Leave it to a congressman who spends most of his time in Washington and the rest of it camped in Milwaukee's suburbs to support a bill that hamstrings law enforcement efforts to track "crime guns." Leave it then to the same politician to accuse Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett of being a "sissy."

We all know that politicians like to talk out of both sides of their mouths, but Sensenbrenner's remarks show a how truly blind he is to any reality except the reality that the NRA tells him exists. An NRA that refuses to allow accountability, or controls in the sale and manufacture of firearms. Our society regulates drinking water far more heavily than handguns and I hope most of us agree that handguns are far more dangerous. The only thing as dangerous as handguns is the Strangelove-esque worldview of the NRA. A bunker mentality that is more threatening than the governments that the organization is defending us from. I wonder how the NRA feels about the government wiretapping that their candidates support? Maybe they can shoot their phones.

Violence is a problem in Milwaukee. Mayor Barrett and Congressman Sensenbrenner I'm sure agree with each other in that debate. What is so puzzling is that a man who represents – I use that term very loosely – this region would be so flip about calling it "the murder capital of the US." If Sensenbrenner actually believes that statement then you would think that he would want to do everything in his power to reverse that trend. That would be logical. But when a politician supports single issue interest groups, logical thinking is generally the first thing that goes out the window. Especially when Sensenbrenner's support of the gun lobby trumps his support of his own constituents.

In it, they write that: 

“In the House there were three key votes to gauge how serious members there have been about ethics reform.  A vote on April 27^th essentially dictated which amendments would be allowed.  Blocked amendments included those that would have set up an Office of Public Integrity, restricted the revolving door that allows former members to become lobbyists and made members pay higher charter rates – rather than first-class rates – for flying on those corporate jets.’ 

They go on to say that: 

“A “no” vote was a vote for stricter rules.  Voting that way were Democratic Reps. Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and David Obey and GOP Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner and Mark Green, who is running for Governor.  Voting “yes” were GOP Reps Paul Ryan and Tom Petri.  The measure passed 216-207. 

Another vote (213-216) on May 3 was for substituting that virtually meaningless bill with a stronger version.  Voting “yes” were Baldwin, Kind, Moore, Obey and Green.  Voting “no” were Ryan, Sensenbrenner and Petri. 

The vote (217-213) on the final bill occurred the same day.  Voting “yes” were Ryan and Petri.  Voting “no” was the rest of the House delegation.  Particular praise for Sensenbrenner and Green for bucking House GOP leadership.”

Let’s dissect the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s analysis: 

The Journal Sentinel claimed that in the first vote, a “no” was a vote for stricter rules.  That was true of the Democrats who voted against the weaker version which passed with the Republican Majority voting “yes” so that they wouldn’t have strong rules governing their behavior.  However, it certainly did not include Rep. Sensenbrenner who clearly voted NOT for stricter rules, but rather because he didn’t want any rules at all.  That should have been logically understood by the results of the second vote, when Sensenbrenner voted against the stronger version which would have replaced the “virtually meaningless bill” which Sensenbrenner also voted against.  If Sensenbrenner truly wanted stronger ethics reform in the House, he would have voted “yes” on the second vote. Had he and one other congressman voted “yes” on the second vote then stronger ethics reform would have passed.  Neither Ryan, Sensenbrenner nor Petri were willing to do so. 

Mark Green voted “no” on the first vote, not because he wanted stronger ethics enforcement, which is clearly evident by the way that he has consistently ignored ethics rules in our Wisconsin State Legislature, and in how he takes illegal campaign money from people like Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, but because he is running for Governor.  His voting “yes” on the second vote was also because he is running for Governor, but the vote didn’t pass, so it didn’t matter. 

As for voting for higher charter fees rather than first class fees, Sensenbrenner doesn’t care that other Congressmen pay higher fees for their travel, he doesn’t pay for his travel to begin with.  His costs are paid for by lobbyists so a bill dictating higher fees doesn’t affect him, but it does make him appear to be more “ethical” to those who aren’t paying attention. 

There is no praise that should be extended to Sensenbrenner or Green for their votes – only a clear recognition of their campaign posturing from those who have the intelligence to recognize the difference. 

Praise should be given to those who are courageous enough to do what is right all the time, regardless of the position of their party.  It should not be given to those who only occasionally take a stance when they know that a bill will pass without their support, and they can look good for the press for faking a stance “on principle.” 

Did this article intentionally mislead you regarding how Reps. Sensenbrenner and Green voted and why?  Or did the Journal Sentinel Editorial board just not recognize the difference in how and why Democrats voted against the first bill, and why Rep. Sensenbrenner did so, yet voted against a stronger ethics legislation? Or why Mark Green voted as he did?  You be the judge.

Wisconsin’s ultra-conservative unfavorite son is about to cost America billions of dollars in expenditures that will be needed by law enforcement if his failed ideas are passed. Unable to see the costs to human life and the billions of public dollars about to be wasted, Americans are being duped into compliance with sensational snake-oil statements made by the Congressman and the far right-wing political networks that support him.

This week the League of United Latin American Citizens, (LULAC) will be holding its 77th annual convention in Milwaukee. With approximately 115,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic Organization in the United States.

The organization is already making noise regarding the dangerous statements and laws being promoted by Congressman Sensenbrenner. In a statement to the general public, LULAC’s national board chairman, Hector Flores stated, “If Congressman Sensenbrenner were serious about addressing the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, he would draft policy that attempts to address the root of the problem, which is a broken immigration system that is so outdated and unworkable, it encourages illegal immigration. Instead the congressman insists on simply focusing on an enforcement-only style approach that is costly, highly ineffectual, and deadly.  Holding town halls featuring himself as the sole speaker do not allow the community to express their concerns or to ask questions.  It is a travesty.”

These tough words are aimed at H.R. 4437, commonly referred to as the Sensenbrenner bill. LULAC states that the bill “does nothing but criminalize the undocumented and those who provide them with assistance…”

Indeed, H.R. 4437 is chilling example of a growing world-wide trend towards neo-fascism elevating its goose-stepping political crusade back onto the world stage without fear of criticism.

H.R. 4437, the Sensenbrenner bill, comes from a United States Congressman who almost sounds like the paranoid Wisconsin Senator who took the nation by storm with his fanatical right-wing fascists accusations of communism taking over the United States government in the 1950s—Joseph McCarthy.

The Sensenbrenner bill is elementary politics derived from fears and misconceptions promoted by simplistic political statements made by goofy right-wing radio talk-show hosts and political opportunists. These right-wing simpletons have seized an opportunity to attack weak and defenseless people as a means to advance neo-conservative political campaigns designed to advance their political ambitions at the expense of human life.

LULAC points out that “since 1993, when the Clinton administration began to crack down on border crossings in San Diego and El Paso, more than 3,500 people have died trying to cross into the United States through the desert. Yet, according to Border Patrol statistics, although the death toll has steadily grown annually, the number of those apprehended while crossing the border has not changed significantly.”

With laws designed to promote punitive actions continue to be passed in congress, LULAC states that the coyotes or smugglers who transport undocumented men, women and children have begun sneaking into United States through increasingly dangerous areas where temperatures are high, water is scarce and death is abundant.

This is the inhumane side of the immigration debate the United States is ignoring, but yet the rest of the world is aware of.

Compassionate conservatism, my foot! As Sensenbrenner continues to promote his half-witted measures for border security, he continues McCarthy’s legacy of fear politics.

Robert Miranda is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Publisher of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com  

 “I’d like to make a statement which you don’t need to comment on, and then I would like to ask some questions which I will ask you to answer.

I’ve previously told other Town Hall audiences of the fact that many Skin Head and Ku Klux Klan groups around the country are rallying around your anti-immigrant legislation, and that there had been a marked increase in violent acts against immigrants, while hate crime legislation has not been invoked in prosecuting the perpetrators of these crimes.  Your proposed legislation is stirring up a division in this country and increasing hate crimes across the country, yet you have refused to speak out against those actions and the groups and individuals who are committing those crimes.

In your latest “newsletter” propaganda piece, you have in the questionnaire portion, a question asking “Would you support a law protecting grieving family members from anti-war protestors while attending the funeral of an American soldier?”

You know that that question is a lie because the protestors are not anti-war at all.  They are far right lunatics led by the Rev. Fred W. Phelps Sr. and his Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, Kansas who are anti-gay and claim that God is striking down America and our soldiers because in his words “America tolerates Gays”.  That isn’t an anti-war message.  It is the message of right wing lunatics.   And you have falsely attributed those actions to anti-war protestors who want this war and the killing to stop.

In an earlier Town Hall meeting I asked you why it was that the Medicare Prescription Part D Legislation did very little to help the senior citizens with their high costs of prescription drug care, and instead gave hundreds of billions of dollars to the Pharmaceutical Drug Companies.  Your response at that time was that “That’s the way it works.”  You claimed that by giving the drug companies the money, that that would somehow indirectly result in help to seniors and patients who need help with their medication costs.  Yet, in a Town Hall meeting in Glendale on April 29th, you stated that “The thing is that Medicare Part D gives at least four hundred billion dollars of help to senior citizens!”

Now, you know that that is not true, and I know that that is not true, so I feel that you should either back up that statement with proof that that money is indeed going directly to senior citizens, and not to the drug companies, or you should publicly retract that statement.  You also did not recuse yourself from the votes on that legislation, even though the bulk of your stock holdings are in the Pharmaceutical Drug companies who benefited from the legislation which you voted for.

You voted against aid for the Katrina victims, Americans, because you claimed that there weren’t enough accounting safeguards put in place to avoid misappropriations and outright theft. Yet you voted time and time again to fund the “rebuilding of Iraq” a quagmire which is now approaching half a trillion dollars, and has lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II, without any accounting safeguards from contractors and a foreign government which barely has any infrastructure at all, with billions of dollars in no bid contracts going to Halliburton, which you hold stock in.

I’ve also asked you on at least seven separate occasions to investigate the use of Depleted Uranium munitions on the part of the U.S. military, and get them to stop using it because of the overwhelming scientific evidence from experts around the world who have publicly testified to the toxic effects and the dangers to anyone exposed to it.  In initial discussions, you’ve either claimed that

1) “the question is why Saddam Hussein had possession of Depleted Uranium munitions.”  Anyone who knows anything about DU weapons knows that they were developed by the United States and Britain and that Saddam Hussein didn’t have them.

2) You claimed you didn’t know anything about it and would look into it, or hadn’t had enough time to get the information because you’d only had a couple of months to work on it (this was in late 2004 and early 2005 when I had first brought this to your attention.  But in fact, you already were aware of it by that time because Congressman Jim McDermott (D – Washington), had by that time already submitted two bills in the House starting in March of 2003, with HR 1483, which was delayed in committee, and then had to be resubmitted again in May of 2005 HR 2410, and he had contacted every member of Congress to let them know about this bill.  Yet you acted like you didn’t know anything about it.  It was again submitted as HR 5122, section 716, which finally passed on May 11th of this year.

3) You’ve also claimed on various occasions that DU was classified as a matter of National Security, yet there is plenty of documentation on it that has been released by various scientific and medical groups who have been studying DU for over 15 years now, and is freely available over the internet through groups like Physicians for Social Responsibility (Dr. Helen Caldicott’s group), miltoxproj.org , http://traprockpeace.org/depleteduranium.html , Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who worked at two U.S. Nuclear Weapons laboratories and turned whistleblower, and Dr. Doug Rokke, the Pentagon’s top expert on Depleted Uranium munitions who had been interviewed and testified on numerous occasions as to the hazards of Depleted Uranium which has caused 250,000 soldiers from the first Gulf war to become completely and permanently disabled, 15,000 soldiers to die, and over 425,000 soldiers to become ill, out of the 697,000 who served for three weeks in Iraq and were exposed to anywhere from 350-800 Tons of DU.

We now have over 1,000,000 soldiers and 24,000,000 Iraqi civilians who have been exposed to more than 2200 tons of DU during this war, and they have served for as long as three tours of duty and some are entering their fourth tour.  Over a year each tour, with no protection.

You claimed that “the Department of Defense claimed that DU saves lives and is safe”, and that that was your “final word on the matter” so I ask the members of this audience to look at these pictures and tell you whether they believe that DU is safe and whether or not you and the Department of Defense are telling them the truth.  Genocide and Mass Murder of not only millions of Iraqis, but of our own military being put on the ground, and their spouses and children, are being affected by this, and yet you do nothing.  (At this point, I take out pictures that have been posted online by doctors who have been treating the victims of Depleted Uranium radiation poisoning.  I hold them up and show them to the audience and at Sensenbrenner and ask them if they believe that these children have not been affected by DU and ask them again if they really believe Sensenbrenner and the Department of Defense when they tell them that DU is safe.  Gasps from the crowd.  Sensenbrenner doesn’t say a word.  I pass them to members of the audience and ask them to pass them along so everyone can see them.  You can see them at: http://www.barremore.net/depleted-uranium-kills.html )

(Jim Ott, the former weatherman who is running for Curt Gielow’s seat as a Republican, is sitting behind me.  I find out later, that Jim Ott, with the assistance of the other Republican plants in the audience, has gathered up the pictures, and placed them face down underneath his seat so that no one further away from me has an opportunity to view the pictures!!!  What does he hope to gain by covering up the fact that this government is hiding the fact that DU is killing children, not just Iraqis, but U.S. Military children because of the damage to their DNA!!!???  Would a moral, God fearing Christian person who cares about children, intentionally hide evidence of a crime against them?  Ask him yourself, the next time you have a chance, why he hid the pictures from the view of the rest of the people in the audience.)

I’ve been a constituent of yours for almost as long as you have been in politics.  Yet, I’ve never felt that you have ever spoken for me, stood up for me, nor did the right thing in my interests or in the interests of the majority of the people of your district. You’ve managed time and time again, with your political ties and your financial influence, to pull the wool over the majority of this District’s voters’ eyes to get them to vote for you and your policies, which hurt them economically and in the view of the majority of the world’s opinion of these United States.  Your tirades and outbursts in Congress are a continual source of embarrassment for many of us, and your continual support of this current administration’s policies while breaking over 750 laws, without so much as a question, let alone a Grand Jury Investigation which would put Bush, Cheney and the rest of his administration under oath.

On previous occasions, I’ve asked a number of different questions about a number of different issues as I’ve outlined earlier, and while we may both disagree on the merits of the issues, as you’ve stated time and time again in support of your anti-immigrant legislation, “It is important to start the discussion.”  I would agree that that is the case, but I would submit to you and to this audience that it is important for all parties to be involved in all of the discussions, and not to just pick and choose depending on what is politically advantageous, and avoid what is politically embarrassing.

Now I ask you.

1. When are you going to take a stand against the hate that you yourself are inciting with your rhetoric, and denounce the Skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan who are helping to push your agenda, as well as suspending the lies and innuendo which you are using to promote your proposed legislation?  (Sensenbrenner claims that he is against any violent acts, but won’t denounce what the Skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan are doing.)
2. Will you publicly retract your attribution of these soldiers’ funeral protests to the anti-war protestors and do so to the same extent that you disseminated the lies in the first place, and pay for it with your campaign dollars rather than with taxpayer dollars as it was originally disseminated?  (Sensenbrenner refuses to answer this.)
3. Will you recuse yourself from voting on any issues relating to bills which you will personally gain from financially? (on matters of Pharmaceutical Company assistance, or funding of the War). (Sensenbrenner refuses to answer this.)
4. Finally, will you demand that the DoD follow through with the medical tests and treatment that our troops deserve for serving this country as was asked of them, in spite of the lies that were given to send them into this war in the first place?  (Sensenbrenner refuses to answer this.)   

I’ve asked these questions before on several occasions and you have not answered them, so I would like for you to answer them now, instead of just blowing them off and avoiding them as usual.”

Sensenbrenner moves on without missing a beat.  Ignoring what he chooses to.  Classic Senselessbrenner.

Do you think he cares about our troops, or their spouses, or their children?

Think about this every time you hear about one of them who dies young and mysteriously from some illness that goes unexplained.

Think about this every time you hear about a child who is born with horrendous birth defects and at least one of their parents served in the military.

Then ask yourself if Sensenbrenner is a Patriot.

Ask yourself if any Republican who covers this up is a Patriot.

Ask yourself if you are doing enough to get your friends, neighbors, relatives and representatives in any political office to give a damn about what is happening.

Then ask yourself what would happen, and how you would feel, if it happened to you.

He says that with the exception of a bill that supports Veterans, “he has voted against all appropriations bills that the House passed this year, because they are laden with pork.” Note that he voted FOR most of them before. Perhaps he is only voting against them now because he is finding so many lifelong Republicans opposed to his votes and positions on so many policies?  Note also the fact that the House PASSED these bills, and while he may have voted against them, they would have passed anyhow with or without his vote, and in most cases, he didn’t bother to even stand up to speak out against them with the arguments that he gives you in his propaganda pieces.

What is the point of him saying to you that he is against wasteful spending, when he refuses to stand up to fellow members of Congress to speak out against their wasteful spending and to refute their arguments for it? I believe that he is only posturing to make it appear to voters that he is taking a principled stand while doing nothing at the Congressional level.

A case in point is the recent House action in supporting drilling in ANWR. Rep. Senselessbrenner has time and time again told crowds at his Town Hall meetings that he is against drilling because, “the oil wouldn’t be shipped east of the Rockies, but would go to Japan instead because the oil companies can get more money for it there.” Note that he doesn’t say anything about the oil going to China, which is actually our biggest competitor in the consumption of oil, where most of our industries and jobs are being outsourced to.

He has also stated that the reduction in gas prices would be far less than what the proponents of drilling in ANWR tell us. Yet during the House debates, shown live on C-Span, the argument from the Republican Majority was that drilling would give us less dependence on foreign oil and would reduce our gasoline prices by $0.30-0.40 per gallon across the country — all in direct contradiction to Rep. Senselessbrenner’s position in Town Hall meetings. Did Congressman Senselessbrenner speak up? Did he point out the fact that all the studies show that these lies being presented as facts were incorrect? All he had to do was to stand up and say something, or even lobby from behind the scenes and get members of his own party to vote against this fraud. But no, Senselessbrenner did nothing.

Not a peep. Not a word. No statement to the contrary, on the floor of the House or to the media.

These would have been “the right things to do,” as the Congressman is so quick to say whenever he wants credit for doing what he is supposed to be doing, but fails when he should be taking a principled stand on an issue. No, he only votes against something “because it is the right thing to do” when he knows it doesn’t have a chance in Hell of being defeated, even though he won’t stand up and speak out or fight against it.

But he’ll take away your right to vote, and he’ll make millions of immigrants felons overnight just because they are so desperate for a better life that they are willing to break the law to get into the country; just because they don’t have tens of thousands of dollars and a job waiting for them in the U.S., or can wait 12 to 20 years, to be granted a visa, a green card or citizenship. And he’ll make millions of good Samaritans, clergy, medical personnel, and educators felons if they dare to help working immigrants in any way as well. Whatever happened to “because it’s the right thing to do”?

He claims that he co-sponsored legislation to modify House rules to show the public exactly what Congress spends on individual projects in each district, attribute each earmark to its sponsoring Members of Congress, and require a demonstration that the funding has gone through a proper vetting process. What about all the bills granting funding that isn’t an earmark? (Given that the Republicans have been in control of the House since 1994, it’s about time that they took this action, but I doubt that it will be enforced. After all, look how many times President Bush and his Administration have broken the law and Rep. Sensenbrenner, as head of the Judiciary Committee, has failed to even bring up the subject, let alone start an investigation.)

He goes on to say that “Additionally, for those wasteful projects that will slip through, I support reinstating the line-item veto to give Presidents the power to eliminate wasteful projects one-by-one.” On the surface it’s not much of a threat. President Bush has failed to veto ANY legislation during his entire time in office. Ah, but giving him line-item veto would give him the power to further slash funding of health care initiatives, education, or enforcement of laws that are on the books by cutting the funding for the departments responsible for doing so. It’s a good idea if you have someone in office with a brain, but in this case, all it does is give more power to the executive, with the Congress sitting back and allowing it all to happen without oversight, or requiring line by line veto overrides. This is especially dangerous when you have a Congress of the same party as the President when they refuse to stand up to his idiotic policies but instead march in lockstep to his drumming. This is also in direct opposition to what the Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature are trying to do to eliminate Governor Doyle’s authority to a line item veto. I guess it is only a good idea when they have “their” guy in office.

Senselessbrenner goes on to tout his “Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act (HR 4437)”, which claims to protect us by building a wall along the Mexico – U.S. Border. Note that he strategically placed “Anti-Terrorism” in the title, as if terrorists were streaming across the border with Mexico. In fact, none of the terrorists who have attacked us came across the border with Mexico. They all came across the border with CANADA. Yet, does he propose building a wall across the entire border of Canada and the U.S.? Nooooooooo! And is it really all that difficult to find an Arab terrorist in a sea of Caucasians?

The border between the U.S. and Mexico, by the way, is 1,951 miles long (according to the International Boundary and Water Commission IBWC), spanning four states, and has twenty commercial crossings, with 350 million people legally crossing every year.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/systems/mexico-wall.htm

“Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Duncan Hunter proposed building two parallel steel and wire fences running from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast. Hunter called for building a reinforced, two-layer 15' fence, separated by a 100-yard gap, along the entire length of the US border with Mexico. It would include additional physical barriers, powerful lighting and sensors to detect illegal border crossers. Some envision a wall or a fence. Others foresee a "virtual" fence of cameras, lighting, and sensors along the US-Mexican border.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said a wall running the length of a border would cost too much. A 2,000 mile state-of-the-art border fence has been estimated to cost between four and eight billion dollars. Costs for a wall that would run the entire length of the border might be as low as $851 million for a standard 10-foot prison chain link fence topped by razor wire. For another $362 million, the fence could be electrified. A larger 12-foot tall, two-foot-thick concrete wall painted on both sides would run about $2 billion. Initially it was estimated that the San Diego fence would cost $14 million — about $1 million a mile. The first 11 miles of the fence eventually cost $42 million — $3.8 million per mile, and the last 3.5 miles may cost even more since they cover more difficult terrain. An additional $35 million to complete the final 3.5 miles was approved in 2005 by the Department of Homeland Security — $10 million per mile.”

Figure in the higher costs of gasoline, in running the equipment and sending the crews out to build this “Great Wall of Mexico”, and you could probably end up more than doubling these initial estimates. When asked in one of his recent Town Hall meetings what the estimates were to build this wall which Senselessbrenner includes in HR 4437, which he authored – HE COULDN’T PROVIDE A FIGURE. He is proposing and fighting for passage of a bill, which he wrote, when he has no idea what it will cost!!! Talk about irresponsible and WASTEFUL SPENDING!

In contrast the border between the U.S. and Canada runs 5,525 miles (also according to the IBWC). And it isn’t all land based. Much of it is along the Great Lakes, so private boaters are expected to use an “honor system” to check themselves in. About 4,000 miles is land based and the remainder is on water.

Note that Senselessbrenner opposed building or reinforcing the levees in New Orleans, a strategic port responsible for shipping and processing one third of all the oil that comes into the United States. And Senselessbrenner opposed giving funding to help the victims of the Katrina disaster and the victims of the Bush Administration’s incompetence after that. He claims that he did so because there wasn’t enough accounting oversight of the funds being dispersed.

Too bad that he didn’t take that into consideration when he voted for funding the War in Iraq, which has had NO accounting oversight, NO reporting to congress, and NO one held accountable in this race to spend as much taxpayer money as possible to give freebies and cost overruns to contractors and put them up in fancy hotels and palaces, while our troops get to live on cots, and eat rotten food doled out by Halliburton and their subsidiaries. It has cost the American Taxpayers almost half a TRILLION dollars at this point, with no end in sight, but then Senselessbrenner OWNS HALLIBURTON STOCK, and gets campaign contributions from them as well. What was that he said about proper accounting and oversight?

But Senselessbrenner fails to deal with Terrorism in his bill because all of the terrorists gained entry into the United States LEGALLY. They all had valid Visas, and Passports, most of which were rubber stamped by the U.S. State Department, by bureaucrats who were put in place over twenty years ago, when Reagan and Bush 1 were calling the shots. Fifteen terrorists came through Saudi Arabia, a known terrorist supporting country (if you can call it a country – it is really owned by the Royal Family, so it is in reality a Kingdom). And members of the Royal Family fund schools which teach anti-American extremism. But because of the Bush family’s intimate relationship with the Saudis, none of the papers or the terrorists requesting passports and Visas were vetted and given background checks. This is in variance with citizens from all other countries wishing to come into the United States. And this wasn’t just from the Saudi’s side, because the U.S. side didn’t bother to do any background checks either. There was no coordination of intelligence databases to do background checks on any of the terrorists, coming through legal channels. As a result, they all had valid passports and visas and because of that, they were able to get valid driver’s licenses.

Senselessbrenner’s Immigration bill fails to deal with fixing the problems at the State Department and with the Intelligence Community that allowed the terrorists to get into the United States in the first place, just as his Real ID bill ignored the fact that terrorists got valid Driver’s licenses because they had valid passports and Visas.

He instead went after known illegal aliens, who were in fact, telling us who and where they were and how to contact them, by applying for and qualifying for legal drivers licenses. They could have at least applied for and received auto insurance then. Now, you just have illegal aliens who depend on counterfeit licenses in order to drive, so their names and addresses are often falsified, and they haven’t passed a driver’s test. And, they won’t get auto insurance.

So, the cost of resulting property damage and personal injuries isn’t being spread out either. Taxpayers get to foot the brunt of those expenses, for 11 to 12 million estimated aliens who used to pay a good portion of those expenses. Some deal.

In this latest propaganda piece he published his 2006 Annual Questionnaire, which as always provides leading questions and only limited answers to choose from. Anyone who has any statistical experience or knows how to create fair or unfair questionnaires recognizes that:

1) Statistics lie

2) Statistics can be manipulated to give you whatever result you want them to

3) Questionnaires and Polls can be worded in a way that directs you towards a response that doesn’t reflect your true feelings, so as to manipulate the results of the Questionnaire/Poll.

It is clear that Senselessbrenner knows this, and uses this to his best advantage in the wording of his questionnaires, so that he manipulates you into giving him the answers that he wants. If he doesn’t get what he wants, he just throws the results out. (That was clearly evident last year when he voted against the victims of the Katrina disaster, and publicly stated that he had only received comments from two people who disagreed with him on his vote, even though there were at least six people who went to his office and signed in to protest against his vote with the support of many who could not attend because his office hours are during the work day, in a public statement that was covered by local network camera crews, prior to his public statement.)

The first question asks “Should non-U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants be eligible to receive Social Security benefits?”

Seems simple enough. But then, why is he asking this now? In early 2005, the Congress could have done something about that issue, because earlier in the fall of 2004, President Bush signed the Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico, which takes $350 Billion out of Social Security, for illegal immigrants who HAVEN’T put money INTO Social Security in the first place! This occurred during the time that the Republican Party and President Bush were telling us that Social Security was in danger of going broke. A third of a TRILLION dollars was being earmarked by President Bush to go to illegal immigrants who hadn’t paid into Social Security, so that they could receive Social Security benefits, all in an attempt to score points with Mexican President Vincente Fox, and Hispanic voters. But did the Republican Controlled Congress step in to say that this was a boondoggle? Did they say that this was not fair to American workers to have their money given to foreign citizens who did not pay into the fund in the first place? No. They just sat there and never raised any significant opposition to this Agreement which was automatically approved by Congress due to lack of opposition to void it. And where was Congressman Senselessbrenner then? Did he stand up in opposition to a third of a Trillion dollars of earmarks to foreign citizens given away by President Bush? No. He sat silent.

But now, because Senselessbrenner wants to raise anger against immigrants, and support for his HR4437, he asks if you want to give Social Security benefits to non-U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants. The question is too little, too late, and for all the wrong reasons.

He also asks “Would you support a law protecting grieving family members from anti-war protesters while attending the funeral of an American soldier?”

This is an out and out lie and a total misrepresentation of what is happening. The truth about the protests at the funerals of American soldiers is that they are not anti-war at all. They aren’t anti-war protesters, they love the war, and they want more of it. In fact they belong to a right wing extremist religious group that believes that American soldiers are being killed “righteously” because America “tolerates gays”. These are Anti-Gay Church Protesters from a fundamentalist Kansas church, not anti-war protesters. The Indianapolis Star reported that the protestors are members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kansas led by the Rev. Fred W. Phelps Sr. (This is the same guy that led the protests at the Matthew Shepard funeral, the gay man who was beaten to death in Laramie, WY in 1998.) Many of the members of this church are reportedly Phelp’s relatives. (Another good reason for making sure that people who are related to one another should not marry and have children.)

The “Church’s” website http://www.godhatesamerica.com/index.html shows that Phelps is blaming gay tolerant America for “floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, IEDs, collapsing mines and more”. And they are praying for more.

Senselessbrenner knows the difference between these two groups. What he is doing here is absolutely despicable, and he is promoting hate against anti-war protesters by attributing the acts of Anti-Gay Churches who support REPUBLICANS and their anti-gay agenda, to anti-war groups who are only trying to prevent the needless deaths of our soldiers and the destruction of our economy and our way of life, because Republicans are putting all of our resources into a poorly managed war which they continue to bungle, pour good money into for their fraudulent benefit, and lie about it to cover it up.

This is the same lie that Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been promoting, along with other Republican Talking Heads who do this to suppress the anti-war movement, and support the war that is making the war investors rich. Remember, Senselessbrenner owns Halliburton stock. He benefits financially by having this war go on FOREVER.

He also uses this Questionnaire to attack Governor Jim Doyle with this question.

“Federal transportation dollars are allocated to states with the goal of improving their roads and transportation infrastructure. Should Governor Doyle be allowed to divert money from these federal funds, as he has done in the past, to use on special projects of his choosing that are unrelated to transportation?”

It is interesting that during his Town Hall meetings, Senselessbrenner is quick to point out that State Senators are not allowed to speak out on issues of Federal matters (when they disagree with him), even though those Federal policies affect how the budget in the State is allocated. He regularly shouts down State Senator Lena Taylor when she speaks up. To her credit, she is not a shrinking violet and is quite willing to engage in a spirited debate with Senselessbrenner. It really is too bad, that most of the U.S. Senate and the rest of the Congress don’t have the same courage. It really isn’t difficult to beat Senselessbrenner on facts and issues. Democrats do have to work on being able to package their message however, by properly framing the debate first, in order to gain popular support. After that, it is just all about standing up to a blowhard bully who shouts louder than everyone else and rules by intimidation.

Yet, in his questionnaire, Senselessbrenner attacks how the Governor of this state, has used Federally allocated funds to balance the budget and pay off the $3.2 Billion in debts created under 16 years of Republican Governors Thompson and McCallum.

Balancing the Budget – now that is something that Republicans are incapable of doing on any level. Just look at how Bush has squandered several Trillion in surpluses to almost $9 Trillion in debt in just six short years.

God help us for the next two years. He’s going to pull out all the stops. He has nothing to lose because he isn’t running for re-election, and he won’t care about the Republican Congressmen who are disassociating themselves from him and his policies because they want to retain their seats for this election.

Senselessbrenner fails to recognize that it is the job of the executive in this state, to balance the budget every year, something that the President of the United States doesn’t have to do. In order to do that, it is often necessary to reallocate funds from areas where you have an excess, to areas where you have a deficit. That is basic to running ANY BUSINESS. But then, Senselessbrenner has never had to run any business in his life. He’s never held a job outside of politics since he graduated from the University, so he’s used to telling everyone else how to run their lives and run their businesses even though he has no experience in doing so.

But the issue probably runs deeper than that, since most of the companies doing road construction are owned and operated by Republicans and those contracts would be awarded by a Republican controlled legislature, so that the cost overruns could then be diverted in donations to Republican candidates for public office as has often occurred in the past.

That’s the real issue.

The one good thing that he did was to list his upcoming Town Hall Meetings in his mailing. He hasn’t bothered to update his website with them. Gee, I wonder why? Here they are for those of you who are interested in confronting Senselessbrenner with REAL issues, and demanding REAL answers.

Town Hall Meetings:

Sunday, June 25 7:00 p.m. Thiensville Village Hall

Sunday, July 2 7:00 p.m. Grafton Village Hall

Thursday, July 6 7:00 p.m. Hartford City Hall

Sunday, July 9 7:00 p.m. West Bend City Hall

Sunday, July 16 7:00 p.m. Brookfield Safety Building

Sunday, July 23 7:00 p.m. New Berlin City Hall

Sunday, July 30 7:00 p.m. Richfield Town Hall

Show up; Speak up; Ask him tough questions, and Hold him Accountable! Or, get stuck with him for another two years. Your choice. P.S. Bring along your video cameras so you can catch him on tape and he can't deny what he said. The media isn't doing their job. Perhaps you can show them how it's done.

Talk radio has played a major role in riling the public over the concept of light rail. Although a new electric fed bus system would not require the same infrastructure needs as would light rail, opponents including County Executive Scott Walker love to poo-poo anything that may help Milwaukee.

Interestingly enough, the Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce, A.K.A. MMAC, (who loves to support Republicans and bash Democrats) has endorsed the plan. God love ‘em — they’ll support plans by Dems that have no chance of passing and they’ll bash Dems when it means that Dem policies have a chance to pass something. What’s crazy is that some of the Dems take that little bone and are deluded into thinking that MMAC is something other than just another shill group for the Republican party.

If Milwaukee wants this to happen they must circumvent both the Republican County Executive of Milwaukee County as well as the Republican legislature of Wisconsin. Even the Democratic Governor Jim Doyle has a tendency to gravitate toward supporting Republican ideals if it means that the GOP won’t have another issue to run against him on in the areas outside of Milwaukee County (areas often called out-state). Since out-state residents have shown an anti-Milwaukee bias, saying “no” for nearly anything for the city is popular for out-state residents at election time. The exception being additional taxes forced upon Milwaukee residents as was evident from former Governor Tommy Thompson’s comment “stick it to Milwaukee” which helped garner support from out-state residents to create a sales tax district that would support a new stadium for the Brewers. This was of course to garner support as to whether Milwaukee area residents should pay the tax but would exempt out-staters from chipping in.

Only through direct funding from the federal government in terms of transportation funds would this be possible and even on the federal level, any support for Milwaukee faces the hurdle of getting past Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. Sensenbrenner has been very successful in getting the Republican House of Representatives to say “no” to Milwaukee on other issues and he has carved out a legislative niche by becoming a congressional ‘no’ man. He blocked transportation funds in the past and he gained notoriety a few years ago for opposing the Amber Alert program that would have created an alert whenever children were believed to be abducted. Eventually the Amber alert passed but only after Sensenbrenner bottled it up. Electric bus funding would be no different except for the fact that Sensenbrenner’s voters wouldn’t be incensed by Milwaukee being denied electric buses where the Amber Alert fiasco did rile some of his voters.

This is not the first time the city has gone on record as endorsing plans they play no or little part in. They also have had resolutions supporting light rail but again, they don’t control mass transit, the county does. What’s more, they’ve also had resolutions supporting or opposing war and military actions — an issue for the federal government.

One almost has to wonder, will the city ever focus their energies on issues they do have a say in?
 

Without shame and brazen inhumanity, conservative extremists continue to lie and spread vicious rhetoric about the undocumented.

Millions of lives weigh in the balance of this political campaign.

At issue is the need to secure our borders from terrorist attacks. The issue manifested itself into a debate about the millions of illegal immigrants now living in the United States. Swiftly did the conservatives of the right-wing move the American public’s attention away from President George Bush and his illegal spying of American citizens.

Because of Wisconsin Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner, the United States is embroiled once again in a debate that pits people against people. This waste of human energy takes away from efforts to organize people into challenging the corruption and deceit of the Bush administration.

The heroic stand made by United States Senator Russ Feingold, seeking to censure and hold the most powerful man in the free world accountable for his spying actions, will forever go in the annuals of history as a lost opportunity to clean government of wild-eyed elected oil baron slaves allowing themselves to be subjugated by the oil cartel seeking to influence our government into doing war and other madness around the world.

The millions of Americans and immigrants now marching to protest the crazy actions of a few Republican Senators and Congressmen spurred on by zany and whacky right-wing talking heads, such as Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson and Lou Dobbs, provide the rest of us a sobering look at the madcap world of GOP neo-conservatives acting to appease the extremist conservative part of the population that view these guys as messiahs and visionaries.

Lou Dobbs points to the immigrants as the cause of our national strife, Rush Limbaugh blames the Liberals for America’s global decline in prestige, and Pat Robertson continues to make wild and ridiculous statements against world leaders.

Other major issues include President George Bush being fingered by Scooter Libby as the person who authorized the release of information that could have caused the death of a CIA agent. China is now a major influence in Latin America, because Bush is too busy fighting an illegal war in Iraq.

To be sure, the United States is a divided nation because of the war and immigration.

The right-wingers point to immigration as the most important issue of our day. They’ve forgotten about the victims of Katrina. They don’t care about the millions of American seniors unable to pay for health care and prescription drugs. They turn a blind eye to the fleecing of tax-dollars by war corporations Halliburton and Bechtel. To the GOP, the undocumented is the biggest threat to the United States.

The American people are being duped by dopes.

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate Women?

Sensenbrenner held up the Passage of an earlier Amber Alert Bill (H.R. 412 was re submitted in early 2003, having languished and expired during the previous Congress) for over a year in the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. He claimed he had to hold it up to make the bill “more meaningful” by putting in harsher penalties for sex offenders. He claimed that those were his provisions, but they weren’t, they were Mr. George Gekas’ (R- PA) bill, which passed the House 409 to three on June 25, 2002. The integration of this provision affords judges the discretion to impose lifetime supervision against such offenders. These weren’t harsher penalties as Sensenbrenner claimed, just lifetime supervision that would continue to cost taxpayers money, but leave the offenders on the streets, instead of incarceration to keep them off the streets. But why hold up a bill that passed with such overwhelming support?

In October of 2002, the National Association of Police Organizations reported on the progress of the Amber Alert Bills.

AMBER ALERT LEGISLATION PASSES SENATE BUT FACES PROBLEM IN HOUSE

Note that Representative Sensenbrenner has long claimed that the delays for the Amber Alert legislation were in the Senate, even though he’d held up the original H.R. 412 bill for over a year before the original Senate version passed in the Senate in September 2002, and another House version was introduced in September (for that session of Congress). Sensenbrenner’s version wasn’t even submitted until October.

H.R 5422 also incorporated Rep. Sensenbrenner’s bill H.R. 4477, which passed the House on June 26, 2002, by a vote of 418 to eight. The sex terrorism industry obtains its victims through kidnapping and trafficking of women and children. These women and children are then forced into prostitution. This was supposed to impose more penalties on traffickers. But Sensenbrenner held up that bill to incorporate it into H.R. 5422. Why would Sensenbrenner hold up his own bill when it passed with such overwhelming support?

President Bush, by the way, waived any Saudi Trafficking Sanctions in September of 2005, in spite of their failure to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers in Saudi Arabia.

Even though Rep. Sensenbrenner controlled two bills that had passed overwhelmingly in the House, with one of them his own, he didn’t work to have those bills be developed in the Senate on their own merit. They were held back for three months in order to incorporate them into his own bill H.R. 5422, which was presented a month after Amber Alert Bills had already been presented in the House and the Senate.

But the Hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security by the House Judiciary Committee wasn’t held until the 107th Congress, Second Session on October 1, 2002. It was passed on 10/08/02. 390-24 with 17 not voting.

The Senate version S 121 passed three months later, on 1/21/03 92-0 with 8 not voting.

So why the delays and why would something like this be so controversial? Well as it turns out, the bill was held up even further because of sweeping sentencing changes which were placed into the final bill, even though those changes were not considered by any committee of either House. It was held up by Rep Sensenbrenner – I believe, because Sensenbrenner wanted to build up so much public outrage against the delays of putting this legislation through, (when it was originally only intended to give quick notice to the public by federal and state agencies so that children could be located in the vital first 72 hours when they were most vulnerable to being assaulted and killed), so that it could be forced through with changes that most members of Congress disagreed with or didn’t even know about until the vote. By then, anyone who voted against the Amber Alert Bill, as manipulated, would be publicly excoriated. What the changes did was to bar the right of judges to have any flexibility in sentencing.

‘When Chief Justice Rehnquist learned of this proposal, he wrote: “this legislation, if enacted, would do serious harm to the basic structure of the sentencing guideline system and would seriously impair the ability of courts to impose just and responsible sentences.” Justice Rehnquist is certainly no liberal. But even his concerns have been brushed aside.

Similar opposition was expressed by the Judicial Conference of the United States, the American Bar Association, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Washington Legal Foundation, the CATO Institute and many other groups and individuals. All to no avail.’

Statement of the Honorable William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts
Regarding the Conference Report on S. 151, the PROTECT Act of 2003

The combined House and Senate version of the Amber Alert Bill was signed into law on April 30, 2003. Very few voted against it. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t make it mandatory for all states to create an Amber Alert system. It only made funding available to those states which chose to do so and made it possible to network the various systems together.

The changes that were surreptitiously placed into the final Amber Alert bill were all related to issues that Representative Sensenbrenner was pushing for earlier, while competing with other bills which were more thoughtful and judicious, but held back in preference for his own.

But Sensenbrenner’s provisions haven’t accomplished much, prompting Florida and other states to write more comprehensive laws since then. But because of Sensenbrenner’s delays, how many children were sacrificed, in order for Sensenbrenner to take credit for these “improvements”?

Each year in the United States, between 1.3 and 1.8 million children are reported missing. These children may be kidnapped, lost, or runaways. Some are taken by a non-custodial parent. Still others disappear with few clues as to the reason.

Federal and state officials have no idea how many children are missing because they have not perfected reporting techniques that track the numbers of youngsters who have been abducted or have run away, a senior Bush administration official told United Press International.
The lack of accurate, up-to-date data is a result of law enforcement often waiting too long before taking a report from parents or other family members; poor classification of the missing or runaways in state clearinghouse computers; and the fact that federal authorities purge many missing children out of the federal missing people database once they reach age 18, whether they have been located or not.

The most recent figures — from 1999 — show that at that time, more than 750,000 children meeting law enforcement’s definition of missing or runaway had yet to be found.
“If skeletal remains turn up, there is no information because it’s been purged from the system” John Rabun vice president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate Children?

Sensenbrenner is against a federal, comprehensive healthcare program that would largely eliminate one of the biggest expenses for businesses, especially small businesses, by providing coverage for catastrophic illnesses that are the cause of one third of all bankruptcies.

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate Small Businesses?

Sensenbrenner pushed for the disastrous Medicare Part D Prescription Drug bill that rewards Drug Companies and the Health Care Industry with hundreds of Billions of dollars, by making it illegal for the U.S. Government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices by the HHS Secretary, while cutting off needy Americans from their medication. These are companies that he owns stock in and who regularly donate hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to him, even when his campaigns were uncontested.

Almost two years ago, while waiting for the doors to be opened for a Town hall meeting in Germantown, a young family approached Representative Sensenbrenner to tell him that they had traveled to Washington D.C. to see him at his offices there, only to be told that he had cancelled their meeting, without giving them any advanced notice. They wanted to speak to the Congressman, to plead for his help because of their dying infant daughter. He told them that he would take their questions during the Town hall meeting.

After the meeting started Sensenbrenner took a few questions, then getting to the young mother, who informed Sensenbrenner that their daughter was dying and that doctors told them that her only hope was stem cell research that had been banned because of President Bush’s policies. They begged him to speak to President Bush and appeal to him to allow research to continue. Rep Sensenbrenner told them very bluntly that that was the current policy of the United States and President Bush and he couldn’t do anything about it. He then said that perhaps with a different administration in a few years that policy might change. She responded to him that her daughter “didn’t have that much time to wait”. Sensenbrenner ignored her response, then blew her off and called the next questioner.

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate Sick People?

And more importantly – Why Does Sensenbrenner Love Drug Companies? (Maybe it has something to do with his wallet?)

Sensenbrenner tells Americans to use Health Savings Accounts, which are completely funded by the individual’s own savings, with no assistance from any other source.

If you don’t have any savings, you aren’t covered.
If you use up the money in your savings, you aren’t covered.

“In 2003, working Americans with employer-provided health insurance programs saw their premiums increase by nearly 14 percent. It’s no wonder, combined with the increase in unemployment, that more than 40 percent of the 1.4 million newly uninsured in 2004 were middle class.”

• In 2003, more than 90 percent of the 1.6 million American families that filed for bankruptcy were middle-class–more than half named job loss, a health emergency, or divorce as the reason for filing.
Related Survey Results: The Middle Class
Middle-class Americans are literally getting sick over the high cost of healthcare. In 2003, 40 percent of the newly uninsured were “middle class,” and those fortunate enough to have private or employer provided coverage health insurance saw their premiums rise by nearly 14 percent. Today, it’s not just low-income and poor Americans that are finding it difficult to afford quality healthcare for their families; increasingly, the American middle class are becoming the American uninsured as well.
• Senior citizens aren’t the only ones suffering from a lack of health insurance. One in four families with incomes between $55,980 and $74,040 didn’t have health insurance between 2002 and 2003. In fact, there are 18 million middle-age, moderate and high-income Americans without health insurance.
• Nearly 74 percent of the uninsured reside in households with at least one full-time employed adult; and almost two-thirds of the uninsured are, themselves, employed.
Concern about the rising cost of prescription drugs isn’t limited to the elderly – it’s coming between middle-class Americans and their health.
Last updated: June 25, 2004
Related Survey Results: The Middle Class
Yet Sensenbrenner, himself, gets 100% health coverage at no cost to himself, completely funded by you the American Taxpayer. He thinks that you should be responsible for your own health care expenses while he bills YOU for his. All that in spite of the fact that Healthcare costs are consistently polled as being the number one financial issue facing families today.

• When asked “what is the most important financial problem facing your family today,” Americans ranked “lack of money/low wages” number 2 – second only to “health care costs.”
• 74% of Americans believe that the health care system is not meeting the needs of “most Americans.”
• 69% of Americans would be willing to “pay more in federal taxes every year to assure every American receives health care coverage.”
• 54% of Americans believe that “when it comes to economic policy, our first priority should be investing in education, health care, and energy independence.”
Survey Results: The Middle Class
Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate Middle-Class Americans, who are begging for Healthcare assistance?

While Sensenbrenner made a trip to China to see how the Chinese have stolen American Technology and Intellectual Property Rights (Theft of IPR are at epidemic levels.). The Chinese are using it to build copycat automobiles which compete against American Automobile manufacturers, and he complained about how it hurt American companies.
But he voted FOR NAFTA (H.R. 3450, Roll #575),
he voted FOR U.S.- Singapore Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 2739, Roll #432),
he voted FOR U.S.- Chile Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 2738, Roll #436),
he voted FOR U.S.- Morocco Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 4842, Roll #413),
and he voted FOR U.S.- Africa / Caribbean Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 434, Roll #145).

He helped to create the outflow of high paying manufacturing jobs. He helped to create the outsourcing problem that we have lost millions of jobs as a result of.

In 2004, Sensenbrenner’s Judiciary Committee even submitted a bill that would allow patent searches to be outsourced!

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate American Workers?

On at least five separate occasions, in Germantown, Cedarburg, Menomonee Falls, Glendale and Mequon Town Hall meetings, I’ve publicly asked Representative Sensenbrenner to investigate and demand that the United States Military stop using Depleted Uranium munitions that are in reality, not depleted at all. It is radioactive waste that disintegrates into the air upon impact and contaminates anyone who breathes the air that has been contaminated by it.

I’ve asked why the U.S. Military has refused to release documents that show that innocent people who are being exposed to this are dying from radiation induced cancers, and being born with genetic mutations because of the exposure. This isn’t limited to Iraqis, but includes our own military who aren’t being provided with proper protective gear, and when they return home, their children are being born with severe birth defects.

260,000 members of the military from the first Gulf War conflict are permanently disabled, with over 20,000 who have died because of “mysterious illnesses”. The Pentagon is denying our military the right to access medical treatment or even testing to determine exposure levels.

After numerous promises from Representative Sensenbrenner to “look into this”, after almost two years, he has to date, refused to respond.

More information on Depleted Uranium can be found here:

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=3123
http://www.ericblumrich.com/pl_hi.html
http://traprockpeace.org/depleteduranium.html
http://www.yesmagazine.org/25environmentandhealth/rokke.htm

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate Our Military?

Sensenbrenner is against programs that are vitally important to all Americans – predominantly women and children, but which also affect family members who are affected by poorly crafted health problems and anyone who might be their dependents.

And I’m not the only one saying it. The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization at www.themiddleclass.org , ranks members of Congress based on how their votes affect American Middle Class Families, positively or negatively.

link and link here

Sensenbrenner’s grade for 2004, an election year, was an F. If he didn’t care enough about middle class families during an election year, why should he care when it isn’t an election year? Maybe it’s because most conservatives don’t bother to study the issues, and assume that any Republican will stand up for their middle class family values. Sensenbrenner’s voting record proves that he doesn’t. See for yourself.

Why Does Sensenbrenner Hate American Families?

Why do people stand for this continuous assault on American Families by Representative James Sensenbrenner? Why do people stand for the lies and propaganda which Rep. Sensenbrenner prints, at taxpayer expense, rather than spending the campaign contributions that he is overflowing with?

Write him or call him:

120 Bishops Way, Room 154
Brookfield, WI 53005-6294
Telephone: (262) 784-1111

Outside the Milwaukee Metro calling area, call toll-free HOTLINE number: 1-800-242-1119.
2449 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4905
Telephone: (202) 225-5101

e-mail address is sensenbrenner@mail.house.gov

Or why don’t you ask him in person?

Show up at one of his Town hall meetings that he schedules (sometimes during a workday when working people can’t attend, especially in areas that don’t completely support him).

Go here to find out when he’ll be in a Town hall near you.

Tell him what you think. Ask him hard questions. See what kind of compassion he shows you when he doesn’t agree with you. Maybe he’ll cut off your microphone and turn out the lights when he walks out, while he screams at you.

Then ask yourself: How does a Congressman lead when he won’t even listen to his constituents?

And when you finally get mad enough to do something about it, go to www.bk2006.org and volunteer or donate to Bryan Kennedy’s campaign to help defeat Senselessbrenner this fall!!

He claimed that this was in response to the 9/11 attacks. This was supposedly going to prevent a repeat of allowing illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers licenses which are commonly used by the U.S. Government as valid IDs.

However, the 9/11 hijackers weren't illegal immigrants, and they didn't use fraudulent Drivers Licenses. They got into the United States legally with valid Visas. 15 of the 19 were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and because of that fact, none of them had to undergo any security checks, either from the Saudi Arabian side or from the U.S. side. They also acquired legal Drivers Licenses. The rubber stamp treatment, that allowed these terrorists to get into the United States without any background checks, was a gift from the U.S. State Department. The officials of the U.S. State Department that allowed this to happen were long time bureaucrats who were put into the State Department during the Reagan / Bush years in the 1980s.

None of the 9/11 attackers came across the border with Mexico. They, like the terrorists who attempted to bomb L.A. Airport, came across the border with Canada, but you don't see any demands for building a wall on the Canadian border, do you?

What Sensenbrenner isn't telling you is that the loop hole that allowed these terrorists to get in from Saudi Arabia was never addressed in his “fix”, because illegal immigrants weren't responsible for the attacks on 9/11. It was the incompetence of bureaucrats, and the white glove policies of our politicians, who demanded that our border defenses be let down for all Saudi citizens, who allowed it to happen in the first place. And it is the incompetence of politicians like Sensenbrenner who continue to allow these loopholes to remain in place, while they go after minorities, covering up their racist agenda with fake national security claims.

During one of his Town Hall meetings in Shorewood last year, Representative Sensenbrenner told a female Hispanic constituent that her comments wouldn't be heard because she wasn't from the 5th CD, and he only allowed constituents from his Congressional District to speak or ask questions during his Town Hall meetings. The crowd shouted at him to demand that he allow her to speak. She responded to his assumption that she wasn't from his C.D., by saying that she lived in Waukesha, and that the two hundred Hispanics who were bused into the Shorewood Town Hall meeting were also from Waukesha, at which time, he meekly surrendered the floor to her. It is clear that Representative Sensenbrenner believes that the only people who live in his District are white.

A similar Drivers License measure was proposed for the Wisconsin State legislature, which Representative James Sensenbrenner very publicly supported. The measure made it illegal for illegal immigrants to acquire a valid Drivers License in Wisconsin.

Far from making our roads safer, what this measure does, is to eliminate any process for the Wisconsin DOT to identify who the illegal immigrant drivers are, where they live, and whether or not they actually are qualified to hold a drivers license. And, if you don't hold a valid drivers license, you can't get insurance. All this measure succeeded in doing, was to force illegal immigrants to use fake drivers licenses, where no testing of driving qualifications are ever done, and no accurate driver information is collected, and no insurance can be acquired by the driver.

What that policy creates is more unqualified drivers, more fake information that can't be tracked back to a responsible party, and more uninsured drivers on the road.

The burden of these additional expenses is just shifted from illegal immigrants who were paying their own way, onto Wisconsin taxpayers.

Now Representative Sensenbrenner is going after illegal immigrants that are specifically coming into the United States through Mexico.

Do we have a problem with illegal immigrants coming through our Mexican border? Absolutely.

Do we have a problem with not having enough border security on our border with Mexico? Absolutely.

Do we have a problem with not having enough money or resources for our border protection in the first place? You betcha. Talk to Congress and President Bush and tell him to stop spending all that money in Iraq, and start spending it to protect our borders here at home.

So how do you deal with the problem of illegal immigrants?

Representative James Sensenbrenner is taking the approach of blaming the immigrants. But the reason they are here in the first place is because politicians and employers in the United States are willing to turn a blind eye to illegal immigrants because they can use them like slave labor.

They don't have to provide them with benefits, or withhold taxes, or pay them anything near what they pay American workers. In fact, if they do hire them, American companies face only a minor slap on the wrist when they claim that they didn't know that the people they hired were illegal immigrants, and just turn around and hire more illegal immigrants even on the same day they were caught and had to release illegal immigrant workers from employment. And in many cases, these companies withhold part of immigrant pay as if it was a tax withholding, knowing full well that because the workers are illegal immigrants, they will never file for the tax returns, and the corporations or small businesses just pocket the difference.

When these slave laborers are being used and abused by their employers and seek health care, food or housing, they often can only get it from a Good Samaritan. Under Sensenbrenner's bill, any assistance in helping that illegal immigrant would be a felony. So much for Christian compassion and loving thy neighbor.

Illegal immigrants are tolerated because their employers benefit from slave labor. Increasing the fines to make it more expensive than hiring legal employees, and give jail time to the employers and you will see illegal immigrant jobs disappear, and less incentive for illegal immigration.

Make it possible for immigrants to apply for citizenship without making it a lifelong struggle to do so, and provide them with fair benefits, while they are working towards their citizenship, and you wouldn't have to pay for such high enforcement costs to track down illegal immigrants, because more would take the legal path.

Instead of attempting to institute fair, intelligent processes to truly secure our borders and protect American jobs, Republicans prefer to blame immigrants for the effects of outsourcing and the abuses of employers who have no integrity.

Republicans are now locking horns with other Republicans on the immigration issue, because one side is trying to eliminate the illegal immigration to keep their constituents happy, because Republicans spent so much time blaming illegal immigrants for taking away American jobs. (They seem to forget that those illegal immigrants are taking the low paying labor jobs, not the high paying, high tech jobs that Republicans have no problem outsourcing to India and Communist China. But you'll never hear them talking about doing anything to keep THOSE jobs here.) The Republicans on the other side, support farming, manufacturing and other low paying labor interests, to help their big money supporters, like Wal-Mart, who don't want the endless supply of cheap labor to stop. I’ll give you one guess as to which side is going to win this battle.

There is no good side for Republicans on this issue, because both sides are fighting this battle to support racist policies. One is trying to make illegal immigrants the scapegoat for the lack of decent jobs in the United States, and the other is supporting slave labor for big business.

Republicans complain about the cost of education for immigrants and prefer to keep immigrants in ghettos and on welfare, rather than providing them with educational opportunities so that they can improve their lives and pay their own way.

And in denying immigrants in crowded ghettos affordable healthcare, they are ignoring a major National Security problem. This is a health disaster waiting to happen because there aren't enough people in those crowded areas who have access to health care. So when serious outbreaks could and absolutely need to be stopped at an early stage, prohibiting healthcare treatment to them would increase the chances of an outbreak. This isn't an immigrant issue. Sensenbrenner's approach has the potential for allowing runaway pandemics to get a foothold in areas which are the most vulnerable and least prepared to deal with these outbreaks, and once that happens, it will affect even those who are the most affluent, regardless of where you live.

President Bush, Representative Sensenbrenner and the Republican Party have no problem with asking or even demanding that non-U.S. citizens don a uniform for Uncle Sam and fight or even die for a country that they aren't even allowed to have basic human rights in. Now Sensenbrenner and his racist supporters want to make it illegal for someone to offer them a helping hand. How compassionate.

They want your cheap labor, when it is convenient for them, and afterwards they would prefer to just ship you back over the border. They say they might allow you to apply for citizenship if you stand at the back of the line, but as an illegal immigrant, you would be a felon and therefore, won't have any right to vote. Some citizenship. They want you to fight their wars for them, even though you aren't a citizen, but if you even ask for a chance for an education, healthcare or citizenship? God forbid anyone actually offer fair treatment to someone who wants a chance at freedom and liberty here in the United States where God, Freedom and Liberty are always touted as the biggest principles behind Conservative values.

No, Jesus himself would be turned away by the self-righteous wing, because he would be seen as a dirty, long haired, bare-foot hippie who does nothing but preach sedition.

With cameras from Fox 6 and WISN 12 rolling, we walked in to Congressman Sensenbrenner’s office to tell him how appalled we were that he would choose this time to claim to be fiscally responsible. He didn’t do it during the Bush tax cuts, and he didn’t do it when he voted for Bush’s Energy Bill with its over 6,000 cases of ”pork” projects, but he did stand against providing immediate and significant help to hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast Survivors who’ve already suffered because of the Federal Government’s incompetence. While Congressman Sensenbrenner was not present at the time, we did deliver our statement to his aide, and provided him with a written copy as well.

This was our statement to him:

In the light of the poor Federal response in assisting the Gulf Coast Survivors, which has clearly delayed medical assistance and vitally needed food and water, causing additional unnecessary deaths, Congress stepped in to legislate assistance where Bush, Homeland Security and FEMA utterly failed.

The Katrina Relief Bill passed in the Senate 97-0, and in the House 410-11. You, Congressman Sensenbrenner were one of the 11 who voted against the bill.

You have been cited as claiming that the reason for your opposition was because there wasn’t enough oversight of the money being spent. While that, on the surface, may be a concern, considering FEMA has been so incompetent in its handling of this National Emergency so far, and is being given the responsibility for the distribution of these funds, isn’t it the responsibility of Congress to oversee the distribution of these funds? Why is it that you would block this aid to the survivors, and turn your back on them at this critical time when this funding is so desperately needed? This is unconscionable.

We are constituents of the 5th Congressional District, which you are supposed to represent, and we are appalled and ashamed that you would vote in our name, to hold back such critical funding to Americans, who are survivors of a government failure, in their time of need, when hundreds are dying and many more may very well end up with chronic diseases or death because of the widespread exposure to biological toxins on American soil. This is a National Disgrace of a Federal Responsibility, and Americans shouldn’t have to hold out a tin-cup and beg to Congressional Representatives that are supposed to represent them.

While the cameras taped the exchange, neither Channel 6 (FOX), nor WISN Channel 12 ran the footage during their 6:00 evening news.

If you believe that Congressman Sensenbrenner should be more representative of his constituents in making sure that PEOPLE come ahead of “Pork” projects, please take this around to anyone in your community and get them to sign it and send it on to Congressman Sensenbrenner. Please send us a copy so that we can keep track of who you are, where you are and how many of you don’t care for Sensenbrenner’s priorities.

With cameras from Fox 6 and WISN 12 rolling, we walked in to Congressman Sensenbrenner’s office to tell him how appalled we were that he would choose this time to claim to be fiscally responsible. He didn’t do it during the Bush tax cuts, and he didn’t do it when he voted for Bush’s Energy Bill with its over 6,000 cases of ”pork” projects, but he did stand against providing immediate and significant help to hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast Survivors who’ve already suffered because of the Federal Government’s incompetence. While Congressman Sensenbrenner was not present at the time, we did deliver our statement to his aide, and provided him with a written copy as well.

This was our statement to him:

In the light of the poor Federal response in assisting the Gulf Coast Survivors, which has clearly delayed medical assistance and vitally needed food and water, causing additional unnecessary deaths, Congress stepped in to legislate assistance where Bush, Homeland Security and FEMA utterly failed.

The Katrina Relief Bill passed in the Senate 97-0, and in the House 410-11. You, Congressman Sensenbrenner were one of the 11 who voted against the bill.

You have been cited as claiming that the reason for your opposition was because there wasn’t enough oversight of the money being spent. While that, on the surface, may be a concern, considering FEMA has been so incompetent in its handling of this National Emergency so far, and is being given the responsibility for the distribution of these funds, isn’t it the responsibility of Congress to oversee the distribution of these funds? Why is it that you would block this aid to the survivors, and turn your back on them at this critical time when this funding is so desperately needed? This is unconscionable.

We are constituents of the 5th Congressional District, which you are supposed to represent, and we are appalled and ashamed that you would vote in our name, to hold back such critical funding to Americans, who are survivors of a government failure, in their time of need, when hundreds are dying and many more may very well end up with chronic diseases or death because of the widespread exposure to biological toxins on American soil. This is a National Disgrace of a Federal Responsibility, and Americans shouldn’t have to hold out a tin-cup and beg to Congressional Representatives that are supposed to represent them.

While the cameras taped the exchange, neither Channel 6 (FOX), nor WISN Channel 12 ran the footage during their 6:00 evening news.

If you believe that Congressman Sensenbrenner should be more representative of his constituents in making sure that PEOPLE come ahead of “Pork” projects, please take this around to anyone in your community and get them to sign it and send it on to Congressman Sensenbrenner. Please send us a copy so that we can keep track of who you are, where you are and how many of you don’t care for Sensenbrenner’s priorities.