Psycho-Cannon
07-23-03, 03:22 AM
Yey here we go again more police state action.
Anyone still belive in US Democracy is alive and healthy?
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/cong-j23.shtml
House Republicans call police on Democratic congressmen
In an unprecedented attempt to suppress political opposition by force, a top Republican in the House of Representatives called on the Capitol police July 18 to oust Democrats from a room where they were caucusing. The Democrats were meeting to discuss how to deal with Republican legislation that would sharply reduce corporate payments to workers’ pension funds.
Congressman Bill Thomas of California, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, summoned the police after the Democrats walked out of a committee hearing on the pension bill, protesting his decision to introduce a new 90-page version of the bill drafted by Republican staffers overnight as a substitute for legislation that was under consideration by the panel.
Its most important provision, however, affects traditional defined benefit pension plans offered by major corporations, changing the way these companies calculate how much of a current balance is required to guarantee that future pension obligations will be met. By allowing companies to assume a higher rate of return—essentially a bookkeeping fiction—the law would cut by billions of dollars a year the amount big business would have to contribute to these pension plans.
The legislation was introduced by Republican Rob Portman of Ohio and Democrat Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, and offered corporations less of a reduction in their future pension obligations than the version initially proposed by the Bush administration. Late in the evening of Thursday, July 17, Republican committee staffers substantially rewrote the Portman-Cardin bill and Thomas introduced the new bill as a substitute the next day, demanding a vote before any congressmen of either party had a chance to read it.
It seems to be becoming a habbit of the current administration to try to strong arm all sorts of bills and laws through lately without giving anyone a chance to read them or by changing them at the very last minute to something completly different to the one that was initially presented to be passed.
Thats Demmocracy?
Even Representative democarcy relies on your representatives making decisions for you but how can they do that if they are being forced to say yea or nea to something when they are not allowed to know what they are voting for and are intimidated with arrest or abuse when they refuse to rubber stamp such laws?
The Democrats objected and adjourned to a nearby library to review their options, leaving behind a single member, Pete Stark of California, to delay action by the committee by exercising his prerogative to have the bill read line-by-line.
Thomas summoned the Capitol police to eject the Democrats from their impromptu meeting room, claiming they were engaging in disorderly conduct. The policeman who responded immediately recognized the implications of this request, and called in his supervisor, who in turn contacted Donald Kellaher, assistant to the sergeant at arms. Kellaher expressed shock over Thomas’s order to evict the Democrats, saying, “clearly the police in this circumstance have no role or authority to intervene.” He instructed the policemen to leave, saying the dispute was “a committee matter.”
Meanwhile, the rump committee hearing had itself erupted. As Thomas repeatedly asked for unanimous consent to dispense with reading the bill line-by-line, Stark continually objected and the reading continued.
Stark, a longtime liberal congressman from the San Francisco Bay Area, made a sarcastic reference to Thomas’s “intellect,” only to be told to “shut up” by Scott McInnis, a Republican from Colorado. Stark angrily denounced McInnis, calling him several names and daring him to fight. (Stark is 71, McInnis is a 50-year-old ex-policeman).
Thomas took advantage of the interruption to gavel through another motion to suspend the reading of the bill, not allowing Stark to speak, and Stark yelled at him, “You’re behaving like a fascist,” and walked out, joining the other Democrats. The bill was passed unanimously through the committee with the votes of all the Republicans
After the altercation the Democrats introduced a resolution on the floor of the House condemning Thomas for calling the police, which was defeated on a party-line vote. The Republicans tried to cover up the significance of the call for police intervention against their opponents. They claimed Thomas had called the sergeant at arms because of a threat of violence by Stark. This is a transparent lie, given that the police were summoned to the library, where the Democrats were caucusing, not to the committee room, where the alleged threat by Stark took place. McInnis echoed Thomas’s account, going so far as to tell the House that he had feared a “bodily threat” from the elderly Stark.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “It is clear from the debate today that the Republicans have a major problem with the democratic process.” She called for an end to “the repression of our rights in this Congress.” The senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel of New York, said, “We Democrats represent almost half the population and yet we are forced to hold sit-ins. Then, they call the cops!”
Former civil rights activist John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, said, “I never thought that as a member of Congress I would be threatened with arrest by sitting in the library of the Ways and Means Committee. It is unreal, it is unthinkable that a member of Congress would try to have another arrested for carrying out his or her congressional duties.... We live in a democracy, and not a police state.”
A handful of Republicans objected to calling the police. Jim McCrery of Louisiana said the action was “over the top,” but then praised Thomas for rescinding the order to evict the Democrats after the police refused to carry it out.
Oh gee that was big of him the cops tell him its his problem and nothing to do with them so he decides to recind his order for them to be arrested and gets praised for it??? yeah that makes sense.
Last Friday’s attempt to use the police against the Democratic Party recalls the incident only two months ago in Texas, when the Republican-controlled state government mobilized the state police to hunt for Democratic legislators who were boycotting the Texas House of Representatives. The Democrats were seeking to prevent a vote on redistricting legislation backed by the Republicans—and drafted by US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay—to shift control of as many as half a dozen congressional seats.
This episode was also treated by the media as something of a joke, even when it was revealed that DeLay’s office had contacted the federal Department of Homeland Security—the agency allegedly established by the Bush administration to combat terrorist attacks on American soil—to seek its assistance in rounding up the absent Democratic legislators.
This stuff keeps on happening and the press keep treating it like its a humourous little joke by a few silly old men.
Wtf is going on?
Anyone still belive in US Democracy is alive and healthy?
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/cong-j23.shtml
House Republicans call police on Democratic congressmen
In an unprecedented attempt to suppress political opposition by force, a top Republican in the House of Representatives called on the Capitol police July 18 to oust Democrats from a room where they were caucusing. The Democrats were meeting to discuss how to deal with Republican legislation that would sharply reduce corporate payments to workers’ pension funds.
Congressman Bill Thomas of California, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, summoned the police after the Democrats walked out of a committee hearing on the pension bill, protesting his decision to introduce a new 90-page version of the bill drafted by Republican staffers overnight as a substitute for legislation that was under consideration by the panel.
Its most important provision, however, affects traditional defined benefit pension plans offered by major corporations, changing the way these companies calculate how much of a current balance is required to guarantee that future pension obligations will be met. By allowing companies to assume a higher rate of return—essentially a bookkeeping fiction—the law would cut by billions of dollars a year the amount big business would have to contribute to these pension plans.
The legislation was introduced by Republican Rob Portman of Ohio and Democrat Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, and offered corporations less of a reduction in their future pension obligations than the version initially proposed by the Bush administration. Late in the evening of Thursday, July 17, Republican committee staffers substantially rewrote the Portman-Cardin bill and Thomas introduced the new bill as a substitute the next day, demanding a vote before any congressmen of either party had a chance to read it.
It seems to be becoming a habbit of the current administration to try to strong arm all sorts of bills and laws through lately without giving anyone a chance to read them or by changing them at the very last minute to something completly different to the one that was initially presented to be passed.
Thats Demmocracy?
Even Representative democarcy relies on your representatives making decisions for you but how can they do that if they are being forced to say yea or nea to something when they are not allowed to know what they are voting for and are intimidated with arrest or abuse when they refuse to rubber stamp such laws?
The Democrats objected and adjourned to a nearby library to review their options, leaving behind a single member, Pete Stark of California, to delay action by the committee by exercising his prerogative to have the bill read line-by-line.
Thomas summoned the Capitol police to eject the Democrats from their impromptu meeting room, claiming they were engaging in disorderly conduct. The policeman who responded immediately recognized the implications of this request, and called in his supervisor, who in turn contacted Donald Kellaher, assistant to the sergeant at arms. Kellaher expressed shock over Thomas’s order to evict the Democrats, saying, “clearly the police in this circumstance have no role or authority to intervene.” He instructed the policemen to leave, saying the dispute was “a committee matter.”
Meanwhile, the rump committee hearing had itself erupted. As Thomas repeatedly asked for unanimous consent to dispense with reading the bill line-by-line, Stark continually objected and the reading continued.
Stark, a longtime liberal congressman from the San Francisco Bay Area, made a sarcastic reference to Thomas’s “intellect,” only to be told to “shut up” by Scott McInnis, a Republican from Colorado. Stark angrily denounced McInnis, calling him several names and daring him to fight. (Stark is 71, McInnis is a 50-year-old ex-policeman).
Thomas took advantage of the interruption to gavel through another motion to suspend the reading of the bill, not allowing Stark to speak, and Stark yelled at him, “You’re behaving like a fascist,” and walked out, joining the other Democrats. The bill was passed unanimously through the committee with the votes of all the Republicans
After the altercation the Democrats introduced a resolution on the floor of the House condemning Thomas for calling the police, which was defeated on a party-line vote. The Republicans tried to cover up the significance of the call for police intervention against their opponents. They claimed Thomas had called the sergeant at arms because of a threat of violence by Stark. This is a transparent lie, given that the police were summoned to the library, where the Democrats were caucusing, not to the committee room, where the alleged threat by Stark took place. McInnis echoed Thomas’s account, going so far as to tell the House that he had feared a “bodily threat” from the elderly Stark.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “It is clear from the debate today that the Republicans have a major problem with the democratic process.” She called for an end to “the repression of our rights in this Congress.” The senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel of New York, said, “We Democrats represent almost half the population and yet we are forced to hold sit-ins. Then, they call the cops!”
Former civil rights activist John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, said, “I never thought that as a member of Congress I would be threatened with arrest by sitting in the library of the Ways and Means Committee. It is unreal, it is unthinkable that a member of Congress would try to have another arrested for carrying out his or her congressional duties.... We live in a democracy, and not a police state.”
A handful of Republicans objected to calling the police. Jim McCrery of Louisiana said the action was “over the top,” but then praised Thomas for rescinding the order to evict the Democrats after the police refused to carry it out.
Oh gee that was big of him the cops tell him its his problem and nothing to do with them so he decides to recind his order for them to be arrested and gets praised for it??? yeah that makes sense.
Last Friday’s attempt to use the police against the Democratic Party recalls the incident only two months ago in Texas, when the Republican-controlled state government mobilized the state police to hunt for Democratic legislators who were boycotting the Texas House of Representatives. The Democrats were seeking to prevent a vote on redistricting legislation backed by the Republicans—and drafted by US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay—to shift control of as many as half a dozen congressional seats.
This episode was also treated by the media as something of a joke, even when it was revealed that DeLay’s office had contacted the federal Department of Homeland Security—the agency allegedly established by the Bush administration to combat terrorist attacks on American soil—to seek its assistance in rounding up the absent Democratic legislators.
This stuff keeps on happening and the press keep treating it like its a humourous little joke by a few silly old men.
Wtf is going on?