If you run some sort of "identification service" today, specifically in the private sector but also including within the government at ...
louisiana now blog, posts about a new documentary that "examines supposed gay politicians who live in the closet, yet support anti-gay policies." one such politician mentioned by the documentary is former louisiana congressman jim mcrery. ~ read more
this explains why lately we have seen an unusual increase in "jim mccrery + gay" googlers," to our post of 07 december 2007.
mccrery, a republican (naturally) did in at least one instance that we are aware of, support pro-homosexual federal legislation.
of course, none of louisiana's main stream media reported it. nor did la. gop chairman, roger "daffodil" villere issue any statement of condemnation.
just like in the recent case of pro-homosexual republican and quack doctor bill cassidy's as well as that flake anh cao's vote for H.R. 1913 the federal hate crimes bill a/k/a the pedophile protection act, villere and as far as we can tell the entire la. republican party "leadership" (if you can call them that) remained silent.
new york city mayor mickey bloomberg accompanied by congressman gary ackerman and nyc police commissioner, ray kelly, jets off to israel to express their solidarity with and to back the israelis invasion of gaza.
last night during the geraldo rivera program, faux news reported that their could be an attack (read false flag operation) on or somewhere in the united states as a result of israel's actions against gaza -- yet mayor bloomberg leaves his city to jet off to israel; taking with him -- of all people: the police commissioner -- thus showing once again that zionist jews are more loyal to israel than they are to their host country.
congressman gary ackerman another zionist israel firster criminal jew is the sponsor of aipac's h. con. res. 362 known as the iran war resolution (which was cosponsored by louisiana congressmen: rodney alexander (r), don cazayoux (d), charlie melancon (d), jim mccrery (r) and steve scalise (r) its companion bill, s.res.580 was cosponsored by david vitter (r) and katrina mary landrieu snellings (d) all of these congressmen and senators should be considered traitors and zionist israeli agents).
according to his zionist approved wikipedia entry, congressman ackerman:[H]as also not been without some controversial votes. He was one of only 22 Congressman and one of 2 Democrats from New York to vote against a resolution calling for the protection of the symbols and traditions of Christmas. The resolution, which did not include language that would protect the symbols of other religious holidays, passed 401-22 in the House in December 2005.
This isn’t the first time the Congressman was labeled as anti-Christian; in April 2003 the Catholic League for religious and civil rights attacked Ackerman for voting against a non-binding resolution that would have declared a day of prayer in recognition of the U.S. war in Iraq. He was also criticized for calling on Bush to demand U.S. Secretary Rod Paige's resignation for stating that values taught in Christian schools are better than those learned in public schools.
$350 billion dollars have been spent so far on the wall street bailout. this is more than what was spent on the marshall plan, more than the apollo moon program and nearly as much as was spent to build the nations interstate highway system and the banks wont tell what they are doing with the money. there is another $350 billion dollars waiting to be spent.
louisiana congressmen who voted for the wall street bailout (H.R. 1424) were: rodney alexander, charles boustany, jim mccrery and charlie melancon. louisiana senators katrina mary landrieu snellings and david vitter voted no.
elijah cummings the congressman interviewed for this ac360 piece also voted for the wall street bailout a/k/a emergency economic stabilization act of 2008.====
see also the
2008 american financial collapse
label in the footer of this post
====
on 09 december 2008, texas republican, louie gohmert, introduced his H.R. 7309. a bill "to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to suspend employment and income taxes for the first two months of 2009, and for other purposes."
according to the library of congress, as of 1:09 p.m. cst, monday 15 december 2008, rep. gohmert's bill has thirty-seven co-sponsors:
surprisingly -- or not -- not one louisiana congressman has signed on to co-sponsor rep. gohmert's bill.
rep.'s mccrery, cazayoux and jefferson, perhaps can be excused since they are all on their way out of the congress.
however, there is no excuse for republican rep.'s rodney alexander and charles boustany (who both voted for the wall street bailout) for not co-sponsoring this bill. nor is there any excuse for democratic rep. charlie melancon's (another rat who voted for the wall street bailout) not co-sponsoring this bill either. the other republican -- rep. steve scalise, his name is also inexplicably absent.
call rodney alexander [contact], charles boustany [contact]. charlie melancon [contact]. and steve scalise [contact] and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 7309 and to do everything within their power to pass this bill.====
see also
world net daily
tax holiday bill picks up steam
====
and also
gohmert.house.gov
gohmert's tax holiday squelches paulson's squandering
====
GovTrack.us. H.R. 7309--110th Congress (2008): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to suspend employment and income taxes for the first..., GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation) (accessed Dec 15, 2008)
house final passage vote roll call #690
they have convicted alaska senator ted stevens listed as reelected, however, his election results are still up in the air.
source: louisiana sec'y of state elections division
house roll call vote #681UPDATE: H.R. 1424 Senate version of Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 .pdf
house roll call vote #674
see govtrack's version of roll call #674 which sorts the vote by party and by statea couple of days ago it was reported that la-06 congressman don cazayoux had voted to give his fellow congressman charles b. rangel an "ethics pass" by his yea vote to table h. res 1460.
according to house roll call vote #609 of thursday, 18 september 2008, congressman cazayoux was joined in voting yea to table the resolution by his fellow louisiana congressmen william jefferson and charlie melancon.
other interesting yea votes to table h. res. 1460 from the republican side of the aisle were those cast by ron paul, wayne gilchrest, walter jones, james ramstad and dana rohrabacher.
h.res. 1460 was filed on thursday. the text was unavailable online that day and friday because, according to the library of congress, (thomas.loc.gov) it hadnt been sent to them from the government printing office. so it was saturday before we could read the actual text. in the meantime, the only information that they had was the name of the sponsor, :that creepy, sack of ohio rethuglican dung, john boehner.
congressman boehner you might recall is a suspected alcoholic (and serial tanning bed abuser) who on more than one occasion has made incoherent speeches from the house floor in which he famously weeps over the iraq war see boehner weeps & boehner weeps again, a war which he enthusiastically supports. so as far as we're concerned, congressman boehner is just as big a criminal as he would have us believe that congressman rangel is.
just yesterday (sunday 21 september 2008) congressman boehner said on abc's "this week" program that 'treasury's bailout package should help only wall street, not main street.'
anyway, back to congressman cazayuox. how could congressman cazayoux in good conscience and coming from the most corrupt state in the nation, vote to table this resolution? furthermore, what is especially egregious about congressman cazayoux's vote to table h. res.1460 is that he claims that he was a prosecutor in pointe coupee parish -- although apparently not a very good one -- despite his campaign websites' insistence that he never lost a jury trial (notice that they dont tell you just how many jury trials that he actually had) -- hence his desperation to become a career politician.
we dont support "dr." bill cassidy for congress either. cassidy's support of lake charles democrat willie landry mount's sb312 the louisiana mandatory drinking water fluoridation bill, is all the evidence you need to understand that cassidy is a quack and is unfit to hold any office of public trust including his present office of louisiana state senator.
"dr." cassidy's dangerous quackiness, incompetence and corruption should be glaringly apparent especially in light of the actions taken by tennessee state representative joey hensley. representative hensley also a medical doctor and also a republican, spoke out against and stopped efforts to fluoridate tennesse's drinking water.
see also 50 reasons to oppose fluoridation by paul connett, phd. professor of chemistry, st. lawrence university, canton, new york. and the sb312 label in the footer of his post.
according to the louisiana secretary of state elections website, there is an independent running for congress from louisiana's sixth district - louisiana state representative michael jackson. this is who residents of the sixth congressional district should vote for.
HRES 1460 LTH
Mr. BOEHNER submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the table
Whereas the gentleman from New York, Charles B. Rangel, serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a position of considerable power and influence within the House of Representatives;
Whereas the Committee on Ways and Means has jurisdiction over the United States Tax Code;
Whereas The New York Times reported on September 5, 2008, that, `Representative Charles B. Rangel has earned more than $75,000 in rental income from a villa he has owned in the Dominican Republic since 1988, but never reported it on his Federal or State tax returns, according to a lawyer for the congressman and documents from the resort';
Whereas in an article in the September 5, 2008, edition of The New York Times, his attorney confirmed that Representative Rangel's annual congressional Financial Disclosure statements failed to disclose the rental income from his resort villa;
Whereas The New York Times reported on September 6, 2008, that, `Representative Charles B. Rangel paid no interest for more than a decade on a mortgage extended to him to buy a villa at a beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic, according to Mr. Rangel's lawyer and records from the resort. The loan, which was extended to Mr. Rangel in 1988, was originally to be paid back over seven years at a rate of 10.5 percent. But within two years, interest on the loan was waived for Mr. Rangel.';
Whereas clause 5(a)(2)(A) of Rule 25 of the Rules of the House defines a gift as, `* * * a gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value' and prohibits the acceptance of such gifts except in limited circumstances;
Whereas Representative Rangel's acceptance of thousands of dollars in interest forgiveness is a violation of the House gift ban;
Whereas Representative Rangel's failure to disclose the aforementioned gifts and income on his Personal Financial Disclosure Statements violates House rules and Federal law;
Whereas Roll Call newspaper reported on September 15, 2008, that, `The inconsistent reports are among myriad errors, discrepancies and unexplained entries on Rangel's personal disclosure forms over the past eight years that make it almost impossible to get a clear picture of the Ways and Means chairman's financial dealings.';
Whereas Representative Rangel's failure to report the aforementioned gifts and income on Federal, State and local tax returns is a violation of the tax laws of those jurisdictions;
Whereas disclosure of these improper acts follows an announcement on July 31, 2008, by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct that it is reviewing unrelated allegations that Representative Rangel has violated House gift rules, financial disclosure regulations and rules barring the use of official resources to solicit funds for private ventures;
Whereas an editorial in The New York Times on September 15, 2008, stated, `Mounting embarrassment for taxpayers and Congress makes it imperative that Representative Charles Rangel step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while his ethical problems are investigated.';
Whereas clause 1 of rule XXXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives provides, `A Member, Delegate, Resident Commission, officer, or employee of the House shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House'; and
Whereas on May 24, 2006, Speaker Nancy Pelosi cited `high ethical standards' in a letter to Representative William Jefferson asking that he resign his seat on the Committee on Ways and Means in light of ongoing investigations into alleged financial impropriety by Representative Jefferson: Now, therefore, be it
maybe someone is trying to tell us something?...after all mr. gorman is a republican who is trying to replace homo jim mccrery...
surprisingly, rodney alexander and steve scalise voted nay. see house roll call vote 519.
buried inside H.R. 3221 known as the foreclosure prevention act of 2008, sponsored by nancy pelosi is sec. 6050w.
TITLE III--REVENUE PROVISIONS >>>> Subtitle B--Revenue Offsets >>>> SEC. 3091. RETURNS RELATING TO PAYMENTS MADE IN SETTLEMENT OF PAYMENT CARD AND THIRD PARTY NETWORK TRANSACTIONS. >>>> SEC. 6050W. RETURNS RELATING TO PAYMENTS MADE IN SETTLEMENT OF PAYMENT CARD AND THIRD PARTY NETWORK TRANSACTIONS. why are republicans voting to send millions of dollars to poland for a museum? notice how every single louisiana republican voted for this bill. do you think that the louisiana media or moon griffon, the clowns on ksyl and the states other rethuglican shills, like, oh, say the nutty professor for one, will confront any of these criminals to hold them accountable and ask them just what the hell they are doing by this?
do you think la gop chairman roger villere will be issuing any press releases chiding the state republicans over their making a mockery of the party's platform? dont hold your breath.
these cretins: richard hugh baker, piyush "bobby" jindal and jim mccrery wont be back in the next congress but they all voted for it too - see house roll call vote 1088 from 14 november 2007.
if you're a republican how can you ever vote for any of these criminals ever again? they are making a fool out of you over and over. do you like being made a fool out of?
what they are doing is criminal - you can call it embezzlement, money laundering, theft by deception or whatever. the united states government is trillions and trillions of dollars in the hole and they are borrowing money from our "enemies" to send it to the other side of the world.
H.R.3320 from thomas.loc
click here to download the opinion 134 page .pdf
click here to download the military commissions act 39 page .pdfThe Military Commissions Act of 2006 was -- and remains -- one of the great stains on our national political character. It was passed by a substantial majority in the Senate (65-34) with the support of every single Senate Republican (except Chafee) and 12 Senate Democrats. No filibuster was even attempted. It passed by a similar margin in the House, where 34 Democrats joined 219 Republicans to enact it. One of the most extraordinary quotes of the post-9/11 era came from GOP Sen. Arlen Specter, who said at the time that that the Military Commissions Act -- because it explicitly barred federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions brought by Guantanamo detainees -- "sets back basic rights by some 900 years" and was "patently unconstitutional on its face" -- and Specter then proceeded to vote for it.
The greatest victim of the 9/11 attack has been our core, defining constitutional liberties. Of all the powers seized by this administration in the name of keeping us Safe, the power to imprison people indefinitely with no charges and no real process is the most pernicious.
Passage of the Military Commissions Act was spearheaded by John McCain, who was anointed by cowardly Senate Democrats to speak for them and negotiate with the White House. Once McCain blessed the Military Commissions Act, its passage was assured. Barack Obama voted against it, and once its passage appeared certain, Obama offered an amendment to limit it to five years. That amendment failed, rendering the MCA the law of the land without any time limits. ~ read more
UPDATE: la-04 rethug fleming wants to bus laborers from and to mexico
Dear We Saw,to which we replied:
I am contacting you on behalf of John Fleming for Congress. I am writing because this campaign respects your impressive website which showcases your immense talent.
(awww we bet they tell that to all the bloggers lol. seriously though the email is time-stamped 3:00 am on a saturday night-sunday morning so maybe they were half asleep or buzzed or something when they stumbled across wst...)
Blogs are underutilized in politics. This campaign is interested in developing a strong relationship with blogs across Louisiana and the nation, yours included. Please contact upon receiving this e-mail, as I would like future communication.
Sincerely,
we are in receipt of your email and thank you very much for it. we have to be honest in that we do not believe that this is a good year to run for office as a republican. the republican party with help from the democrats, have done much harm to this country, to our constitution and to the world. however, according to dr. fleming's bio he is a veteran of the united states naval service as are we (boatswainmate's), so he cant be all bad LOL. therefore, we will at least listen to what he has to say with an open mind.dr. fleming is running for united states congressman from louisiana's fourth congressional district. this is the district currently represented by the rethuglican homosexual jim mccrery who is retiring.
Audit Finds FBI Reports Of Detainee Abuse IgnoredComplaints by FBI agents about abusive interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other U.S. military sites reached the National Security Council but prompted no effort to curb questioning that the agents considered ineffective and possibly illegal, according to an internal audit released yesterday.
Reports that Guantanamo detainees were being subjected to extreme temperatures, religious abuses and nude interrogation were conveyed at White House meetings of senior officials in 2003, yet these questionable tactics remained in use, a lengthy report by the Justice Department's inspector general concluded.
In one instance, colleagues of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft reported that he personally aired concerns about Defense Department strategy toward a particular detainee with Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, while other Justice managers shared similar fears with the council's legal adviser in November 2003, the report said.
Ashcroft declined to be interviewed by investigators, so it remains uncertain how aggressively he pressed the issue, according to the report. read more
black candidates know whats up. hopefully they will run as independents and hopefully they or another independent will win. what will it take for more and more people, black, white, whatever, to leave the democratic and republican party in droves as it should be self-evident, by now, how both major party's are a bunch of parasites. so best of luck to michael jackson, don cravins and lydia jackson.
republicans and democrats two wings of the same great bird of prey
being a democrat or a republican is the equivalent of being dumb and dumber.
times-picayune excerpts:Sen. Don Cravins Jr., Sen. Lydia Jackson and Rep. Michael Jackson say the state and national Democratic parties have failed to recruit and support black candidates to run for federal and statewide offices. They said there's disparity between how the party treats black and white candidates.
"For many, many years, the African-American community has been very supportive of Democrats, and many of us feel that has not been reciprocated," said Cravins, D-Opelousas.
Cravins said he is considering a run as an independent for the 7th U.S. Congressional District that is held by U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-Lafayette.
Though he said the Democratic Party supports him as a state senator in a majority black district, Cravins said he worries that financial and organizational help would evaporate once he ventures into a congressional district that is majority white.
"When an African-American candidate runs in a majority white district, race is always an issue," said Cravins.
Cravins' father — Opelousas Mayor Don Cravins Sr. — ran for Congress in 2004 and lost, and at the time, Cravins Sr. criticized members of the Democratic Party for not providing enough support for his candidacy.
Rep. Michael Jackson, D-Baton Rouge, said the party favored fellow Democrat Don Cazayoux over him in the recent race for the 6th U.S. Congressional District, and he said that cut into his fundraising ability. He's considering running as an independent for the seat in November. Cazayoux won the congressional seat and was sworn into office this week, but he'll have to run again in the fall to hang onto the job.
Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, also said she is weighing a run as an independent for the 4th U.S. Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. James McCrery, R-Shreveport. She said she has some problems with the way the party has been recruiting and supporting candidates.
"Looking at the demographics for the 4th, it just makes sense to consider the independent route," she said. ~ read more
UPDATE: hb715 passed the state house 72 - 22 videos and voting records
During the past couple of months we have continued to keep you apprised on an extremely important piece of legislation that will effect all of us in Louisiana - Rep. Brett Geymann's HB 715.
I am pleased to report that, on Tuesday morning, the House Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works voted without objection to send HB 715 to the House floor for a vote.
If passed on the floor, HB 715 would reject the Real ID Act which Congress passed in 2005.
The Real ID Act of 2005 requires that states comply with a federal government mandate to create a national identification card. This unfunded federal mandate is not only a direct threat to our privacy and civil liberties but it is also a blatant disregard of our 10th Amendment rights!
It is a great sign and a good initial step that HB 715 passed through the Transportation Committee with unanimous support. However, the battle has just begun. I urge all of you to take a moment to call your legislators and ask them to vote in favor of Rep. Geymann's bill - House Bill 715!
some additional information on real id from www.nonationalid.comfast talking bull shit artist piyush "bobby" jindal brought his schtick to central louisiana again today. for once he skipped the diamond grill in favor of the louisiana state university at alexandria campus to tout his recent submission to the state legislature called the 'capital outlay bill.'
the governor took this opportunity to tell area students that "Priority 1 is $5.4 million for a visitors center and museum at Forts Randolph and Buhlow Historic Sites in Pineville."
local homosexuals reportedly said that with the planned improvements buhlow is going to be "absolutely fabulous."
no word yet on whether or not the governor's special friend, congressman jim mccrery will be cutting the ribbon for buhlow's grand reopening.
click here to download fifty-eight page .pdf
this morning we learned that chimpenfuhrer has vetoed h.r.2082 the intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2008 or "the waterboarding bill." in his message to the house of representatives, chimpenfuhrer writes that amongst other reasons, he has a problem with section 327.
SEC. 327. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.
(a) LIMITATION.—No individual in the custody or under the effective control of an element of the intelligence community or instrumentality thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Human
Intelligence Collector Operations.
(b) INSTRUMENTALITY DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘instrumentality’’, with respect to an element of the intelligence community, means a contractor or subcontractor at any tier of the element of the intelligence community. ~ page 26
chimpenfuhrer writes:Section 327 of the bill would harm our national security by requiring any element of the Intelligence Community to use only the interrogation methods authorized in the Army Field Manual on Interrogations. It is vitally important that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) be allowed to maintain a separate and classified interrogation program. The Army Field Manual is directed at guiding the actions of nearly three million active duty and reserve military personnel in connection with the detention of lawful combatants during the course of traditional armed conflicts, but terrorists often are trained specifically to resist techniques prescribed in publicly available military regulations such as the Manual. The CIA's ability to conduct a separate and specialized interrogation program for terrorists who possess the most critical information in the War on Terror has helped the United States prevent a number of attacks, including plots to fly passenger airplanes into the Library Tower in Los Angeles and into Heathrow Airport or buildings in downtown London. While details of the current CIA program are classified, the Attorney General has reviewed it and determined that it is lawful under existing domestic and international law, including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. I remain committed to an intelligence-gathering program that complies with our legal obligations and our basic values as a people. The United States opposes torture, and I remain committed to following international and domestic law regarding the humane treatment of people in its custody, including the "Detainee Treatment Act of 2005."
notice how chimpenfuhrer says that 'waterboarding' "is not part of the current cia program." so if its not part of the current program then whats the problem with going ahead and outlawing it? probably because chimpenfuhrer is lying.
My disagreement over section 327 is not over any particular interrogation technique; for instance, it is not over waterboarding, which is not part of the current CIA program. Rather, my concern is the need to maintain a separate CIA program that will shield from disclosure to al Qaeda and other terrorists the interrogation techniques they may face upon capture. In accordance with a clear purpose of the "Military Commissions Act of 2006," my veto is intended to allow the continuation of a separate and classified CIA interrogation program that the Department of Justice has determined is lawful and that operates according to rules distinct from the more general rules applicable to the Department of Defense. While I will continue to work with the Congress on the implementation of laws passed in this area in recent years, I cannot sign into law a bill that would prevent me, and future Presidents, from authorizing the CIA to conduct a separate, lawful intelligence program, and from taking all lawful actions necessary to protect Americans from attack.
united states army field manual on human intelligence collector operations'In this business of legislation, your members of Congress will lose the restriction of not imposing excessive fines, demanding excessive bail, and inflicting cruel and unusual punishments. These are prohibited by your Declaration of Rights. What has distinguished our ancestors? That they would not admit of tortures, or cruel and barbarous punishment. But Congress may introduce the practice of the civil law, in preference to that of the common law. They may introduce the practice of France, Spain, and Germany,-of torturing to extort a confession of the crime. They will say that they might as well draw examples from those countries as from Great Britain, and they will tell you that there is such a necessity of strengthening the arm of government that they must have a criminal equity, and extort confession by torture, in order to punish with still more relentless severity. We are then lost and undone. And can any man think it troublesome when he can, by a small interference, prevent our rights from being lost? If you will, like the Virginian government, give them knowledge of the extent of the rights retained by the people, and the powers of themselves, they will, if they be honest men, thank you for it. Will they not wish to go on sure grounds? But, if you leave them otherwise, they will not know how to proceed; and, being in a state of uncertainty, they will assume rather than give up powers by implication.' [217 U.S. 349, 397] emphasis addedagain in 1940 in CHAMBERS v. STATE OF FLORIDA, 309 U.S. 227 (1940) the united states supreme court addressed cruel and unusual punishment and torture:
The scope and operation of the Fourteenth Amendment have been fruitful sources of controversy in our constitutional history. 8 However, in view of its historical [309 U.S. 227, 236] setting and the wrongs which called it into being, the due process provision of the Fourteenth Amendment-just as that in the Fifth-has led few to doubt that it was intended to guarantee procedural standards adequate and appropriate, then and thereafter,9 to protect, at all times, people charged with or suspected of crime by those holding positions of power and authority. Tyrannical governments had immemorially utilized dictatorial criminal procedure and punishment to make scape goats of the weak, or of helpless political, religious, or racial minorities and those who differed, who would not conform and who resisted tyranny. The instruments of such governments were in the main, two. Conduct, innocent when engaged in, was subsequently made by fiat criminally punishable without legislation. And a liberty loving people won the principle that criminal punishments could not be inflicted save for that which proper legislative action had already by 'the law of the land' forbidden when done. But even more was needed. From the popular hatred and abhorrence of illegal confinement, torture and extortion of confessions of violations of the 'law of the land' evolved the fundamental idea that no man's life, liberty or property be forfeited as criminal punishment for violation of that law until there had been a charge fairly made and fairly tried in a public [309 U.S. 227, 237] tribunal free of prejudice, passion, excitement and tyrannical power. Thus, as assurance against ancient evils, our country, in order to preserve 'the blessings of liberty', wrote into its basic law the requirement, among others, that the forfeiture of the lives, liberties or property of people accused of crime can only follow if procedural safeguards of due process have been obeyed. 10
The determination to preserve an accused's right to procedural due process sprang in large part from knowledge of the historical truth that the rights and liberties of people accused of crime could not be safely entrusted to secret inquisitorial processes. The testimony of centuries, in governments of varying kinds over populations of different races and beliefs, stood as proof that physical and mental torture and coercion had brought about the tragically unjust sacrifices of some who were the noblest and most useful of their generations. The rack, the thumbscrew, the wheel, solitary confinement, protracted questioning and cross questioning, and other ingenious forms of entrapment of the helpless or unpopular had left their wake of mutilated bodies and shattered minds along the way to the cross, the guillotine, the stake and [309 U.S. 227, 238] the hangman's noose. And they who have suffered most from secret and dictatorial proceedings have almost always been the poor, the ignorant, the numerically weak, the friendless, and the powerless. 11
senate roll call vote 22
house roll call vote 1160
