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shawa
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Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:58 pm Post subject: Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War |
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IS THIS WACKY OR WHAT???
These House Dems are so bereft that they have to hold a "PRETEND HEARING"
in the Capitol basement, and C-SPAN carries it live??
| Quote: | Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War
By Dana Milbank
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A06
In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.
They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official.
Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him "Mr. Chairman." He liked that so much that he started calling himself "the chairman" and spouted other chairmanly phrases, such as "unanimous consent" and "without objection so ordered." The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.
The session was a mock impeachment inquiry over the Iraq war. As luck would have it, all four of the witnesses agreed that President Bush lied to the nation and was guilty of high crimes -- and that a British memo on "fixed" intelligence that surfaced last month was the smoking gun equivalent to the Watergate tapes. Conyers was having so much fun that he ignored aides' entreaties to end the session.
"At the next hearing," he told his colleagues, "we could use a little subpoena power." That brought the house down.
As Conyers and his hearty band of playmates know, subpoena power and other perks of a real committee are but a fantasy unless Democrats can regain the majority in the House. But that's only one of the obstacles they're up against as they try to convince America that the "Downing Street Memo" is important.
A search of the congressional record yesterday found that of the 535 members of Congress, only one -- Conyers -- had mentioned the memo on the floor of either chamber. House Democratic leaders did not join in Conyers's session, and Senate Democrats, who have the power to hold such events in real committee rooms, have not troubled themselves.
The hearing was only nominally about the Downing Street Memo and its assertion that in the summer of 2002 Bush was already determined to go to war and was making the intelligence fit his case. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador whose wife was outed as a CIA operative, barely mentioned the memo in his opening statement. Cindy Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq, said the memo "only confirms what I already suspected."
No matter: The lawmakers and the witnesses saw this as a chance to rally against the war. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) proclaimed it "one of the biggest scandals in the history of this country." Conyers said the memos "establish a prima facie case of going to war under false pretenses." Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) concluded that "the time has come to get out" of Iraq.
The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration "neocons" so "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation," McGovern said. "The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."
Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who prompted the question by wondering whether the true war motive was Iraq's threat to Israel, thanked McGovern for his "candid answer."
At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations -- that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an "insider trading scam" on 9/11 -- that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.
The event organizer, Democrats.com, distributed stickers saying "Bush lied/100,000 people died." One man's T-shirt proclaimed, "Whether you like Bush or not, he's still an incompetent liar," while a large poster of Uncle Sam announced: "Got kids? I want yours for cannon fodder."
Conyers's firm hand on the gavel could not prevent something of a free-for-all; at one point, a former State Department worker rose from the audience to propose criminal charges against Bush officials. Early in the hearing, somebody accidentally turned off the lights; later, a witness knocked down a flag. Matters were even worse at Democratic headquarters, where the C-SPAN feed ended after just an hour, causing the activists to groan and one to shout "Conspiracy!"
The glitches and the antiwar theatrics proved something of a distraction from the message the organizers aimed to deliver: that for the Bush White House, as lawyer John C. Bonifaz put it, the British memo is "the equivalent to the revelation that there was a taping system in the Nixon White House."
Of course, Democrats controlled the real committees back then -- though Conyers was not deterred. "We have a lot of work to do as a result of this first panel," he told his colleagues. " 'Tis the beginning of our work." |
SOURCE: Washington Post
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“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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Children...honest to God petulant children.
What's surprising is that Dana Milbank even gets it. |
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manelly
PO3
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 294
Location: AZ
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| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 12:29 am Post subject: |
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from Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War
| Quote: | | "Whether you like Bush or not, he's still an incompetent liar," |
 Kerry, Kennedy and Clinton are all "Compitent Liars"
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PhantomSgt
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 972
Location: GUAM, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:32 am Post subject: |
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Rep. Conyers is more than just a few bricks short of a full load. If this is the best Michigan can put forward as a Representative, let's move the border south a little and give them up to the liberal heaven of Canada.
I wouldn't miss Michigan, would you?
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Independent that leans right of center. |
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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:03 am Post subject: Re: Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War |
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| shawa wrote: | IS THIS WACKY OR WHAT???
These House Dems are so bereft that they have to hold a "PRETEND HEARING"
in the Capitol basement, and C-SPAN carries it live?? |
found this on a FReeper thread about that circus of a meeting
| Quote: | Why is C-Span covering a private Hate Bush meeting
Because for weeks the D Ummies were e-mailing and calling CSPAN to cover it. They got soo tired of them calling that they finally agreed to do it on CSPAN3. I guess if you beg and whine enough you get what you want if you are a Dem. |
and it may be on the mark, since conyers gives a thanks to them on his blog
read the comments at your own risk...
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blue9t3
Admiral
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 1246
Location: oregon
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:30 am Post subject: |
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Conyers is like a wennie dog begging for a snausage! 
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coldwarvet
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Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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The TV show West Wing is not enough for their thirst for power. Now they have entered into the world of Mr. Rogers make believe. Can we get a list of all the cast and crew that participated in this production.
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I B Squidly
Vice Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 879
Location: Cactus Patch
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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Similarly CSPAN1 ran a segment of Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters and Charlie Wrangel in the well of the House calmly chatting amongst themselves how evil Bush was and blah, blah, blah. Of course, the House wasn't sitting and the chamber was empty.
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:41 am Post subject: |
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Where is the new media or MSM on this story?
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