Florida Congresswoman Stricken From Record For Speaking Truth on House Floor
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. “
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Florida lawmaker says 2000 election 'stolen'
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
WASHINGTON
— Think the passions from the 2000 presidential election have cooled?
Certainly not in the House, which voted Thursday to strike a Florida
representative's words from the record after she said Republicans
“stole” that closely fought contest.
The
verbal battle broke out after Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., proposed a
measure barring any federal official from requesting that the United
Nations formally observe the U.S. elections on Nov. 2. His proposal was
approved 243-161 as an amendment to a $19.4 billion foreign aid bill,
with 33 Democrats joining all 210 voting Republicans in voting “yes.”
Rep.
Corrine Brown, D-Fla., and several other House Democrats have made that
suggestion. They argue that some black voters were disenfranchised in
2000 and problems could occur again this fall.
(more)
See a video of Rep. Corrine Brown's House speech here. Quick! Her words may be stricken from reality at any time!
Recap from Rapid Response Network
NBC News
first reported an “outburst” on the floor of the House. Turns out
it was Corrine Brown (D- Jacksonville, FL) debating the request made by
five Representatives to have the UN monitor U.S. Elections (see article
re/their original proposal above). Turns out that House
leadership answered their call with legislation forbidding any U.N.
money be used to monitor elections in the U.S. Brown then said
that the House leadership had participated in a “coup d'etat” in 2000
by stealing the election and that we would need monitoring to make sure
it didn't happen again. They played a tape of the leadership then
shouting Brown down, slamming the gavel and telling her to get off the
floor.
The House then voted along party lines – now here is the big news – TO HAVE HER COMMENTS STRICKEN FROM THE RECORD:
“The House's presiding officer, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, ruled
that Brown's words violated a House rule. “Members should not accuse
other members of committing a crime such as, quote, stealing, end
quote, an election,” Thornberry said.
SO, to
recap, we now live in a country where an elected representative may not
speak as she chooses if it violates the sensibilities of the ruling
majority. If such free speech does occur, it is then stricken
from the record? What happened to our representative democracy?
1984
“And if
all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records
told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth.
'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who
controls the present controls the past.'” “Day by day and almost minute
by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction
made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been
correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which
conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on
record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed
exactly as often as was necessary.”
George Orwell, “1984”
Call to Action
1.
Write NBC news and suggest that this story wasn't about an “outburst” –
the story should have been about the fact that an elected Rep's
comments were stricken. world@msnbc.com
2. Write a letter to your favorite political TV show or political writer and ask them to cover this part of the story.
3. Write to your elected Representative and express your feelings about Representative Brown's comments being stricken.
http://www.house.gov/writerep
You might want to add to your note that you support the original request for some kind of monitoring to occur.
Thanks to Liz Herbert/Rob Nesvacil, Rapid Response Network, for providing this information.
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