If you’re a regular Irregular Times reader, you surely know about the Military Commissions Act by now. The MCA is an atrocious law that rips out the foundation of America’s liberty, cutting a savage rip through the Bill of Rights. The New York Times calls the law “a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts”.

Note to those who slept through American history class: The Alien and Sedition Acts were very, very bad. They made it a crime to criticize the government, and authorized the imprisonment of foreigners outside the ordinary legal process. As terrible as the Alien and Sedition Acts were, they weren’t as awful as the Military Commissions Act signed into law by President Bush last month.

The Military Commissions Act allows arbitrary imprisonment without trial, according to the whim of the President, who now must only declare people “enemy” to take away their legal rights. The law legalizes torture, and endorses George W. Bush’s system of secret prisons around the world. Habeas corpus no longer applies. The Geneva Conventions are made defunct. The law even allows people to be put on trial before investigations into their alleged crimes have been completed. No kidding.

What’s really outrageous is that many Democrats in Congress voted for the Military Commissions Act. They thought doing so would make them more popular with the voters. The following Democrats from the House of Representatives supported George W. Bush and the Republican Party by voting for the Military Commissions Act. They are all up for re-election tomorrow:

Robert Andrews of New Jersey
John Barrow of Georgia
Melissa Bean of Illinois
Sanford Bishop of Georgia
Dan Boren of Oklahoma
Leon Boswell of Iowa
Allen Boyd of Florida
Sherrod Brown of Ohio
Ben Chandler of Kentucky
Bud Cramer of Alabama
Henry Cuellar of Texas
Artur Davis of Alabama
Lincoln Davis of Tennessee
Chet Edwards of Texas
Bob Etheridge of North Carolina
Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee
Bart Gordon of Tennessee
Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota
Brian Higgins of New York
Tim Holden of Pennsylvania
Jim Marshall of Georgia
Jim Matheson of Utah
Mike McIntyre of North Carolina
Charles Melancon of Louisiana
Michael Michaud of Maine
Dennis Moore of Kansas
Collin Peterson of Minnesota
Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota
Michael Ross of Arkansas
John Salazar of Colorado
David Scott of Georgia
John Spratt of South Carolina
John Tanner of Tennessee
Bennie Taylor of Mississippi

Let me amend that previous statement. From this list, Harold Ford Jr. and Sherrod Brown are not exactly up for re-election. They’re trying for a promotion, running for United States Senate instead of running for re-election in the House of Representatives. Yet, they abandoned the Democratic mainstream and supported Bush instead. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

Other Democrats, in the Senate, also turned against freedom and supported the Republicans on the Military Commissions Act. They were:

Senator Tom Carper of Delaware
Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota
Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey
Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska
Senator Bill Nelson of Florida
Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas
Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado
Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan

This group makes up George W. Bush’s favorite pet Democrats in the United States Senate. Instead of exercising oversight on the Bush Administration, they’ll cross party lines to help George W. Bush grab power, and shrink the power of Congress down to that of a rubber stamp.

It’s not just sitting members of Congress who supported the infamous Military Commissions Act, of course. Democrats running for Congress for the first time also crossed party lines to give a big thumbs up on the pro-torture, anti-liberty law. Democratic voters have been furious at these candidates, and urgently pressured their campaigns to return to the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

One of these candidates, New York’s Michael Arcuri, had been running ahead of Republican Ray Meier, but is now neck and neck, struggling for victory. Arcuri’s support for the Military Commissions Act is largely to blame for his campaign’s troubles, as Democrats from across his district have been exerting strong pressure on the Arcuri for Congress campaign to change course and oppose the law.

Today, there were rumors that Mike Arcuri had, in fact, changed his position back to the Democratic mainstream, in opposition to the abuses of the Military Commissions Act. Alas, the rumors appear to be untrue. Hopes of progressive Democrats in Arcuri’s district were dashed when a telephone call to the Arcuri for Congress campaign this morning was given a clear answer: Michael Arcuri has not changed his position on the Military Commissions Act. He still supports it.

The worst part of these false rumors is that they were spread among local Democratic elected officials. Apparently, Michael Arcuri made an in-person promise to elected Democrats in New York’s 24th congressional district that he would make a public statement on his campaign web site announcing his opposition to the Military Commissions Act. It’s less than 9 and a half hours now until Election Day, and looking at the Arcuri for Congress web site, it seems that Arcuri’s promise to local Democrats is a promise that has been broken.

Democrats in Michael Arcuri’s district are thus left today wondering why they should trust anything that Michael Arcuri tells them. Arcuri promises to stand up to George W. Bush, but when the chips are down, he sides against New York State Democrats and helps the Republican agenda. Local Democrats are questioning whether Arcuri is the kind of Democrat they want serving in the House of Representatives… because Arcuri seems most interested in serving himself.

If Arcuri loses tomorrow, and right now the election looks like a nail-biter, his support for the Military Commissions Act will clearly be to blame.