U.S. politicians draw swords (Calif. repugs call police - Dem walkout)

(AFX-Focus)

House Republicans called the police Friday after Democrats walked out of a House committee vote on pension reforms. The Democrats had objected to a procedural move by House Ways & Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., and tried to delay the vote. While Democrats were out of the room, Thomas pushed the bill through unanimously on a voice vote. A Republican staffer asked Capitol Police to remove the Democrats from the room they had taken refuge in. The Democrats left on their own. The bill approved was a substitute for the Portman-Cardin pension bill, which would alter the way companies calculate pension liabilities and would also reform IRA and 401(k) plans. ---

Privatize bush It’s a Good Thing

kind of like the "bully kids on the playground". Of course, look at their glorius leader - he thinks he can do anything and get away with it.

"he {Bush} thinks he can do anything and get away with it."

had a right to be in??? Or what was the room, the Official California Republican Room of Dirty Tricks and Underhanded Political Practices Room????

What a spat.

Dems in the majority in the Cal. State Congress.
This is national. Wow! the Brownshirt Repubs are showing who thwy are!

in fact, my rep is a repuke. OSE is his name....he got in by gerrymandering. :grr:

I feel a little 'impeachment' tension in the air!!!!

What a twit

he's gonna HIT me.. Of course the "man" who's "askeert" is 20 years YOUNGER than they Dem (Stark) he claimed was gonna hit him.. What a bunch of pantywaist babies..

They are getting more and more brave.. Apparently the little "conference" that * had with the Hill repukes earlier this week, let them think that they could steamroll the dems.. Up til now they HAVE been able..

I just hope that the dems have finally seen what kind of people have hijacked the country.. they will stop at NOTHING

they will lie
they will STEAL
they will cheat

there is nothing that they will not do to get their way..

It's about time that our people start calling it like it IS.. These guys are CHEATING, LYING, ASSHOLES and they should be treated as such...

I don't know about anyone else, but right now I'm at what MWO calls "WTF? overload" - this dude in England turns up dead, cops called on House Dems, reporters being slimed by Rove, what's next? How low will the GOP go to intimidate it's citizens and defend their criminality?
I'm thinking deeeep

information overload is right. what happens during overload? shutdown, and that's what they expect us to do.

air-moving device!
:D
:eyes:
:crazy:

what does this have to do with the other thread? wtf is going on!

:wtf:

This is laughable in a pathetic way. The repigs can hand it out in barrels, but they sure as hell can't take it.

Isn't it funny how they are the first to call the cops and attorneys for all their fake bravado and supposed disdain for lawyers.

Wimpy little hypocrites, scared of their own shadows and probably sleep with the lights on. Typical schoolyard bully behaviour.

"control" the Democrats.

There is a serious, serious problem here. This is ominous.

The Republican who felt "threatened" stated that Stark insulted him and used a foul word. When asked what that insulting, foul word was, he said Stark told him:

"You are a fruitcake. A fruitcake!"

Fruitcake? And the poor widdle Republican felt threatened by that?

Well, they are fascists!

The Republicans can't stand it if they don't get their way. Democrats have to stand up and be strong. It will be tough; but we can do it.

Kick this up. I was gone all evening and just started reading the news. What a load of crap.

More details on what happened are at this link :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13376-2003Jul18.html

The republican chairman of the House committee was behaving as House chairmen often do ( ie-- dictatorially ) and the dems were behaving like drama queens.

"the panel's acerbic chairman, Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), brought up a 90-page substitute measure that had been released shortly before midnight the night before. Democrats said they needed more time to read it. Thomas disagreed.
---

Even before Thomas gaveled the reading to an end, he had dispatched the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats from the ornate library. Two officers arrived and, realizing they wanted no part of arresting House members for milling in a library, called a watch commander.

The commander gently assured the Democrats -- by now playing to the news cameras and loudly demanding to know whether they were under arrest -- that no one would be handcuffed or evicted. In fact, the three officers decided, this was a matter for the House Sergeant at Arms, not the police.

A Sergeant at Arms official soon settled the matter: No security officers would take action in "a committee matter," he announced. The Democrats, realizing they had played the scene for all it was worth, departed for the House chamber, where their contretemps resumed.
---

When Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) had told Stark to "shut up" during the committee meeting, Stark denounced him as "a little wimp. Come on, come over here and make me, I dare you. . . . You little fruitcake. You little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake."
----


The gay slur wasn't cool. Both sides need some heads knocked together but I don't see anyone in authority on either side that appears willing to do so.

- The media has made this into a story about 'personalities' instead of what it really was: Republicans trying to force the minority to rubber stamp their bills or leaving the Dems out of the process altogether.

- The GOPers introduced this bill two minutes before the deadline...and then demanded a vote on it before Dems had a chance to read it. This isn't democracy...it's fascism.

As far as I am concerned, the dems have a responsibility to cause as much distraction as possiable this is a junta after all!

The republikans are destroying this country, time to give back 100 fold.

While the Repubs had no good reason to call the police.

Repubs wanted to pass a bill without giving dems time to learn the contents of the bill.
It was not the first time repubs tried such a move that is very damaging to democracy.

In fact the circumstances are similar to those under which the 4th amendment was removed from the constitution.
It seems this time the Dems decided not to be pushed around any more.

Stark made some unfortunate remarks, but not after he (and the dems in general) was provoced. And certainly those remarks where not cause for repubs to be scared of Stark; it's one elderly Dem in the midst of a few dozen Repubs, who actually laughed about Stark's remarks. Stark did not actually threaten with violence, he did invite McInnis to "come over and make me" comply (shut up, accept the call to not read the bill).

More importantly, the remarks made by Stark are clearly not cause to ask the police to remove the Dems from the library (Stark was not in the library when he made those remarks).

Unless maybe you believe in guild by association, something RW-ers do seem to believe in, then of course all dems must be punished for what one dem does.
And then there's the unclarity about the reason why the cops were called:
"dems have no right to use that room" (while they actually do have that right).
"there was a disturbance reported" (what disturbance? there was no disturbance in the library).
In the end the police felt none of those supposed reasons were cause for action.

cspan archive
rtsp://12.170.145.134:554/jdrive/smil/e071803_pelosi.smi?cloakport=8080,554,7070

GJ Sentinal
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2003/07/19/1058591571.15255.9116.1466.html

If I understand correctly. . . They PASSED the bill on a voice vote (where there is no record of how each voted or even who was there to vote), using the standard phrase, "Hearing no objections ....the Ayes have it."

Stark was objecting and being ignored, and was gaveled down and remarks were made about a failure to follow parliamentary procedure.

The Dems had walked out and gone to the Library to regroup and figure out what to do just before the voice vote was called.

The Republican chairman Thomas called the cops when Stark protested loudly in the Chambers, but Thomas told the cops he was calling them to get the Dems out of the Library.

My Question: Does the vote stand?

Again, the media reports the circus but not the facts.