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REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

8/03/2007

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Thanks to John Cooper for alerting me to this legislative travesty perpetrated by the ‘bring ethics back into congress’ democrats. The House democrats appear to have unbridled legislative tyranny on their minds.

After you read these two separate accounts of events on Thursday night, ask yourself where the mainstream media is (other than in the pockets of elitist politicians … ‘fair and balanced’ FoxNews included).

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In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions (video link courtesy Breitbart.tv), Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and a distinct low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber because members of one party have rarely, if ever, walked off the floor without casting a vote.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled closed the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

One GOP aide saw McNulty gavel the vote to a close after receiving a signal from his leaders – but before reading the official tally. And votes continued to shift even after he closed the roll call - a strange development in itself.

Whatever the final tally, acrimony quickly exploded between lawmakers on either side of the aisle as Democratic leaders tried to plot a solution, while parliamentarians on either side argued over protocol.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) eventually offered a motion to reconsider, according to floor staff on either side, ostensibly giving members a chance to recast their votes. But the maneuver sparked a chorus of angry protests from the Republicans, yelling “shame” on Democrats, while they returned fire with angry volleys of their own.

When Democrats finally moved to consider the spending bill as the last vote of the night, furious Republicans left the chamber en masse to protest the maneuver. The House eventually recessed at 11:18 p.m. But Republicans quickly discovered that there was no longer any record of the controversial vote and immediately charged Democrats with erasing the bad result.

“Obviously, the Democrats don’t want to stand up against illegal immigration – so much so that they’re willing to cheat in order to win a vote,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said in an e-mail. “They’re desperate – and it shows.”

The official House website did not show a record of the vote as of 1 a.m. Friday.

(from House Erupts in Chaos)

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From another site (An Outrage on the House Floor):

High drama on the house floor tonight. Dems brought an Agriculture appropriations bill to the floor greatly expanding government programs, yet again. Republicans moved to recommit the bill to committee, in order to add language prohibiting any taxpayer funds under the agriculture programs from going to illegal immigrants.

The Democrat chair closed the roll call when Republicans had won – as the electronic voting tally indicated enough votes to return the bill to committee. Shouting erupted on the floor, as the Democrats attempted to change the outcome of the vote after the gavel had come down – the vote was closed.

Republicans attempted to adjourn, but we were ruled out of order. Confusion set in as members waited at least five minutes for the chair’s decision.

Republicans members then began to leave the floor in protest, after Democrats proved they would go to whatever lengths necessary to further their agenda. A bad call by the chair, the vote was closed. Then the Democrats allowed their members to continue voting to change the outcome.

An outrage. Is this a democracy or a dictatorship?

All but a few Republicans refused to vote on final passage since it became obvious that a fair vote would not happen.

Let’s be clear - this is not even comparable to holding the vote open. They allowed votes to be cast AFTER the vote was closed and the results were announced, because they didn’t like the way it turned out. They erased the previous vote from history, as though it never happened.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with the Republican position that no taxpayer dollars should go to illegal immigrants in that bill, we all have a duty to oppose the unprecedented actions by House Democrats last night, for the sake and health of our democracy.

The vote was counted, the vote was declared over and gaveled closed. The clerk had recorded the total.

Then, after the vote was over … they allowed their people to keep voting to change the result. Then, erased any record of the earlier vote count, as though it didn’t happen, because it didn’t go their way.

In other words. The vote was closed. Never reopened. But the result was changed.

This has never happened before in our republic.

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~ joanie

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Despicable.

And you're right. We won't hear about this in the MSM except in passing. But if the shoe was on the other foot it would be headline news for weeks and there would be demands that heads roll.

Anonymous said...

This has never happened before in our republic.

The liberals, and a lot of so-called "conservatives," are doing a lot of things that never happened before in our republic, which is why we're on the brink of ruin.

Anonymous said...

Bastards.

Anonymous said...

It's time to clean house. 99% of incumbents ought to get the boot in 2008.

Anonymous said...

Steny Hoyer said yesterday, ""Today, the House will continue to move forward with the people’s business, with the new Democratic Majority building upon its impressive record over the last seven months. Just in the last two weeks, we have passed legislation enacting historic lobbying reform, providing health insurance to 11 million children, ensuring fair pay in the workplace, and reauthorizing the farm bill, as well as several appropriations bills."

If wearing rose-collored glasses were a capital crime, this idiot would be on death row.

Anonymous said...

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070803/NATION/108030110/1001

Anonymous said...

House Democrats apologized today for "testing the waters",

much like a terrorist making a dry run....

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070803/NATION/108030110/1001

Just a computer glitch, as always seems to happen when Dems lose a vote.

Amazing that computers work fine when Dems win a vote.

We saw their intent in the 2004 Washington Governors race and recounts. They tried it in 2000, but lost still. They’ve been angry ever since and of course, computers are to blame every time, except when they win.

The Democrats know we always cave in......they will get worse.

Anonymous said...

This outrage has been officially swept under the rug. The house (lower case intentional) has formed a committee to investigate, which will issue a final report in September, 2008.

How hard is this to investigate? Why should it take over a year to figure this out? Where are the paper records that congress demands for the rest of us when *we* vote?

From the Washington Post today:

~~~~~~

It started late Thursday, when GOP lawmakers moved to send the 2008 agriculture spending bill back to the House Appropriations Committee for members to add an explicit prohibition on illegal immigrants receiving food stamps. With so much on their plate, Democratic leaders were in no mood to comply.

Democrats appeared to have won the vote, but with the voting time apparently having expired, GOP leaders persuaded three Latino Republicans who had voted with the Democrats to change their votes. At the same time, Democrats say, five Democratic lawmakers who had voted with Republicans were scrambling to change their votes as well. With two of the GOP votes changed, Democrats gaveled the vote shut, 214 to 214, and declared that they had won. But the public tally showed that the Republicans had won, 215 to 213, just as the vote was declared for the Democrats. The official final tally was 216 to 212 in the Democrats' favor.

But House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said there were no Democrats seeking to change their votes at the time. Moreover, he charged, Hoyer had told a protesting parliamentarian, "We control, not the parliamentarians." And, he said, electronic records on the vote disappeared from the House's voting system and on the House clerk's Web site.

...The select committee, to be made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, will deliver an interim report by Sept. 30, with the final report due by Sept. 15, 2008.

Anonymous said...

Roll Call 814

Anonymous said...

They "apologized" for the "confusion" and some appointees will look into the problem.

They count on the short attention span of the public to do this kind of thing. Most of us will never know about it, and the rest will have forgotten about it by the time they pull this kind of thing again.

They operate under a whole different set of rules than the rest of us. That's what defines them as "elitists."

The Minutemen would be stirring right about now. Your talk of revolution in your earlier essay isn't too soon, and I think Claire Wolfe would agree.

Anonymous said...

From How our Laws are Made:

Electronic Voting

Recorded votes are usually taken by electronic device, except when the Speaker orders the vote to be recorded by other methods prescribed by the rules of the House, or in the failure of the electronic device to function. In addition, quorum calls are generally taken by electronic device. The electronic system works as follows: A number of vote stations are attached to selected chairs in the Chamber. Each station is equipped with a vote card slot and four indicators, marked "yea", "nay", "present", and "open" that are lit when a vote is in progress and the system is ready to accept votes. Each Member is provided with an encyrpted Vote-ID Card. A Member votes by inserting the voting card into any one of the vote stations and depressing the appropriate button to indicate the Member's choice. If a Member is without a Vote-ID Card or wishes to change his vote during the last five minutes of a vote, the Member may be recorded by handing a paper ballot to the Tally Clerk, who then records the vote electronically according to the indicated preference of the Member. The paper ballots are green for "yea", red for "nay", and amber for "present". The voting machine records the votes and reports the result when the vote is completed.

~~~~~

So the democrats claim that 5 of them changed their vote at the last minute. Where are the red paper ballots?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for all the excellent inforation, Cooper. I've sent it on to a lot of political friends.

I'm afraid that no matter how informed people like us become, the rest of the country doesn't give a damn.

The double standard of the liberals, and not being held accountable for it, is what will make them eventually prevail.

Anonymous said...

Think about this simple logic:

Our LEGISLATORS are our rule makers.

Our LEGISLATORS do not follow the rules they themselves are supposed to follow (and this isn't the first example of that).

What sould WE THE PEOPLE do?

Anonymous said...

For the record, four Republicans didn't vote, according to the roll call: Ander Crenshaw of North FL, Jo Ann Davis of Virginia, Sam Johnson of Texas, Don Young of Alaska.

Sam Johnson had an excuse - he was recovering from a knee replacement. The others?

Anonymous said...

More information and comments at Michelle Malkin

~~~~~

"After a majority of the House initially passed the measure barring illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer funded handouts, Democrat leaders stepped-in to strong-arm their politically vulnerable members into switching their votes in order to defeat the measure and deliver benefits for illegals.

Unfortunately for those Democrats who switched their votes, their actions were caught on tape. Hoping that nobody was watching them in the dead of night, Democrats Nick Lampson (TX), Harry Mitchell (AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), and Zack Space (OH) were all caught getting their arms twisted by their leadership and voting against the measure after initially supporting it."

~~~~~

Question is, were these votes changed *after* the voting was complete, or before?

Anonymous said...

The Democrat party is infested with hypocritical, nescient, duplicitous, reprehensible, half-witted, asinine, obsequious, meretricious, pusillanimous, indolent, imbecilic, pompous, retromingent, ignominious, ungrateful, sycophantic prevaricators.

Anonymous said...

All_good_men said...

The Democrat party is infested with hypocritical, nescient, duplicitous, reprehensible, half-witted, asinine, obsequious, meretricious, pusillanimous, indolent, imbecilic, pompous, retromingent, ignominious, ungrateful, sycophantic prevaricators.


Let me simplify that, allgoodmen.

They are commies.

.