Breaking: Radical Conservatives Win — People With Disabilities Lose Senate Vote
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The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been defeated in the U.S. Senate, thanks to the work of Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum, and other ignorant conservatives like Michelle Malkin. The Senate just voted to defeat the U.S. signing of the treaty, 61 to 38. Just six more votes were needed to pass the bill that would have allowed the President to sign the treaty, which works to protect people around the world with disabilities, ensuring them the same civil rights Americans with disabilities currently are afforded.
READ: Glenn Beck And Rick Santorum: ‘Fascistic’ UN Disabilities Treaty Is From ‘Nazi Days’
Conservatives falsely claimed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would interfere with U.S. sovereignty and would “promote abortion,” a ludicrous claim on its face.
UPDATE from Maddow at bottom.
Some responses from Twitter tell the story:
[View the story “U.S. Senate Bows To Ideologues On Disabilities Treaty” on Storify]
U.S. Senate Bows To Ideologues On Disabilities Treaty
Senate fails to ratify UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Storified by David Badash · Tue, Dec 04 2012 09:48:27
Update Via Maddow Blog:
The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, for those who’ve forgotten, is a human rights treaty negotiated by the George H.W. Bush administration, which has been ratified by 126 nations, including China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
But most Senate Republicans saw it as a threat to American “sovereignty,” even though the treaty wouldn’t have required the United States to change its laws. When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the treaty with bipartisan support in July, Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) explained the proposal simply “raises the [international] standard to our level without requiring us to go further.”
In other words, we wouldn’t actually have to do anything except say we like the treaty — and then wait for other signatories around the world to catch up to the United States’ Americans with Disabilities Act.
The treaty was endorsed by Dole, John McCain, and Dick Lugar, among other prominent Republican figures, but it didn’t matter. The GOP’s right-wing base, led in part by Rick Santorum, raised hysterical fears about the treaty, and most Senate Republicans took their cues from the party’s activists, not the party’s elder statesmen.
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The U.S. Senate has advanced a resolution that would require President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval for any further military action or additional U.S. troops in Venezuela — “a rare and notable rebuke of the president,” according to Axios, and a rare assertion of the Senate’s constitutional war powers.
“Big setback for the White House as 5 GOP Senators join all Democrats in voting to start debate on a war powers resolution re: Venezuela,” congressional reporter Jamie Dupree noted.
NBC News reported that the vote is “the first test of whether Republican lawmakers will publicly oppose Trump’s actions against the country after the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro.”
PBS News noted that the resolution sets up “a test” for President Trump’s “expanding ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.” The Trump administration has said it would veto it should it come to his desk.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), the bill’s sponsor, said on Wednesday that the vote is about “whether the United States should engage in military action against Venezuela on a presidential say-so without a vote of Congress.”
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) voted to advance the legislation, and said: “I believe invoking the War Powers Act at this moment is necessary, given the President’s comments about the possibility of ‘boots on the ground’ and a sustained engagement ‘running’ Venezuela, with which I do not agree.”
NYU Professor of Law Ryan Goodman called the vote “Absolutely historic.”
Image via Reuters
As President Donald Trump issues increasingly challenging demands, loyal Republicans on Capitol Hill appear ready to at least start pushing back in what is being deemed a “Trump loyalty test.”
In an extremely rare move, the House will vote on Thursday on legislation to override two Trump vetoes in what Politico reported would be “a significant rebuke of the president.” GOP leaders believe there is a good chance enough Republicans will provide the votes necessary for an override. It is currently unclear whether the measure will pass in the Senate.
In another move against the Trump agenda, the House will vote on a bill by Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries that would extend Obamacare subsidies for an additional three years. Nine House Republicans on Wednesday provided the votes necessary to bring the measure to a full floor vote.
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“The move goes against the explicit wishes of Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump’s vision of creating an insurance plan that sends dollars directly to consumers instead,” Politico noted.
The bill’s future in the Senate may be unlikely, but it could provide fuel for a bipartisan group of Senators who are also working to extend the subsidies, while making policy changes to the Affordable Care Act.
One of President Trump’s big asks on Wednesday came in the form of a social media post that demanded the budget for the Department of Defense increase from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, shocking some critics.
“This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe,” Trump claimed.
“That’s not happening,” an unnamed House Republican told Politico.
Over in the Senate, a Democratic-sponsored bill that would require Trump to obtain congressional approval for any additional military action in Venezuela does not yet have enough GOP votes to pass.
But Politico reported, “keep an eye” on four undecided Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski (AK), Todd Young (IN), Susan Collins (ME) and Thom Tillis (NC).
Similar legislation in the House is being promoted by a Democrat.
READ MORE: Video Appears to Show Federal Agents Preventing Doctor From Helping Shooting Victim
Image via Reuters
A video obtained by HuffPost appears to show federal agents preventing a man who identified himself as a physician from assisting the 37-year old woman fatally shot by an agent on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
In the video, a federal agent tells the man to “back up now,” while he shouts, “I’m a physician!”
Another voice, apparently a federal agent, says, “I don’t care,” while another says, “We’ve got EMS coming.”
When he says, “We have medics on scene, we have our own medics,” a bystander shouts, “Where are they?”
She continues, “How can I relax, you just killed my f – – neighbor!” then asks, “How do you show up to work every day?”
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“You’re killing my neighbors, you’re stealing my neighbors, what the f – – man?”
The now-deceased woman, who has been identified as Renee Good, was shot “after a group of people began blocking officers during an immigration-related operation in Minneapolis, the Department of Homeland Security said,” NBC News reported.
Some witness descriptions and videos that flooded social media conflict with official statements from DHS.
“Details remained in dispute,” The New York Times reported, “with President Trump saying the agents had acted in self-defense on social media, while state and local officials described federal accounts of the shooting with terms like ‘propaganda’ and ‘garbage.'”
According to BBC News, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the officer “defensively shot to protect himself.” But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey “disputes federal officials’ account of the shooting, and demands ICE agents leave the city.”
HuffPost has obtained a video of a physician trying to give medical care to the woman shot and killed by ICE agents today, and not being allowed to go near her.
The ICE agents claim there are medics on site, but witnesses scream that there are no medics present.
Full Story:… pic.twitter.com/6UvbzCwO5a
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 7, 2026
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Image via Reuters
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