The Military Commissions Act

I'm not quite sure how the American public let this little piece of legislation (okay, so it's over 100 pages long and apparently quite heavy) get passed as the official law of the land. It's called the "Military Commissions Act," and became official on October 16th, 2006. Yes, that is six months ago, and yes, I understand that this post has been very much delayed, and I apologize for that. I was just so horribly unaware that this law was passed until a few weeks ago. This received absolutely no media coverage (and this scares me by itself) and, well, to be frank, I'm living in the bubble that is college--it's hard to get into the outside world on regular occasion.

Anyway, I am now officially and formally speaking out against this law, which, in the words of the good folks at http://www.irregulartimes.com, "transforms the United States of America from a nation of laws into a nation of power unaccountable to law. It transforms the United States of America from a free democracy into a de facto dictatorship."

The following are the major components of the Military Commissions Act (again, thanks to irregular times for the succint summary):
1. It revokes habeas corpus, thereby giving the power to imprison people without trial for as long as the President "deems necessary."
2. It gives George W. Bush and other top officials legal amnesty for any war crimes they may have committed.
3. It formally legalizes torture.
4. It creates a secret committee controlled by the President that can declare anyone to be an enemy, and thereby strip away their legal rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
5. It ends protection of prisoners of war by the Geneva Conventions.
6. It removes the right to a speedy trial.
7. It sets up "kangaroo courts" that fail to meet the most fundamental civilized standards of justice, with unfair trials kept hidden from the American public.

Seems like a constitutional law to me! How could America not support this law? (Who can sense a copious amount of sarcasm?)

While there was, strangely, no immediate reaction to the passing of this law (probably because proponents sneaked it in prior to mid-term elections), there has been recent support for restoring the constitutional rights to citizens that would otherwise (now) be subject to the MCA. Searching the LOC database for H.R. 1415 will yield: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d110:1:./temp/~bdTE1a:@@@L&summ2=m&/bss/d110query.html 36 Representatives have co-sponsored this bill, but that is not nearly enough to gain support.

Here's what you ought to do to help:
1. Contact your Representative and Senator demanding their support for H.R. 1415 (and whatever Senate number this bill is given).
2. Contact the President, and let him know what you feel about the MCA.
3. Sign petitions, send letters, gather community support, meet with your Representative or Senator.
4. Tell everyone you know to investigate their own government and their Representatives.
5. Conduct your own individual research into the matter. Amnesty International is a great resource, Human Rights Watch is a great resource, the Center for Constitutional Rights is a great resource... if you want information, you will be able to find it.

I think that's my post for the day; I have Representatives to call. Do the same?