The GOP has been on quite a tear recently, defining themselves quite clearly. If only the Democrats would pay a little bit of attention and help them out a bit.
On Torture
Two words: Dick Cheney.
On Hate Crimes
On October 8, the House voted 281-146 to expand federal hate crimes legislation to cover sexual orientation, as part of the annual Defense Authorization Act. 131 of 178 Republicans voted against--73.6%. On October 22, the Senate followed suit, 68-to-29. Russ Feingold was the only Democrat voting against--because of the failure to set a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. 28 of 40 Republicans voted against--70%.
If Democrats acted like Republicans, they'd be all over the airwaves going on about how Republicans hate the troops, since this was, after all, a military funding bill. But with few exceptions, it's clear that the final vote was all about the hate crimes expansion.
Opponents argued to no avail that the new measure was unnecessary in view of existing laws and might interfere with local law enforcement agencies. Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said he agreed that hate crimes were terrible. "That's why they are already illegal," Mr. DeMint said, asserting that the new law was a dangerous, even "Orwellian" step toward "thought crime."
House:
Many Republicans, normally stalwart supporters of defense bills, voted against it because of the addition of what they referred to as "thought crimes" legislation.
"This is radical social policy that is being put on the defense authorization bill, on the backs of our soldiers, because they probably can't pass it on its own," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said.
GOP opponents were not assuaged by late changes in the bill to strengthen protections for religious speech and association - critics argued that pastors expressing beliefs about homosexuality could be prosecuted if their sermons were connected to later acts of violence against gays.
Supporters countered that prosecutions could occur only when bodily injury is involved, and no minister or protester could be targeted for expressing opposition to homosexuality.
The GOP opposition is support for hate crimes, pure and simple. If they actually believed their rationale, then repealing existing hate crimes legislation would have been a priority for them. But they've tried to do such a thing, because it would be political suicide. Overt racism leading to violence is simply not acceptable any more, no ifs, ands or buts. But gays and lesbians are still fair targets, it seems--which is precisely why they need such protections. Any why Republicans feel free to vote against protecting them.
Let's be clear--hate crimes are terrorism. They differ from other crimes because they are not just targeted against individuals, they are intended to intimidate and terrorize and entire community. They are terrorism, pure and simple. And the GOP as a whole doesn't think we need to criminalize terrorism, provided that it terrorizes people they don't like.
Al Franken's amendment withholding defense contracts from contractors that restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court was passed on October 6 with 30 GOP Senators voting against--75%:
The floor debate preceding the vote brought Minnesota's junior senator, a Democrat, head-to-head with the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who maintained that Franken's amendment overreached into the private sector and suggested that it violated the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Sessions also pointed out that the Department of Defense opposed the amendment.
But Franken held his ground. First, he argued against Sessions' constitutional argument.
"Article 1 Section 8 of our Constitution gives Congress the right to spend money for the welfare of our citizens. Because of this, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote, 'Congress may attach conditions on the receipt of federal funds and has repeatedly employed that power to further broad policy objectives,'" Franken said. "That is why Congress could pass laws cutting off highway funds to states that didn't raise their drinking age to 21. That's why this whole bill [the Defense Appropriations bill] is full of limitations on contractors - what bonuses they can give and what kind of health care they can offer. The spending power is a broad power and my amendment is well within it."
Franken then described the case that prompted his amendment, that of former Halliburton employee Jamie Leigh Jones, who alleged in 2007 that she was raped by multiple co-workers while serving in Iraq in 2005.
More to the point, perhaps, Sessions seems to believe that the Constitution right to due process is a right against due process--entirely in keeping with history of prosecuting black civil rights workers for civil rights violations. Any way you slice it, though, he & 29 of his fellow GOP senators were all in favor of protecting gang rapists. The very same crowd who tripped all over themselves passing an ex post facto law against funding ACORN. (No due process there, either. So I guess that Session has some sort of consistency.)
Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance
Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:11pm EDT
By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.
"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.
Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank
Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 11.03 BST
Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.
It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.
Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year - more than all the present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year.
Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: "Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters ... bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability".
This is the true face of the GOP, the face that they have freely shown to the world. Would that the Democrats spent a little more time making this perfectly clear, and a little less time trying to be more like them.
