I just got back from a town hall meeting with a congress critter

proud2BlibKansan

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Jan-26-06 11:33 PM
Original message

I just got back from a town hall meeting with a congress critter

and I am PISSED!!!

Rev. Emanuel Cleaver - he is the rep for most of the KCMO area - had a forum to discuss national security and The Patriot Act. It featured two college professors who were 'experts'. One was a reasonable man and the other one was a neocon asshole. The reasonable guy explained FISA, talked about presidential authority; said it is not simply a matter of pres. authority, he must go to congress. He also came right out and said "The president has broken the law. What do we want to do about it?"

The neocon - I don't even know where to start. He incensed the audience so many times. He said this is the most dangerous time ever, he had lived through the Korean and Vietnam Wars and this is much more dangerous than anything in his lifetime, even the Cuban Missile Crisis. The reasonable guy stood up and said he disagreed strongly, that he remembers hiding under his desk for nuclear bomb drills as a child and if the Cuban Missile Crisis had not been settled peacefully, the whole world would have been blown to bits. Then the neocon said that the NY Times was irresponsible in exposing the NSA spying, that Osama got rid of his cell phone when the media exposed that he had one. (I shouted out 'And you believe he didn't get a new cell phone??') He also said The Patriot Act has a slew of changes that affect FISA and it was wrong for the media to not report that. He claimed that FISA was modified on 9/18/01 to allow special powers for the president to use military force to go after al qaeda and that the pres has 15 days to wiretap without a warrant, which gives him time to go to congress to get more changes in FISA.

Then Congressman Cleaver spoke. He read a letter he said he got today from Nancy Pelosi, which I recognized as something that was posted here several weeks ago. He said the justice dept, instead of going to the intelligence committee with concerns after 9/11, went to the leaders of both parties. He said it is common knowledge in D.C. that you only go to party leaders when you are not concerned about confidentiality. And he was shocked that the justice dept under Asscroft was not more discrete. Cleaver said that 2 years after 9/11, Asscroft said they didn't need to expand presidential authority to fight terrorism. He said several times that the commander in chief argument is a delicate one. (I am still trying to figure that one out.) Cleaver also mentioned John Conyers several times and the hearings he held in a basement last week.

Then it was time for questions. First question was about IMPEACHMENT!! Cleaver said the worst thing that can happen is impeachment discussions. He said we need to worry about many many other things, including the balance of power, instead of impeachment. We need to focus on the substance of bush's acts, not impeachment. He said if President Gore had done what bush has done, he would feel worse. The Democrats are fighting with one hand behind behind their backs, but they do have the upper hand. Right now, the Democrats in congress are trying to decide what is our recourse?
He said at least 5 times that the Dems are not in power, they can't even hold hearings. The last time he said that, I shouted out "Conyers DID!" And he said but it was in a basement and no media came, the people don't even know about it. Another audience member yelled "WE knew".

The next few questions were about terrorism and they were answered by the neocon. I know I don't have to repeat his standard RW talking points, we have all heard them a million times. But the thing he said that got the crowd really upset was: "WE DO NOT TORTURE". As soon as he said that, ten people jumped up and literally ran to the mic to ask questions. And the rest of the meeting consisted of audience members who were obviously more well informed than the US congressman on stage asking questions and challenging the neocon asshole, who was visibly angry by the time the meeting ended.

I walked up to talk to Cleaver after it was over. I thanked him for answering my letter about the delay for DeLay and told him he was the only Democratic congressman who did answer; I had written to a couple dozen. He agreed he would much rather be in DC working than giving DeLay time to fight charges that looked like they were going to stick. Then I said to him: "I didn't really have a question so I didn't go to the mic, but I do have a request." He smiled and said "What would that be?" I said "GROW A SPINE!!" I told him that surely he could tell how angry his constituents are, that we supporters who voted for him and his fellow Democrats are sick and tired of the neocons and bush and we are impatiently waiting for someone to have the guts to challenge this administration. I asked him if he had heard that Kerry was willing to filibuster Alito and he said yes, he knew that. I said that is the kind of representation your constituents need. PLEASE fight back. Then I walked away, I didn't even give him time to respond.

And I am still pissed. Politicians - :grr: !!!!!