Take Mukasey Up On His Offer
In justifying his vote to support torture Michael Mukasey, Chuck Schumer said Mukasey:
made clear to me [in private] that, were Congress to pass a law banning certain interrogation techniques, we would clearly be acting within our constitutional authority. And he flatly told me that the President would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law, not even under some theory of inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution. He also pledged to enforce such a law and repeated his willingness to leave office rather than participate in a violation of law.
Sen. Kennedy is taking Mukasey up on his offer with S.1943, which will prohibit the following:
(1) Forcing an individual to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner.
(2) Placing a hood or sack over the head of an individual, or using or placing duct tape over the eyes of an individual.
(3) Applying a beating, electric shock, burns, or other forms of physical pain to an individual.
(4) Subjecting an individual to the procedure known as ‘waterboarding’.
(5) Subjecting an individual to threats or attack from a military working dog.
(6) Inducing hypothermia or heat injury in an individual.
(7) Conducting a mock execution of an individual.
(8) Depriving an individual of necessary food, water, or medical care.
For some reason, only five Senators are cosponsoring this badly needed legislation (Why? Are the rest afraid that the least-liked president in American history will say mean things about them), and, of those, Joe Biden is the only presidential candidate supporting it.
Let’s see the presidential contenders show some real leadership. Contact information for each of the candidates who are current Senators is below. My vote will depend on whether or not they will take an affirmative stand against this Administration’s views on illegal torture. Let them know that yours will too.
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