Read the story earlier (on drudge, I think?) and I was watching the hearings just now on CSPAN, and I have to say that the Republicans were right to walk out of that committee hearing today on the Patriot Act...it was a complete joke. You had nothing but civil rights groups attacking, along with immigration lawyers (aka-illegal immigration supporters- these are ALL left wing groups that support open borders, illegal immigration, etc), and the democrats on the panel did nothing but contend that the Bush administration is basically evil, that it's destroying individual rights, deporting innocent people, abusing innocent people, etc. It was a one sided meeting, and it was a joke...and the Republicans SHOULD have walked out on what was basically a big joke.
The hearing, called for by democratic members of the committee, turned into an attack fest on subjects not even related (AT ALL) to the patriot act...mainly Gitmo. The speakers used this hearing to blast Gitmo (even tho, no evidence of torture has come out of the facility- even Amnesty Intl has admitted that they have no information on abuse there), and the Republicans had no choice but to put this charade to an end.
You can watch the entire hearing by putting the following link into Real Player
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter061005_patriot.rm
I have great respect for James Sensenbrenner- this guy has got some big cajones.
Pitts compared the US to Zimbabwe and China...he accused that the US Patriot Act is responsible for human abuse rights of other nations!
More on this later...
Mike Pence (R-IN) took Pitts of Amn Intl to task, and his remarks can be found at 1:28:00 into the video.
1:33:00 into video- Jerold Nadler attacked Mike Pence's comments co Pitts (a point of decency in the hearing). Pitts merely asked if Pitts could qualify the comparsion of Gitmo to the gulags...Pitts refused to retract the comparsion (tho the US director last Sunday admitted that there's very little comparison and that he admittedly didn't know about anything that was going on at Gitmo). Pitts claimed people have been murdered at Gitmo (no evidence of this) and that Rumsfeld's official policies caused this death. Also no evidence for this claim.
You're again misunderstanding an argument. First of all, the complaint here has nothing to do with how 'one-sided' the hearing was. Congress holds hearings biased to one side EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's part of their job, to, you know, bring forth witnesses who back up their points. The problem is Sensenbrenner broke the rules when he ignored Nadler's point of order, and he turned the mics off on his way out! I'm sorry, leave if you want, but to cut the mics? Immature, at the very least.
Also, I noticed this rhetorical thing you do. You say the witnesses basically called the administration "evil." They did nothing of the sort. Nor was "evilness" implied. And frankly, with several conservative Republican senators now openly saying Gitmo should be shut down, the least you (and Sensenbrenner) could admit is that this whole thing is up for debate. AT LEAST ADMIT THAT IT IS DEBATEABLE.