Shame, shame, shame,'' Democrats chanted as the minutes passed....

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4290533,00.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican-led House bowed to a White House veto threat Thursday and stood by the USA Patriot Act, defeating an effort to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that helps the government investigate people's reading habits.

The effort to defy Bush and bridle the law's powers lost by 210-210, with a majority needed to prevail. The amendment appeared on its way to victory as the roll call's normal 15-minute time limit expired, but GOP leaders kept the vote open for about 20 more minutes as they persuaded about 10 Republicans who initially supported the provision to change their votes.

``Shame, shame, shame,'' Democrats chanted as the minutes passed and votes were switched. The tactic was reminiscent of last year's House passage of the Medicare overhaul measure, when GOP leaders held the vote open for an extra three hours until they got the votes they needed.

..more..

edit: some background..

White House Moves to Protect Right to Spy on Readers


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0708-01.htm

Published on Thursday, July 8, 2004 by Agence France Presse

White House Moves to Protect Right to Spy on Readers


WASHINGTON - The White House has gone to preventive war -- to protect the US government's newly-acquired right to spy on readers as part of counterterrorism investigations, promising to veto a multibillion-dollar spending bill if these powers are curtailed.

The shot across the bow was fired Wednesday, ahead of a widely anticipated amendment by Representative Bernie Sanders that would prevent Federal Bureau of Investigation and other government agents from using a secret federal intelligence court to gain access to the reading records of library or bookstore patrons as part of counterterrorism probes.

"We plan to introduce it on the House floor Thursday," Joel Barkin, spokesman for the independent lawmaker, told AFP.

If passed, the measure would be attached to a nearly 40-billion-dollar appropriations bill funding the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State in fiscal 2005.

But the White House will have none of it. Moving to nip the idea in the bud, the presidential Office of Management and Budget made clear it would rather see the whole appropriations bill die than allow changes to the USA Patriot Act.

..more..

*The 'shameless' GOP didn't want Bush to have to veto this it seems...

[LittleApple81]

1. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!!! I watched the discussion

of the amendment... WE NEED TO GET THESE RATS OUT OF THERE. The repugs are repulsive vermin.

[k in IA]

10. Could you hear the chant? I wish they would show it on the news.

[BrotherBuzz]

35. I heard it on the radio (NPR)...

sounded rawtherlike British parliament. I suspect this may become a trend.

[tom_paine]

14. I didn't agree before, now I do: vermin.

Nazi Vermin.

[EastofEdon]

23. GOP

(bumpersticker)


http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v138/EastofEdon/gop_bumper_sticker.bmp

[unfrigginreal]

2. Link doesn't work for me

Did they name the 4 Democrats that voted against it?

[G_j]

7. fixed

thanks
here it is again,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4290533,00.html

[Rose Siding]

18. The repubs who voted with us will have it hard

I'd like to know who they were. It may cost ALL of them their seats-that party's gone nuts.

[unfrigginreal]

22. No doubt

But I expect it from the repigs. Knowing that 4 Democrats voted with them on this makes me sick.

[truthspeaker]

40. Gephardt didn't even bother to show up

and he had 20 extra minutes

[G_j]

42. *FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 339

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll339.xml

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 339
(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

H R 4754 RECORDED VOTE 8-Jul-2004 4:22 PM
AUTHOR(S): Sanders of Vermont Amendment
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Amendment


Ayes Noes PRES NV
Republican 18 206 4
Democratic 191 4 1 9
Independent 1
TOTALS 210 210 1 13

..more..

[Old and In the Way]

26. When 99% of the Democrats support it, I am encouraged.

I want to know those 4, too....because we should contst their next primary. Kerry/Edwards, I think, will be holding Democrats to a new standard. They should start demanding loyalty of votes that are clearly partisan. K&E will hopefully be dealing with the Republicans from a mandated position of strength after the next election.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I hope Kerry wins and brings in a Blue House and Senate with him.

[Kanary]

9. And, make sure they all have SPINES!

Even a majority won't help, if they all wimp out.

I know Colorado seems to be going for a calcium-deficient Senator.

BAH! HUMBUG!

Kanary

[napi21]

12. I want the Senate back, but not the house.

Yea, I know. Why the hell would I say that! Because I thing this country functions much better when there is a divided congress. One party, no matter which one it is, shouldn't control everything!

I want Kerry to win the Presidency, and the Dems to take back the Senate with enough of a majority to be able to overrule most objections. But I want that control tempered by the House.

Kerry as Pres. should be able to recommend 2 or 3 SCOTUS Judges, and I trust him enough that I don't think he will recommend extremists.

With the size and power of the Federal Gov't, we really should never have ONE party in charce of EVERYTHING!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

25. Sorry, but we're going to need all-Dem Exec & Legis. branches to....

...overturn the madness left behind by the NeoCons who currently have control over ALL three branches of the government AND the military through the Pentagon.

[Old and In the Way]

27. No sale....need the same Democratic domination of Legislative and

Executive branches to roll back the anti-American agenda of the criminals holding power because their cowardly rubber stamping toadies in Congress don't do their constituent's business.

[2Design]

31. which one is the one that can bring impeachment proceedings

that is the one we want to own...to protect kerry from what they did to clinton

[jukes]

47. napi21, in more normal times

i wd agree, but i think we're in extrema here.

[GreenPartyVoter]

53. Too, true. I don't want any neocons in charge of any part of the gov't

[spanone]

4. Their fucking our Constitution.

[Still_Loves_John]

6. As sad as that is

It is definatly a hilarious visual.

[Lisa]

38. don't you mean "Cheneying"? (n/t)

...

[tandot]

5. Bastards. Nazis. Scum. Fascists.

Cheating, Lying, Stealing ... the GOP way. :mad:

[Iris]

8. You know what really bothers me?

I ordered a Peace calendar from Working Assets this year and on this months picture, it says the Patriot Act was written BEFORE 9-11! I haven't had time to research this, but the very idea sends shivers down my spine!

(And maybe everyone knows this and I'm hopelessly out of touch?)

[Elidor]

11. I had not heard that

It would be strangely unsurprising with this bunch of fascist bastards, but I would be somewhat stunned nonetheless. Hoping someone will enlighten me on this.

[G_j]

15. The USA PATRIOT Act Was Planned Before 9/11

*there are another of other stories on this as well


The USA PATRIOT Act Was Planned Before 9/11

by Jennifer Van Bergen
t r u t h o u t | 20 May, 2002

Many people do not know that the USA PATRIOT Act was already written and ready to go long before September 11th. Recent criticism of Bush's admission that he had received warnings only weeks before September 11th has made it more important to understand the origins of the USAPA.

The USA PATRIOT Act - the so-called "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001," a.k.a. the USAPA -- was enacted in the immediate wake of 9/11, riding a wave of fear that spread over the nation. This Act has caused much concern amongst civil rights advocates. The Administration, however, responded to such concerns by calling critics unpatriotic. Now, the White House has had a similar response to critics of Bush's recent admission of early warnings.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday: "I think that any time anybody suggests or implies to the American people that this president had specific information that could have prevented the attacks on our country on September 11, that crosses the lines."

Dick Cheney came out on Thursday with the statement that Democratic criticism of Bush's handling of pre-Sept. 11 terror warnings was "thoroughly irresponsible." Cheney added an ominous remark to his "Democratic friends ... that they need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions."

..more..


http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.21B.jvb.usapa.911.htm

[Iris]

17. thanks for the info. (well, sort of thanks!) :(

:(

[Guaranteed]

13. How many BRIBES were passed out in that 20 minutes, Delay?? nt

[Disturbed]

21. No compromise

The Rethugs will compromise on nothing. They know that they have the power.

[proud patriot]

16. " It's The Constitution , STUPID "

:grr: repukes are out of Control

[ibegurpard]

19. Wow

They did that? Excellent. Good for them. I am proud of the efforts that they expended in this. Republicans SHOULD hang their head in shame for choosing the political expediency of Bush over the constitutional protections of their constituents.

[G_j]

20. I'd be curious

if this story is even mentioned on the network news tonight.

[G_j]

29. no mention

on ABC nightly news, no surprise.

NPR briefly mentioned the "shame" incident.

[Q]

24. GOPers hold the vote open while they go around threatening...

...other representatives with 'promises' to withhold funding or support for their campaigns. They've done this time and again.

- Democrats may have played 'rough' now and then when they held the majority...but they never so blatantly disregarded the rules of government in order to push an agenda.

[John_H]

28. ooops wrong thread.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

30. Not much at Free Republic today on this

but I did find this:

"Any expansion of the powers of the Leviathan will be a good thing. They just don't have the tools to defend us from scrungy backward foreigners come here to kill all of us.
400 Billion Dollars in defense budget. Not enough. Carnivore, Echelon, and the removal of habeas corpus weren't enough.

All they need is the law to put people in jail for five years if they told someone their records had been siezed, then none of the attacks, like on the USS Cole or the One World Trade Center will ever be successful again.

Checkpoints on the highways, security gates at malls and office buildings, and maybe an implanted GPS chip for each of us.. Yeah, that's the ticket. Only then will I feel all safe and warm.

Eisenhauer made a remark, that for real security you can go to prison. After all, you get three hots and a cot, and a roof over your head.

There's the answer! Put everyone, everywhere in prison, and interrogate them naked until they tell all about themselves, then let them out one at a time...

Ridiculous."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1153398/replies?comment=7

I think it went over their heads.

[bleedingheart]

32. How did Tim Murphy (R) of PA vote on this one...

I need to know the answer on this one!

[AirAmFan]

36. I'm pretty sure it's roll call vote #339 at URL

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/index.asp

I clicked through the "Find Vote Information" link at http://www.house.gov to get to this page. It shows that an amendment by Bernie Sanders failed today. But I can't click through to get deeper, to see who voted how.

I keep getting a "Cannot connect to server" error.

[Cats Against Frist]

41. Edwards (Not John), Stenholm, Smith and Harman

I was too lazy to look up where they're from.

There's your turncoats.

http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2004&rollnumber=339

Edited to add link.

[theHandpuppet]

43. Stenholm is a Texas Dem

Charlie Stenholm, from Texas, is also a co-sponsor of the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment: http://lgrl.sitestreet.com/news/article.asp?id=532

Figures.

[theHandpuppet]

45. Three Texans, one Californian

Stenholm, (Lamar) Smith and (Chet) Edwards are from Texas; Jane Harman is from California.

[theHandpuppet]

50. I stand corrected...

The Rep Smith referred to by a previous poster must be Smith of Washington State? Lamar Smith of Texas is a Repuke.

[69KV]

52. The thomas.loc.gov site said Adam Smith (WA)

It's at
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll339.xml

[Jeebo]

33. Why don't Dems do the same thing?

Every time this happens, I always wonder, while the Republicans are going around arm-twisting their fence-sitting members to change their votes, why aren't Democrats going around arm-twisting THEIR fence-sitting members to change theirs as well?

When the Democrats next have control of the House -- and I SO HOPE that's beginning in January 2005 -- I think they should pass legislation or new internal House rules or whatever is appropriate to make it ILLEGAL for EITHER party to do this. When you take a roll-call vote, and everybody has cast his/her vote, THAT'S IT. As the minority party, I'm sure Republicans would go along with this to keep Democrats from pulling this same shameless B.S. on them.

If the children are not going to play fair, there need to be rules in place to FORCE them to play fair.

Ron

[Jeebo]

34. Weren't the Repubs complaining in Fla. 2000...

...that the Democrats wanted "to keep counting the votes until they get the result they want"? Aren't these hypocrites doing the same thing when they pull this shameless stunt in the House of Representatives?

Have I said yet tonight how much I HATE these people? (God, I miss Mike Malloy.)

Ron

[Zorra]

37. The Patriot Act....where the sun never sets.

[ContraBass Black]

39. Shame, shame, shame!

Holding votes open so that there's time for arm twisting may become their regular tactic.

It needs a name.

[cthrumatrix]

44. mafia tactics

[Hubert Flottz]

46. Simple answer!

Do not go to, or support, your library or book store!

Money talks!

[Bridget Burke]

48. What a stupid suggestion.

Is this the fault of the librarians or the people who own the bookstores?

[hobbit709]

49. even simpler answer

If you buy anything at a bookstore pay cash, no checks or credit cards.
at the library just look up what you want, xerox it and leave.

[69KV]

51. Dems who voted against us and the Repubs who voted with us

Repubs voting with us on this one:

Bartlett (MD)
Castle (DE)
Duncan (TN)
Ehlers
Flake (AZ)
Johnson (IL)
Kirk
Leach (IA?)
Moran (KS)
Ney
Otter
Paul (TX)
Petri
Porter
Renzi (AZ)
Simpson
Weldon (PA)
Young (AK)

Here are the Dems who voted against us:

Edwards (note, this is representative Edwards, NOT the VP candidate)
Harman
Smith (WA)
Stenholm

Lofgren voted "present".

I don't know which states some of these representatives are from. The ones I do know, I listed.

The real shocker here is Renzi voting with us. That guy is the National Security State's poster boy in the House, his seat practically bought and paid for by his dad who runs some company making surveillance equipment for the feds and the CIA. Mantech International I think it is. What's going on, is he that much in trouble in Arizona of losing his seat this year?