All but two of the Wisconsin delegation obediently fell into line … on the wrong side of the issue.
By Mark L. Taylor The Daily Call (8/25/14)About two months before the recent crackdown by a militarized, poorly trained and impulsively racist police force in Ferguson, Missouri, the House of Representatives actually had an opportunity to do the right thing and bring some small measure of sanity back to domestic law enforcement.
Of course, as with nearly everything that comes before it, the 13% approval rating House failed miserably. Our local congressman, Ron Kind and all but two of the rest of the Wisconsin delegation obediently fell into line … on the wrong side of the issue.
The issue before the House was an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill proposed by progressive Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL.). The amendment was designed to tone down the war department revamp of domestic law enforcement into a quasi-military force of occupation.
The purpose of Grayson’s H.R. 4870 was to prohibit the transfer of “…aircraft (including unmanned aerial vehicles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers, silencers, toxicological agents, launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, torpedoes, bombs, mines, or nuclear weapons through the DOD Excess Personal Property Program.”
You can read the actual proposed amendment here.
Ever loyal to the weapons industry, the House voted down the amendment 355-62. As with nearly all issues that come before it these days, the 13% approval rating United States House of Representatives is not a home to courage or intelligence … or even the Constitution. You can see the roll call vote here.
(Just who the hell are the 13% who approve of this congress anyway? Family members, lobbyists and mistresses, no doubt. In most cases I am sure it is hard to differentiate between the last two groups.)
Daily Call reader Tom Kriegl did a little research and found our own Rep. Ron Kind voted predictably to continued militarization of the police by voting against H.R. 4870, along with representatives Duffy, Moore, Ribble, Ryan and Sensenbrenner.
Rep. Gwen Moore voted to keep militarizing the police?!
Yes, even progressive Rep. Gwen Moore voted in favor of keeping the police fully armored with deadly occupying force battlefield gear. To then see that same weaponry set loose on a community looking very much like her district should cause some in her district to ask the congresswoman some serious questions on her visit back home.
The only two Wisconsin representatives to display backbone and loyalty to the Constitution they are sworn to defend and vote correctly on this issue were democrat Rep. Mark Pocan and retiring republican congressman Rep. Tom Petri.
If you see Pocan and Petri back in their district during this Congressional recess let them know you appreciate their courage. If you see Ron Kind and the rest of the representatives of the arms industry give ‘em a piece of your mind and tell ‘em you didn’t vote for them to armor up the police state.
Be sure to read “It’s Not About ‘Protect & Serve’”, below, to understand why six of our Wisconsin congress critters voted to keep militarizing domestic police.
- Update on Rep. Ron Kind’s Ongoing ‘Third Way’ Lie - Congressman Ron Kind is still a proud ‘honorary co-chair’ of the Wall Street funded front ‘Third Way’ group pushing for corporate friendly cuts to earned benefits, like Social Security and Medicare and continued excusing the wealthy from paying their fair share of taxes. The Daily Call first covered this issue back in April. At that time, when asked about his membership in a group that bushwhacked Sen. Elizabeth Warren with a Wall Street Journal article full of lies and innuendo, Mr. Kind professed horror and “disagreed” with the letter and said that is why he “quit” the group. Turns out that was a lie. He was then, and is still now ‘honorary co-chair’ of a group without honor. The lie still stands. To this day you can see his smiling mug on the Third Way web site here. Something else to ask the congressman as he wiggles around the district pleading for your vote.
