Report from the Town Hall - Comments
As MDE, Kevin and Joe Tucci have already reported, the first hour of yesterday's town hall meeting was specifically for comments directed toward the Congressman. The people spoke, the politician LISTENED! Here are some of the comments from last night (I will try to keep the editorial remarks to a minimum).
The first comment of the night was from a Chaska resident who was an educator. Her concern (ed - one that is shared by many including parents of school children) was on the No Child Left Behind Act. She (ed- righty IMHO) called NCLB an unfunded mandate and wanted to know what Congress was going to do to correct that.
Our first anti-war comment of the night came from another Chaska resident who mentioned that the latest Minnesotan to die in this "misguided adventure" (Daniel Olson) was just announced. The commentor wanted to know how many Iraqi have been trained and when would they be able to take over? (ed. - I will be referring back to this later). The commentor then said that he was president of the group "Veterans for Peace" and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the troops. Approximately 3-4 dozen audience members stood at these remarks. Meanwhile there was polite applause from the rest of the audience. These remarks were followed by an Eagan resident who remarked on governmental "cronyism" and the gross mismanagement of funds by Paul Bremer and the Iraqi Government.
The next set of comments were about Islam, with a retired naval commander from Prior Lake commenting on how our government and the American people were ignorant of the threat of Islam - how Islam is a religion of War, not peace and how they were compelled to lie to infidels (Taqquiya) which lead to an Apple Valley minister who commented that Christianity had their moments of savegry (ed - true enough but that was centuries ago - we outgrew it!). He said that we should "respect Islam" (ed - well respect IS a two way street sir).
The anti-war comments were interrupted by a couple of folks who wanted to comment on the Union Free Choice Act - one supporting Congressman Kline's vote on the bill, the other against it (ed - this is how the evening seemed to go)
A woman from Apple Valley wanted to comment on Executive War Powers. She said that it always seemed like we were at war with SOMETHING like terror or poverty or drugs or immigration so doesn't that give the President unlimited powers forever? ED - talk about your mis-intepretation of the War Powers. She clearly does not realize that Presidential War Powers only (let me repeat that) ONLY come after Congress has officially declared WAR on an opponent. These powers do not apply in the war on poverty or drugs because there is no official Congressional declaration of WAR!
A Liberian national then got up to speak about extending their temporary sanctuary (this deserves it's own post).
Several more comments went back and forth on the war (including one with a call to extend Guard benefits) then one lady (who obviously was NOT paying attention when our moderator laid out the format for the evening) demanded that we be allow to "question" the Congressman.
The next batch of comments are so important that I am moving them to their own post.
The first comment of the night was from a Chaska resident who was an educator. Her concern (ed - one that is shared by many including parents of school children) was on the No Child Left Behind Act. She (ed- righty IMHO) called NCLB an unfunded mandate and wanted to know what Congress was going to do to correct that.
Our first anti-war comment of the night came from another Chaska resident who mentioned that the latest Minnesotan to die in this "misguided adventure" (Daniel Olson) was just announced. The commentor wanted to know how many Iraqi have been trained and when would they be able to take over? (ed. - I will be referring back to this later). The commentor then said that he was president of the group "Veterans for Peace" and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the troops. Approximately 3-4 dozen audience members stood at these remarks. Meanwhile there was polite applause from the rest of the audience. These remarks were followed by an Eagan resident who remarked on governmental "cronyism" and the gross mismanagement of funds by Paul Bremer and the Iraqi Government.
The next set of comments were about Islam, with a retired naval commander from Prior Lake commenting on how our government and the American people were ignorant of the threat of Islam - how Islam is a religion of War, not peace and how they were compelled to lie to infidels (Taqquiya) which lead to an Apple Valley minister who commented that Christianity had their moments of savegry (ed - true enough but that was centuries ago - we outgrew it!). He said that we should "respect Islam" (ed - well respect IS a two way street sir).
The anti-war comments were interrupted by a couple of folks who wanted to comment on the Union Free Choice Act - one supporting Congressman Kline's vote on the bill, the other against it (ed - this is how the evening seemed to go)
A woman from Apple Valley wanted to comment on Executive War Powers. She said that it always seemed like we were at war with SOMETHING like terror or poverty or drugs or immigration so doesn't that give the President unlimited powers forever? ED - talk about your mis-intepretation of the War Powers. She clearly does not realize that Presidential War Powers only (let me repeat that) ONLY come after Congress has officially declared WAR on an opponent. These powers do not apply in the war on poverty or drugs because there is no official Congressional declaration of WAR!
A Liberian national then got up to speak about extending their temporary sanctuary (this deserves it's own post).
Several more comments went back and forth on the war (including one with a call to extend Guard benefits) then one lady (who obviously was NOT paying attention when our moderator laid out the format for the evening) demanded that we be allow to "question" the Congressman.
The next batch of comments are so important that I am moving them to their own post.
Labels: John Kline, Troops, Undermining the War
posted by The Lady Logician at
4:27 PM
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