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White House Aims to Block Legislation on Detainees

Oh. My. God. I didn't think that we could sink any lower. Dick Cheney met with Republican Senators in an effort to protect the Bush Administration's "right" to torture detainees with cruel, unusual and inhumane interogation. Aren't these detainees still men?

Read this excerpt of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Nowhere in this founding document of our country does it mention that these unalienable Rights are based solely on your country of origin or combatant status. If we as Americans wish to espouse the ideals of our founding fathers, shouldn't we treat all men with the same respect and dignity that we reserve for ourselves? And wouldn't it stand to reason that if the Bush Administration and this government can't stand by the moral and ethical values outlined by the founding fathers that it is our right--nee, duty--to remove them? Shouldn't we hold ourselves and our government up to a higher standard?

I don't want people who believe that torturing someone is all right as long as they are enemy combatants to be in office. No one. Be they enemy combatants, or terrorists, or even Saddam or Hitler. No one, NO ONE, deserves to be tortured, treated cruelly, inhumanely, etc.

Didn't George Bush "win" because of people interested in moral and family values? Doesn't that mean he should get up and say that it isn't moral to torture people and his administration will punish anyone caught guilty of it will be punished to the fullest extent of the law? That would be the moral thing to do. Unfortunately, Bush has proved himself to be morally bankrupt at every turn. Social Security, Iraq, Downing Street Abu Ghraib, the Plame leak, Guantanamo, No Child Left Behind, Cafta, FTAA, the coup in Venezuela, the budget, the list goes on and on and on and on. The man is a loose cannon who needs to be stopped.

It is our duty to do it.

I read this article and it just got my blood boiling so much. I can not stand the idea of people thinking that in the name of Democracy we should sell out all of the ideals that this Democracratic Republic is founded on. It's just wrong. All men, regardless of race, creed, colour, sexual orientation, country of origin, etc., deserve the unalienable Rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence. And I think the Bush Administration has proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is destructive of these ends and they hold the very ideals of this country in contempt.

I love my country but I'm ashamed of the path we're on.