House Leadership seeks to invoke "MARTIAL LAW"

[kpete]

HOUSE LEADERSHIP SEEKS TO INVOKE "MARTIAL LAW," FORCING MEMBERS TO VOTE ON KEY BUDGET BILLS WITHOUT FULL KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THEY ARE VOTING ON:
Move Represents Erosion of the Democratic Process
Statement by Robert Greenstein

Federal Budget Policy

The House Republican Leadership has announced its intention to have the House vote today on conference reports on a budget-cut “reconciliation” bill (S. 1932) and the defense appropriation bill (H.R. 2863) under a procedure known as “martial law.” The Leadership’s proposal to invoke martial law has already been debated on the House floor and will be voted on later today.

Under this procedure, longstanding House rules that require at least one day between the unveiling of significant legislation and the House floor vote on that legislation are swept away. Instead, under “martial law,” the Leadership can file legislation with hundreds of pages of fine print and move immediately to debate and votes on it, before Members of Congress, the media, or the public have an opportunity to understand fully what provisions have been altered or inserted in the legislation behind closed doors. This is the procedure the Leadership hopes to use today to muscle through these bills.

One of the most controversial provisions in the Senate version of this legislation — the provision that would open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling — evidently will be moved to the defense appropriation bill. The defense appropriation bill reportedly will also include a variety of other provisions unrelated to defense that were not in either the House- or Senate-passed versions of that bill.

Although the Leadership’s schedule calls for Members of the House to have to vote on these conference reports today, the Leadership has not revealed exactly what changes have been made in the reconciliation bill or exactly what matters are being added to the defense appropriation bill. The plan appears to be to wait until the last moment this afternoon or evening and then have the House Rules Committee report rules that will allow the conference reports to go directly to the House floor — before the public, the media, or even Members of the House themselves have an opportunity to examine the revised legislation carefully.


http://www.cbpp.org/12-18-05bud.htm
http://www.cbpp.org/12-18-05bud.pdf

[Dufaeth]

1. And this is democracy?

eom

[AuntiBush]

15. Sickening!

Pathetically, sickening!

If this passes, I'm literally ready to just give-up! Hope Senator Reid shuts down the house. Enough is enough. If this passes, what's the point in them being there.

GOP corruption = Fascism, Totalitarianism! :argh:

And those calls on C-SPAN have got to be in part told to do so, or paid. Not hard to believe since they're so full of corruption!

Bush said last night in his speech for people not in agreement with him to (?) stopped listening at that point.
Couldn't stomach watching him. But what was it he said, exactly?

Anyone have the transcript link?

:puke:

[MadisonProgressive]

22. Senator Reid can't shut down the House. maybe Pelosi can?

[AuntiBush]

27. He did call for that closed session, not long ago...

that kinda stopped things, wouldn't you say.

[MadisonProgressive]

28. That was the senate, not the house

[Horse with no Name]

2. Sadly this doesn't surprise me

:wow:

[liveoaktx]

3. VIDEO-McGovern on Martial Law (rule of the Senate)DEMS SPEAKING OUT

Very good speech

[zanne]

8. Excellent speech!

For once, I wasn't left wanting.

[stepnw1f]

4. Siegeil! Siegeil!

[tx_dem41]

5. The title is a "bit" misleading, especially with the ALL CAPS.

I don't like the process followed to pass a bill...but it is hardly what most people think of when they think of "martial law".

[IndyOp]

7. Agreed. Incredibly important and *not* tanks in the streets.

Yet.

[kpete]

12. I agree with you and I dropped the caps

I must also admit that I had questions about this "martial law" reference. Sometimes, I post to see if I can get info or explanations from what I read and see. I will also try to post more info on this if I can find it. Mostly, I am interested in ANWR. I do not like the tactics they are using to push it through.

[tx_dem41]

14. I appreciated the meat of the post.

Thanks for posting it. It was something that was sailing underneath my radar.

I'm just sensitive to overdramatic panic as we are seeing somewhat this morning. (not saying your post was that at all).

Again, thanks for posting the article.

[AuntiBush]

16. Shew...

Thanks, as that was enough to send one into a total spin!

[Toots]

6. Why don't they just outlaw the Democrats from voting?

They are after all considered Traitors to America by the GOP. What is to stop them from doing that?

[mike_c]

9. words fail me....

This is utterly despicable.

[lostnfound]

10. I wondered why this was dated yesterday..so I called CBPP

They said that a vote was done at 1 am this morning (which had been expected last night). I'm not too sure which vote that was.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. What can be said? They've lost their fucking minds.

Bonkers. Chewing on paint chips, sucking on lead-glazed, made-in-China coffee cups and drinking too much contaminated water from the Capital public water faucets.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

13. Sounds like what they were trying to do in the House at 2am last night...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5632961&mesg_id=5633066

[AuntiBush]

17. Can you believe they're doing this!?!

No wonder half or more of the country are heavily medicated! None of us can sleep, and obviously they're hoping we are sleeping, and not watching.

They've been doing this for quite sometime. I know. Catch it late in the night (after midnight) when I can't sleep (and ya' wonder why...) :eyes:

[Rocknrule]

18. "The Sith rule the galaxy! Now and forever!"

Guess I better brush up on my Sieg Heil-ing

[Rocknrule]

19. "The Sith rule the galaxy! Now and forever!"

Guess I better brush up on my Sieg Heil-ing

[Rocknrule]

20. "The Sith rule the galaxy! Now and forever!"

Guess I better brush up on my Sieg Heil-ing

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Just two things for the Dems to do .......

..... scream 'Foul' at the top of their lungs. And refuse to vote. Let this shit pass unanimously with all Republican votes.

No protest votes. No nothing from our side. Just yelling and screaming. The first Dem who gets hauled out of the House Chamber by the Sargent at Arms gets my undying love and my unflagging support ... no matter what district he's/she's from.

[Inland]

23. But you know who's fucked by this? Republicans not in leadership.

The dems can happilly vote no on everything. It's the republican back benchers, those who don't know any more than the dems about what's in the bills, the ones who don't run the show and don't have their pork and sweetheart bills in the huge omnibus act, who are on the horns of the dilemma. They have to vote yes and suck it up if there is anything damaging to their personal ambitions in it.

The repug leadership doesn't want to give REPUBLICANS a chance to complain and represent THEIR districts!

Another supposedly representative institution bites the dust.

[Marie26]

24. This is sickening.

If a company secretly slips a new provision into a contract before someone can sign it, that's called fraud. When Republicans do it, it's called business as usual.

[FreedomAngel82]

25. Is this serious and for real?

Why are they going to do this?? :shrug:

[BamaBecky]

26. we can't let this happen

we must stop this madness