Withdrawal Language Makes It Through The Senate

  As you may know by now, the Senate passed the bill for the Iraq war funding with its withdrawal deadlines still intact, by a very close vote.

50-48-2 was the vote and the following is a record of how the Democrats and the Republicans voted. Go to the  U.S. Senate for the complete rundown.

   The Short version from Daily Kos  Tue Mar 27, 2007

Democrats voting for amendment (or the wrong way):

Mark Pryor (AR)

Independents voting for it:

Joe Lieberman (CT)

Republicans voting against it:

Chuck Hagel (NE)
Gordon Smith (OR)

Not voting:

Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)

This means that the following Republicans facing tough or potentially tough reelection battles in 2008 just voted to escalate Bush's war with no accountability. These guys just voted to attach themselves even closer to Bush's hip:

Norm Coleman (MN)
Susan Collins (ME)
John Cornyn (TX)
Liddy Dole (NC)
Pete Domenici (NM)
Mitch McConnel (KY)
Pete Sessions (AL)
John Sununu (NH)
John Warner (VA)

Reid did an incredible job of keeping Democrats together. I mean, he even brought Ben Nelson aboard! Pretty impressive.

 

Tags: Iraq Senate

 

Donald Rumsfeld Cannot Be Sued By Former Iraq/Afghanistan Prisoners

  Here we go with what is going on in the United States this evening.

   First off, a federal judge today said that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can't be tried on torture allegations  that may have took place in overseas prisons run by the U.S. military.

   Are we really surprised that U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out the lawsuit brought against Rumsfeld ( by the ACLU ) on behalf of the former prisoners who were imprisoned in both Iraq and Afghanistan? Judge Hogan said that Rumsfeld could not be held responsible for his actions while taken in his government job capacity.    Source

 AP

No matter how appealing it might seem to use the courts to correct allegations of severe abuses of power, Hogan wrote, government officials are immune from such lawsuits. Additionally, foreigners held overseas are not normally afforded U.S. constitutional rights.

"Despite the horrifying torture allegations," Hogan said, he could find no case law supporting the lawsuit, which he previously had described as unprecedented.

Allowing the case to go forward, Hogan said in December, might subject government officials to all sorts of political lawsuits. Even Osama bin Laden could sue, Hogan said, claiming two American presidents threatened to have him murdered.

"There is no getting around the fact that authorizing monetary damages remedies against military officials engaged in an active war would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the Armed Forces' ability to act decisively and without hesitation," Hogan wrote Tuesday.

 Donald Rumsfeld ACLU prisoners lawsuit