Republicans Defeat Effort to Subpoena Justice Documents on Torture

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON - Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday defeated a Democratic-sponsored effort to subpoena documents on torture and interrogation practices from the Justice Department.

The 10 to 9 vote reflected the mounting partisan rancor over the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and whether U.S. officials condoned harsh interrogation practices on prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The vote came a day after the Senate unanimously voted, without debate, to add a provision to a defense spending bill that the United States should abide by anti-torture laws and international treaties. But even that vote reflected the controversy over what practices are acceptable.

The voice vote without debate allowed lawmakers to keep to themselves their views on whether torture is justified and when. In interviews, though, some senators said torture may sometimes be acceptable.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0618-01.htm

[teryang]

1. Is Schumer a Dershowitz clone?

His comment is totally off the wall.

Then there is Mr. Hatch, who asserts that Congress exercising its power is a "dumb ass thing to do."

[dmr]

2. Way off the wall

He will be hearing from me. I wonder if this quote was taken out of context, though. Ordinarily, Schumer is a good man.

I hate this. I hate that we have no representation. It is all illusionary. The Constitution is illusionary, used for mere convenience these days.

[TexasSissy]

3. If only the Dems were as dedicated to their goals as the Repubs.

How different things would be right now.

But maybe they've learned a lesson and won't be lying down for the next four years, if we lose. (Shudder...can't bear even the thoughts of losing.)

[Disturbed]

4. Republicans

It is my conclusion that Republicans don't believe in "democracy", nor The Constitution,The Bill of Rights or The Declaratrion of Independence. These are all qaint documents that have no relevance to the new model of Corporate Amerika. In fact, America is not a "democracy" and never has been such. It is supposed to be a Rupublic with Representative particiaption. What is in fact. is a Plutocracy.

Republicans and Democrats are not servants of the people but servants of the Corporations, esp. the Multi-Corps, who no longer consider their entities as "American" but world Corps. Most mulit-Corps no longer even pay Corp. taxes to the US govt. The encouragement is to off shore their mfg. and outsource the jobs. The American worker is completely expendible!