Sunday, November 05, 2006

if(incumbentVote == S_3930) vote(!incumbent);

Please. Make it unanimous.

Check your congressional representative and senate member's voting record (vote-smart.org). If they have supported the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which allows the executive branch to classify any individual it damn well chooses as an "enemy combatant", exempt from the writ of habeas corpus (right to trial by peers), do NOT support that representative or senator in the upcoming election.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows the US government to hold persons without any civilian oversight. The writ of habeus corpus has been an essential part of not only American democracy, but even the more restricted contsitutional monarchies of other countries, such as Britain's. There are few Republicans that had the integrity to reject this bill: only representatives Jerry Moran of Kansas' 1st District, Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland's 1st District, Roscoe G. Bartlett of Maryland's 6th Disrict, Walter Beaman Jones of North Carolina's 3rd District, Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio's 14th District, and Ronald E. 'Ron' Paul of Texas' 14th District stood up and firmly said "Nay!" to this abomination. Still, it passed the House of Representatives and traveled on to the Senate. Once there, only _one_ Republican senator voted against the bill (Lincoln D. Chafee of Rhode Island). It passed with little effort and had now been signed into law by the President.

Keep in mind that many Democrats also voted for this bill. Make no mistake about it; their behavior is appalling. They are simply warm bodies who seem to follow the political current, as long as it leads them to re-election. Let's us, as a people, correct that by changing the political climate in congress to one that _does_ think rationally before acting; _does_ truly care about our future as a nation; and _does not_ want to treat its citizenry like criminals. We can do this by electing a majority that will favor those who share these views: the Democrats and Independents.

Please, if your representative or senator up for election is a Republican who blindly follows the will of the president and/or his/her party, vote them out NOW. It is clearly not in our best interest to allow so few to make the choices that will affect so many. Thank you.