Detaining American Citizens? Senate Bill 1867?

New Links and Information added daily! 
Added December 9, 2011:  A Letter from Senator Ben Nelson explaining this law. (Best explanation I have read to date) 
Scroll to the bottom... 


Added December 13, 2011:  Two recent links with comments about this bill.... Scroll to the bottom...


Added December 20, 2011:  An excellent and final explanation written by two attorneys who are national security experts.

Senate Bill 1867, the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill was passed by the Senate Thursday night, December 1st.  A House version of the bill, HR 1540, was passed earlier.  These bills have become very controversial due to the "detainee" provisions in section 1031 and 1032.

The two sections have similar functions: To provide for the detention of "terrorists" under the "law of war".

This bill is not yet law; let's get that straight.  It needs to be reconciled with the House version of the same bill and sent to President Obama.  Obama has threatened to veto the bill if he feels that the detainee provisions in the final submitted bill are not clear enough and/or strong enough to clarify the role of the Department of Defense in the detention of terrorists or terrorist subjects.  Also, the Department of Defense and other federal agencies were not happy with the language of the bill without the amendments.  Get that?  The Department of Defense wanted amendments to clarify what powers and authority they did or did not have.  (Picture below from reason.com )    

I've read much back and forth about this bill, but few people seem to actually have read the controversial sections.  So here is Section 1031 as amended and passed by the Senate:

Extend the Payroll Tax Holiday! Sign Senator Durbin's Open Letter to GOP!

Sign Dick Durbin's Urgent Open Letter to the GOP: 

Tell the GOP to extend the payroll tax holiday for hardworking middle class families -- before tonight’s vote!

Here's another petition.. (They are coming "fast and furiously" these days!)

There is a vote on payroll tax cut extensions this evening, and Senator Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois would like to present a letter with thousands of signatures:

URGENT: VOTE TONIGHT!

Tell the GOP to extend the payroll tax holiday

Use the form...to co-sign my open letter to my Republican colleagues urging them to extend the payroll tax holiday for hardworking middle class families -- before tonight’s vote! --Dick

Here is the letter that Durbin is going to present:

Dear Republican Senate Conference,

According to the stunning admission that Senator Jon Kyl made when I appeared with him on Fox News Sunday last weekend, you are poised to vote to force average working families to pay $1,000 more in taxes next year by blocking an extension of the payroll tax holiday -- instead of asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share on income over $1 million.

If Senator Kyl’s admission reflects your true priorities, they aren’t just the wrong priorities for middle class families; they are the wrong priorities for our struggling economy. Economists estimate failure to extend the payroll tax holiday could bring our fragile economic recovery to a screeching halt and cost 750,000 jobs.

I urge you to stand with hardworking families -- instead of coddling those (and only those) earning over a million dollars a year -- when the payroll tax holiday extension comes up for a vote tonight.

Thank you,

Dick Durbin and undersigned

Shame, shame, shame on these selfish Republicans who care more about making sure their rich friends  and corporations keep every last penny than they care about the American people.  As I watch Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) on this and related videos, blathering on about the deficit, all I can think is that the man looks like a CEO:  And a wealthy CEO who has never had to worry about how he is going to pay his mortgage, keep the electric turned on, pay school expenses for his kids. 


His only concern, like the CEO he resembles, is the bottom line:  What do I have to cut to maximize the profit of this corporation?--- without concern for how many lives are going to be impacted by those cuts.    And somehow convincing himself that the most important tax cuts are those for the "job creators."  


"Job creators", my foot! 

Are those of us who are completely disgusted with this greedy bunch a majority yet?  Anyway, this letter does not appear to require an address; as I know some are concerned about this.

So... click and sign.. NOW!  The Senate conference vote appears to be tonight!  There's no time to waste!

Sign Dick Durbin's Urgent Open Letter to the GOP!  HERE! 


Update 10:54 p.m.:


The Payroll Tax Cut Extension was rejected by the Senate, but it will be brought up again.  Huffington Post reports:

The Senate failed Thursday to pass an extension of a payroll tax cut, leaving in limbo a break that saved working class households about $1,000 a piece this year.Democrats sought to extend and expand the break, while paying for it with a 3.25 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million. Just one Senate Republican, Maine's Susan Collins, voted for the middle class break, which died 51 to 49 in a filibuster. Three Democrats opposed the bill.

"I am extremely disappointed that Republicans' insistence on protecting millionaires from paying a penny more in taxes has blocked our effort to extend and expand the payroll tax cut for millions of middle class families and small business owners," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

More about this vote HERE!

Stayed tuned, as I'm sure there will be more letters to send and petitions to sign.