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« Attention Floridians: FSU Chiro Vote Imminent The RantsFlorida Board of Governors Votes Down FSU Chiroquackery »

Urge Your Senators to Vote "No" on Gonzales
2005.01.26 (Wed) 20:20

A Senate vote to confirm Alberto Gonzales as the next Attorney General is fast approaching. It is inconceivable to us that this man could even be considered for the position of Attorney General given his track record, and it goes without saying that we at the Two Percent Company are in firm opposition to his confirmation.

No, Gonzales isn't the only person who should be held accountable for the attrocities that were perpetrated by our government. Frankly, Bush should be coming under heavier fire himself, but sadly, he has already been elected. Plenty of others in the administration should be politically drawn and quartered as well. But Gonzales is up for the job of our nation's top attorney, and his role in finding loopholes to allow the United States to engage in torture absolutely must prevent his confirmation. How can we as a nation allow any other outcome?

There are some who point to other aspects of his track record as being promising (although we, frankly, don't see that angle ourselves). To us, this hardly matters. That's like hiring a pedophile to babysit for your kids because he makes good pancakes. What Gonzales has aided our administration in doing is unconscionable. Not only doesn't be deserve to become the Attorney General, he deserves to be punished. Severely.

From the ACLU website where you can also find further reading on this subject:

The Senate Judiciary Committee today narrowly approved the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, sending to the full Senate an appointment made controversial by the Bush Administration’s torture policies. In a sign of how controversial the nomination has become, all of the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic members voted against Gonzales.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which does not take a position on cabinet nominations, said that the Senate cannot meaningfully exercise its constitutional duty of "advise and consent" on the Gonzales nomination because the Administration continues to stonewall against releasing documents on how it developed its policies on interrogation and torture, and Gonzales himself refuses to answer even basic questions on his role in those policies.

"It is time for the Senate to demand that Gonzales and the Bush Administration come clean on the roles that high-ranking leaders had in removing protections against torture and abuse," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "It’s clear that Gonzales and top Bush administration officials created the legal framework and permissive climate that led to the torture and abuse."

From Daily Kos:

As the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, Gonzales's advice led directly to the abandonment of longstanding federal laws, the Geneva Conventions, and the United States Constitution itself. Our country, in following Gonzales's legal opinions, has forsaken its commitment to human rights and the rule of law and shamed itself before the world with our conduct at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The United States, a nation founded on respect for law and human rights, should not have as its Attorney General the architect of the law's undoing.

In January 2002, Gonzales advised the President that the United States Constitution does not apply to his actions as Commander in Chief, and thus the President could declare the Geneva Conventions inoperative. Gonzales's endorsement of the August 2002 Bybee/Yoo Memorandum approved a definition of torture so vague and evasive as to declare it nonexistent. Most shockingly, he has embraced the unacceptable view that the President has the power to ignore the Constitution, laws duly enacted by Congress and International treaties duly ratified by the United States. He has called the Geneva Conventions "quaint."

Legal opinions at the highest level have grave consequences. What were the consequences of Gonzales's actions? The policies for which Gonzales provided a cover of legality - views which he expressly reasserted in his Senate confirmation hearings - inexorably led to abuses that have undermined military discipline and the moral authority our nation once carried. His actions led directly to documented violations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and widespread abusive conduct in locales around the world.

PZ Myers, over on Pharyngula, summed it up nicely:

I want more than "no" on Gonzales. I want him damned and cast out with the most vocal disgust. This is where our country could send a message that we will not condone or tolerate the inhumanity he has blandly advocated.

If you share this opinion, please contact your Senators to let them know that this is an issue for which no compromise is acceptable. A Senator who votes to confirm Gonzales quite simply loses our support going forward. A vote for Gonzales is, quite literally, a vote condoning torture.

You can find contact information for your Senators at http://www.senate.gov.


— • —
[  Filed under: % Bush Watch  % Civil Liberties  % Government & Politics  ]

Comments (1)

rkent, 2005.04.15 (Fri) 17:06 [Link] »

dear 2% company:

just a note to say hello and to invite you to our site (velvelonnationalaffairs)

best,

rk




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