64 Senators Support Torture

[SnowFire]

While it's annoying, it may be that the Dems are saving their political capital for other battles. Gonzales was going to get confirmed anyway since if the Dems did filibuster, it'd hit 'em with Hispanic voters. The good old "one torture memo free" card. He isn't obviously evil enough to be worthy of giving a chip to the Republicans to on.

On the downside, they're probably saving said capital to battle Bush's Social Security reforms, one of the few places where he might actually have the right idea, and at worst it'll just be as bad as the current system.

[Kidlicious]

The real culpret is Bush. He's going to send people up for conformation that agree with him. His atorney general is going to tote the line regardless. Still, you have to stand on principle with something like this.

[Whoha]

Re: 64 Senators Support Torture

Originally posted by Ramo
Every single Republican voted (excepting one who didn't vote) to confirm Gonzales as attorney general. Including McCain, Snowe, Chafee, Hagel, etc.

Five Dems also voted to confirm him: Lieberman (amazing!), (Bill) Nelson, (Ben) Nelson, Landrieu, Pryor, and Salazar. Three of them chickened out, refusing to make a decision: Baucus, Conrad, and Inyoue (genuinely suprised).

Jeffords voted against his confirmation.

So, Gonzales was confirmed 60-36 (I honestly expected it to be closer to 58-42).

Four more years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/03/po...rtner=homepage

bleh they got guy with the alledged la raza ties in

[Agathon]

Isn't it great when someone who advocates torture is confirmed as the nation's highest law enforcement official?

What next? Lou Reed announced as Drug Czar...

[mrmitchell]

Unfortunately so. OTOH, Lincoln voted against him. So at least one of your Senators isn't a total douchebag (in contrast to my state).

Pryor isn't a douchebag. Hopefully in this case he's just misguided, or he has a really good reason.

OTOH I got to shake hands with Senator Lincoln in DC. She's a very nice, energetic lady and I won't be surprised when she goes farther than the Senate.

[Ted Striker]

Gonzales

[Drake Tungsten]

to these senators.

[Ted Striker]

[Drake Tungsten]

Lawyers

[Ted Striker]

Imprisoning people without charging them

[Drake Tungsten]

Not granting Geneva Convention rights to people who don't respect the Geneva Convention

edit: Kittens

[Giancarlo]

There isn't any evidence that Gonzalez did any wrong-doing. So i"d appreciate people actually support their accusations for once. Teddy, imprisioning illegal combatants is not against the Geneva convention.

[DRoseDARs]

People who play word games just to dance around Morality should be thrown from helicopters...

[el freako]

Originally posted by Giancarlo
There isn't any evidence that Gonzalez did any wrong-doing. So i"d appreciate people actually support their accusations for once. Teddy, imprisioning illegal combatants is not against the Geneva convention.

Giancarlo, anyone who twists the letter of the law so it can suit them whilst breaking it's spirit is doing great harm to the rule of law (because twisting it reduces the legitimacy of the law) and is storing up trouble for the future.

As the US invasion of Iraq has been deemed 'illegal' in some quarters then surely it follows that US soldiers there could be regarded by the insurgents as 'illegal combatants' and therefore any torture inflicted on them by said insurgents would be considered legal.

This is the same situation when Donitz was tried at Nurenburg for his part in the unrestricted submarine warfare in the atlantic - he successfully defended himself by showing that the US had instituted an identical campaign against Japan and so his sentence for those crimes was vastly reduced.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Giancarlo
There isn't any evidence that Gonzalez did any wrong-doing.

It's not his specific acts that are reprehensible- it's his being a lawyer who thinks torturing is acceptable.

If it's wrong to torture it's wrong to torture, regardless of the nationality or ethnciity.