Free Republic

Six senators introduced legislation that would make selling fake maple syrup a felony offense that can lead to fines and up to five years in prison. The Maple Agriculture Protection and Law Enforcement (MAPLE) is a response to what chief sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and others say is the increasing practice of cheating Vermont, upstate New York and other maple syrup regions by selling inferior, fake syrup. "I have been alarmed by the growing number of individuals and businesses claiming to sell genuine Vermont maple syrup when they are in fact selling an inferior product that is not maple...

Recordings released via CBS reporter Sharyl Atkisson offer many disturbing comments regarding the Gunwalker scandal. Weapons dealer Andre Howard is speaking with ATF agent Hope McAlister. On one of the recordings it is suggested that putting a private investigator on Senator Chuck Grassley could help diminish Grassley's enthusiasm for the Gunwalker investigation: EXCERPT 2 Dealer: Until something else happens they're not stupid, Hope, they connect the dots. Agent: No and you know and all that's fine if Senator Grassley wants to come in and tell us show us how to work these cases more efficiently more effectively by all means....

(CNSNews.com) -- While a federal appeals court ruled today that the mandate in Obamacare requiring individuals to purchase health insurance was unconstitutional, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismissed a question in 2009 about Congress' constitutional authority to impose such a mandate. At the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 22, 2009, CNSNews.com asked Leahy, “Where, in your opinion, does the Constitution give specific authority for Congress to give an individual mandate for health insurance?” Leahy said, "We have plenty of authority. Are you saying there is no authority? … Why would you say there is no authority?...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that the first jobs bill to move after the recess will be the patent reform legislation… Reid and bill sponsor Senator Patrick Leahy said "the bill, is expected to create 200,000 jobs." The patent reform as job stimulus is endorsed by the White House, too, Obama saying at a June 29 press conference, "Right now, Congress can send me a bill that would make it easier for entrepreneurs to patent a new product or idea. Naaancy Pelosi, demanded that lawmakers kill the bill or at least remove Section 18, a little-known provision that...

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), joined by several other House Democrats, re-introduced on Thursday the Uniting American Families Act, which would permit homosexual and lesbian American citizens to sponsor their partners for legal residency in the United States, saying the status-quo is “humanly cruel.” The New York congressman, who is leading the push for passing the legislation, said there are more than 100 Democrat co-sponsors of the bill, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He also said that a similar bill is being introduced in the Senate by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The prospects of the bill passing...

Democrats demand CIA detainee documents By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago A Senate Democrat who will chair its Judiciary Committee next year asked the Justice Department to release newly acknowledged documents setting U.S. policy on how suspects in the war on terrorism are detained and interrogated. "The American people deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism and concern at home and around the world," Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales....

Here is video of Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren talking with Gov. Sarah Palin in Haiti about the devastation and suffering they saw during their visit there last week. Palin, along with husband Todd, and daughter Bristol went to Haiti along with Rev. Franklin Graham and Greta Van Susteren. They focused on the work Graham’s ministry – Samaritan’s Purse – is doing in Haiti to try and save the people there from a Cholera Epidemic. Palin also hammered Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy – who Van Susteren said has called for an end of American aid to Haiti until the corruption...

Both the left and right sides of the blogosphere are buzzing about a bipartisan TARP-style banking bailout bill that somehow reached President Obama’s desk in the legislative rush before Congress adjourned for the midterm election break. The sordid episode underscores everything I’ve spotlighted about the culture of corruption over the last two years — sabotage of the deliberative process, circumventing of rules, backroom deals, and contempt for the will of the people. Yes, the Vampire Congress strikes again. The bill is HR3808, the “Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010,” which requires courts to accept as valid notarized letters made...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, has proposed a bill that would allow for retired Supreme Court Justices to sit on the court by designation in cases where the active justice has recused. READ THE BILL Under the proposed bill, the active justices of the Supreme Court would be permitted to vote to designate a retired Supreme Court justice in a particular case in which one or more Justices have recused themselves and allow the court to preempt potential 4:4 split decisions, in which the decision of a lower court stands.

ALG Ad Urging Patrick Leahy to Oppose Robert Chatigny for 2nd Circuit Court

NORTH CLARENDON — The Vermont Chamber’s Aerospace and Aviation Association is holding an open house Thursday at the Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport. The event, which is sponsored by GE Aviation, will focus on the company’s role in the production of the GEnx engine, which will be used for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8. It will also celebrate improvements at the North Clarendon airport. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch and Boeing Co. executive Rick Stephens are among the featured speakers. The event runs from 3 to 5 p.m.

The most ethical Congress evah. On July 22, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) sent a letter to President Obama demanding that he appoint a special counsel to look into the Justice Department’s handling of the case. On July 28, Gerald Reynolds — chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights — sent Attorney General Eric Holder another letter once again demanding the testimony of Christopher Coates, who had been previously subpoenaed by the Commission. The former career chief of the Voting Section at the Civil Rights Division, Coates recommended that the lawsuit against the NBPP go forward. Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee...

At least three Democratic senators have been subjects of false reports of their deaths in the past two days, prompting the U.S. Capitol Police to open an investigation into the matter. Several news outlets received a hoax e-mail news release, announcing the death of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday. Leahy, 70, who participated in July 4 events, is alive and well, according to spokesman David Carle. “It was spoofed to look as if it had come from the office,” Carle said. A copy of the e-mail, posted on the Web site of Washington’s WTOP radio, said Leahy had died...

Elena Kagan thinks that the "Borking" of Robert Bork during his 1987 Supreme Court confirmation hearings would deserve a commemorative plate if the Franklin Mint launched a "great moments in legal history" dishware line. This isn't the time to rehearse the reasons why Kagan is wrong on that score. Still, one adverse result of the Bork hearings is worth dwelling on. Bork was the last Supreme Court nominee to give serious answers to serious questions. But because the left successfully anathematized him, no nominee since has dared show Borkian forthrightness. Consider Monday's high-court ruling: The Second Amendment right to own...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is asking Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to close the little-used Canadian border crossing at Morses Line. The Democratic senator told Napolitano in a letter Sunday that he's prepared to close the port during the Appropriations process, if necessary.

Republican Len Britton has a real winner with his first short video spot. Britton focuses on voter disgust with Washington’s record spending and debt. Len Britton is running against far left liberal Patrick Leahy. This ad really nails voter disgust with the out of touch Washington progressive socialists. United States Senate candidate Len Britton kicks off his campaign ad season with the witty and entertaining short video Get A Paper Route, Billy. Filmed in rural Vermont, the minute and thirty second spot highlights the national debt crisis with down home Yankee humor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1W8lZrEvOg

By mattie May 10, 2010 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy’s comments on the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Seems he and barry find the birth certificate issue comical. If you aren’t aware Leahy was the one behind the Senate Resolution declaring Sen McCain a NBC. VIDEO

As appeals to bi-partisanship go, this could down as recent history's most contemptible and hypocritical . . . On this evening's Ed Show, bemoaning the lack of conservative support for Pres. Obama handling of the Times Square attempted bombing, Dem senator Patrick Leahy has accused Pres. Bush of having "dropped the ball" on 9-11, claiming "9-11 could have been avoided." View video here.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will hold a hearing Friday to examine a report that allowed two Bush administration officials to escape any formal punishment regarding their role in drafting the legal justification for the harsh interrogations of detainees. Jay Bybee and John Yoo, two former high-level Bush administration officials who drafted the legal basis for the Bush administration’s treatment of overseas terror suspects, escaped any formal punishment in a long-awaited Justice Department report released Friday evening. Leahy also called on federal appeals court judge Bybee to step down from the lifetime appointment over his role in the...

Last Thursday, apparently still celebrating the Bringer of Light’s first State of the Union address from the night before, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) stumbled onto the Senate floor, clung to the podium for balance, and proceeded to rant about, well, something…for three minutes and thirty seconds over his time limit. According to Media Matters, Leahy’s inebriated rant last Thursday morning only occurred in Mark Levin’s head. They also smeared the Fox Nation for embedding the video of Leahy’s speech from C-SPAN and reporting, completely without commentary, that Levin suggested that Leahy might have been drunk. Typical of Media Matters, author...

You be the judge. Sounds sloshed to me.

Superlobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, the focus of a federal criminal investigation, held an ownership interest in three small, privately held companies that his lobbying firm had helped obtain millions of federal tax dollars in congressional earmarks. In effect, he was trying to profit twice from his firm's success in getting members of Congress to set aside, or earmark, tax money for his clients in annual appropriations bills by collecting hefty lobbying fees from the companies and, at the same time, hoping to make money by investing in their stock. ~snip~ While the OMB did not identify which member of Congress obtained...

At least common thieves don't destroy an entire health care system and socialize the American economy when they commit their felonies. Too bad we can't say the same for our illustrious Democratic senators who sold out the nation. In exchange for criminally unconstitutional favors for their respective states, they voted to pass the Senate health care bill just 38 hours after it had been made available to the public for review. Everyone knows about Sen. Mary Landrieu's negotiating $300 million for her state in non-guaranteed Medicaid payouts. She was even cocky about her institutionalized larceny. Sen. Bernie Sanders finagled $10...

Sri Lanka is joining Israel as a country facing a war crimes investigation for effectively fighting back against terrorism.

According to CNSNews.com, “Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) would not say what part of the Constitution grants Congress the power to force every American to buy health insurance – as all of the health care overhaul bills currently do.” That actually is not quite accurate: Leahy, who has been in office far too long to remember why he is there, could not say what part of the Constitution authorizes the unauthorizable. Read more ...

In nine short months, I've used up my supply of the word creepy when responding to the heavy-handedness of all this Hope and Change. The Obama administration's penchant for silencing dissent, epitomized by its childish public battle with Fox News, shows a complete disregard for the First Amendment, which is thought of by most as the cornerstone of the Constitution. Once the powers-that-be decide to take a dump on that, it's pretty easy to scrap the rest of the Constitution. A frequent liberal foe (the good kind) of mine on Twitter said yesterday that he doesn't much subscribe to slippery...

Your Concerns From: Senator Roland Burris Dear [Forgiven Sinner]: Thank you for contacting me regarding the Senator Leahy Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1390) regarding hate crime legislation. Current law defines hate crime as any crime against either person or property in which the offender intentionally selects the victim because of the victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or disability. Currently, hate crimes are not distinct offenses under federal law; rather, they are crimes that are committed by individuals who are motivated by one or more biases that are considered to be...

Under the Senate Judiciary Committee as run by Patrick Leahy, even plans on which the two parties have previously agreed to collaborate disintegrate into partisanship. Witness his effort to expand the federal judiciary now that President Obama can pick the new judges. The original version of the Federal Judgeship Act, proposed in March 2008 and co-sponsored by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, was supposed to give both parties a say in the composition of an expanded federal judiciary. Then the election results would determine which party's President got to nominate the judges. The idea was to pass a plan and then...

On Tuesday, Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant who was a teenager in Queens during the Sept. 11 attacks, pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism conspiracy charges in New York. This is a scary story. Police stopped and searched Zazi's rented car on the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks loomed and President Obama was about to join world leaders at a U.N. confab. According to the U.S. attorney's office, Zazi flew to Pakistan in August 2008 to receive bombmaking instructions, returned to use the Internet and nine pages of handwritten bombmaking...

Oversight: As the Senate votes to de-fund Acorn, add pimping, tax evasion and human trafficking to voter fraud paid for with taxpayer dollars and you have an organized criminal enterprise. It's time to investigate.After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block...

Supreme Court nominee returns for a third and final day of questioning Thursday, having avoided saying much on a range of hot-button issues, including guns and abortion.As witnesses prepare to take the stand Thursday in Sonia Sotomayor's last day of confirmation hearings, the chairman of the Senate Juduciary Committee said their testimony will matter little. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday that he may not ask any questions of the witnesses present at the Supreme Court nominee's hearing. Among the witnesses requested by the committee to testify are New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Connecticut firefighters whom the federal...

In Judge Sonia Sotomayor's show-trial hearings today, Senator Patrick Leahy made a big show of misquoting Sotomayor's oft-repeated racist comments about the superiority of the judgement of Latina women over white men. How does this guy have a job?

In Judge Sonia Sotomayor's show-trial hearings today, Senator Patrick Leahy made a big show of misquoting Sotomayor's oft-repeated racist comments about the superiority of the judgement of Latina women over white men. How does this guy have a job?

WASHINGTON (AP) - In endorsing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy did some creative rewriting of history. And he put quote marks around it. Trying to head off criticism of a controversial comment, Leahy misquoted Sotomayor's own words in kicking off the second day of her confirmation hearings.

Supreme Court nominee faces tough questioning from Republican senators about her ability to judge fairly

   Under questioning, Attorney Gen. Holder was surprisingly forthright in admitting that the hate bill is not intended to protect everyone, or even the majority. He said only historically oppressed minorities were to benefit. This means Jews, blacks, homosexuals, women, etc. Holder made it clear that if a white Christian male, including a serviceman or police officer, was the victim of a violent hate crime by any minority he would have to find redress from traditional law. He could not avail himself of the triple penalties and rapid government/justice system response given a protected minority.____________________________________________ LEAHY'S HATE BILL HEARING A SHAM...

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Democrat from Vermont who is the powerful chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is adding another controversial ingredient to the volatile mix of an immigration debate that President Obama has said he hopes to spur in Congress before the end of the year. Mr. Leahy has offered a bill that would allow American citizens and legal immigrants to seek residency in the United States for their same-sex partners, just as spouses now petition for foreign-born husbands and wives. The senator has said the bill should be part of any broad immigration legislation that Congress considers. To...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 2, 2009 NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE: Daniel Ginsberg, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, vice Craig W. Duehring. Louis B. Susman, of Illinois, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Leahy: No worries, Sotomayor told me she’d follow the law posted at 4:25 pm on June 2, 2009 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly Small comfort that she’s unwilling to admit outright she’ll be applying The One’s “empathy” standard in close cases. Even those who profess a belief in forms of racial superiority have a limit to what they’ll say publicly, I guess. As for whether The One was correct in insisting that she misspoke when she made her “wise Latina” comment or whether, as anyone who’s thought about it for five seconds would...

Not just content to win elections, the Left is trying to destroy its political opponents by calling for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for political and legal decisions the Left does not like. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is leading this banana republic style campaign to criminalize policy decisions made by a duly elected previous administration.

Quick quiz Q #1: Who made this remark announcing his opposition to a female judicial nominee which dismisses the “personal life story” argument? “We have heard a lot about her life story. If this were a vote on a Senate resolution commemorating her life story, I am sure the entire Senate would gladly support it. Instead, this is a vote about the lives of multiple millions of other Americans whose lives would be affected by this nominee’s ideological activist penchants. This is, after all, a lifetime appointment on a [court] on which her ideology would be especially harmful and destructive...

Names of the six senators who voted to fund the closing of GITMO: Durbin - Illinois Harkin - Iowa Leahy - Vermont Levin - Michigan Reed - Rhode Island Whitehorse - Rhode Island Source: michellemalkin.com

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy took on former Vice President Dick Cheney today, responding to the public criticism he has been giving the Obama administration. Leahy, appearing on Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, said he disagrees with comments by the former vice president that the Obama administration is making America more vulnerable to another al Qaeda attack, by not using harsh interrogation tactics. "I don't know if this is the run-up to the book the vice president is writing,” Leahy said, “but it is very interesting to notice the former president is not going on every...

Leahy Raises Questions Over Specter Subcommittee Chairmanship By Emily Pierce Roll Call Staff May 7, 2009, 12:43 p.m. Leahy Raises Questions Over Specter Subcommittee Chairmanship Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday appeared to throw a little cold water on the Democratic leadership’s plan to give recent party-switcher Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) a plum subcommittee chairmanship. Though Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced earlier in the day that he would relinquish the Crime and Drugs subpanel and take over a reconstituted Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Leahy told reporters, “Nothing’s been worked out.” Leahy indicated that...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had an angry scowl on his face when reporters informed him Thursday that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) would take over one of his subcommittees. Leahy was surprised to learn that Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the Judiciary panel, had given up his chairmanship of the Crime and Drugs panel to Specter. Leahy received no advanced warning from Durbin. Leahy and Specter have a friendly relationship, by and large, aides say, but they have also been known to spar heatedly. After news of his gambit broke, Durbin said that he knew...

Leahy continues to push for his "bipartisan truth commission" despite opposition from President Obama and Harry Reid. I'm all for it if they make Nancy Pelosi and company testify, under oath, what they knew and when they knew it about waterboarding. Oh wait, Leahy only wants to prosecute Republicans. Anyone else think Leahy looks like the Lucky Charms leprechaun?

A Justice Department memo released by the Obama administration last week indicating that the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” – including waterboarding – apparently helped the U.S. government thwart a terrorist attack in Los Angeles, confirms that waterboarding has helped undermine al Qaeda, Republican lawmakers told CNSNews.com on Wednesday. But Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which provides oversight for the Justice Department, told CNSNews.com he had not yet read the memo on waterboarding, and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to offer an opinion on whether the CIA’s use of waterboarding was justified as...

The Judiciary Committee chairman has not had much to say about the Obama administration’s decision to release Binyam Mohammed, the al-Qaeda jihadist who was planning to carry out mass-murder attacks in American cities, who is now free and clear to live and plot in Londonistan. Leahy did, however, make time last week to conduct a hearing on his banana-republic scheme for a “non-partisan” — also non-elected, non-accountable — sideshow that would conduct an inquisition into the Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies. His model, he has explained, is South Africa’s “truth and reconciliation commission.” Let’s roll that around the brain, shall we?...

My Lefty friend e-mailed this to me.... unbelievable Dear ****** ******* Thank you for signing my petition at BushTruthCommission.com, urging Congress to consider the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate Bush-Cheney Administration abuses. Now, please urge your friends and family to sign the petition as well: http://www.bushtruthcommission.com/ Thank you for supporting this important effort. Sincerely, Patrick Leahy U.S. Senator