Why Is Senate Meeting in Closed Session?

Originally posted by Saphronia
It was a good day......


Round one, FIGHT!

RAWR!!!!

Compared to that picture of Fristie with the big wet stain on the front of his trousers wincing from the new one Cheney just tore him on the phone and whining about getting "slapped".... freaking PRICELESS!

[edit on 1-11-2005 by RANT]

Cheney probably was telling frist that he is going to pull of financial help from his campaign from his buddies in the oil business and haliburton.

No wonder frist is freaking out.

This one was coming and was long overdue but now is not stopping tbecause is a war for the race to win over the American public and win the white house for the Democrats.

Is a war going on and it has nothing to do with Iraq.

Has people notice how Iraq has been pushed to the back burner and the topic has been the efforts for the victims in the south and the nominees to the court, like Republican has nothing to gain anymore from the war on terror.

Now is coming back to hunt them and is not going to be anymore in for their benefit.

Yeah, couldn't have anything to do with a courtesy majority and minority leaders generally had for one another when making announcements like this -- no surprises. Reid just pops in and demands a closed door session, seconded by Durbin, because the democrats are having a hissy fit over Karl Rove not being indicted and Delay getting a different judge.

So now, seeing that it is such an emergency, Reid has called the Senate into closed session to discuss moving forward on the second phase of the intelligence committee (already underway, by the way, according to Trent Lott who is on the committee). What will really be discussed there? It doesn't get to come out of the Senate.

Here's my guess, though. Reid and Durbin came in there looking all important, they got everyone out of there, debugged the room, closed the doors, and Reid started crying. Upon seeing this, all the other Democrats couldn't contain it and they started crying, too. Reid, through choking back sobs, begged Frist to stop being so darn effective at blocking the Democratic campaign policy of indictment. "We >sniffle< we let you do it to our guy, Billy, it's only fair."

Frist's anger melted away, and all he could do was feel sympathy for these pathetic excuses for human beings groveling at his feet. In a kind, but firm tone, Bill explained, "Harry, you know I can't do that. We can't break the law or ignore the law just because your political party is floundering and fading from importance."

With a lower lip stuck out, Reid kicked at the carpet in front of himself and mumbled, "I know..."

Bill continued, "Why don't you guys take a stance on something? Saying 'No' to everything can only get you so far. I'll tell you what, though. We'll continue to work with whatever prosecutors you can find to make up charges like you did with Delay, and fully comply. If we did something wrong, you guys can find it."

Harry looks up, sniffling a little, but a look of slight hope entering his eyes. "Really," he asked. "Can we plant evidence?"

"Harry, this has to be fair," Bill said in a deep, firm tone.

After taking a deep breath and composing himself, Harry Reid turns to face his party. "You know...Maybe Bill is right...Maybe we should be ethical about this." Hillary twitched. "Well, nah, let's keep doing what we're doing; who wants to leak the Republican's admission of a cover-up to the press later tonight?"

Bill shook his head, turned to his fellow Republicans and shrugged, saying, "Kids..." :shk:

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that's about how the closed session went down.

Wow, and a Bush Bot comes in and tries to defend Satan&Co. Good job, to bad all the facts/rules support the democrats.

"Bush is God, all his appointments are God's choice, all Republicans are God's chosen people."

Wait a minute, I don't drink the Crushed Baby Skull Kool-Aid so I'm not a Republican!

Originally posted by Full Metal
Wow, and a Bush Bot comes in and tries to defend Satan&Co. Good job, to bad all the facts/rules support the democrats.

"Bush is God, all his appointments are God's choice, all Republicans are God's chosen people."

Wait a minute, I don't drink the Crushed Baby Skull Kool-Aid so I'm not a Republican!

I don't think that JungleJake mentioned God once in that whole post.

Bigot.

No, Full Metal's not a bigot. He's a progressive who believes that everyone who thinks exactly like he does has every right to express themselves in any way they want to.

Those who don't think like him are racist, lousey idiot bots who are puppets to a political party and need to be silenced. Sheesh!

and on a lighter note...

check out sentor durbins face in Rant's pic...yo, he looks like he's a straight up ghetto-gangsta...

calm down people.

Originally posted by Full Metal
Wow, and a Bush Bot comes in and tries to defend Satan&Co. Good job, to bad all the facts/rules support the democrats.

"Bush is God, all his appointments are God's choice, all Republicans are God's chosen people."

Wait a minute, I don't drink the Crushed Baby Skull Kool-Aid so I'm not a Republican!

[soapbox]Seriously, stop it already. Your only purpose here seems to be to hijack threads and spout crap like this. I have yet to see you contribute ANYTHING useful to any discussion. It's obvious from your posts that you idolize members such as Souljah & Rant (*hat tip* to you two, I don't agree with most of your ideas, but you present well-researched intelligent arguments most of the time). How about you try to present an intelligent argument (like they do) instead of wasting everybody's time.[/soapbox]

Originally posted by RANT

Compared to that picture of Fristie with the big wet stain on the front of his trousers

Those are both great pictures. Very telling of the moods today.

What's strange is that after this was all over and the news went back to the story of the day, there was an inordinate amount of talk about BIRD FLU! It's like the media was told - Don't talk about the closed session today. And whatever you do, don't forget BIRD FLU! Yeah, Tom DeLay 's a crook, but what about BIRD FLU!!! Yes, Scooter Pooter was a bad boy, but don't forget BIRD FLU!!! And Bush's new SC nominee thinks women should get a man's permission to have an abor... BIRD FLU!!!!

Originally posted by rhelt100
[soapbox]Seriously, stop it already. Your only purpose here seems to be to hijack threads and spout crap like this. I have yet to see you contribute ANYTHING useful to any discussion. It's obvious from your posts that you idolize members such as Souljah & Rant (*hat tip* to you two, I don't agree with most of your ideas, but you present well-researched intelligent arguments most of the time). How about you try to present an intelligent argument (like they do) instead of wasting everybody's time.[/soapbox]

Originally posted by Herman
I don't think that JungleJake mentioned God once in that whole post.

Bigot.

It's all good, Full Metal's just upset about what happened on this thread.

Benevolent Heretic, what was there really to report? The senate closed its doors...Do they speculate about what might be being discussed all day? Delay is being charged with doing something that wasn't a crime when he did it. The news today about that is that the judge who was overseeing the case was deemed biased because of the contributions he made to political groups such as moveon.org. Scooter, there's some possible news, but who knew who Scooter was before the indictment came through? Had it been Rove, it would be the talk of the town, but Scooter? Asian Bird Flu? Something that the media can spin in such a way where you're personally terrified for yourself and your family to hear about? That never gets ratings If anything, and this is where the argument moves away from assumptions we agree on, the media focusing on the bird flu is helping the Democrats keep mud off of their faces.

That is this conservative's opinion, but in following political news, these tactics being taken by the left, in my perception, are making me want to move to action. By not making it public knowledge, folks who believe like me but don't follow political news as closely won't be enraged and suddenly surge forth and make an effort to discredit as loudly as possible these hijinks.

I mean, look at the political news today. Delay got a change of judges from one that didn't support MoveOn.org. It took 3 grand juries to even indict Delay, the Dems needed a judge that would toss Ex Post Facto out the window and charge him. Then, it is also becoming apparent the axe isn't about to fall on Rove's head...No indictment seems to be coming after all the excitement and hype that Rove's head was going to roll sometime last week. Then Reid and Durbin call for a closed senate session to discuss intelligence for the war in Iraq?! This seems like an angry little hissy fit, considering the timing. Last week was a bad week for the Bush Administration; this week is working out to be a bad week for the Democrats. They're pissed, so they're going to throw a temper tantrum.

Again, my perspective, but do you think I'm the only one to have this perspective? If the media were to be covering all three stories extensively, do you think Joe Moderate Republican wouldn't be led to make those same connections? I suspect I'd see you complaining that the media is painting an evil picture of the Democratic party if all three stories were being covered at the same time.

So what you're saying Jake is you have no idea what happened today or what it was about. It's none of that. And it's been going on a while. We're at war. A war the American people find increasingly dissatisfying, expensive and have increasing questions about. The Senate (run by Republicans) promised an investigation and answers years ago. Phase I concluded there were no WMDs. Phase II has been stalled ever since.... the how did this happen?

Of course it was stalled until after the election. We all knew they'd do that. But it's been a year since. Enough.

And Fristie goes on TV saying why didn't they come to me? Boo hoo hoo.

Right.

For more than two years, Senate Democrats have pressed Republicans to address the misuse of intelligence. At every turn, Republicans have blocked efforts to investigate how intelligence was used in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Below details the long record established by Democrats to investigate this matter.

March 14, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Director Mueller requesting an investigation into the origin of the Niger documents.

May 23, 2003 - Senators Roberts and Rockefeller sent a letter to the CIA and State Department Inspectors General to review issues related to the Niger documents.

June 2, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller issued a press release endorsing a statement made of the previous weekend by Senator Warner calling for a joint SSCI/SASC investigation.

June 4, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller issued a press release saying he would push for an investigation. Senator Roberts issued a press release saying calls for an investigation are premature.

June 10, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Senator Roberts asking for an investigation.

June 11, 2003 - All Committee Democrats signed a letter to Senator Roberts asking for a meeting of the Committee to discuss the question of authorizing an inquiry into the intelligence that formed the basis for going to war.

June 11, 2003 - Senator Roberts issued a press release saying this is routine committee oversight, and that criticism of the intelligence community is unwarranted. Senator Rockefeller issued a press release calling the ongoing review inadequate.

June 20, 2003 - Senators Roberts and Rockefeller issued a joint press release laying out the scope of the inquiry.

August 13, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Senator Roberts making 14 points about the investigation, asking to expand the inquiry to address the "use of intelligence by policy makers" and asking for several other actions.

September 9, 2003 - After press reports quoting Senator Roberts as saying the investigation was almost over, Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Senator Roberts urging him not to rush to complete the investigation prematurely.
October 29, 2003 - Senators Roberts and Rockefeller sent a letter to Director Tenet expressing in strong terms that he should provide documents that have been requested and make individuals available.

October 30, 2003 - Senators Roberts and Rockefeller sent letters to Secretaries Rumsfeld and Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice expressing in strong terms that they should provide documents that have been requested and make individuals available.

October 31, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Director Tenet asking for documents related to the interaction between intelligence and policy makers, including the documents from the Vice President's office related to the Powell speech.

November 2, 2003 - Senator Roberts made statements during a joint television appearance with Senator Rockefeller claiming that the White house would provide all documents they jointly requested.

December 5, 2003 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to National Security Advisor Rice asking for her help getting documents and access to individuals.

January 22, 2004 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Director Tenet asking for compliance with the Oct. 31 request for documents.

February 12, 2004 - Senators Roberts and Rockefeller issued a joint press release announcing the Committee's unanimous approval of the expansion of the Iraq review, to include use of intelligence in the form of public statements, and listing other aspects of what became Phase II.

March 23, 2004 - Senator Rockefeller sent yet another letter to Director Tenet asking for compliance with the Oct. 31 request for documents.

June 17, 2004 - Senators Roberts and Rockefeller joint press release announcing the unanimous approval of the report.

July 16, 2004 - Committee Democrats sent a letter to Bush asking for the one page summary of the NIE prepared for Bush. The Committee staff had been allowed to review it but could not take notes and the Committee was never given a copy.

February 3, 2005 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Senator Roberts outlining Committee priorities for the coming year and encouraging completion of Phase II.

August 5, 2005 - Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to Senator Roberts expressing concern over the lack of progress on Phase II and calling for a draft to be presented to the Committee at a business meeting in September.

September 29, 2005 - All Committee Democrats joined in additional views to the annual Intelligence Authorization Bill criticizing the lack of progress on Phase II.

And as a result of today:

For more than two years we have been seeking this investigation. Finally thru the course of this closed session we were able to get the attention of the majority and lock in (with a timeline) the commitment of the senate intelligence committee to investigate how intelligence was manipulated and manufactured with. Its an investigation we desperately need.

Now the American people know how long this has been stonewalled and by who. It's overdue. And as a result of making people pay attention we now have a bipartisan committee with full public accountability. Your party can't play games any more. Taking their cues to stall from the White House in and of itself is a violation of seperations and negligence of duty. But we'll investigate that another day.

You can spin and fantasize all you like about what you think happened, but this is what happened. The only party playing pranks and hijinx with the American people has been the Republicans the past few years trying to pretend all of government is a one party unaccountable and unanswerable state.

[edit on 1-11-2005 by RANT]

You're right, RANT, I have no clue what you assume happened today. You and I are on opposite sides of an ideological spectrum. We see things very differently. So no, I have no clue how you interpret the events today. I can refute the points you present, yeah, and you can counter those, where I can counter your counters, etc. In the end, we'll both walk away from the debate thinking the other person doesn't get it. In the end, the conservative minded readers will close this window thinking I won the debate, and the liberal minded readers will close this window thinking you won the debate. What's the point? I get people who agree with me to continue to agree with me? You do the same?

In this whole deal, you and many who feel as you do, assume guilt, as many Republicans and conservatives (yes, there's a difference) did when Clinton was impeached. Personally, I think I view it as an assessment of the evidence before assumption of guilt or innocence. The only reason I feel I can say that is because I reacted the same way to Delay as I did Clinton. However, at the same time, I recognize I have a bias. I want like minded conservatives to be innocent of the charges, because sadly, a conservative individual's guilt in something political means the entire political mindset suffers. I think I'm beyond that in criminal trials because I reacted the same way with Clinton, who is definitely not a conservative. I could be wrong, though. I may be seeing through this, "that conservative can't be guilty because I don't want conservatives to be guilty" filter. I don't know for sure, but I really don't respect that mentality. That is the primary reason I participate on these political forums; if there is a hole in my thinking, someone like you will point it out.

On the other hand, we have your mentality. You hate Republicans. Not necessarily conservatives; since you're very liberal as I'm very conservative, you probably saw Clinton as a conservative Democrat. You see the Republican party as a party of criminals, though. Yet, you're eloquent, you know how to research, and you know how to present it. Unlike people like Full Metal and Bout Time, you're not a party hack, you stand firm by your ideology, partisan politics be damned. Believe you me, I respect that a lot. Yet, wouldn't you agree that your concept of what "truth" is and my concept of what "truth" is is vastly different, even if we were to read the same exact information? Don't you think that if you were to read a news article and I were to read a news article, we would both come away with strikingly different ideas?

When Clinton was impeached, initially I had to force my mind to accept that he was guilty until the evidence proved him to be guilty in my mind (I'm not a court of law, and my faith in them only goes so far). It was a damn hard exercise initially. After time, though, I would argue with conservative friends tooth and nail that they were jumping the gun.

Are you affording the Republican party the same benefit? Are you assuming innocence until you have enough evidence to establish guilt in your mind? It looks like you are when it comes to the investigation of intelligence leading to Iraq. I can understand why you would think the investigation is moving so slowly. Are you being fair in the other respects, though? Could you, without looking at any other website, without looking at any newspaper, present a case that would convince me that you're convinced based on evidence that Delay is guilty? That Scooter is guilty? I can answer the Scooter guilt response right now; no evidence has been presented yet. Not to the public, at least.

Give people a shot. You may disagree with their ideology, but does that alone make them criminals? Does having a different opinion from RANT automatically make someone an enemy of the state?

Just something to think about.

Originally posted by Saphronia
and on a lighter note...

check out sentor durbins face in Rant's pic...yo, he looks like he's a straight up ghetto-gangsta...

calm down people.

Actually, looking at both "Rant's" and "Benevolent Heretic's" pictures it looks to me as if Senator Durbin has the three Republicans by their jewels and plans to keep them there until Durbin and the other Democrats get the reports and truthful answers to the questions asked of the Republicans,.

Your right Rant and BH those two pics speak loudly , some of the good things thats been coming out of this mess is, Bush's ratings are low, low, low, people are finally taking their "rose colored" glasses off and seeing Bush & Co for the theiving,conniving,murdering,lying thugs that they are and it's finally catching up with this Republican Administration , they'll be lucky if their not "tarred and feathered" then shipped off to Iraq to face the families of the citizens of the Iraqis they've murdered, if theres anything left of them when the families of our soldiers get done with them.

The Democrats move to shut-down the Senate made my day

When you have a congress run by the Majority in both houses the only way to make things become center stage is with what the Democrat did yesterday.

Our congress has been under control since before elections as to hold on the investigations about the CIA leak and the reality of the war in Iraq.

The people has been fed all kind of news to see if the Bush administration get off the hole they are in when it comes to public opinion.

I know is a lot off American wondering why in the heck the Bush administration has gone so long without having not accountability for mistakes that are hurting the nation mistakes that borders like nana said in treason.

If the democrats do not take advantage of this one we realy don't have anything to look for it anymore as the people of this nation.

Bush campaign was very successful in diverting the attention to other issues and with the help of the media they had done a great job.

Hitting American at home with the issue they want to prioritized and making other more important issues to die in the background.

The Libby affair and Cheney's office needs to be priority and it should be in everybody mind because too many people has die in the Iraq conflict and now we are asking why?.

The rumors that brought this war and the reasons why are becoming true all the conspiracies about Cheney involvement and Pre-planing even before 9/11 should become an issue.

The people in the US wants accountability and that is something that Bush himself refused to acknowledge.

He would not hold anybody accountable for the mistakes in his administration.

I wonder if he will start handling congressional pardons soon.

Wooo-hooo! I haven't seen the libs so energized since election day 2004!

Just a couple things I wanted to comment on:

Is that a great big halo above Reid's head in RANT's RAWR!! picture??

from siriuslyone
I has it wrong about Frist, but he was saying it takes both parties to agree on closed session, not just one..

Nope. Any Senator can call for closed session out of the clear blue sky. It doesn't require a vote, or cross-party agreement. All it takes is a second of the motion, usually from a crony.

from marg
This one was coming and was long overdue but now is not stopping tbecause is a war for the race to win over the American public and win the white house for the Democrats.

Do you really think this is the way to win the hearts and minds (and votes) of the American people? I don't think so. It may well disenfranchise some Repubs, but they won't go lib. The American people are sick and tired of all this bickering. What will happen is that the good third parties have a real good chance of being heard in 2008. And that might not be such a bad thing.

from Benevolent Heretic

thinks women should get a man's permission to have an abor... BIRD FLU!!!!

Now you know perfectly well that is not true.:shk: Notification does not equal permission. And notification can be waived in the case of abuse, etc.

This whole dog and pony show is interesting, but silly. The Dems just used the last of their stunts. Think about it: they have been so quick to condemn this administration whenever something goes wrong, be it hurricane or bird flu. What will they do next to get attention? Take a vacation, like the Texas Dems did over the redistricting?

And then list three good things the Dem's have done for our country in the last 5 years. Or three times where they worked together with the GOP for the good of the country.

jsobecky

The way politics has been allowed to run in our country a third party will never have a chance.

It will ever be two main parties because that is how the power behind the political parties wants it.

Sad but true. But never say never, marg. The libertarians have some good ideas. If they would stop supporting your right to stick a needle full of heroin in your eyebrow whenever you want, and some other things, they might attract more voters. Enough to be a virtual Ross Perot, enough to throw a monkey wrench into an election by pulling voters away from the big two.

What I find amusing is that people think they're sitting in two diametrically opposed camps (Rep and Dem) but they're actually in the same camp.

It's like pro wrestling. All the wrestlers (WWE that is) are "owned" if you will by Vince McMahon. But there are all these rival factions and everything--and it's all for show. And McMahon's a pretty rich guy.

I can guarantee that, Republican or Democrat, whoever is president nowadays is a NWO shill. The opposing/clashing ideals are ALL FOR SHOW.

Given what I know about Bush, I wonder why Democrats are complaining about him....

[edit on 11/2/2005 by Amethyst]

...list three good things the Dem's have done for our country in the last 5 years. Or three times where they worked together with the GOP for the good of the country.

if someone took the time to answer your "challenge" it wouldn't matter you wouldn't agree that these things were actually "good" for the country...would ya now?

if dems aren't working with republicans-republicans aren't working with dems. it's both parties fault because no one is willing to compromise their ideas. at this point for democrats it is time to be the party of some freaking reason. president bush is killing the middle class, his lying corrupt incompetent government has free run to push fanatic ideology off onto the american people and the republicans don't have enough balls to tell him where he can stick it. most of them are being bullied into voting for bills and budgets they don't even believe in (like that big medicare entitlement and prohibiting stem cell research) . they have spent us into record deficits and they keep spending--all the while keeping the nonsensical tax cuts that are starving the government of much needed revenue.

nope, no one in washington should be proud of the job they are doing right now. but the dems stopping the madness for one day...that's a good thing.

You are right they stop the madness for one day, and that was good, but at what cost? Who is to benefit from it, who is going to lose because of it.

Those are the questions that makes the whole entire act questionable even if I agree with it, and the purpose of it and I am even happy because of it.

Are we going to see something done for the American people for onces or is all a show.

I have been waiting for so long for somebody that can get the guts to expose what is going on in our politics and in the government that this act yesterday have me questioning the personal motives of them all than anything else.