Barack Obama

Father of 9/11 Hero Has Searing Words For Holder

Susan Crabtree | April 5, 2011, 12:51PM

David Beamer

The father of 9/11 hero Todd Beamer tore into Attorney General Eric Holder for standing by his earlier decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York civilian courts even as he reversed course and announced Monday that KSM and his co-conspirators would be tried in military commissions.

Holder and the White House got a thorough drubbing by critics and supporters alike Monday for reversing course and breaking a campaign promise to close the detainee prison facility at Guantanamo Bay and try KSM and 9/11 co-conspirators in civilian courts. But one of the most searing critiques came Tuesday morning from David Beamer, the father of Todd Beamer, the renowned hero of United Airlines flight 93 who fought the terrorists before the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pa.

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Wisconsin

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Wis. GOPers Face...Loud Town Halls! (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | March 8, 2011, 11:37AM

State Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-WI) and U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)

Wisconsin Republicans are now running into a rough sight in the battle over Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill and its anti-public employee union provisions, a sight that might be familiar to Democrats from the 2009-2010 health care debates: Loud, raucous town halls. And when U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R) ran into that ruckus last night in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Sensenbrenner declared the meeting over -- after 27 minutes.

As the local paper WauwatosaNOW, which has the same parent corporation as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reports:

U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner shut down Monday night's town hall meeting in Wauwatosa early because the overflow crowd was more interested in talking about the state budget bills with Republican host state Sen. Leah Vukmir, attendees said.

The meeting got off to a tense start, they explained. Sensenbrenner threatened to shut it down if the crowd got unruly.

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Online privacy

Republicans Push Internet Service Providers To Retain Data For Child Porn Prosecutions

Kase Wickman | January 25, 2011, 4:11PM

It's a question privacy advocates and law enforcement have been grappling with for years: Does the protection of Little Sister justify Big Brother's prying eyes?

House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security met Tuesday morning to try to answer that question, with help from the Department of Justice, the United States Internet Service Provider Association and others. At issue is how long internet service providers should be required to keep massive amounts of user data for law enforcement to potentially sort through later.

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