Rep. Barbara Lee doesn’t think elderly and disabled people in public housing should face the threat of eviction because of the crimes of others in their homes.
To that end, the California Democrat proposed an amendment to a housing reauthorization bill. The language is designed to prevent such evictions if the elderly or disabled tenants did not know of the criminal behavior or were themselves victims of crime.
Here are more Democratic video excerpts from the debate over the housing bill (the speakers are Maxine Waters of California and Keith Ellison of Minnesota):
Categories: California, Minnesota, Keith Ellison, Maxine Waters, Crime, Barbara Lee, Housing
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With Senate Democrats vowing to force Republicans into a literal filibuster over the Iraq war rather than a procedural one, House Democrats apparently don’t want to miss out on all of the fun. The leadership in the lower chamber coordinated a series of “one-minute speeches” at the beginning of today’s floor debate.
The Gavel, the blog maintained by the staff of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., published video and pullout quotes of some of the speeches, and Pelosi’s office posted more of them to YouTube. Here are links:
Categories: Maryland, New York, California, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee, Iraq, Democrats, Steve Cohen, Keith Ellison, John Hall, Hank Johnson, John Sarbanes, Albio Sires, Russ Carnahan, Frank Pallone, Tom Udall, Zoe Lofgren
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Rep. Virgil Goode has been under fire for days because of a letter he sent to constituents that criticized the plans of Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, a Muslim, to take the oath of office on the Koran next month.
Goode, R-Va., called the Democrat Ellison “the Muslim representative from Minnesota” and said that “if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.” The letter has earned him the condemnation of The Washington Post and numerous other newspapers, bloggers, and other commentators.
But Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch is questioning the rush to condemn Goode. He noted that Ellison has “sounded a defiant note” in a speech in Michigan that was hosted by the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America.
Spencer said that some people in the groups support the idea of replacing the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law and favor holy war in the United States as a way to promote an Islamic world. Those views prompted Spencer to ask some questions.
“Is it reasonable to ask Ellison if he shares such views?” he said in a video commentary. “On the basis of what evidence do Goode’s many detractors assume that neither Ellison nor any other Muslim in the United States subscribes to these views? Is it irrational or bigoted to ask Ellison to clarify where he stands on the MAS’ desire for the imposition of Islamic law in the United States?
“He has chosen freely to be associated with MAS and ICMA. He ought to be willing to clarify matters accordingly. And the mainstream media ought to be willing to take time out from vilifying Virgil Goode long enough to entertain the possibility that this case doesn’t quite fit their preconceived notions.”
Categories: Virginia, Minnesota, Keith Ellison, Virgil Goode, Religion, Civil Liberties, Terrorism
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