Town Hall Meeting with Rep. Donnelly very enlightening

[plantwomyn]

On Thursday night in Michigan City. We were asked to fill out question cards which surprised many since most of us thought that was not part of a Town Hall forum. Sat and listened to Rep. Donnelly about the resent session and bills. He expressed his disappointment in the partisan "acting for C-Span" and the "christmas treeing" on the bill for insuring children. He went through his votes on Sat./Sun and said that his health care advisors had just about convinced him that there may be a need for single payer medical insurance. DUH
He told us that he had a Nat. Security briefing in connection with the "Protect America Act 2007" and explained that {ooooooooo the boogie man is gonna get us} Director McConnell convinced him that there were indications that something may happen and that the Administration needed the powers that the bill would codify NOW.
He kept his eye on the clock and used up about 40 min. of the 1 hr. program. He then started to leaf through the question cards. He answered a question about whether the PAA07 violated the constitution and he said NO! I could see that he was skipping quite a few questions.
He then took questions from the audience. NOW we're going to get to it I thought. After a couple of softballs a man asked him to explain his vote against the hate crimes bill. Donnelly said he had talked to police chiefs and sheriffs and they assured him that they pursued criminals no matter who the victim is and that they were color blind, that race, sex, and religion did not effect the decisions and that orientation didn't matter to them either. So there was no need for the hate crimes legislation . Next question.
His answers on questions about taxes and the budget were the same old same old.

Then when my turn came up I just had to go back to the hate crimes bill first.
I told Rep. Donnelly that race, sex, and religion were already covered as hate crimes {DUH} and that that the addition of age and sexual orientation were in question. If he didn't think hate crimes legislation was needed then would he vote to repeal existing hate crimes legislation?
Ump, well ya they were covered but no more were needed and no he wouldn't vote to repeal any legislation.
I thought OK fine you hypocrite lets try this.
You talked about having health care abvisors, did you consult with a Constitutional lawyer before you voted for PAA07 and ask whether it violated the Constitution?
Well no, I think there are some things I can decide on my own and I don't believe it violates the Constitution. To which I said I had a problem with that.
By this point people were squirming. GOOD!
So it winds down and I go up and stand in line {along with the man who asked the hate crimes ?} and Rep. Donnelly avoids us like the plague.
His Assistants are there and we start to talk and I have in my hot little hand analysis of the PAA07 and I quote a line or two and they look at me like wow this cannot be true. They assure me that Donnelly took the vote VERRRY seriously.

Well I should hope the fuck so.

They tell me not to worry, the bill has a 6 mon. sunset, we're going to revisit it. You have to understand that we just got the bill 3 days before the vote. The Administration threatened not to let us go home if we didn't vote on the bill!

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

Man - o - Man I just about blew my top. Ya'll have no idea how hard it was for me not to start jumping up and down and screaming my head off. Luckily my partner had admonished me to be good and I did my best. I explained that Tuff shit! The dems should have sat there asses down and ordered Pizza. They have to start calling these fascists on their filibuster threats and "I won't let you go home" crap. So what, stay there and FIGHT. I said the dems had 3 years to right a bill and didn't and them let themselves get cornered with the boogie man BS and let Bush void the 4th Amendment. I also explained that the bill's sunset provision is BS and that certificates for wire taping lasted no less than 1 year and that if the AG and the Dir. of Nat. Intell. signed off on a stack of them ONE DAY before the sunset happened thats 18 months. That's one month after the next inauguration!
You should have seen their faces. Shock!

Well we're going to have to look at that.

Well I should hope the fuck so.

The kind assistant offered to send me a copy of the bill. DUH, I've read the fucking thing three times. DID Donnelly?
I offered to e-mail him the site I gathered my talking points from, here it is http://www.cnss.org/FinalCNSS%20FISA%20Memo%204.19.07.pdf
Since they couldn't wait because of the boogie man, I challenged them to document all of the terrorists that the administration unearthed, using the power of this abomination of a bill, during the August break. I told them that if they want me off their backs they needed to show me all the terrorists that the busted in the coming month.

So yes, the Town Hall Meeting with Rep. Donnelly was very enlightening.

It enlightened me to the fact that my anybody but Charcoal mindset in 2006 was stupid.
The enemy you know......

It enlightened me to the fact that my Rep. as a "RED DOG DEMOCRAT" is just a repug light.
Unlike a repug I won't come out and say to your face that I don't think gay people should be covered by hate crimes.

It enlightened me to the fact that Rep. Donnelly is over his head in Washington.
I, a lowly unemployed dyke from Laporte, IN, read the bill, read analysis of the "Whitehouse Fact Sheet" and came to the obvious conclusion that the Administration wants to codify their illegal eavesdropping on American Citizens. I called his office BEFORE the vote to warn him. OOOOOOOOO he had a meeting with the Director of National Intelligence. My answer to that has I didn't give a shit what McConnell said. Rep. Donnelly took an oath to uphold, protect and defend the CONSTITUTION. His oath has nothing to do with national defense. That's why we have a DEFENSE DEPT.

So now it starts. My unemployed butt is going to be on line and continue to raise hell with Rep. Donnelly's office every chance I get. He has betrayed me and I will not go quietly into the night.
My next meeting is Sen. Bahy in Chesterton.

[LiberalFighter]

1. So he is an expert on the Constitution regarding PAA07

Which police chiefs and sheriffs did he ask that said they pursued crime color-blinded. Oh and police chiefs and sheriffs and their staff don't lie?

You need to keep hammering Donnelly and his staff.

Bayh isn't that bright either. He voted for the eavesdropping bill too.

[madhoosier]

2. I made over 130 telephone calls for MoveOn, most were to Donnelly's district

It was very effective to be able to quote the local TV news and mention local things to the folks I talked with. I'm sure I changed several votes. Now I wonder why. I also note that Senator Lugar did not vote on the Senate version of the bill, has anybody heard why he didn't vote?

[Jack Bone]

3. Rep. Donnelly is just "Chocola Lite"

Remember that nasty Chocola crap from the Cowboy Bob Show? :spray: