The Furious Spinner

Did you hear/see Rep. (reprehensible) Sensenbrenner adjourn (without consent) a hearing on the Patriot Act that the Dems. had called? (Listen to it here or here.) This government is looking more and more repressive every hour. The Democrats were in the majority for years. I don't remember them pulling crap like this. We are not a mono-party country. We are bi-partisan. We're supposed to thrive on debate. What the hell are the Republicans afraid of? THEY'VE GOT ALL THE POWER. They're afraid because they know they don't deserve it, they know they are wrong, and they know it is all fleeting. The worm is turning!

The Republicans don't know how to be a majority party. A majority party must make room for the minority. They must bend over backwards to air the viewpoint of the minority. Not that the Democrats deserve much praise lately either. For the most part, I think the Dems have pissed and moaned and compromised away any advantage they may have had in the Senate when they were threatening to filibuster the judges. As far as I can tell, they got NOTHING, while the Republicans got all their judges. But Representatives John Conyers and Sheila Jackson Lee are doing their part by speaking truth to power. If you can, listen to the hearing that Reprehensible Sensenbrenner walked out on today (see links above), at least to the last ten minutes or so.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released this statement about the Reprehensible's temper tantrum:

"The Republicans' abuse of power reached a new low this morning when they tried to silence Democrats at a hearing on the Patriot Act by cutting the microphones.

"Chairman Sensenbrenner proved again today that he is afraid of ideas, and that Republicans will stop at nothing to silence Democrats. It is quite ironic that at a hearing on the impact of the Patriot Act on civil liberties, the Republicans attempted to suppress free speech.

"This is part of Republican abuses of power: to silence Democrats and the voice of the minority, to deny millions of Americans a voice in Congress. Republican leaders dictate the party line and ram bills through committees, and permit few if any amendments on the floor. Republicans are unwilling and unable to compete in the marketplace of ideas, so they have chosen to arbitrarily and capriciously abuse their power simply because they can.

"Democrats will not be silenced when we uphold our oath of office to protect and defend our Constitution and civil liberties as we protect and defend the American people. I commend Judiciary Committee Democrats for continuing to question witnesses after the Republicans' shameful behavior, and for standing up for the institution of the House.

"This incident is the latest in a series of disgraceful conduct by Mr. Sensenbrenner. Last month, he misused an official committee report to mischaracterize in a derogatory manner amendments offered by three Democratic Members. As a result, the House was required to authorize the filing of a supplemental report, which contained significant changes, to correct the record.

"As House Democratic Leader, I expect all Members to be treated by the majority with dignity and respect. I will ask Speaker Hastert to order Mr. Sensenbrenner to apologize for his behavior to the witnesses at the hearing today, and to promise that this will never again happen."

One of the witnesses, Deborah Pearlstein from Human Rights First said that according to Pentagon reports, more then 100 people in U.S. custody have died since 2002. (These are not from Abu Ghraib, she said.) They've determined that at least twenty-eight of those deaths were homicides. Of those, half were tortured to death. In the United States of America, one hundred people in custody—most for supposed immigration violations—have died. Twenty-eight were murdered. At least fourteen of those were tortured to death. But Sensenbrenner doesn't want to talk about any of that.

Our tax dollars at work.

Some good news today. Philip Cooney, the guy who doctored the climate reports for the Emperor and his tailors, resigned yesterday, saying he had been looking into his options for some time now. Uh-huh. Bubye now. 0 comments

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