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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

In reporting yesterday on the fallout from Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) proposal last week to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the Bush administration’s alleged crimes in connection with its “war on terror,” I neglected to mention that in 2005 Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) had proposed a similar commission — which he called a “National Commission on Policies and Practices on Treatment of Detainees Since September 11, 2001.” The aim would similarly have been to get at the truth, though the amendment did not rule out the possibility of subsequent prosecutions. (To be fair, Leahy hasn’t actually proposed...

SNIPPET: "Two of Congress's most radical members believe George W. Bush's America was the equal of apartheid South Africa. Last week, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy proposed that Congress establish a “truth commission” to investigate alleged Bush misdeeds. In the House, Judiciary committee chairman John Conyers seconded Leahy's request." SNIPPET: "If the investigation exposes the ongoing, covert measures Bush has taken to keep America safe, Leahy will only smile as they are revealed. He has a long history of exposing the most vital secrets of our nation. At least one operative was murdered after Leahy publicly leaked a 1985 intercept that...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Earlier this week, Sen. Patrick Leahy called for a special commission to investigate possible government wrongdoing by the Bush administration in its anti-terror policies, as well as possible attempts to politicize the Justice Department through the firing of U.S. attorneys who were viewed as potentially disloyal to the administration. While Americans appear to support some kind of investigation into these matters, no more than 41% favor criminal probes.

Democrats Call for “Truth and Reconciliation” The Obama administration has moved forward with lighting speed to impose its agenda upon us before anyone can mount an effective opposition. This has obviously been planned for a long time. That we have been so poorly served by our duly elected politicians, especially three Senate Republicans and virtually the entire Democrat Party, is discouraging beyond words. Unless some of these people get a serious dose of moral integrity overnight, Obama's massive spending bill will become law, and the beginning of the end of our great nation will hove into sight. It is now...

A U.S. "truth commission" should investigate Bush administration policies including the promotion of war in Iraq, detainee treatment and wiretapping without a warrant, an influential senator proposed on Monday. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, urged a commission as a way to heal what he called sharp political divides under former President George W. Bush and to prevent future abuses. He compared it to other truth commissions, such as one in South Africa that investigated the apartheid era. "We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past," Leahy said in a...

Senator seeks Bush-era "truth commission" Mon Feb 9, 2009 2:05pm EST By Randall Mikkelsen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. "truth commission" should probe Bush administration policies including the promotion of war in Iraq, detainee treatment and wiretapping without a warrant, an influential senator proposed on Monday. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called for the commission as way to heal what he called sharp political divides and to prevent future abuses. He compared it to other truth commissions, such as one in South Africa that investigated the apartheid era. "We need to come to a shared understanding...

Washington: Sen. Pat Leahy has proposed a "truth commission" that would probe the activities of the Bush administration. Does the senator really want to take the U.S. down the road of radical Third World politics?Don't forget this is "Leaky Leahy," a nickname the Vermont Democrat earned for his habit of revealing sensitive government information. A series of negligent — some might say deliberate — disclosures led to his 1987 resignation from the vice chairmanship of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Such a person has no moral authority to sit in judgment of anyone. Lawmakers should shun Leahy's witch hunt....

All the talk of bipartisanship is a sham, and Republicans are foolish to listen to any of the sweet talk. President Obama agreed with Attorney General Holder when he used the identical phrasing with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on January 11 saying, “No one is above the law.” Thus far, President Obama has been vague about investigating the Bush administration saying, “He wants to look forward.” But Obama told the Philadelphia Daily News that, if there was evidence of criminality, he would ask his Justice Department to “immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries...

President Obama in his first prime time presidential press conference took a question from the legitimate news source Huffington Post: Sam Stein, Huffington Post. Where’s Sam? Here. Go ahead. Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Today, Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-Vermont] announced that he wants to set up a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate the misdeeds of the Bush administration. He said that, before you turn the page, you have to read the page first. Do you agree with such a proposal? And are you willing to rule out right here and now any prosecution of Bush administration officials?

The Democrats campaigned on the promise of an era of post-partisanship. That was the campaign. Their governing style, however, is as rigidly partisan as ever, as these remarks made by Senator Pat Leahy demonstrate.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is calling for a “truth commission” to look into alleged abuses inside the Justice Department during former President George W. Bush’s time in office, including a review of Office of Legal Counsel memos that authorized “enhanced interrogation techniques” against detainees, the warrantless surveillance program and other hugely controversial policies. Leahy said such a panel would not seek to build criminal cases against Bush officials but to “get to the bottom of what happened — and why — so we make sure it never happens again.” Some Democrats have called for criminal investigations of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is proposing a "truth commission" to investigate abuses of detainees, politically inspired moves at the Justice Department, and whole range of decisions made during the Bush administration. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the primary goal of the commission would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials, but said the inquiry should reach far beyond misdeeds at the Justice Department under Bush to include matters of Iraq prewar intelligence and the Defense Department. Leahy outlined his suggestion for a "truth and reconciliation" commission during a speech at Georgetown...

In two days, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) will begin the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Eric Holder, former Clinton deputy attorney general who is President-elect Barack Obama’s highly controversial nominee to the office of Attorney General. Holder, best known for playing a major role in the Clinton pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, will face skeptical Republicans, including ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Specter has run into a Leahy roadblock in his attempts to get some of the background documents on the nomination. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has refused to sign off on document requests by Republicans...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, deserved it when Cheney launched the f-word at him in 2004. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday," Cheney was asked if he had any second thoughts or embarrassment. "No. I thought he merited it at the time," Cheney said, laughing. The incident occurred in June 2004 when both Cheney and Leahy were on the Senate floor. Sources who related the incident to CNN at the time said the vice president had told Leahy to either "f— off" or "go f— yourself."

Cheney: Yes, I Did Tell Leahy to 'Bleep' Himself @ 10:15 am by Walter Alarkon Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged that he indeed cursed out Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on the Senate floor in 2004 — and he said he had no regrets about doing so. "Did you really tell Senator Leahy, 'bleep' yourself?" Fox News's Chris Wallace asked Cheney on Sunday. "I did," the vice president replied. "Any qualms, or second thoughts, or embarrassment?" Wallace asked. "No, I thought he merited it at the time," Cheney joked. "And we've since, I think, patched over that wound and we're civil...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday dismissed any concern that Attorney General nominee Eric Holder’s confirmation process would be haunted by the pardon of Marc Rich. Speaking at a press conference to praise President-elect Barack Obama’s nominations, Leahy singled out Holder as “a longtime friend” and an “especially fitting” choice to lead the Justice Department. He predicted Holder’s involvement in the 2001 pardon of Rich — a fugitive commodities trader granted clemency on President Bill Clinton’s last day in office — would play only a minor role in the upcoming hearings. Leahy acknowledged that, while the topic...

Dems say they won’t get fooled again By: Glenn Thrush September 21, 2008 06:51 PM EST Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) says he’s seen this movie before: The Bush administration, citing an unprecedented national threat, puts the hammer on Congress to ram through gargantuan legislation with a minimum of review — and the murkiest of repercussions. “We will do something this week — but if we learned anything from right after 9/11, it’s that the biggest mistake is to pass anything they ask for just because it’s an emergency,” Leahy says. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman knows of what he speaks....

"I believe there are others involved, either as accessories before or accessories after the fact," Mr. Leahy said. "I believe there are others who can be charged with murder." Mr. Leahy's skepticism was echoed by GOP Sens. Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Members of the U.S. Senate don't typically earn money from another job after they're elected to the august body because of concerns that they will be unduly influenced by customers or colleagues. Oklahoma pro-life Sen. Tom Coburn is an OBGYN and is coming under fire for helping his patients. When he is not in Washington, Coburn works at the Muskogee Regional Medical Center. The hospital changed from a public one to private ownership in April and, following that decision, Coburn has come under fire for working there. However, Coburn changed his practice and now delivers babies...

At last there's a liberal who's tough on terrorism: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). Too bad it's make-believe. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a man who's done everything in his power to obstruct President George W. Bush's efforts to fight Islamofascist terrorism, has a cameo appearance in The Dark Knight.The Hill reports that in the movie Leahy confronts Batman's nemesis, the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger. (See screen capture above from a clip of the movie on youtube.com.) "We're not intimidated by thugs," Leahy says. "You know you remind me of my father. I hated my father,"...

WASHINGTON — After four years pursuing one former Army scientist on a costly false trail, F.B.I. agents investigating the deadly anthrax letters of 2001 finally zeroed in last year on a different suspect: another Army scientist from the same biodefense research center at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. /snip The other puzzle involved the skills necessary to produce the high-quality aerosol powder contained in the letters addressed to the senators, Tom Daschle .. and .. Patrick J. Leahy. Scientists familiar with germ warfare said there was no evidence that Dr. Ivins, though a vaccine expert with easy access to the...

Last week’s daring rescue of 15 Colombian hostages held by the Marxist FARC has been universally hailed as a triumph of military strategy. But at least one group besides the gulled guerilla jailers looks diminished in its aftermath: Congressional Democrats. While Colombia’s military will rightly reap praise for the rescue, the operation was in no small measure an American achievement. In addition to U.S. satellite intelligence that pinpointed the FARC guerillas’ jungle location, Colombian security forces have benefited from $4 billion in American aid since 2002. For this assistance – so vital in last week’s events – Colombia does not...

Two U.S. senators called on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to back off its assertion that it can search laptops and other electronic devices owned by U.S. citizens returning to the country without the need for reasonable suspicion of a crime or probable cause. Senators Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, both urged CBP to reconsider its policy that apparently has lead to frequent searches of laptops, digital cameras and handheld devices at borders. "If you asked [U.S. residents] whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails,...

Don't blame us for prices - oil execsA Senate Judiciary Committee seeks answers from Big Oil execs for rising oil prices on day that crude crossed $130 a barrel. By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer Last Updated: May 21, 2008: 3:47 PM EDT NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Amid increasing public outcry over record-shattering oil and gas prices, senators on Wednesday hauled industry executives in to testify about the recent runup. **SNIP** The executives said it did, and that they are doing all they can to bring new oil supplies to market, but that the fundamental reasons for the surge in...