Sensenbrenner REP 24%

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bailed 2020 lcv life 24

he's on the SCIENCE COMM, took over from mod boehlert?

piece of work

bak 4 22

an 919

21-term U.S. Congressman, the second-longest serving in the House of Representatives, has just announced he will retire at the end of his term. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, is one of the architects of the PATRIOT Act. He’s also one of a few members of Congress to vote against making Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday.

Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

????another House Republican retirement ????

Wisconsin GOP Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner has been in Congress since 1979.

He’s the second-most senior lawmaker in the House. https://twitter.com/mollybeck/status/1169372472468234240 …

Molly Beck@MollyBeck

BREAKING: Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner on WISN says he won't run for re-election, after representing his Republican district for more than 40 years.

A 21-term U.S. Congressman, the second-longest serving in the House of Representatives, has just announced he will retire at the end of his term. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, is one of the architects of the PATRIOT Act. He’s also one of a few members of Congress to vote against making Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday.

Sensenbrenner is ranked as a hard core conservative. He voted multiple times against same-sex marriage and voted against re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

He is the 16th Republican to announce he is leaving Congress this session. Only three Democrats have announced they are leaving.

https://thinkprogress.org/know-your-zombies-sensenbrenner-picked-to-lead-house-attack-on-climate-science-says-i-personally-a3bc437a0f92#.3xq3lhhyh

Jim Sensenbrenner - Wikipedia

O’Keefe’s Battleground Texas Video Declared “Little More Than A Canard And Political Disinformation” By State Investigation. In February 2014, Project Veritas released a video purporting to show employees of the progressive voter registration group Battleground Texas using “potentially illegal methods to change elections.” Outraged Republican state officials pushed for an investigation into the video, ultimately resulting in two Texas special prosecutors disparaging O’Keefe’s tactics and the video itself. The special prosecutors concluded their investigation by asking that complaints against Battleground Texas be dismissed, calling the Veritas video “little more than a canard and political disinformation.” *Media Matters*, [4/7/14]

O’Keefe “Confronted” Lawmaker About Nonexistent Language In “Race Hustler” Voting Rights Legislation. In a March 2014 video, O’Keefe bizarrely attempted to “ambush” Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) about his bipartisan bill designed to reaffirm civil rights protections in the Voting Rights Act. After dancing to a New Order song while wearing camouflage,O’Keefe attempted to confront Sensenbrenner at several Wisconsin town hall meetings for so-called “racialist language” in his bill that “excludes whites,” which Sensenbrenner correctly noted the bill does not,in fact, do. Media reporter Dave Weigel described the bizarre video’s “strange” focus at Slate:

[K]udos to James O'Keefe for going undercover, in hunting gear for some reason, and posing as a constituent. It's just confusing what he decided to do when he got in the room. O'Keefe insists that Sensenbrenner's attempt to restore some version of voting rights law pre-clearance is de facto racist.

There is no mention of the "Voting Rights Act" in the intro. It's called "a part of federal law that gives Eric Holder the power to approve election law in 16 states," and Sensenbrenner's amendment is called "legislation to give Eric Holder back power over state elections."

[...]

In the room, asking questions, O'Keefe does use the law's name. He asks Sensenbrenner whether it's true that the bill "removes white people from the protections of the Voting Rights Act." Sensenbrenner says it isn't -- a red buzzer goes off. We're directed to language in Sec. III, subsection 4 of the bill, which defines "the term 'minority' as used throughout.

This is strange. That's not the bill's only mention of race -- it's a pretty trivial one, actually.

[...]

:{But most people who covered the bill have been over this already. O'Keefe's claims just don't wash. Slate, :(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:[3/5/14; Media Matters, 3/5/14]

O’Keefe Forced To Pay $100,000 And Publicly Apologize In Settlement Related To Sham 2010 ACORN Exposé.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/13002/koch-criminal-justice-reform-trojan-horse

Brendan Fischer and Lisa Graves

Charles and David Koch have received positive press for backing a bipartisan effort to reform American criminal justice laws, which have helped make the U.S. the world's biggest jailer and whose burdens have fallen disproportionately on people of color.

But, as the Kochs ride the wave of momentum toward criminal justice reform, it is becoming increasingly clear that part of their agenda would actually make it harder to prosecute corporate violations of environmental and financial laws that protect the public from corporate wrongdoing. The changes would make it harder to hold executives and their employees responsible for violating U.S. laws and would protect their financial interests, at the public's expense.

Over at least the past five years, theKochs and Koch-backed groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have been pushing to increase the "intent" standard for criminal violations, particularly for so-called "white collar" crime and executive suite criminals.

This under-reported aspect of the Koch criminal justice reform agenda has been elevated in recent weeks, and could potentially reap big benefits for Koch Industries and other big corporate players.

"Intent" Requirement Would Block Many Corporate Criminal Prosecutions

Legislation to make the criminal justice system fairer passed the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support this winter. As the U.S. House of Representatives has taken up the matter, the bipartisan consensus has begun to fray with a controversial proposal lifted directly from the Koch playbook.

A bill that passed theU.S. House Judiciary Committee last month, sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), doesn't address mass incarceration, one of the primary concerns that progressives have been raising for years. His bill would instead overhaul many federal criminal laws by requiring prosecutors to prove that a person or corporation "knowingly" engaged in illegal conduct and additionally "knew" or should have known that the conduct violated federal law. Koch Industries is one of his top contributors in this election cycle.

The bill's default criminal intent standard is strikingly similar to the ALEC "Criminal Intent Protection Act," and tracks policies promoted by Koch-backed organizations for the past five years. As the Center for Media and Democracy has documented, Koch Industries is a major funder and leader of ALEC, and the Koch brothers have underwritten ALEC through foundations they control and organizations they fund.

The proposal "would make it much harder for prosecutors to criminally prosecute companies that swindle the public, endanger their workers, poison the environment or otherwise imperil consumers," said Rob Weissman, President of the public interest group Public Citizen.

Criminal laws for acts of violence typically have an "intent" requirement, which requires that prosecutors prove that a person intended to cause harm and violate the law before a long prison sentence can be imposed. This intent requirement is known in legal terms as "mens rea," which is Latin for "guilty mind."

But for a number of white collar crimes, such as environmental violations and financial crimes under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, federal law does not require that prosecutors prove that a company or its leaders intended to violate the law by polluting waterways, for example, or crashing the economy.

Instead, the fact of extensive pollution and the harms it causes can be enough to hold a corporation and its leaders criminally liable, because intent can be difficult to prove in a complex corporate structure, with varying layers of hierarchy and lines of authority. Corporate decisions rationalized in the name of cost-cutting or efficiency can lead to tragedies like the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, which killed 29 workers. That case recently resulted in a rare criminal conviction for the former CEO of Massey Energy.

"Requiring that prosecutors prove that a corporate executive is both consciously aware of the conduct of their subordinates and consciously aware that the conduct of those subordinates violates criminal law is very, very difficult," said Frank O. Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri.

"This would make [white collar] prosecutions more difficult than they now are, and they are already hard," Bowman said....

Overcriminalization vs. Mass Incarceration

Although civil rights activists have been focused on mass incarceration—such as changing the mandatory minimum sentences enacted during the drug war that have disproportionately affected people of color, policies that scholars like Michelle Alexander have described as a "new Jim Crow"—the Kochs, ALEC, and other Koch-backed groups have been largely discussing overcriminalization.

Despite how it sounds, "overcriminalization" isn't focused on the disproportionate rate of incarceration of people of color. It is instead focused on the idea that there are too many crimes—and, more specifically, too many white-collar crimes that might affect corporate interests.

"All of the attention here is on whether this will only benefit quote-unquote white-collar criminals, people at financial institutions, people at firms that are damaging the environment," Jeffery Robinson, deputy legal director of the ACLU, said about the Sensenbrenner bill.

"If it only benefits those people, then I haven't seen any evidence that there is any over-incarceration among that group. In fact, we see very few prosecutions of such individuals."

That is, corporations and their leaders are not often federally prosecuted and convicted. In fact, many Americans have expressed deep disappointment that more corporations and bankers were not prosecuted following the gambling on Wall Street that led to the economic crash in 2008, unlike the nearly 1,000 prosecutions following the Savings & Loan crisis in the late 1980s.

"To a considerable extent, deferred prosecutions—in which the Justice Department agrees not to prosecute in exchange for a promise by corporate defendants not to violate the law in the future—have replaced actual prosecutions, undermining any kind of deterrent effect" for criminal penalties, Public Citizen's Weissman added. Deferred prosecutions are almost unheard of outside of the white collar crime context.

Some have expressed general concern that there are too many federal offenses with criminal penalties and too many that don't specify an intent standard, an issue that is being studied in the Senate bill. However, Koch-backed groups have been strongly focused on white-collar crimes, and their "solution"—the blanket imposition of a strict intent standard on every federal crime, as opposed to less-stringent "negligence" or "recklessness" standards—would undermine the few corporate criminal prosecutions that do take place.

For example, the U.S. Department of Justice has noted that—if the Sensenbrenner bill had been law—it could not have secured a guilty plea in last year's case against Jensen Farms, whose failure to follow food safety standards with its cantaloupe led to a listeria outbreak that killed 33 people. Imposing a default intent requirement could affect prosecutions for violations of laws like the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Resource Recovery and Compensation Act (RCRA), and many others.

And such changes could also make it harder to prosecute Koch Industries.

As *Forbes* noted, in 2000, "A federal grand jury indicted the privately held company and four of its employees in September on 97 related charges for alleged violations that took place at the company's refinery in Corpus Christi, Tex." Koch Industries was facing "criminal charges, in which the petroleum giant is accused of spewing the toxic chemical benzene into the environment in 1995 and then trying to hide it from government investigators."

Koch and its employees may not have intended to "leak" 91 metric tons of toxic benzene into the air and water around their refinery but their failure to install key protections and fully monitor their emissions resulted in their refinery loading 15 times the legal limit of the toxic substance into the environment.

That is, Koch Industries exposed nearby residents to massive amounts of benzene, which "is a well-established cause of cancer in humans." It is a "group 1" carcinogen because studies have documented that it causes acute myeloid leukemia in humans, and it may also cause lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. It can also result in reduced production of bone marrow and suppress T-cells, which makes people more vulnerable to infections. It has also been found to lead to chromosomal aberrations and can reduce birth weight and cause other health problems.

But then George W. Bush became president and John Ashcroft was named Attorney General. In the 2000 election, David Koch was one of the top 30 donors to Bush and the Republican party in the U.S., contributing $378,500 directly and an untold sum through soft money operations resembling the Triad group that was tied to the Kochs following a Senate investigation, as the Center for Media and Democracy has documented.

The Bush administration reduced the charges, which could have led to fines of more than $500 million, and dropped the case to just one count for a Koch Industries subsidiary, Koch Petroleum Group. "Under the plea agreement, Koch will pay a total of $20 million dollars: $10 million in criminal fines and $10 million for special projects to improve the environment in Corpus Christi—a record amount imposed in an environmental prosecution," the DOJ stated.

It is this experience—the massive emission of a known carcinogen—that the Kochs say sparked their interest in criminal justice reform. Over the years, Koch Industries has been investigated for numerous potential violations of federal and state law. And the Koch reform efforts could help prevent such prosecutions from ever occurring again.

"Overcriminalization: Liberty, and More, At Risk for Corporations and Their Employees"

At times, the Kochs have been clear about the connection between "overcriminalization," a mens reaintent requirement, and their corporate interests.

In September of 2011, for example, Koch Industries' Associate General Counsel, Marsha Rabiteau, gave a presentation titled "Overcriminalization: Liberty, and More, At Risk for Corporations and Their Employees." She had given a nearly identical presentation two years earlier, titled then "Mens rea and other Criminal Law Fundamentals on the Tines of the Public Pitchfork."

That presentation, to a meeting of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, warned that:

"The life of the corporation, the liberty interests of corporate officers and other employees can be in the cross-hairs of criminal prosecution over matters that often do not rise to true criminal activity."

The solution to the "overcriminalization" problem, Rabiteau said, was to create a default mens rearequirement, as would later appear in the Sensenbrenner bill and in ALEC model legislation.

Rabiteau suggested that attendees visit the Koch-backed Heritage Foundation's "Overcriminalization" project (at overcriminalized.com) and cited a report from Heritage and another Koch-backed group, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, called "Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law."

(Rabiteau also suggested that corporations, as a legal fiction, could not form the requisite "intent" to be held liable for a criminal act—although corporations and Koch groups have supported the creation of a right to corporate "free speech" in the form of spending unlimited amounts in elections.)

The Koch Associate General Counsel argued that reforming corporate criminal justice law is needed "so that wrongdoers are punished with laws that are clear and adhere to our Anglo-American heritage."

Although Rabiteau was likely referring to the country's "legal heritage," an appeal to "our Anglo-American heritage" to protect white collar criminals from criminal prosecution—when the burdens of an unjust criminal justice system have largely fallen on non-Anglo-Americans—further indicates the divide between the corporate criminal justice crusaders and civil rights-oriented reformers.

Moreover, America's legal heritage viewed corporate power with deep skepticism and for many years required that corporations have limited charters and durations to prevent them from misuse.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Compromise, "Without Intent"

The Koch funding for criminal justice reform efforts ramped-up as the federal government began taking steps to reign in financial institutions following the collapse of Wall Street.

As the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill was being debated in 2010, two Koch-backed groups, the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Heritage Foundation issued a comprehensive joint report and project called "Without Intent" criticizing "overcriminalization" and the lack of intent requirements in the federal criminal code.

The co-author of NACDL's "Without Intent" report, which has been repeatedly cited in Congress' debate on criminal justice reform, is Tiffany Joslin, who is now Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Sensenbrenner.

NACDL urged Congress to strike criminal provisions of Dodd-Frank that did not include an intent requirement, but Congress rejected that lobbying. When the law passed later that year, NACDL criticized the bill on these grounds:

"the overwhelming majority of the criminal offenses contained in the bill lack adequate mens rea, or criminal intent, requirements and, consequently, will fail to protect innocent or inadvertent actors from being criminally prosecuted or punished."

Why would the Kochs be concerned about Dodd-Frank and financial regulation? Because a big part of their multi-billion-dollar business comes from oil speculation. The Kochs have long been deeply involved in global financial markets, especially energy and commodity trading.

See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/13002/koch-criminal-justice-reform-trojan-horse#sthash.qFGXGqkw.dpuf

- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/13002/koch-criminal-justice-reform-trojan-horse#sthash.qFGXGqkw.dpuf

desmog spanish studt grn jobs bogus

June 2009

Calzada was a speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s third International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC3) where he spoke on Panel 2: “Economics” with David Tuerck and Jim Sensenbrenner. [13

[vid]

march 2009

Calzada was a speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s second International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC2) where he gave a speech titled “Spain´s New Economy: Boom and Bust of the Spanish Renewable Miracle.” Video can be viewed below. [12

[vid]

eSmogBlog researched the funding behind the conference and found that sponsor organizations had collectively received over $47 million from energy companies and right-wing foundations, with 78% of that total coming from the Scaife Family of foundations.

September 2009

Gabriel Calzada was an author of a study (PDF)titled “Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources” claiming that for each green job created in Spain, 2.2 jobs were destroyed as a result. Other authors included University Rey Juan Carlos researchers Raquel Merino Jara and Juan Ramón Rallo Julián and technical consultant José Ignacio García Bielsa. The study bore the letterhead of the University of Rey Juan Carlos where Calzada is Associate Professor, but was co-commissioned by the Instituto Juan de Mariana.

According to the study, “the Spanish/EU-style ‘green jobs’ agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs. […] The study’s results demonstrate how such ‘green jobs’ policy clearly hinders Spain’s way out of the current economic crisis, even while U.S. politicians insist that rushing into such a scheme will ease their own emergence from the turmoil.”

Calzada was invited to testify before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence by Republican James Sensenbrenner, where he stated that “Europe’s experience actually suggests that this is precisely the wrong approach.” Gabriel Calzada where both he and Sensenbrenner speak in support of the study. Josh Harkinson. [7], [8],[9]

Calzada’s study was debunked by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which released a report (PDF) in response which came to the following conclusion:

“The analysis by the authors from King Juan Carlos University represents a significant divergence from traditional methodologies used to estimate employment impacts from renewable energy. In fact, the methodology does not reflect an employment impact analysis. Accordingly, the primary conclusion made by the authors – policy support of renewable energy results in net jobs losses – is not supported by their work.” [10]

rough writeup from risk assess

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin, GOP beach-head?)elected 1979 (JD U wisc, staffer, stare assembly)

good fundraiser, diverse, not much energy money mostly telecom, military, insurance, finace, real estate. So anti-scince attacks must be ideolgical vs straight greed. Episcopal Church

Led Clinton impeachment.

2001 introduced Patriot Act : {“On June 10, 2005, Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, abruptly ended and walked out of a meeting where Republicans and Democrats were supposed to be debating the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act. During this meeting, judiciary Democrats also talked about Guantanamo Bay and the Iraq war. Ignoring proper meeting procedure and decorum, he ordered the court reporter to halt transcriptions of the proceedings, C-SPAN cameras covering the meeting be shut off, and that discussion on the issue be halted.“}

Terry Schivo, bankruptcy law (including hurricane victims) , lobbyist paid junkets; Sensenbrenner authored the Real ID Act, which was passed into law on May 11, 2005

What the science says is that temperatures peaked out globally in 1998. So we've gone for 10-plus years where the temperatures have gone down."

, 2009 in an interview with conservative radio show host Jay Weber.

on mann climategate: Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) decried [30] (PDF) them as evidence of"scientific fascism."

Issa scopes? : Republicans are also mulling whether to keep the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, formed when Nancy Pelosi assumed the role of Speaker in 2007, for the sole purpose of using it as a launching pad for climate investigation. Rep.Jim Sensenbrenner(R-Wis.), a climate denier who has served as the ranking minority member of the panel since its creation, has said he wants to use the panel to probe what he has called a "massive international scientific fraud." ...While Issa has allowed that global warming could be happening, Sensenbrenner has only escalated his aggressive rhetoric about not just the science, but the scientists. "There's increasing evidence of scientific fascism that's going on," Sensenbrenner declared during a hearing last year.

There's also a possibility that Joe Barton (R-Texas) will win his bid to serve as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee for the next two years.

[“The accusation of criminality against leading climate scientists takes the denialist campaign of harassment and intimidation to new depths, and immediately conjures up images of McCarthyism. In November 2009, Inhofeâ??s fellow Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin wrote to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) demanding that scientists whose names appear in the stolen CRU e-mails be blacklisted from all further work with the IPCC. ...With the elections, both houses saw a flood of new representatives who are climate deniers. ??Of the freshmen Republicans â?¦ 36 of 85 in the House and 11 of 13 in the Senate have publicly questioned the science.â?? McCarthyite congressman James Sensenbrenner is now the deputy chair of the House Science Committee, which plans to investigate the veracity of climate science.

??I personally believe that the solar flares are more responsible for climatic cycles than anything that human beings do,â?? Sensenbrenner said, as if the role of solar flares were a matter of personal belief and had not been thoroughly investigated by climate scientists. Suddenly Senator Inhofe appears less isolated and fanatical.

“]

heartland: [Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a former economist who gave the keynote address on Monday, called environmentalism “identical to communism — identical, not similar.”

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the featured keynote speaker for Tuesday,asked if we “need to put catalytic converters on our noses” by addressing heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

And following Sensenbrenner’s nonsensical remarks, Heartland brought up “special mystery guest” Lord Christopher Monckton,...Despite the subdued mood, Rep. Sensenbrenner tried to rally the remaining troops during his Tuesday speech.

“Things are a lot better now than they were three years ago,” he said, referencing the failure to pass acarbon cap-and-trade bill and potential expiration of the Kyoto Protocol.

Things certainly weren’t better for Heartland. The following afternoon, the organization announced its decision to abandon the entire conference due to lack of funds and a backlash from corporate donors.

But Sensenbrenner was right about one thing: The public dialogue has moved dramatically backward in the last three years, driven largely by the aggressive disinformation tactics of the climate denial community — and enabled by the Obama administration’s decision to stop talking about the issue and the media’s decision to sharply curtail coverage.

”]

"our rovers on Mars have indicated that there has been a slight warming in the atmosphere of Mars and that certainly was not caused by the internal combustion engine."

14 April 2009 (Source)

Climategate: "The President’s science advisor, who is a former Harvard professor named Holdren, is involved in the email scandals and covering up the fact that data has been lost, the fact that contrary opinions to the global warming crowd has been squeezed out of scientific journals...Now this is an international conspiracy."

7 December 2009 (Source)

F. James Sensenbrenner Jr (R)	WI	Exxon Mobil
F. James Sensenbrenner Jr (R)	WI	American Veterinary Medical Assn
F. James Sensenbrenner Jr (R)	WI	National Cable & Telecommunications Assn
F. James Sensenbrenner Jr (R)	WI	American Motorcyclist Assn

shawn otto 12/7/09 sensenbrenner sent ltr to ipcc pachuari to fire mann et al tactic called "concern appropriation" *** [apparently not a st'd term]

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America http://shawnotto.com/foolmetwice/ rodale 2011

he has another related strategy?

===

Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s five Dirty Air Villains are Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Reps. Paul

Ryan (R-WI1), James Sensenbrenner (R-WI5), Sean Duffy (R-WI7) and Reid Ribble (R-WI8).

Wisconsin’s Clean Air Hero is Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI2).

What the science says is that temperatures peaked out globally in 1998. So we've gone for 10-plus years where the temperatures have gone down." :{:{

}:}:- Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), 2009 in an interview with conservative radio show host Jay Weber.

on mann climategate: Rep.**James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) decried** [30](PDF) them as evidence of"scientific fascism."

---

Issa says he just wants a "careful relook" at the science. But that's hardly the tack that he's likely to take, given that he's argued that it's "very clear that [climate scientists] played fast and loose with both the truth and our money." He also indicated that he plans to trot out the same climate deniers that the Republicans have relied on for years, most of whom aren't scientists at all and have been widely discredited. "I think science should always be filled with skeptics, and I want to make sure the skeptics are heard," Issa told The Hill in September.

Republicans are also mulling whether to keep the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, formed when Nancy Pelosi assumed the role of Speaker in 2007, for the sole purpose of using it as a launching pad for climate investigation. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), a climate denier who has served as the ranking minority member of the panel since its creation, has said he wants to use the panel to probe what he has called a "massive international scientific fraud." Other Republicans have chafed at the idea of keeping the panel alive, but its fate remains undecided at this point. "I have not heard any discussion on that issue," Michael Steel, spokesman for likely Speaker John Boehner, told Mother Jones.

While Issa has allowed that global warming could be happening, Sensenbrenner has only escalated his aggressive rhetoric about not just the science, but the scientists. "There's increasing evidence of scientific fascism that's going on," Sensenbrenner declared during a hearing last year.

There's also a possibility that Joe Barton (R-Texas) will win his bid to serve as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee for the next two years.

fight over light bulbs?!

===

witch hunt:

http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/silencing-the-scientists-the-rise-of-right-wing-populism/

The most influential âfringe media outletâ vilifying scientists is Rupert Murdochâs Fox News. Cyber-bullies and Fox demagogues are not the only ones out to punish Mann for his work. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has attempted to use state fraud laws to force the University of Virginia to release huge volumes of documents and correspondence in an attempt to show malfeasance by Mann when he was employed by that university (he is now at Penn State). Cuccinelli claims that Mann had defrauded taxpayers in seeking grants for his research, but had no evidence to convince the court to grant subpoenas. A lawyer for the American Association of University Professors has said that Cuccinelliâs suit has â echoes of McCarthyismâ and will deter others from undertaking climate research.

Official harassment

The campaign of harassment against scientists took a sinister turn last year when Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe called for some of the world's most eminent climate scientists to be investigated for criminal violations. A document prepared by his staff on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works claims scientists mentioned in e-mails stolen from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia are guilty of manipulating data and obstructing its release. It lists federal laws they may have violated and names 17 climate scientists whom Inhofe claims should be investigated for possible criminal prosecution.

One of those listed, Raymond Bradley, the director of climate science research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, responded: âI am worried about it, I have to say. You can understand that this powerful person is using the power of his office to intimidate people and to harass people and you wonder whether you should have legal counsel. It is a very intimidating thing and that is the point.â

The accusation of criminality against leading climate scientists takes the denialist campaign of harassment and intimidation to new depths, and immediately conjures up images of McCarthyism. In November 2009, Inhofeâs fellow Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin wrote to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) demanding that scientists whose names appear in the stolen CRU e-mails be blacklisted from all further work with the IPCC.

According to Scientific American, deniers in Congress have used their offices to send âintimidating lettersâ threatening dire consequences to scientists working on climate change. One of the recipients, NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt, said: âThat is chilling the work of science in the agencies. Itâs certainly very off-putting for scientists who want to talk about their stuff in public but fear the political consequences. Nobody wants to create an enemy on the hill.â

In an editorial last March on cyber-bullying, Nature reported on Senator Inhofeâs attempts to criminalise climate scientists before commenting: âAs a member of the minority party, Inhofe is powerless for now, but that may one day change.â That day came last November with the mid-term elections in which the Republicans, powered by a surge of support for the Tea Party, won a majority in the House of Representatives. Before the election Climate Progress noted that âevery single GOP [Republican] Senate candidate now either denies climate science or opposes even the most moderate, business friendly, Republican-designed approach to reducing emissionsâ.

With the elections, both houses saw a flood of new representatives who are climate deniers. Of the freshmen Republicans â¦ 36 of 85 in the House and 11 of 13 in the Senate have publicly questioned the science.â McCarthyite congressman James Sensenbrenner is now the deputy chair of the House Science Committee, which plans to investigate the veracity of climate science.

I personally believe that the solar flares are more responsible for climatic cycles than anything that human beings do,â Sensenbrenner said, as if the role of solar flares were a matter of personal belief and had not been thoroughly investigated by climate scientists. Suddenly Senator Inhofe appears less isolated and fanatical.

A series of inquiries has exonerated the scientists whose e-mails were stolen, and affirmed that there is nothing in them to undermine the science. If you read them, what the hacked UEA e-mails reveal is the enormous external pressure climate scientists work under. They show they have constantly been accused of being frauds and cheats; their work has been twisted and misrepresented; and they have been bombarded with vexatious freedom-of-information requests orchestrated by denialists.

Frank James Sensenbrenner, Jr. has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1979, representing the Fifth Congressional District of Wisconsin. (map)

Contents

* 1 Record and controversies

o 1.1 Iraq War

o 1.2 Environmental record

o 1.3 USA Patriot Act

o 1.4 Terry Schiavo

o 1.5 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

o 1.6 Other Controversies

o 1.7 REAL ID Act

o 1.8 DC voting rights

o 1.9 August 2007 House voting controversy

* 2 Bio

o 2.1 Background

o 2.2 Positions and Views

+ 2.2.1 2006 congressional elections

* 3 Money in politics

* 4 Committees and Affiliations

o 4.1 Committees

+ 4.1.1 Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

o 4.2 Coalitions and Caucuses

o 4.3 Boards and other Affiliations

* 5 More Background Data

* 6 Contact

o 6.1 2008 Campaign Contact Information

* 7 Articles and resources

o 7.1 Related SourceWatch articles

o 7.2 Sources

o 7.3 External resources

o 7.4 External articles

+ 7.4.1 Local blogs and discussion sites

Record and controversies

General information about important bills and votes for can be found in Congresspedia's articles on legislation. You can add information you find on how Jim Sensenbrenner voted by clicking the "[edit]" link to the right and typing it in. Remember to cite your sources!

Iraq War

Sensenbrenner voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 that started the Iraq War.[1]

For more information see the chart of U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War.

Environmental record

For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

USA Patriot Act

On October 23, 2001, Sensenbrenner introduced the USA PATRIOT Act to the House. The Act gives the government more power to combat terrorism. However, it has been argued that this Act also allows it to violate citizens' rights to free-speech, freedom of the press, human rights, and right to privacy.

In November 2004, Sensenbrenner and California Congressman Duncan Hunter objected to provisions of a bill that, among other things, created a National Intelligence Director, a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. The bill, however, completely ignored all of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations that deal with securing the United States border.

On June 10, 2005, Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, abruptly ended and walked out of a meeting where Republicans and Democrats were supposed to be debating the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act. During this meeting, judiciary Democrats also talked about Guantanamo Bay and the Iraq war. Ignoring proper meeting procedure and decorum, he ordered the court reporter to halt transcriptions of the proceedings, C-SPAN cameras covering the meeting be shut off, and that discussion on the issue be halted.

Terry Schiavo

In an oft-replayed but little-noted video clip recorded during the debate over removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube in March 2005, Sensenbrenner mispronounced her name (pronounced /Shai vo/ by the Schiavo family) as "/Shee-ahvo/." He went on to introduce legislation attempting to block removal of her feeding tube, arguing passionately that action was immediately necessary. He gave no reason why no action was taking by the House of Representatives when Schiavo's persistent vegatative state was first diagnosed in 1993 or during the previous two periods during which her feeding tube was removed.

Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

On February 9, 2005, Sensenbrenner introduced the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which made sweeping changes to American bankruptcy laws, affecting both consumer and business bankruptcies. Many of the bill's provisions were explicitly designed to make it "more difficult for people to file for bankruptcy" in order to curb abuse. Sensenbrenner commented on the bill, "this bill will help restore responsibility and integrity to the bankruptcy system by cracking down on fraudulent, abusive, and opportunistic bankruptcy claims." The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 20, 2005.[2]

Main article: Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

Other Controversies

On April 26, 2005, it was widely reported that Sensenbrenner has had lobbyists pay for his transportation, a violation of congressional rules. His total travel expenses are higher than any other congressman.

Sensenbrenner authored the Real ID Act, which was passed into law on May 11, 2005. This controversial act discusses standards for drivers' licenses, national border patrols, individuals seeking asylum, and individuals seeking visas. However, it also allows the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security to bypass all laws and all judicial oversight while creating stronger borders.

In December 2005, he introduced immigration policy with no guest worker program.

Although the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and the inadequate government response to the disaster is expected to cause further economic misery for the poor residents of New Orleans and other affected areas, Congressman Sensenbrenner has refused to allow victims of the hurricane to enjoy any exception to the recent Bankruptcy Reform, a recent bill passed with widespread support of the banking industry that aims to make it more difficult for consumers to declare bankruptcy. "If someone in Katrina is down and out, and has no possibility of being able to repay 40 percent or more of their debts, then the new bankruptcy law doesn't apply," Sensenbrenner said.[3]

REAL ID Act

On January 26, 2005, Rep. Sensenbrenner introduced the REAL ID Act of 2005 in the House "to establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver's license and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, and to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence." The act required state IDs to include a minimum of the person's full legal name, signature, date of birth, gender, and driver's license or identification card number. It was required to have physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes and use common machine-readable technology with defined minimum data elements.

Main article: REAL ID Act of 2005

DC voting rights

When the District of Columbia Fair and Equal Voting Rights Act of 2007 was introduced in the 109th Congress and passed the Government Reform Committee, Chairman Sensenbrenner promised to bring the bill up for a vote in the Judiciary Committee as well. In March 2007, after the bill was introduced again in the 110th Congress, Sensenbrenner introduced an amendment to another amendment to the measure sponsored by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) that would require Utah to utilize a state redistricting map that included a new district, rather than establishing an at-large seat, as part of a compromise in giving D.C. a House vote.

Main article: District of Columbia Fair and Equal Voting Rights Act of 2007

August 2007 House voting controversy

When House Republicans contested an August 2, 2007 vote regarding the FY2008 agriculture appropriations bill, they began their protest the following morning when the House voted on the usual procedural motion to verify the previous day's congressional record. At the time, Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.) was presiding over the House and ignored a Republican request for a record vote on the measure, a maneuver they were entitled to since they had a majority of the members then on the House floor. Sensenbrenner called on Murtha to explain his ruling, and Murtha responded by saying, "It is up to the chair. Let me tell you this, the vote will show that the approval would be approved by the House, as it has been." Later that day, House Republicans attempted to pass a resolution rebuking Murtha for his actions as chair and his disrespectful treatment of Rep. Sensenbrenner, but were successfully blocked by the Democrats.

Main article: August 2007 House voting controversy

Bio

Background

Sensenbrenner was born June 14, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Political Science in 1965. He received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1968.

While still at Stanford, Sensenbrenner served as staff assistant to Congressman J. Arthur Younger from California. Before becoming a member of Congress, Sensenbrenner served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1969 to 1975 and the Wisconsin State Senate from 1975 to 1979.

Bryan Kennedy, a Democrat and professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who ran for Congress in 2004, has announced plans to again run against Sensenbrenner in the 2006 Congressional elections.[4]

Positions and Views

Sensenbrenner held an important role in the Impeachment of Bill Clinton, acting as one of the House managers.

In 2005, Sensenbrenner made the headlines by being a vocal advocate of the Real ID Act which requires additional scrutiny of citizenship before issuing drivers' licenses and creates a federal database of state-issued identification. Jim Sensenbrenner attached the controversial act as a rider on military spending bill HR418. Subsequently, it was passed by the Senate without debate.[5]

As chairman of the judiciary committee, Sensenbrenner wields significant power over the future of the USA PATRIOT Act. He has been quoted as saying that he does not favor making all of the provisions of the act permanent, but rather wants some of them to continue to have periodic review by Congress. [6]

Sensenbrenner believes in criminal prosecution of broadcasters and cable operators who violate decency standards as opposed to the current Federal Communications Commission regulatory methods.[7]

On December 16, 2005, Sensenbrenner introduced the Digital Transition Content Security Act, which is meant to plug the analog hole.

2006 congressional elections

Sensenbrenner defeated Democrat Bryan Kennedy to retain his seat.

Money in politics

This section contains links to â and feeds from â money in politics databases. cid=N00004291&cycle=2006

Links to more campaign contribution information for Jim Sensenbrenner

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Fundraising profile: 2006 election cycle Career totals

Top contributors by organization/corporation: 2006 election cycle Career totals

Top contributors by industry: 2006 election cycle Career totals

* Revolving door profile for Jim Sensenbrenner from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

* 2006 privately funded travel profile for Jim Sensenbrenner from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

* Personal finance profile for Jim Sensenbrenner from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

Committees and Affiliations

Committees

* House Committee on the Judiciary

o Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property

o Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security

* House Committee on Science and Technology

o Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight -Ranking

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

* House Committee on the Judiciary - Chair

o Subcommittee on Task Force on Antirust - Chair

Coalitions and Caucuses

* Congressional Coalition on Adoption

* Congressional Grace Caucus

Boards and other Affiliations

* Episcopal Church

* State Bar of Wisconsin

More Background Data

* Background information on Jim Sensenbrenner from Project Vote Smart

* Interest group scorecard ratings for Jim Sensenbrenner from Project Vote Smart

* Voting record for Jim Sensenbrenner from the Washington Post database

* Information on Jim Sensenbrenner from Congress Merge

Wikipedia also has an article on Jim Sensenbrenner. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

* Critique of Sensenbrenner at ThrowTheRascalsOut.org

Contact

DC Office:

2449 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515-4905

Phone: 202-225-5101

Fax: 202-225-3190

Email: sensenbrenner AT mail.house.gov

Website

District Office- Brookfield:

120 Bishops Way, Room 154

Brookfield, WI 53005-6294

Phone: 262-784-1111

2008 Campaign Contact Information

Official Sensenbrenner for Congress campaign website

The Sensenbrenner Committee

P.O. Box 575

Brookfield, WI 53008

Phone: 414-967-9292

Fax: 414-967-9293

info@sensenbrenner.org

Articles and resources

National Auto Dealers Assn	$75,600	$0	$75,600
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn	$74,494	$0	$74,494
National Assn of Realtors	$61,300	$0	$61,300
AT&T Inc	$61,050	$2,750	$58,300
American Bankers Assn	$59,667	$1,000	$58,667
Northwestern Mutual Life	$59,250	$3,000	$56,250
National Beer Wholesalers Assn	$58,500	$0	$58,500
National Assn of Home Builders	$52,500	$500	$52,000
Lockheed Martin	$45,250	$0	$45,250
Intellectual Ventures LLC	$34,100	$34,100	$0
Honeywell International	$31,500	$0	$31,500
Deloitte LLP	$29,750	$0	$29,750
News Corp	$29,000	$0	$29,000
Time Warner	$29,000	$500	$28,500
National Assn of Broadcasters	$28,750	$1,000	$27,750
Natl Assn/Insurance & Financial Advisors	$28,500	$0	$28,500
Major League Baseball Commissioner's Ofc	$27,250	$250	$27,000
General Electric	$27,100	$500	$26,600
National Restaurant Assn	$27,000	$0	$27,000
Associated Milk Producers	$26,000	$0	$26,000

Industry	Total
TV/Movies/Music	$333,631
Insurance	$277,648
Lawyers/Law Firms	$201,788
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	$178,570
Retired	$172,750
Computers/Internet	$161,659
Automotive	$161,250
Lobbyists	$156,370
Telephone Utilities	$150,750
Commercial Banks	$146,168
Beer, Wine & Liquor	$135,750
Health Professionals	$110,700
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$101,837
Real Estate	$86,791
Defense Aerospace	$84,900
Securities & Investment	$84,750
Accountants	$76,223
Home Builders	$71,973
Air Transport	$70,090
Oil & Gas	$64,950

Sector Totals

Sector	Total	PACs	Indivs
Agribusiness	$123,196	$116,412	$6,784
Communications/Electronics	$769,714	$664,390	$105,324
Construction	$136,373	$115,700	$20,673
Defense	$109,000	$109,000	$0
Energy & Natural Resources	$153,237	$131,187	$22,050
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate	$790,230	$666,138	$124,092
Health	$246,587	$208,836	$37,751
Lawyers & Lobbyists	$358,158	$138,638	$219,520
Transportation	$289,090	$261,340	$27,750
Misc Business	$627,544	$449,191	$178,353
Labor	$9,900	$9,900	$0
Ideological/Single-Issue	$102,707	$80,407	$22,300
Other	$193,800	$1,000	$192,800

===

Full disclosure: We have not been shy in calling out Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., for some fairly outrageous stuff over the years.

Who can forget, for example, the time when, as chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in 2005, he shut down the microphones and lights in the middle of an oversight hearing on the Patriot Act when he did not approve of the testimony offered by witnesses called by Democrats?

It was outrageous, it was inappropriate, and we reported it as such at the time, just as we did in 2011 when, in a bit of déjà vu, he similarly shut down a town hall event in Wisconsin after protesters there expressed outrage over the Republicans’ radical anti-union law recently adopted in the state.

So it is with much sincerity and great appreciation that we “call him out” today, not for outrageous behavior, but for his outspoken and unwavering support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, after the very heart of that landmark civil rights legislation has been violently carved out by a 5-to-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.

“Invidious discrimination”

Sensenbrenner presided over the U.S. House Judiciary Committee during many months of hearings and testimony concerning the continuing necessity of the VRA back in 2006, during which he explained prior to the Supreme Court’s recent decision, “There was a lot of invidious discrimination shown.”

He described those hearings as “one of the most extensive considerations of any piece of legislation that the United States Congress has dealt with in the twenty-seven and a half years that I have [served].”

After the 2006 deliberations, the Act was re-authorized for another 25 years by an extraordinarily lopsided bipartisan vote in Congress. The measure was approved 98-to-0 in the U.S. Senate and 390-to-33 in the U.S. House — numbers usually reserved for little more than unanimous consent namings of post offices and such.

But if there is any legislation around that wildly discordant political sides shouldcome together, it is for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — as the House, Senate and even the George W. Bush White House did, to their great credit, in 2006 — in order to reaffirm that equal access for all to the voting booth represents the very lifeblood of our representative democracy and the most central core constitutional value of this nation.

salon

skep sci

he two columns below show quotes (left column) from Jim Sensenbrenner paired with what the science says (right column). Click on text in right column for full details.

Quotes by Jim Sensenbrenner	vs	What the Science Says
"I am a leader in the fight against the national energy tax proposal some Congressional leaders are advocating. I call this bad idea “cap-and-tax” because of the damage it will do to jobs, manufacturing and our economy." 26 March 2011 (Source)	The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over.	The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over.
"we’ve actually had global cooling in the last ten years" 7 December 2009 (Source)	Global temperature is still rising and 2010 was the hottest recorded.	Global temperature is still rising and 2010 was the hottest recorded.
"The President’s science advisor, who is a former Harvard professor named Holdren, is involved in the email scandals and covering up the fact that data has been lost, the fact that contrary opinions to the global warming crowd has been squeezed out of scientific journals...Now this is an international conspiracy." 7 December 2009 (Source)	A number of investigations have cleared scientists of any wrongdoing in the media-hyped email incident.	A number of investigations have cleared scientists of any wrongdoing in the media-hyped email incident.
"our rovers on Mars have indicated that there has been a slight warming in the atmosphere of Mars and that certainly was not caused by the internal combustion engine." 14 April 2009 (Source)	Mars is not warming globally.	Mars is not warming globally.
"I personally believe that the solar flares are more responsible for climatic cycles than anything that human beings do" 14 April 2009 (Source)	In the last 35 years of global warming, sun and climate have been going in opposite directions	In the last 35 years of global warming, sun and climate have been going in opposite directions
"What the science says is that temperatures peaked out globally in 1998. So we’ve gone for 10 plus years where the temperatures have gone down." 14 April 2009 (Source)	Global temperature is still rising and 2010 was the hottest recorded.	Global temperature is still rising and 2010 was the hottest recorded.
"I think that the science is inconclusive on [man-made global warming]" 14 April 2009 (Source)	Multiple sets of independent observations find a human fingerprint on climate change	Multiple sets of independent observations find a human fingerprint on climate change