Proud Day in the Republic

El Presidente signed "The Unlimited Powers of the Bush White House" bill this morning, a.k.a., "The Law Allowing Our Government to Beat the Shit Out of Anyone It Damn Well Pleases."

The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions. (ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero).

We have some g.d. Democratic senators to thank for voting for this abomination:

Carper of Deleware
Johnson of South Dakota
Landrieu of Louisiana
Lautenberg of New Jersey (Jay-sus!)
Lieberman of Connecticut
Menendez of New Jersey (what's wrong with New Jersey?)
Nelson of Florida
Nelson of Nebraska
Pryor of Arkansas
Rockefeller of West Virginia
Salazar of Colorado
Stabenow of Michigan

Roll-call of shame, the Dirty Dozen. Remember their names, as Garrison Keillor suggested in this blistering essay. These Democrats -- and ALL the Republicans in the Senate -- were willing to turn our Constitution into a toilet wipe.