Dictator Sensenbrenner!

Dictator Sensenbrenner!

ANDI RHODES WEB POLL
Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner abruptly ended a hearing on C-Span this Friday morning about the Patriot Act when Democrats attempted to repond and comment about the impact of the Patriot Act. Sensenbrenner should:
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/index_weekend.php

... Also Friday, a hearing on the Patriot Act degenerated into chaos as House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., called Democrats ...
GOP chairman walks away as Dems decry Bush policies San Francisco Chronicle
GOP chairman walks out during Patriot Act hearing Boston Globe
GOP chairman halts Patriot Act hearing Seattle Times
Los Angeles Times - WTVM -
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GOP chairman walks away as Dems decry Bush policies
Guantanamo Bay criticisms derail Patriot Act hearing
- Mike Allen, Washington Post
Saturday, June 11, 2005

Washington -- After repeated Democratic criticism of the Bush administration, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday gaveled a hearing to a close and walked out while Democrats continued to testify -- but with their microphones shut off.

The hearing's announced topic was the USA Patriot Act, which granted broad new powers to federal law enforcement after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Republicans presented several witnesses who supported the administration's call for reauthorizing the legislation. But when four witnesses handpicked by the Democrats launched into a broad denunciations of President Bush's war on terror and the condition of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., showed his pique.

He urged witnesses to "wrap it up" and repeatedly told Democratic committee members that their time for questioning had expired.

"We ought to stick to the subject," the chairman scolded at the end. "The Patriot Act has nothing to do with Guantanamo Bay."

"Will the gentleman yield?" asked Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

"No, I will not yield," replied Sensenbrenner. He completed his reproof of the witnesses and left the Rayburn House Office Building hearing room amid a cacophony of protests from Democrats seeking to be recognized.

Democrats charged that the episode was another example of Republicans abusing their control of Congress and trying to stifle dissent over Bush's approach to counterterrorism. At one point in the two-hour hearing, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., accused Amnesty International USA of endangering the lives of Americans in uniform by referring to the prison at Guantanamo Bays as a "gulag. " Sensenbrenner refused to allow the Amnesty representative, Chip Pitts, to respond until Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., raised a "point of decency."

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, speaking immediately after Sensenbrenner left, voiced dismay over the proceedings. "I'm troubled about what kind of lesson this gives" to the rest of the world, he told the Democrats remaining in the room.

Congress is debating what changes it should make when reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act. For the second day in a row, Bush said federal, state and local law enforcement officials will be hamstrung if Congress fails to renew and make permanent the 16 provisions of the act set to expire at the end of this year.

"The Patriot Act has made a difference for those on the front line of taking the information you have gathered and using it to protect the American people," Bush told employees at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va.

Bush, meanwhile, tapped Houston lawyer Carol Dinkins on Friday to head a new government panel charged with making sure that fighting terrorism does not take an unnecessary toll on civil liberties.

Congress created the panel in December after the release of the Sept. 11 commission report finding that the government had no one charged with monitoring civil liberties during the war on terrorism.

Dinkins is a senior partner with the law firm of Vinson and Elkins and was a deputy U.S. attorney general in 1984-85. Her biography on the Vinson and Elkins Web site does not indicate any experience in civil liberties matters. Also picked were former Solicitor General Ted Olson, whose wife, Barbara, died in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001; former Clinton White House aide Lanny Davis; Francis X. Taylor, chief security officer for General Electric Co. and former assistant secretary of state in the current administration; and Alan Charles Raul, a Washington lawyer and former official in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

The nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.

Chronicle news services contributed to this report.

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/11/MNG59D78C81.DTL

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Randi Roads Message Board:

I went to the Judiciary Committee's website (http://judiciary.house.gov/contact.aspx) and send the following email:

Dear Sirs/Madams,

What I witnessed today on C-SPAN2 was the most blatant display of an abuse of power that I have ever witnessed.

Perhaps Chairman Sensenbrenner needs to reacquaint himself with the rules here - he DOES NOT have the power to adjure a hearing held LEGALLY by the minority party prior to its conclusion for ANY reason. He is required to follow the rules of the forum and allow all testimony to be heard and submitted to the record.

Specifically to Congressman Sensenbrenner: How dare you sir dishonor the very committee you chair. How dare you disrespect the people who were there through legal process to present their sworn testimony. Last time I checked in this country we encourage in fact DEMAND debate. How dare you presume to believe that YOU are the only one qualified to decide what facts are relevant here. As if you and your master only hold the truth, as if you hold all the power here.

You have not just embarrassed yourself but also this country, MY county. What you did was circumvent a process DESIGNED to seek out and lay bear the truth for all of us, the REPRESENTED to decide what is and isn’t relevant. I am shocked and appalled that you represent me or MY great nation in any capacity.

If you think that you will be protected by your master from the consequences of your actions today, from the will of the people you will soon learn the lesson of those that came before you....you can not govern unless WE allow it. We are the majority, the 50 plus percent of Americans who believe that you and your leader are taking this country in the wrong direction.

I beg you sir to accept that your leaders rule holds up only with lies and propaganda. Please do as we must all do now and champion the truth.
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