Free Republic

In nine short months, I've used up my supply of the word creepy when responding to the heavy-handedness of all this Hope and Change. The Obama administration's penchant for silencing dissent, epitomized by its childish public battle with Fox News, shows a complete disregard for the First Amendment, which is thought of by most as the cornerstone of the Constitution. Once the powers-that-be decide to take a dump on that, it's pretty easy to scrap the rest of the Constitution. A frequent liberal foe (the good kind) of mine on Twitter said yesterday that he doesn't much subscribe to slippery...

Your Concerns From: Senator Roland Burris Dear [Forgiven Sinner]: Thank you for contacting me regarding the Senator Leahy Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1390) regarding hate crime legislation. Current law defines hate crime as any crime against either person or property in which the offender intentionally selects the victim because of the victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or disability. Currently, hate crimes are not distinct offenses under federal law; rather, they are crimes that are committed by individuals who are motivated by one or more biases that are considered to be...

Under the Senate Judiciary Committee as run by Patrick Leahy, even plans on which the two parties have previously agreed to collaborate disintegrate into partisanship. Witness his effort to expand the federal judiciary now that President Obama can pick the new judges. The original version of the Federal Judgeship Act, proposed in March 2008 and co-sponsored by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, was supposed to give both parties a say in the composition of an expanded federal judiciary. Then the election results would determine which party's President got to nominate the judges. The idea was to pass a plan and then...

On Tuesday, Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant who was a teenager in Queens during the Sept. 11 attacks, pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism conspiracy charges in New York. This is a scary story. Police stopped and searched Zazi's rented car on the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks loomed and President Obama was about to join world leaders at a U.N. confab. According to the U.S. attorney's office, Zazi flew to Pakistan in August 2008 to receive bombmaking instructions, returned to use the Internet and nine pages of handwritten bombmaking...

Oversight: As the Senate votes to de-fund Acorn, add pimping, tax evasion and human trafficking to voter fraud paid for with taxpayer dollars and you have an organized criminal enterprise. It's time to investigate.After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block...

Supreme Court nominee returns for a third and final day of questioning Thursday, having avoided saying much on a range of hot-button issues, including guns and abortion.As witnesses prepare to take the stand Thursday in Sonia Sotomayor's last day of confirmation hearings, the chairman of the Senate Juduciary Committee said their testimony will matter little. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday that he may not ask any questions of the witnesses present at the Supreme Court nominee's hearing. Among the witnesses requested by the committee to testify are New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Connecticut firefighters whom the federal...

In Judge Sonia Sotomayor's show-trial hearings today, Senator Patrick Leahy made a big show of misquoting Sotomayor's oft-repeated racist comments about the superiority of the judgement of Latina women over white men. How does this guy have a job?

In Judge Sonia Sotomayor's show-trial hearings today, Senator Patrick Leahy made a big show of misquoting Sotomayor's oft-repeated racist comments about the superiority of the judgement of Latina women over white men. How does this guy have a job?

WASHINGTON (AP) - In endorsing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy did some creative rewriting of history. And he put quote marks around it. Trying to head off criticism of a controversial comment, Leahy misquoted Sotomayor's own words in kicking off the second day of her confirmation hearings.

Supreme Court nominee faces tough questioning from Republican senators about her ability to judge fairly

   Under questioning, Attorney Gen. Holder was surprisingly forthright in admitting that the hate bill is not intended to protect everyone, or even the majority. He said only historically oppressed minorities were to benefit. This means Jews, blacks, homosexuals, women, etc. Holder made it clear that if a white Christian male, including a serviceman or police officer, was the victim of a violent hate crime by any minority he would have to find redress from traditional law. He could not avail himself of the triple penalties and rapid government/justice system response given a protected minority.____________________________________________ LEAHY'S HATE BILL HEARING A SHAM...

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Democrat from Vermont who is the powerful chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is adding another controversial ingredient to the volatile mix of an immigration debate that President Obama has said he hopes to spur in Congress before the end of the year. Mr. Leahy has offered a bill that would allow American citizens and legal immigrants to seek residency in the United States for their same-sex partners, just as spouses now petition for foreign-born husbands and wives. The senator has said the bill should be part of any broad immigration legislation that Congress considers. To...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 2, 2009 NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE: Daniel Ginsberg, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, vice Craig W. Duehring. Louis B. Susman, of Illinois, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Leahy: No worries, Sotomayor told me she’d follow the law posted at 4:25 pm on June 2, 2009 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly Small comfort that she’s unwilling to admit outright she’ll be applying The One’s “empathy” standard in close cases. Even those who profess a belief in forms of racial superiority have a limit to what they’ll say publicly, I guess. As for whether The One was correct in insisting that she misspoke when she made her “wise Latina” comment or whether, as anyone who’s thought about it for five seconds would...

Not just content to win elections, the Left is trying to destroy its political opponents by calling for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for political and legal decisions the Left does not like. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is leading this banana republic style campaign to criminalize policy decisions made by a duly elected previous administration.

Quick quiz Q #1: Who made this remark announcing his opposition to a female judicial nominee which dismisses the “personal life story” argument? “We have heard a lot about her life story. If this were a vote on a Senate resolution commemorating her life story, I am sure the entire Senate would gladly support it. Instead, this is a vote about the lives of multiple millions of other Americans whose lives would be affected by this nominee’s ideological activist penchants. This is, after all, a lifetime appointment on a [court] on which her ideology would be especially harmful and destructive...

Names of the six senators who voted to fund the closing of GITMO: Durbin - Illinois Harkin - Iowa Leahy - Vermont Levin - Michigan Reed - Rhode Island Whitehorse - Rhode Island Source: michellemalkin.com

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy took on former Vice President Dick Cheney today, responding to the public criticism he has been giving the Obama administration. Leahy, appearing on Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, said he disagrees with comments by the former vice president that the Obama administration is making America more vulnerable to another al Qaeda attack, by not using harsh interrogation tactics. "I don't know if this is the run-up to the book the vice president is writing,” Leahy said, “but it is very interesting to notice the former president is not going on every...

Leahy Raises Questions Over Specter Subcommittee Chairmanship By Emily Pierce Roll Call Staff May 7, 2009, 12:43 p.m. Leahy Raises Questions Over Specter Subcommittee Chairmanship Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday appeared to throw a little cold water on the Democratic leadership’s plan to give recent party-switcher Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) a plum subcommittee chairmanship. Though Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced earlier in the day that he would relinquish the Crime and Drugs subpanel and take over a reconstituted Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Leahy told reporters, “Nothing’s been worked out.” Leahy indicated that...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had an angry scowl on his face when reporters informed him Thursday that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) would take over one of his subcommittees. Leahy was surprised to learn that Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the Judiciary panel, had given up his chairmanship of the Crime and Drugs panel to Specter. Leahy received no advanced warning from Durbin. Leahy and Specter have a friendly relationship, by and large, aides say, but they have also been known to spar heatedly. After news of his gambit broke, Durbin said that he knew...