This year’s National Defense Authorization Act has just passed through the Senate. The only obstacle is President Obama and historically he caves into vocal opposition, and looking at the lengthy list of Senators voting Yea, this abomination this could very well pass.
The 13 Senators that voted Nay on this year’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with 86 voting Yea:
| Cardin (D-MD) Coburn (R-OK) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Durbin (D-IL) | Franken (D-MN) Harkin (D-IA) Lee (R-UT) Merkley (D-OR) Paul (R-KY) | Risch (R-ID) Sanders (I-VT) Wyden (D-OR) |
One was apparently too busy to vote: Moran (R-KS)
Although the most tyrannical part of the Act has been restructured, this is a tell:
Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.”
As PoliticusUSA’s Ray Medeiros points out:
What does EXISTING law say about the detention of American citizens. That is what we need to be concerned with. If existing law states American citizens can be detained indefinitely, by the military, that is the law or laws that need to be changed, rather than this current appropriations act.
Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at ACLU, said Wednesday night that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 was still highly problematic despite changes to the bill. “It was an awful bill before and it is an awful bill now,” he told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
The restructured version of the bill kept the provisions but exempted U.S. citizens to be held in military custody and included language stating that the bill did not extend new authority to detain U.S. citizens. If we need to dissect this swiftly passed Act to this degree, warning signs should be blaring in your head and the fact that, that particular provision was even contained in the bill should alarm you. Why was that provision contained in the bill to begin with?
Occupy NDAA. Gain our freedom back, and ignore the spin doctors and bots who are attempting to make this into something healthy for our country. It is not.
The lengthy list of the Senators who passed this bill:
| YEAs —86 | ||
| Akaka (D-HI) Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Blumenthal (D-CT) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Brown (R-MA) Burr (R-NC) Cantwell (D-WA) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Chambliss (R-GA) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY) Feinstein (D-CA) Gillibrand (D-NY) | Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hagan (D-NC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Inouye (D-HI) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (D-SD) Johnson (R-WI) Kerry (D-MA) Kirk (R-IL) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lugar (R-IN) Manchin (D-WV) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Menendez (D-NJ) | Mikulski (D-MD) Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Portman (R-OH) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Roberts (R-KS) Rockefeller (D-WV) Rubio (R-FL) Schumer (D-NY) Sessions (R-AL) Shaheen (D-NH) Shelby (R-AL) Snowe (R-ME) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Vitter (R-LA) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS) |
Image: Mother Jones
