Yes Votes

Lamar Alexander R TN
Kelly Ayotte R NH
Tammy Baldwin D WI
John Barrasso R WY
Mark Begich D AK
Michael Bennet D CO
Roy Blunt R MO
John Boozman R AR
Richard M. Burr R NC
Benjamin L. Cardin D MD
Thomas R. Carper D DE
Bob Casey D PA
Daniel Coats R IN
Thad Cochran R MS
Susan Collins R ME
Christopher A. Coons D DE
John Cornyn R TX
Joe Donnelly D IN
Richard J. Durbin D IL
Michael B. Enzi R WY
Deb Fischer R NE
Lindsey Graham R SC
Kay Hagan D NC
Orrin G. Hatch R UT
Martin Heinrich D NM
Heidi Heitkamp D ND
John Hoeven R ND
Johnny Isakson R GA
Mike Johanns R NE
Tim Johnson D SD
Tim Kaine D VA
Angus King I ME
Mark Steven Kirk R IL
Mary L. Landrieu D LA
Patrick J. Leahy D VT
Mitch McConnell R KY
Barbara A. Mikulski D MD
Lisa Murkowski R AK
Christopher S. Murphy D CT
Patty Murray D WA
Bill Nelson D FL
Mark Pryor D AR
Harry Reid D NV
Pat Roberts R KS
John D. Rockefeller IV D WV
Brian Schatz D HI
Charles E. Schumer D NY
Jeanne Shaheen D NH
Debbie Stabenow D MI
John Thune R SD
Patrick J. Toomey R PA
Mark Udall D CO
Tom Udall D NM
John Walsh D MT
Mark Warner D VA
Roger Wicker R MS

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/113/senate/2/354

Torture victims will bear psychological scars long after CIA report scandal fades
The architects of CIA torture sought to make individuals powerless to disobey by breaking down their self-control. Restoring it can be a lifetime’s work
Spencer Ackerman in New York
Saturday 13 December 2014 10.13 EST

Jabuli prefers solitude indoors, having lost all safety once before. When he does go out he seeks crowded public spaces, so there will be witnesses if his tormentors reappear to kidnap him again. Ten years on, time and distance have not healed the damage that comes from torture.

“You live with the fear that the people who tortured you may come back to torture you again,” he said, “regardless of if you are in a safe country.”

Triggers are everywhere, even a decade later. Armored vans on the street make him think of the station where he was tortured. He fears intimacy, because he doesn’t want someone to see him having nightmares, or to watch him wake up crying. He worries he will not be “good enough to have a family”.

More than a decade ago, Jabuli endured seven months in a torture chamber in a central African country he asked the Guardian not to identify. (Jabuli is a pseudonym he recommended.) He was placed in “stress positions”: his elbows and ankles were bound to each other behind his back as he faced downward, resulting in a pain so consuming that he could barely breathe.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/dec/13/learned-helplessness-enduring-effects-torture-haunt-victims

Obama Proclamation of Bill of Rights Day 2014

12 December 2014

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
Washington, D.C.
December 12, 2014

BILL OF RIGHTS DAY, 2014
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

For more than two centuries, our Nation has been shaped by courageous women and men who have dared to raise their voices and work to safeguard the blessings of liberty and justice*. In the face of tyranny, early patriots stood up against an empire and proclaimed the independence of a new Nation, declaring that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights. To secure these rights, they fought a war and enshrined these truths into our Constitution. The product of a fierce debate and great compromise, our founding charter was a remarkable yet imperfect document. It provided the foundation for a society built on freedom and democracy, but essential questions -- including those of race and gender -- were left unresolved. Yet before it was fully ratified, our Founding Fathers began working to refine its text, an early milestone in our unending journey to form a more perfect Union.

Ratified on December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights secured our most fundamental freedoms. These first 10 Constitutional Amendments protect our rights to protest, practice our faiths, and hold our Government accountable. They guarantee justice under the law, allow for the dissemination of new ideas, and create the opportunity for those left out of our charter to fight to expand its promise. In times of war and peace, and through waves of depression and prosperity, these tenets have not only endured, but they have strengthened our Nation and served as an example to all who seek freedom, fairness, equality, and dignity around the world.

On the anniversary of the Bill of Rights, we reflect on the blessings of freedom we enjoy today, and we are reminded that our work to foster a more free, more fair, and more just society is never truly done. Guided by these sacred principles, we continue striving to make our country a place where our daughters' voices are valued just as much as our sons'; where due process of law is afforded to all people, regardless of skin color; and where the individual liberties that we cherish empower every American to pursue their dreams and achieve their own full measure of happiness.

Our fidelity to these timeless ideals binds us together as a Nation. As we celebrate Bill of Rights Day, let us recommit to the values that define us as a people and continue our work to broaden democracy's reach by strengthening the freedoms with which we have been endowed.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 15, 2014, as Bill of Rights Day. I call upon the people of the United States to mark this observance with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this

twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth.

BARACK OBAMA

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2014/12/20141212311982.html#axzz3LkZtTLG5