- Preceded by a vehement "Jesus Christ!" (not
meant to be recorded), House Judiciary chairman Rep. John Conyers began
the hearing he had tried to prevent. Predicted by homosexual leaders not
to hold hearings on his federal hate crimes bill, HR 1913, he was forced
to expose his bill to congressional and even worldwide scrutiny.
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- By profaning the name of his Creator, Conyers, with twisted
appropriateness, introduced the first round of systematic efforts by Obama
and the Democrats to pass Christian-persecuting federal hate crimes legislation.
This is the same kind of thought crime laws that increasingly are taking
away free speech in the western world. It will not be just Christians who
will suffer under the jackboot of this Orwellian bill. This legislation
will ultimately silence all whose independence of mind and speech offends
the new world order.
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- But pugnacious Republican Judiciary members fought back
hard! They responded with powerful argumentation and through many amendments,
attempting to de-fang or water down HR 1913. Through these amendments,
they were able to focus discussion on all aspects of hate bill flaws and
potential abuses. In doing so, they attempted to sway Conyers and closed-minded
Judiciary Democrats and effectively enlightened a very large international
audience. Because I was able on Tuesday's "Point of View" broadcast
to direct listeners to the Judiciary website, many thousands today undoubtedly
received a tremendous, first class education from these Republican legal
experts.
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- Here are some of the Republican heroes of the day and
what they said.
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- Hate Bill Hall of Praise
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- Rep. Bob Goodlatte began the Republican offensive, calling
HR 1913 "misguided legislation." His first amendment proposed
that, if we are going to grant special federal rights and protection to
homosexual victims of crime, why not afford the elderly, also widespread
crime victims, the same privilege? Goodlatte also proposed an amendment
providing a special "bar of protection" statement in the bill
absolutely ensuring that this legislation can never be used to threaten
free speech. He suggested the bill should give pregnant women and their
unborn children special protection -- a request vigorously countered by
Rep. Robert Scott who said the Supreme Court had declared an unborn child
is not a human and has no rights.
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- Rep. Louie Gohmert also rose to the occasion. He emphasized
that the original 1968 hate law, which HR 1913 amends (Title 18 USC, Section
2a), stipulates that anyone who verbally induces commission of a hate crime
"by a nut" can be tried as a federal hate criminal along with
the active offender. He criticized Conyers for not allowing the bill to
first be subjected to vigorous analysis by the Subcommittee on Crime.
Rather, he said it "was pushed forward to markup without proper preparation."
So hasty was this hearing that the usual witnesses from both sides of an
issue, a necessary part of the legislative fact-finding process, were omitted.
This was not true in Judiciary hearings on Conyers' previous hate bill,
HR 1592, two years ago.
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- A dramatic moment was provided when Gohmert, backed by
Goodlatte and Rep. Darrell Issa, proposed that a federal hate law be implemented
only when states which do not have state hate laws fail to enforce justice
against hate criminals. The Democrats loudly protested (correctly) that
his amendment would destroy federal sovereignty of the hate bill in all
states.
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- Reps. King, Forbes, Franks, Issa, and Rooney presented
a variety of other provocative amendments. Rep. King was especially powerful
in argumentation for several amendments he proposed. He told Conyers he
had a total of 10 amendments prepared and was just getting started! Reluctantly,
Conyers agreed to schedule another hearing on Thursday, April 23. Tune
in on Thursday, April 23, 10 o'clock a.m. EDT at http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/caltoday.html.
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- The convergence of adequate, last-minute warnings, public
pressure on Conyers and Judiciary Democrats to hold hearings, plus a very
prepared Republican contingent in Judiciary has resulted in the outbreak
of tremendous truth about the danger of hate laws. This truth undoubtedly
is even now reverberating through Congress and the internet worldwide.
Every lover of freedom can be enormously proud, at least on the hate bill
issue, of our fighting Judiciary Republicans!
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