SENATE PASSES HELMS AMENDMENT ON WORLD COURT

Newsday ^ | 12/6/01

[11th Earl of Mar]

WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to block U.S. participation in a new international criminal court that opponents fear could stage politically motivated trials of American troops and government officials.

The 78-21 vote added the language, introduced by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., to this year's defense spending bill.

The Helms provision's ultimate fate is unclear. The House version of the defense spending bill contains no such provision, but in May, the House voted 282-137 to include similar language in a separate bill authorizing State Department programs.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Yes, Helms did that to Mosley Braun when she was the Senate's newest woman.

[MJY1288]

And each time the ICC and the UN have tried to inject themselves in our affairs this president has shot them down, unlike his daddy

[RobRoy]

>> ill bet the house hitlary was one of the 21, maria cantwell, carnahan, schumer, kennedy, the typical freaks, and carnahan is told how to vote by hillary anyways.<<

Woops, you forgot about patty murray.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Jeffords didn't vote? *Snort*

I will bet you are right. Jeffords missed because he was stoned on cocain. [lol]

[MJY1288]

I eprsonally feel we should end our relationship with the U.N. and the I.C.C.

With that we agree

[clikker]

What's this?

Hillary! and Jon Corzine both voted FOR this amendment? Someone help me before I have a heart attack from the shock.

I wonder why Hillary voted for the amendment when it was her husband that signed the treaty. Hmmm...

[taiwanese_superhawk]

Bump.

[Eala]

Cantwell, Wash.;
Murray, Wash.

Way out here on the Left Coast, as a subject of the People's Soviet of Washington (CCCB - the nearest you get to 'W' in Russian is "Bh", as I recall), I am totally and thoroughly appalled. Especially so, again, at the state's ("we're oh-so liberal") 'Republican' party that contributed to Cant-do-well's (of software company Real Networks fame) victory last year.

And to be saddled with the dim light of Patsy (Clinton kiss-up) Murray as well...

[Southack]

Hillary voted Yes???!!!

Was that a typo?

[VA Advogado]

Me too. Clearly these 21 are simply there to promote their agenda. No right thinking individual would want to subject our solider to this, especially since they're bitching about foreign troops being subject to our own military courts. America haters, all 21 of them.

[NH Liberty]

"A strange side note: Even Hitlery Clinton voted with Helms. Weird."

Yeah, stunning, isn't it? She must have misunderstood the instructions...

[VA Advogado]

And each time the ICC and the UN have tried to inject themselves in our affairs this president has shot them down, unlike his daddy

Yet there are still knot-heads here that think he's some type of New World Order puppet.

[11th Earl of Mar]

"A strange side note: Even Hitlery Clinton voted with Helms. Weird."

Yeah, stunning, isn't it? She must have misunderstood the instructions...

Does the Senate still use butterfly ballots?

[Lancey Howard]

Richard Dicker, who directs the international justice program of Human Rights Watch, called the Senate vote "a low point in the U.S. Senate's commitment to strengthening international human rights."

That's all I need to know....
YIPPEEEE !!!

[betty boop]

You've got to be a player....

This ought to be a no-brainer, 11th Earl of Mar. Unless you think the American people really ought to submit, to freely choose to subject their personal rights to some "foreign," fundamental rule of law outside our constitutional (not to even mention our cultural) system.

Personally, I think this would be a really bad idea, on both constitutional and substantive grounds.

So don't give me any cr*p about the joys and advantages of being a "player." You're either in this game, or you consign yourself to eternal status as "tick" on the backside of an ass.

Now, you might ask, which game are we talking about? Too which I might respond: Try your eyes, kiddo.

I can't make my POV any plainer. So this looks as good a place as any to simply stop.

So I shall. best wishes, bb.

[VA Advogado]

How in the world can Leahy vote against this just a day after his Ashcroft hearing on why FOREIGN terrorist are not being tried in US courts? Can these people be any more hateful of america? And Levin!! He's the chair of our armed services!

[VA Advogado]

Are you serious? Did Helms actually do this?

LOL yep. He made her cry.

[Lancey Howard]

Republicans voting "no":
Chafee, R.I.; Specter, Pa.; Voinovich, Ohio.

The usual suspects. I don't know much about Voinovich. Is he a scumbag RINO too?

I wonder why Jeffords didn't vote? Could he be sick?

[MissAmericanPie]

May God bless this great patriot, and I am pretty impressed with the number in the Senate that supported the amendment. This court, that is being proposed, has no controlling legal authority over it, no one elected to the office, and no redress of injustice that it might be imposed on, not just military, but individual citizens.

When the first shot out of the box is that this court considers a hate crime as "denying a woman an abortion", and, "hate speech regarding homosexuals", it's simple enough for a child to see what a dangerous court with global reach that this entity can, and most likely will, become, given history's lessons that all power is abused eventually.

This is the reason I will not vote for Rick Perry here in Texas, he signed the vague, "it means what ever we want it to mean", "Hate Crimes Bill". Were I on a jury I would not be able to convict if the crime in question was based on hate crimes legislation. Hate crime, hate speech, is in the ear of the beholder and far to vague for anyone with common sense to stake some defendents future on.

[MJY1288]

"Yet there are still knot-heads here that think he's some type of New World Order puppet."

I think the knot heads are pouting pitchforkers who represent 2% of the population and along with their vote, are insignificant sore losers