten that clause for you: No one has any right to claim their rights under the Geneva Conventions in any proceeding involving the United States - not overseas, and not even in an American court.
How could Senator Stabenow claim that that does not constitute an amendment of the Geneva Conventions? The Military Commissions Act is so thorough in destroying the Geneva Conventions that it does so clearly in these three separate places I’ve been able to find in text of the law as voted for by Senator Stabenow and now signed into law.
Either Senator Debbie Stabenow is intentionally lying to voters about the Military Commissions Act, or she voted for the law without even bothering to read it, to see what it actually does.
Shame on you, Senator Stabenow. You may be a Democrat-in-name, but you have lost my support because, when it really matters, you vote with the Republicans.
Oh, on the contrary. The bill purports to amend the Geneva Convention, but it can’t (the Geneva Convention is a treaty, and can’t be modified by statute), so it doesn’t. That’s what she meant, isn’t it?
John, the important phrase here is “in any way”. I think that we need to look in practice, and not in abstract theories about what ought to be constitutionally impossible. In practice, the Military Commissions Act rips the Geneva Conventions to shreds. Ripping to shreds, I categorize as a form of amendment.
Respect for Senator Debbie Stabenow: Down in the Marianas Trench.
thanks for bringing the horrible nature of the military commision act to the public.
I am personaly researching every senator and congressman’s record for their vote and if they were for it I will vote against them,(as able) be they Democrat or Republican.
I was being sarcastic.
I would like to know what you find out about the 2008 Candidates on this matter. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul seem to both be against this act. I do not know who else opposes the Act.
I can’t help but wonder if it is only the purse of silver helping them decide or if they just refuse to understand how they have chosen to destroy the people around them while looking for a fight with no back up. History tells us how great warriors with big egos refused help from those felt to be beneath them. History also shows how that choice has always brought them to ruin. Solidarity is the only way America will survive. By fighting among ourselves divide us. How many time must we lean lessons from the past?
All the Republican presidential candidates other than Ron Paul voted for it. All the Democratic presidential candidates voted against it.
Solidarity is NOT the only way that America will survive, Keith.
How would you know what the ONLY way that America will survive is? What, do you claim to be some kind of prophet?
I think I get what John was saying: Stabenow was saying something very misleading, but technically correct.
Not a single WORD of the Geneva Conventions was changed; it’s just that the words were emptied of all MEANING when the president was given the power to interpret them any way he wanted. (Gosh, my American History teacher told me the judiciary interprets the law rather than the executive, but maybe that was before the executive got the legislative to pass laws allowing the executive to interpret laws.)
It’s like, if I had the power to interpret the words in the speed limit any way I wanted to:
“Gosh officer, I guess I just have a different interpretation of ‘miles per hour.’”
“Well, OK Ralph. Just slow down a bit next time. Of course, go ahead and interpret ’slow down’ any way you like.” Wink wink.
Letting someone interpret a law any way they want is for all practical purposes the repeal of the law.
But not, you know, technically.
It’s the kind of disgusting, technical truth that politicians and their corrupt lawyers have been feeding us for too long.
More truth like this, and we won’t even need lies anymore.
I understand that you are looking for exact where there are none. Using you concept of the miles per hour marker. Get in you car and look at you MPH Meter with one eye open then the other, this change occurs even with both eyes open, the shift. Now that the perception thing is identified, don’t you think this shift is differently perceived by each and every one of us. Colors are a personally perceived concept though the socialization where the perception is an agreement between the party’s that what they are seeing [for the sake of this argument] are the ships in the harbor pointed out by the shaman so they could see them. Just because one sees does not mean the others do see the same thing the same way. In this relationship is the way some may see the military commission act as a good thing from a very dyslexic view point. That does not make it right, just, or reasonable, and says something about the law makers who do support it.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
War is peace for those that want war and can not see beyond their desires for war. Freedom is slavery for those who except less than reality. That is why we need solidarity in our definition. Law makers are at their hight of deception where republicans are posing as democrats to force agendas. Fighting among ourselves divide us.
[...] the Constitution, could vote for such a patently unconstitutional and un-American bill. Some simply denied the reality that they were advancing torture and undermining our Constitutional rights, others [...]