Reactionary New Dems Help GOP Pass A Fatally Flawed National Defense Authorization Act

On Friday, the House passed Buck McKeon's tragically flawed National Defense Authorization Act, 315-108. All but 18 Republicans voted YES. The Democratic minority was much more split. Hoyer and Steve Israel led 103 of the more corrupt and conservative Democrats over to the Republican side of the aisle, while Pelosi, Clyburn and Becerra led a contingent of 90 more progressive Democrats against it, folks like Alan Grayson, Barbara Lee, Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison, John Conyers, Mark Pocan, Jerry Nadler, Jan Schakowsky. As always, uber-corrupt New Dem Colleen Hanabusa, who takes immense bribes from the Military Industrial Complex and is currently running against progressive incumbent Senator Brian Schatz, voted with the Republicans.

Before the vote came down, every single Democrat plus two Republicans rallied around a motion to recommit by Tammy Duckworth and Jackie Speier that would give the victim of sexual abuse in the military the power to choose whether to allow the Office of Chief Prosecutor to make the binding decision on whether a case goes to trial, or to allow the commander to proceed with the case. The DCCC was on the case immediately: "Moments ago," they told Santa Clarita media outlets, "Congressman Buck McKeon doubled down on House Republicans’ War on Women when he voted against a measure to empower victims of military sexual assault to seek justice... 'McKeon just proved that he has learned nothing from the backlash this week over the House Republicans’ war on women,' said Emily Bittner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 'Instead, Congressman McKeon just turned a blind eye to military sexual assault victims, and it is shameful that he would oppose giving these victims more options for justice.'"

Another amendment that failed (174-249) was the one offered by Adam Smith, Jim Moran and Jerry Nadler to shut down the Guantanamo gulag. This is what Nadler had to say on the floor of the House during the debate:

“This amendment will remove the existing limitations on transfers, strike the current requests for construction at GTMO, and end funding for the detention facility on December 31, 2014.

“The time to close Guantanamo is NOW! It is a stain on our national honor.

“We are holding 166 people in GTMO, 86 of whom have been cleared for release. That is to say that they have been found guilty of nothing, and judged not to pose any danger. There is no reason and no right for us to hold them further.

“Now, Mr. Speaker, I wonder which of our colleagues doesn’t believe in the American system of justice. I wonder which one of us does not trust our own American courts. I wonder who among us does NOT believe in the Bill of Rights. Who does not believe in the right to counsel, or that people should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. What we have in GTMO is a system that is an affront to those beliefs and to America.

“In the last decade, we have begun to let go of our freedoms bit by bit, with each new Executive order, each new court decision, and yes, each new act of Congress. We have begun giving away our rights to privacy, our right to our day in court when the government harms us, and, with this legislation, we are continuing down the path of destroying the right to be free from imprisonment without due process of law.

“I want to commend the gentleman from Washington and the gentleman from Virginia for fighting to close the detention facility at Guantanamo. The language in this bill without our amendment prohibits moving any detainees into the United States and guarantees that we will continue holding people indefinitely; people who are not necessarily terrorists, who we only suspect to be terrorists, who have not had a day in court to prove that they are or are not terrorists, we will continue holding them indefinitely without charge-- contrary to every tradition this country stands for, contrary to due process and civil rights.

“Because of this momentous challenge to the founding principles of the United States-- that no person may be deprived of liberty without due process of law, and certainly not indefinitely without due process of law-- we must close the detention facility at GTMO now in order to restore our national honor. They will have no additional constitutional rights; the Supreme Court ruled that they have the same constitutional rights in Guantanamo as they do here. We must close this facility, restore our national honor, and support this amendment.

Only two libertarian-leaning Republicans, Justin Amash (MI) and Walter Jones (NC), joined all but 21 Democrats who voted to close it down. The 21 Democrats who joined the Republicans in defeating the amendment were mostly the same right-wing shitheads who always vote with the Republicans and who are bolstered by the DCCC:

• Ron Barber (New Dem-AZ)
• John Barrow (New Dem-GA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Bill Foster (New Dem-IL)
• Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX)
• Joe Garcia (New Dem-FL)
• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
• Dan Lipinksi (IL)
• Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY)
• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
• Mike McIntyre (New Dem-NC)
• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL)
• Bill Owens (New Dem-NY)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Nick Rahall (WV)
• Raul Ruiz (CA)
• Loretta Sanchez (Blue Dog-CA)
• Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL)
• Kyrsten Sinema (New Dem-AZ)
• Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX)

Of the 21 bad Democrats voting to keep Guantanamo open, 14-- the bolded names-- are on the DCCC Frontline List, representing the characters the DCCC funnels nearly all their contributions to. In other words, contribute to the DCCC and you are contributing to conservatives who vote with the Republican to further their reactionary agenda.

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Is Obama Throwing Seniors Under The Bus So He Can Keep The Military-Industrial Complex Pork Rolling Along?

Millions of Democrats were outraged that Obama-- apparently in cahoots with Boehner and McConnell-- put forward a proposal, Chained CPI, to reduce the cost of living adjustments for seniors and veterans who depend on meager Social Security payments to live. Although over 100 Republicans already voted for this catastrophic cut to Social Security as part of the reactionary Republican Study Group budget, not even one Democrat voted for it. Obama stuck it in his budget anyway.

Plenty of Obama-supporters have wondered how he could possibly betray the most basic and fundamental principles of the Democratic Party so crassly and so callously, even with most of the congressmen in his own party begging him not to. Joshua Green at Businessweek traces it back to one good thing about Sequestration-- reduction of out-of-control spending by the Pentagon, billions of dollars in waste and crony-enrichment.

The Pentagon budget will be cut by $500 billion over the next decade (an additional $100 billion in deficit reduction comes from interest savings). While it may have troubled the White House, many Democrats regarded this as a huge gift-- military cuts were something many of them desired but few would actually argue for. Sequestration delivered more than they could have imagined.

Guess what? The White House still doesn’t like those cuts. And Obama’s new budget, released today, makes this clear. Although the White House doesn’t advertise this fact in the six-page budget overview it put out this morning, the new budget eliminates nearly all of the cuts that sequestration imposes on the Pentagon. Instead of $500 billion in cuts, Obama proposes only $100 billion, and you have to look closely to spot it (“$200 billion in additional discretionary savings, with equal amounts from defense and nondefense programs”).

Along with the well-advertised cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits, this is something that should appeal to the GOP. “It’s another one of the peace offerings in Obama’s package to Republicans,” Robert Litan, the director of research for Bloomberg Government and a former official of the Office of Management and Budget, told me. Indeed, when you cut through all the numbers, Obama and House Republicans are only $100 billion apart (the GOP budget restores the full $500 billion). The catch is that, like the other peace offerings, restoring the Pentagon’s budget is contingent on Republicans agreeing to further tax revenue.

Howard Dean, the last effective head of the DNC, responded poorly. This is a time to fight, not to retreat.

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