{UPDATE}
We Won the Vote in Congress!
Pentagon Forced to Release Information to SOA Watch - On to the Senate!
Thanks to your efforts and hard work in defense of human rights, the culture of secrecy and lack of accountability surrounding Defense Department policies suffered a severe blow today when the U.S. House of Representatives approved the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop (GA) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2009. The amendment was approved with a 220 to 189 vote!
This just in from my friends at SOA Watch.
Today, the House of Representatives will debate and vote on HR 5658, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. An amendment will be offered by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Representative Sanford Bishop (D-GA) that would require the names, rank, country of origin, and dates/classes of attendance for graduates and instructors at the SOA/ WHINSEC.We expect a vote to happen this afternoon so call/fax/email your Representative and make sure your e-mail messages gets through!
It's important that the American taxpayer know who is attending this school. The names have been blocked for years, and we've not known what if any new graduates are folks like this or this. It seems the height of hypocrisy on the part of the the SOA defenders to on one hand say nothing is going on, but on the other refuse to be transparent when it comes to the release of the students names.
Please support Georgia Congressman Bishops efforts to release the names.Call the office of your Representative NOW by calling the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202-224-3121) and ask to be transferred to your Representative’s office.
Comments (10)
email and fax sent!
Wow, BfD supporting something Bishop is doing. Never thought I'd see that.
Cool.
Or maybe Bishop is finally supporting something decent.
I'm not arguing how good or bad the legislation is, just pointing out an oddity :)
Now if we see a positive thread about something Marshall is doing, then wow, I'm not quite sure how I'd respond.
Congressman Bishop has long be a defender of the SOA Program at Ft. Benning. However in the past 3 years the connvictions of a dozen of SOA graduates on narco-drug trafficing, human rights and other illegal acts have forced him to take a long look at the program and tactics. Any one of the prosecutions alone should have caused outrage, but together is something that can not be shrugged off. A couple of the schools recent graduates are suspected of particpating in Abu Grab and a torture investigation in Afghanistan.
The Congressman also is now in the majority party and no doubt it is politicly less risky to participate in speaking out.
Again, if everything is on the up and up, they should have no problem releasing the names right?
RD, if Marshall ever did anything good worth pointing out it would definitely be newsworthy around here. Somehow I'm thinking that we'll all be hearing the crickets chirping for a long time waiting for that to happen...
You're right. He never does anything positive. I guess the 60-70% of the time he sides with the party means that the party's view is wrong on those issues.
If we go by the abysmal rates for grading students these days, 60 to 70 % is still failing, thus Marshall is a failure.
I'd rather have Marshall than a Republican, but votes like this piss me off:
He voted no on the Mental Health Coverage Bill (HR 1424).
-Requires health insurance plans that provide mental health coverage to provide the same coverage limits and benefits to mental health and substance abuse treatment that are applied to medical and surgical health care (Division A, Sec. 102).
Adquately covering Mental Health / Substance Abuse would go a long way in solving a lot of our problems.
Ruby,
I'm terrible with math, but even I can understand that someone voting with me 60-70% of the time is more than the likely 0-10% that you'd get from Goddard.
Call him every name you want, but you have to admit that he votes a helluva lot more with Democrats than Goddard would.
Jen B.,
I'm not saying the guy is perfect, I've disagreed with him on some issues. However, there are some out there who really think someone as liberal as John Lewis could easily hold on to that seat.
Which, my views are more in line with someone like Marshall or Gene Taylor, so I don't get as mad as Ruby and others do.
Jules,
Speaking of Bishop and now being in the majority party, I'm not surprised that more of my liberal friends have not talked about him in a positive light. His party loyalty score has skyrocketed. That seat is his until he gets bored, so it really doesn't matter. His constituent services are top notch, and he is willing to do whatever he can for his counties.