LINK: http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/NATION/70719001/1001
As I understand it, the amendment was in the original bill which was passed by Congress with broad bipartisan support. It was then stripped in conference committee, where no one Democrat could be blamed for it because of the committee's secretive nature. An attempt to reinclude the amendment to the committee's final report was then defeated by both the Senate and House at large.
Congress has thus pulled the teeth out of the most fundamental concept of national security -- that a vigilant citizenry is the last defense against terrorist violence. As of now, you have the choice of either shutting up in the face of possible terrorist activity (and thereby imperiling American lives) or speaking out and risk being sued into oblivion by the ethically-challenged racial grievance mongers at the deplorable Hamas front group CAIR.
Ostensibly the amendment was removed on the grounds that it was not germane to the underlying bill -- although no one objected when the amendment was first passed, and although the parliamentarians of both chambers ruled it was, in fact, germane. Here is a list of those Senators who voted for and against it. You'll notice no Republicans voted against it, although the increasingly worthless Sam Brownback couldn't be bothered to show up for the vote, nor could Obama. At least Tim Johnson has an excuse. For those of you whose Senators voted against the bill (as both mine did), you should write to express your outrage.
I feel awful for those poor people in Minneapolis who reported the bizarre behavior of the "Flying Imams" in good faith and will now be litigated to death by CAIR.
As I understand it, the amendment was in the original bill which was passed by Congress with broad bipartisan support. It was then stripped in conference committee, where no one Democrat could be blamed for it because of the committee's secretive nature. An attempt to reinclude the amendment to the committee's final report was then defeated by both the Senate and House at large.
Congress has thus pulled the teeth out of the most fundamental concept of national security -- that a vigilant citizenry is the last defense against terrorist violence. As of now, you have the choice of either shutting up in the face of possible terrorist activity (and thereby imperiling American lives) or speaking out and risk being sued into oblivion by the ethically-challenged racial grievance mongers at the deplorable Hamas front group CAIR.
Ostensibly the amendment was removed on the grounds that it was not germane to the underlying bill -- although no one objected when the amendment was first passed, and although the parliamentarians of both chambers ruled it was, in fact, germane. Here is a list of those Senators who voted for and against it. You'll notice no Republicans voted against it, although the increasingly worthless Sam Brownback couldn't be bothered to show up for the vote, nor could Obama. At least Tim Johnson has an excuse. For those of you whose Senators voted against the bill (as both mine did), you should write to express your outrage.
I feel awful for those poor people in Minneapolis who reported the bizarre behavior of the "Flying Imams" in good faith and will now be litigated to death by CAIR.
