Just WOW!! House Judiciary GOP RE-WRITES Amendments

[Terre]

If this is a duplicate, I'll alert for a delete, but I didn't see it on a cursory search.

You have got to read this post from Rep. Louise Slaughter at dKos. I'm just flabberghasted, and haven't even read the posts yet. Here's a tidbit:

To falsely rewrite the intent of an amendment submitted by another member, to intentionally distort its description as being designed to protect sexual predators, is no different than accusing a fellow member of Congress as being an apologist for sexual predators themselves.

That is in effect what the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee has done here, with all deliberation.

Link to and read the WHOLE THING!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/27/104035/827

[Dr.Phool]

1. Just when you think they can't go any lower

They show you that they haven't even begun their deep, deep descent.

[CottonBear]

2. This is a criminal act. Bastards.

I hope that the responsible individuals will (eventually) be prosecuted.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Alert the MSM and all the Liberal Radio Talk Show hosts

you can. Get the word out...today!!!

By Friday, this will have legs. Push it.

[Catbird]

4. This is beyond the pale

What happened to simply voting against amendments you don't like?

[pleft]

5. I don't understand

At first glance, the summaries of these amendments do not seem very bad. Is this what she is talking about?

http://www.house.gov/rules/109amnd_hr748.htm

[ltfranklin]

6. That's not what went into the Majority report...

Note this at the top:

(summaries derived from information provided by sponsors)

Those are the summaries provided by the amendment's sponsors...when they were restated in the Majority report, they basically added "for me to poop on!"...they restated them as amendments supportive of the rights of child molesters.

These guys are lower than pond scum...but of course, it was some lowly STAFF member who actually did it, eh?

[Terre]

7. dKos undergoing Maintence

at the moment it seems, so I don't know how long it will be down. Markos mentioned yesterday or the day before that he was going to do this - upgrade servers, etc.

If you link to the thread, and can't get in, try again a little later.

[rocktivity]

14. Raw story has it, too

link

:headbang:
rocknation

[Terre]

8. LISTEN to C-Span NOW

They are starting the discussion again now regarding this bill and we may yet again hear from Rep. Slaughter.

[ananda]

9. Hmm, would this rewrite..

.. make Joey Ratz happy?

Sue

[caligirl]

10. I happened to catch this

on Cspan this morning. She said she complained to Sensenbrennar and his reaction was unreal. He thought it was just fine to do this over something the dems had complained about. He had no issue with rewriting the summary to make the bills intent and the authors intent look totally different from what it was.

[Alizaryn]

12. They said ...

She was basically told (to paraphrase): You misrepresented our bill on the floor so we misrepresented your amendments. Sensenbrennar said it was done on purpose and would be left that way.

[caligirl]

18. Yep, what a rotten attitude to take. The house is full of this stuff.

[rocktivity]

11. Raw story has it, too

link

The following statement was issued by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee.

"...instead of decrying what I certainly expected would be revealed as a mistake by an overzealous staffer...The Chairman stood by those altered amendment descriptions.

"When pressed as to why his committee staff took such an unprecedented action, the Chairman...said, and I quote...'You don't like what we wrote about your amendments, and we don't like what you said about our bill.'"

He left out, "So nyah, nyah, nyah, you big stinkyhead! And I'm gonna tell George Bush's daddy on you, too!"

But seriously, folks, isn't forgery a crime? File obstruction of governmental administration and impeachment charges against the bastards!

And here's how to get in touch with the head bastard:

Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin)
2449 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4905
Telephone: [phone]
1-800-242-1119

[e-mail]

Now is the time of all good Dems to come the aid of their party!!!

:patriot:
rocknation

[Ian David]

17. I'm too mad to call n/t

[Jose Diablo]

31. There is no "u"

"Now is the time of all good Dems to come the aid of their party".

For a test of a printer, the message must contain all the letters the printer should be able to print.

Edit: Like

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back, or
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country, although this one doesn't contain a "z" or "x" either, but does stress a analog communication line based on keyshifting of a frequency from the message's pattern of ones and zeros.

These are better test messages.

[Alizaryn]

13. Raw Story has good coverage of this (since KOS is down)

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/gop_rewrites_dem_amendments_427.htm

[paineinthearse]

15. I'm starting a Louise Slaughter fan club!!!!

Did you know she has introduced "fairness in the media" legislation (HR 501)?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1748027&mesg_id=1748027

[liberalla]

28. I'll join!

I've been noticing her name a LOT lately!

Thank you Louise Slaughter!

[MADem]

16. Remember how John Conyers, in F911, said no one reads those things?

Well, I think the minority leaders in both houses need to hire a goddamn staff to do nothing BUT read them. Hell, I'd do it at minimum wage.

Unmitigated bastards!!!

[Alizaryn]

20. Heck, we would do it for free for him!

[Jose Diablo]

29. "Heck, we would do it for free for him!"

You know, this is an interesting concept. Imagine, if you will, a dedicated group of individuals(say based in a DU forum) that actually read the pending legislation and post in GD stuff that is really over the top from a progressive point of view.

Then from the GD forum a campaign can be started to alert various Senators and Representatives to kill the most outrageous stuff.

Is there a period of time when legislation is introduced and published on the Internet, to allow public inspection and comment before being acted on in committee and on the floor?

If so, then a large group of individuals could then vet the bulky legislation before being voted in congress. The DU forum would coordinate the reading of the legislation to be sure it was thoroughly reviewed, making sure it was completely read.

This could work, I think.

Edit: of the 60 something thousand Duers, all that would be needed would be maybe 500 or so. Each bill could have a thread, then as parts were read privately, comments could be posted on that thread dedicated to specific bill. A more or less coordinated but diversified group of people actually providing a needed service to the government, at no-charge, for the public good.

[Alizaryn]

32. It is definitely worth investigating.

At least running it by someone with more knowledge about how things work.

[aldian159]

30. Me too

We can't afford to get blindsided anymore.

[wicket]

19. Those bastards!!!!!

[Carolab]

21. I just called Sensenbrenner's office.

We should ALL call--jam the phone lines!

[Terre]

22. OK, now that I'm sufficiently enraged

can someone please answer these questions regarding timelines?

1) Why has it taken so long to get to the floor for a vote? After all this is a Rethug bill.

2) Is this simply a matter of "trusting" that no re-writes might occur, and that's why it wasn't perused beforehand?

3) How long has this been on the agenda? Was there no time to read it again?

I don't get it.

[Roland99]

23. Rewritten versions here!!

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=hr051&dbname=cp109&

1. Mr. Nadler offered an amendment that would have created an additional layer of Federal court review that could be used by sexual predators to escape conviction under the bill. By a rollcall vote of 11 yeas to 16 nays, the amendment was defeated.


ROLLCALL NO. 1

2. Mr. Nadler offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution under the bill if they were grandparents or adult siblings of a minor. By a rollcall vote of 12 yeas to 19 nays, the amendment was defeated.


ROLLCALL NO. 2


3. Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport. By a rollcall vote of 13 yeas to 17 nays, the amendment was defeated.


ROLLCALL NO. 3


4. Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted from prosecution under the bill those who aid and abet criminals who could be prosecuted under the bill. By a rollcall vote of 12 yeas to 18 nays, the amendment was defeated.


ROLLCALL NO. 4

[Synnical]

24. AH! Now I understand - thanks

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/27/national/w115355D81.DTL

Democrats tried to amend the measure by exempting adult siblings and grandparents from prosecution.

The author of the Judiciary Committee's report on the bill, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., defended its language criticizing such exemptions, saying they would not specifically exclude child molesters.

"Perhaps these amendments were not properly drafted by the authors when they were submitted in the committee," Sensenbrenner told the House. "That's not the fault of the majority, that's the fault of the people who drafted the amendment."

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., called the report by Sensenbrenner's committee "a rape of the rules of this house."

"Would it be fair for an official report of this committee to call this entire bill the 'Rapists and Sexual Predators Right to Sue Act?'" Nadler asked rhetorically.

[Roland99]

26. Blatant bastards, aren't they?

[lala_rawraw]

25. Right, we broke the story...

Slaughter put up her response. Raw has the play by play examples that John worked on all night:)

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. this is beyond bizarre - these people are INSANE! n/t