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 If the level of political immaturity in this country's government could get any lower at this point, I don't have the imagination to speculate how it could be done. Today politics more closely resembles kindergarteners fighting on a playground over a kickball than statesmen trying to work for their constituents. Corruption be damned - acting like spoiled children is the new name of the game!"Democrats in the House are furious over what they see as a deliberate attempt by Republicans to rewrite Democratic amendments to make the Democrats amendments look preposterous, RAW STORY has learned.
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The Republican-written rewrites, along with the Democratic description of the amendments, follows. RAW STORY has also learned that Republicans have not rewritten similar amendments in the past. A copy from the Congressional record in 2002 is included below, showing the "neutral" language used in a previous Congress.
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The following amendments were offered and voted down by recorded votes in the Judiciary Committee markup of H.R. 748-The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA):
DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT
AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION IN HOUSE REPORT 109-51
DEMS: a Nadler amendment allows an adult who could be prosecuted under the bill to go to a Federal district court and seek a waiver to the state’s parental notice laws if this remedy is not available in the state court. (no 11-16)
GOP REWRITE:. Mr. Nadler offered an amendment that would have created an additional layer of Federal court review that could be used by sexual predators to escape conviction under the bill. By a roll call vote of 11 yeas to 16 nays, the amendment was defeated."
DEMS: a Nadler amendment to exempt a grandparent or adult sibling from the criminal and civil provisions in the bill (no 12-19)
GOP REWRITE: . Mr. Nadler offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution under the bill if they were grandparents or adult siblings of a minor. By a roll call vote of 12 yeas to 19 nays, the amendment was defeated.
DEMS: a Scott amendment to exempt cab drivers, bus drivers and others in the business transportation profession from the criminal provisions in the bill (no 13-17):
GOP REWRITE. Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport. By a roll call vote of 13 yeas to 17 nays, the amendment was defeated. |
There are more. The worst thing? Try and find any mention of this in a "major" American news source. I was listening to NPR this morning, and they played a sound bite from the house floor in which one Republican said something to the effect of "this bill would, in fact, exempt sexual predators from prosecution. If the Democrats want to be able to discuss these amendments seriously, they need to learn to submit them correctly." The way in which the aforementioned Republican made this statement was tantamount to the way a little boy would say that "Billy gets to stay out late, why don't I," and then throw a temper tantrum.
Now, I am no expert on the way the House works, and I don't know exactly what it is about these amendments that would "exempt child molesters from prosecution." However, if that is what the Republicans feel these amendments would cause, what they should be doing is openly discussing the problems they have with them, not sneakily changing the wording to make it look like those behind the amendments somehow support child molesters, which obviously is not the case.
Of course, the horridly low level of political discourse doesn't stop with the Republicans; Democrats are just as bad. The attitude of Washington Democrats right now is the attitude of sore losers. They have a serious political advantage right now with the whole Delay controversy, but instead of actually trying to pursue it, they're just using it to try and make Republicans look bad. Delay has committed some heinously high crimes here, but all the Democrats seem worried about is projecting his crimes onto the entire party rather than prosecuting the actual criminal.
Oh, and don't think it's just partisan politics. Independents seem to think they're better than those who pigeonhole themselves into a party. I've got news for you, folks, kids who pretend to be "goth" or "emo" or "punk" just because it seems to get attention are not as independent as the kids who have a real reason for doing it, and the same goes for you retards who are "Independents" for the sake of the attention you think it will get you. If you're a true Independent because the two major parties are full of hypocrites and sleaze balls, that's great, but I'd wager that's a small minority of the few Independents that actually exist in national government.
We really need to stop pointing fingers, especially across the aisles, and start working together. There are people, both foreign and domestic and even closely related to and yes, even within, our government, who want to destroy the freedoms that our nation was built upon. No, the United States never existed in some golden age of statesmanship and brotherhood that many people seem to long for a "return to." During our nation's founding we grew into a real power because we were growing on the backs of slaves and stolen native land, and during the "good ol' days" of the fifties, a large portion of the nation was racist and segregated. That doesn't mean, though, that we can't try to achieve what our founding fathers at least made us think our nation was founded upon - freedom, brotherhood, peace, and philosophy.
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