repugs try to stiffle dissention at all costs

From Blondsense:

A Most Unusual Event

If you were watching c-pan a bit ago you might have witnessed a little bit of history. The House Judiciary Committee was meeting to discuss the Patriot Act and Civil Liberties. Sensenbrenner chaired the committee. You could tell from the beginning that neither he nor the other Republicans wanted anything to do with this meeting. They didn’t want to see or hear anyone on the panel who had anything to say that didn’t praise everything the US has been doing. I’m so sorry I can’t list all the panel members. I know there was one from Amnesty International. The others were from similar organizations. Had I known what was about to transpire, I would have taken notes on the panel members.

First of all Sensenbrenner determined he would conduct the activities right by the clock. If a panel member was in mid sentence when the time expired, that person was not allowed to finish his or her sentence. If a member of the committee used his or her five minutes asking a question and the time expired, the panel members were not allowed time to answer. I personally had never seen anything like this. When all the members had had their turn, Sensenbrenner made his own statement and gaveled the meeting closed. He left the room. Here’s where the history may come in. The Democratic committee members stayed in their chairs and continued to talk to the panel and those in attendance. Basically they continued without the chairman and after the meeting had officially ended. They defied the chairman and asked if any members of the press were interested in what they had to say. The press stayed and C-span’s cameras kept rolling. Hopefully the transcripts will be out soon.

This was one of the most biased and bizarre examples of the Republicans closing out reality that I have ever seen. This was blatantly foolish and irresponsible. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that the Republicans on this committee are interested in fixing what’s wrong with our country. They were so busy trying to ignore and hide reality that they looked like arrogant fools.

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Amazing that C-Span continued the coverage and that the Dems at least got to talk to the media, even tho the committee was a joke!