Anti-American thugs take over Congress.....
Bald Eagle,
I'm wondering what your take is on the way that Rep. Bill Thomas is treating the legislative process these days? Do you agree with me that it doesn't matter what the political point of view is, when it comes to not allowing debate to occur in the legislature, democracy (our way of life) is at risk? And the most important thing that you and I share is that we supposedly live in a democracy. If thugs like Thomas see fit to destroy democracy, what do we have left?
*****
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The police state: a glimpse of things to come if the Republicans get their way?
Last week House Republicans made last-minute changes to a pension bill (which was, incidentally, generally supported by both Democrats and Republicans). The changes were included shortly before midnight, and the next morning Democrats complained that they didn't have enough time to review the new bill before voting on it. Tough noogies, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, clearly expecting Democrats to simply go along and approve something they hadn't even read. So the Democrats invoked a House rule which forced a clerk to read aloud the entire 200 page bill, line by line, and, leaving only Rep. Pete Stark to hold the fort, retreated to a nearby library to discuss what to do next. Unfortunately they didn't have much of a chance, because Bill Thomas - obviously emboldened by the recent redistricting fiasco in the Texas State House - promptly called the police to remove the Democrats from the library. Back on the House floor, as chaos reigned in the library, Thomas interrupted the reading of the bill to ask for unanimous consent to move on and vote, and immediately brought down his gavel before Rep. Stark had a chance to object. Stark then attempted to make a "parliamentary inquiry," only to be ignored by Bill Thomas, who immediately allowed the Republicans to approve the bill unanimously by voice vote. Nice. Don't give Democrats a chance to read bills before expecting them to vote on them, call the police on them while they're trying to figure out what to do, and then force through a vote anyway after ignoring the objections of the opposition. It's democracy, Republican-style. Thank goodness George W. Bush's plan to end partisanship in Washington has borne such wonderful fruit.
democraticunderground.com
Note: I read somewhere else that the GOPers also complained to the cops that Rep. Stark had intimidated them...Stark is 72 years old! LOL!!! |
