Watch Democracy struggle to survive here. Link via AmericaBlog, where John is encouraging Dems to pick up this outrage (we're going to need a new word) and run with it. He suggests gags on mouths of Congress members to symbolize the oppression. Let me suggest that the first ones are put on the Joes Biden and Leiberman before they can run to Sensenbrenner's defense.
We can write to our Congress members (Senate House) and write to local media outlets.
From Pelosi:
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, in a statement, said the hearing was an example of Republican abuse of power and she would ask House Speaker Dennis Hastert to order an apology from Sensenbrenner.
Not enough. Get out the gags, Nancy. Get on the Capitol steps. Get on some two hundred blogs. Get on a message to feed the Sunday bobbleheads and stay there. Don't move until this is front page in every paper in the country.
UPDATE: Here's my letter to Mike Fitzpatrick, my rep in the House. I'm only posting it here to show that any letter you send doesn't have to be eloquent or filled with fancy law talk. You don't need to think you have to waste an hour crafting the perfect message that is unassailable on every fact. For instance, I'm not sure that "sneak and peek" isn't one of the sunsetted provisions. The point is that I am unhappy with the USA PATRIOT Act and the way that Congress is stifiling debate about it. Remember: don't be rude. I sent mine through Congress.org.
I am apalled that the most recent hearing on the Patriot Act was shut down in such a blantantly un-American way. What are you Republicans afraid of? This is a slap in the face of democracy. I watched the video on C-Span - twice - because I couldn't believe what I was seeing the first time.
I heard what Sensenbrenner was saying about the perameters of the hearing but he was taking the most narrow interpretation possible and this is not an issue that can afford narrow, frightened interpretations. Even with his constrictions, the witnesses did make clear that their testimonies did adhere to his draconian reading of the rules. Every Republican member of the Congress should be ashamed of his/herself this morning. It is a sad day for America as well.
Please stop hurting America. The USA PATRIOT Act needs to be overhauled. The sunset provisions need to go but so do the provisions that allow for indefinite detention and detention without charge. Racial profiling, sneak and peek - all need to go.
We're turning into the Soviet Union.
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