Senator Bill Nelson Votes for Torture.
Or, as the NYT put it,
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday questioned the continuing value of the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects, suggesting that international condemnation and the obstacles it has created to criminal prosecution may outweigh its worth in gathering information.
The committee rejected by one vote a Democratic proposal that would essentially have cut money for the program by banning harsh interrogation techniques except in dire emergencies, a committee report revealed.
And that one vote was Florida's own Bill Nelson.
In a closed session on May 23, two Democrats, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Dianne Feinstein of California, proposed barring spending on interrogation techniques that go beyond the Army Field Manual, which bans physical pressure or pain. Under their proposal, the only exception would have been when the president determined “that an individual has information about a specific and imminent threat.”.
The amendment failed when Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, joined all the Republicans in voting no.
All Floridians should be ashamed of Sen. Bill Nelson, who provided the deciding vote to prevent the Senate from taking a stand against torture.
He has sunk to the level of Sen. Martinez, which is pretty low indeed.
There is no excuse for this sort of vote. None.
Couldn’t agree more! It still shocks me that so many politicians vote to allow torture!
Sure there is a very logical “excuse” for this type of vote. Nelson wants to be reelected (or help his successor in interest).
If you have not noticed Mr. Froomkin, Florida is a “red state.” You even said yourself that all of the Republicans voted no to the measure. Nelson is a democratic senator in a red state, thus he must vote sometimes against his own party, if he wants to build rappor with the republican voting base stronghold in Florida. Unfortunately, republicans don’t understand the history of the U.S. Constitution and the important role that non-torture plays in the history of the U.S. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nelson votes against a democratic measure benefitting pro-choice voters.
Surely you recognized this Mr. Froomkin. If not, you ought to consider taking a class in U.S. politics?
Actually, Florida at the state level is the classic 50/50 state — remember those razor-thin Presidential recounts? (Our legislature is unbalanced, but that’s due to serious gerrymandering.)
And Sen. Nelson was just won overwhelming re-election — he is at the safest point in his cycle as the voters will not remember these votes in five and a half years. These are votes of belief, not calculation.
And, in any case, these are fundamental moral questions. If you can’t vote right on these, you don’t deserve our trust.
Perhaps you should take better classes in politics? And ethics?
Froomkin it is very difficult to discuss politics with someone like you who lacks certain fundamental principles of knowledge, sufficient to maintain a healthy debate.
Perhaps you should turn off the news and read a book before replying to anymore of my postings.
If Florida was a 50/50 state as you suggest, then please explain how the Republicans have a very comfortable majority not only in the state House of Representatives, but also the state Senate. In addition, the Republicans have won the Governor seat 3 terms in a row. They have one U.S. senate seat and also the majority of Florida’s 25 U.S. House of Representative seats. Oh and your appeal to heavy gerrymandering is poor at best.
Let me try to break this down for you in very easy terms so you don’t get confused and say something silly again.
Republicans have: majority State legislature, majority State Senate, Governor, one U.S. Senate seat, and majority of Florida’s 25 U.S. House of Representative Seats
Democrats have: 1 U.S. Senate seat (don’t forget the Republicans have the other one!).
Hmmmm Froomkin, doesn’t seem very “50/50” to me. How you can be a professor at UM is beyond me, but then again with UM’s pitiful bar passage results in February ’07, I’m not surprised anymore.
What you need to do from here on out is:
1. Open a book.
2. Open your mind.
3. Open your eyes.
4. Turn off Fox News.
5. Stop posting on your own website.
Are you a student I gave a bad grade to? You seem very grumpy.
In any case, please re-read my comment above, as I already answered your questions: At the state level we are gerrymandered. This is also true for the House districts at the federal level: look at the shape of the 18th, where I live, for a good example.
At the senatorial level, it’s been a mix over the medium term. And in the Presidentials, it’s been notoriously close: remember 2000?
May I also draw your attention to this site’s civility policy?
Froomkin I don’t know if you do this on purpose or perhaps you are just that inattentive to simple detail. Let me try again in very elementary simple language for you.
Florida cannot be a “50/50” state based solely on how the state votes for Presidents. Perhaps every year the presidential elections are closer than other states, but that was not the issue you raised by trashing Bill Nelson. The issue you raised was with the Senate, not the Presidency. Florida is a very red state when it comes to the House and Senate (the state Senate and House have both heavy Republican majorities). In addition, the U.S. Senate is 1-1 and Florida’s U.S. representatives are majority Republican. So as my last posting stated, the state of Florida somehow (whether by gerrymandering or by stealing votes) always goes Red, not Blue. Because of this, Nelson must keep in mind a conservative agenda if he wants to save himself from political suicide.
NELSON’S VOTES HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!! Thus, any appeal you made to the state of Florida being a swing state for Presidential elections, IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to the issue of Nelson’s job as Senator.
I hope this time it is clear and you can stop with your completely baseless and frivolous responses.
Please let me know what it is that you do not understand with this issue so I can once again waste 5 more minutes out of my life explaining something to you as if you were a 5 year old.
Please accept my resignation from your party. I will not
donate or back any Senator who voted for the recent
immigration bill. You do no longer represent my thoughts
and feelings. Remove me from any future mailings.
I warned you, Senator, but you ignored me. I found
not one person who agreed with your thoughts on this
immigration bill. Do you realize that only 22% of the
American public was in favor of the very bad bill?
You are SOOOOO out of touch with what is right it
makes me sick.
Those who voted for this bad bill are a bunch of ignorant
jerks who has been bought out by big business. Try Lou
Dobbs on CNN to get a clue. I did respect you, but can
no longer do that.
Bob Wilcox
Fort Myers, FL
239-454-9575