Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Yet another (sigh) letter to Senator Cornyn

First a word of explanation. Senator Cornyn is certainly in the running for the worst of the worst in the Senate, with competition only from selected contenders from Oklahoma and Alaska. Maybe Pennsylvania. Well, maybe some others. Senator Cornyn's current mission is to abolish habeas corpus. He is on the Judiciary Committee. Anyway, Senator Cornyn hates to hear from constituents, unless they come bearing major campaign contributions, and so he makes it as hard as possible to send him an email. You have to take a Republican IQ test to send it to him. Really. ("Select the third word in the list from bottom to top.") Generally I don't bother. I know they go unread in his office, and his office rarely replies, so I make a point of putting them up on my blog, whenever I actually do go the trouble of sending him a constituent viewpoint.

In this email, I ask a simple question. And who knows, maybe one of his aides will clarify the Senator's views in the comments here.

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Dear Senator Cornyn:

I am glad to see that Tom Sullivan, in his testimony before the Judiciary Committee, turned the proceeding around a little and asked _you_ a question, concerning your defense of the Star Chamber proceedings that have been going on in Guantanamo. He described in some detail the total absence of fairness in the trials: the fact that the detainees had no lawyers, did not speak English, had no ability to cross examine, had no access to the alleged evidence presented by the Government, the total absence of physical evidence, and the seeming absence even of any rules of evidence.

So he asked you, "Now, you call that due process?"

You didn't answer.

Well, I'll ask it again. Do you call that due process?

Sincerely,

Jim McCulloch

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