It is 3:00 a.m. in the morning on Septemeber 29, 2006. I should be sleeping and resting up for work this morning.
However, I am sad as I think about the Senate passing S.3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006. I am thinking about all my ancestors who sacrificed everything they had to live in America and be proud of the constitution.
I grew up a devout Mormon and we always debated the much talked about Mormon prophecy of when "the constitution would hang by a thread" and how we (the Mormons) would rally to save it. As a little kid, I always thought it would be great and noble to defend and save the constitution. That is why I joined my high school debate team as a sophmore. (I wasn't a very good Lincoln-Douglas debater though.) Sadly, Utah is the most extreme Republican state in the union filled with religious conservatives who are more concerned with Gay Marriage, Abortion and Medical Marijuana than promoting civil liberties and becoming the standard bearer of human rights in this country and around the world. Mormons are more concerned with social conformity than with social justice nowadays. Their live and let live philosophy has all but evaporated. Orrin Hatch is their poster boy. Lucky for me, Harry Reid is mine.
Yesterday one of my conservative customers summed it up smugly, "these people are not citizens of the U.S. They are not protected by the constitution like you and I! It is ludicrous to think they have any special rights."
I smiled and ran his credit card.
How does one protect and save the constitution? Hell, I can't even promote it or suggest it to conservatives nowadays. I can't even suggest a humble "do unto others" without incurring the wrath of being a raging terrorist loving liberal. I saw my Democratic Senator, Ken Salazar voted for the bill...I am still very disappointed. I read that Ron Paul (R) of Texas voted against the bill in the House. He's one of the last of the Goldwater conservatives. I am sure he will have a scathing retort on constitutional liberties at risk.
It is tough being torn between a conservative past and a liberal present and staring down an uncertain future. How does one express their concern for a bill that gives the president license to weaken enforcement of the basic protections in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions? How come the President, this President, has new power to decide much of the scope of authorized conduct and the severity of punishment, giving him unparalleled power to unilaterally determine whether the government can carry out cruelty and abuse?
What attorney turned politician, could vote for a bill that undermines the American value of due process and Habeus Corpus by permitting convictions based on evidence literally beaten out of a witness or obtained through other abuse by either our government or other countries and then denying them appeal or access to US courts?.... Sigh....
So now Government officials who authorized or ordered illegal acts of torture and abuse would receive retroactive immunity for many of these acts, providing a clause that is backdated nine years!...Hmmm...
These are all the same indignant people who tried to Impeach Clinton for lying.
I am not hopeful for a favorable Supreme Court decision either...with all it's blather about strict constuctionistism and rule of law from Roberts, Scalia and Thomas. Remember, we had crappy sucessive Supreme Courts from 1865 to 1965 that couldn't even grant basic voting rights to African Americans without a lot of shenanigans like the Jim Crowesque voter ID law that just winged through Congress this week too. ...My head is spinning...
Habeus Corpus is the foundation of Western Democracy and the Rule of Law is the bedrock cornerstone in Spanish, French and English speaking countries around the world.
America took a big step backwards this week. We made sure our President and his rubber stamp Congress will have legal immunity from breaching 250 years of human rights and American moral authority.
Will that be American Express, Visa or Mastercard?