All Things Reform: George W Bush

Showing posts with label George W Bush. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Federal employee travel credit card abuse "in the millions of dollars" each year

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: POGO- Project on Government Oversight

Taxpayers are Victims of Continued Government Charge Card Abuse

Contact: Scott Amey, 202-347-1122 or Marthena Cowart, 202-347-3958

[In a bureaucracy the size of our federal government, we can expect, during peace time and prosperity, daily small financial abuses from many of its employees. However, in the time of wars and skyrocketing national debt, credit card abuse during the George W Bush administration is shameful. -ATR]

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) highlights long-standing systemic weaknesses and mismanagement in federal credit card spending.

CRS’s report details abuses in the federal government travel card program that are costing the government and taxpayers “millions of dollars annually.” Travel cards are used by government officials for airline, hotel, and related travel expenses. CRS looked at Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) travel card reports, and found that:

Improper or unauthorized charges included $3,700 for laser eye surgery, reimbursement of nearly $10,000 for tickets that an official didn’t purchase, a first-class trip to Hawaii, and numerous upgrades to premium-class accommodations.
Agencies failed to recover millions of dollars in unused tickets – the Department of Defense had $100 million in unused tickets from 1997 to 2003.
Delinquent travel card payments prevented the government from receiving maximum potential rebates from card vendors.
Travel card spending increased from $4.39 million in FY 1999 to $8.28 million in FY 2008.

“A private travel agency would be out of business running this kind of operation,” declared Scott Amey, POGO’s General Counsel. “This report summarizes problems with individual transactions and, more importantly, with government agencies that aren’t safeguarding taxpayer dollars. Immediate improvements are needed, including improved oversight of all transactions, increased penalties for misuse, and enhanced processes to take full advantage of the benefits that travel cards were expected to bring.”

Legislation is pending in the Senate (S. 942) and House (H.R. 2189) that will add taxpayer protections for government travel cards and purchase cards (used for supplies and services).

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Saturday, April 18, 2009

In 2008, only 15% of financial services corporations were audited by the IRS, and those less thoroughly

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From: TRAC

New Data Show IRS Downgraded Large Financial Services Audits

(09 Apr 2009) Newly released data from the IRS show that only 15% of large financial services companies -- those with $250 million or more in assets -- were audited in 2008, compared with 64% of all other similar sized corporations. And when they were performed, these financial service audits appear to have been less thorough than those in other industries.

In addition, fewer of these audits were being performed by the IRS agency group with special expertise in large financial service corporations, while the number performed by other IRS groups more than doubled since 2004.

These latest findings on the IRS, based on documents and data obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act, are available at

http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/207/

TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC's ongoing efforts, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/sponsor/

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Sign petition to release George W Bush administration's 'torture memos'

Pennsylvania Ave. in front of White House, Washington, DC USA. Image via Wikipedia

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From: Common Cause

Release the Torture Memos

Arn Pearson, Common Cause

America does not tolerate "secret laws." Justice Department: release the torture memos. Sign the petition!

Candidate Obama promised an era of unparalleled openness and transparency in Washington.

President Obama has a big opportunity to make good on those promises this Thursday.

That's when the Justice Department faces a legal deadline for announcing its decision on releasing long-secret torture memos that sought to justify the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the CIA in questioning prisoners held in U.S. custody.

Voices within and outside of the Administration are arguing to keep the memos secret.1 They want to stop the truth from coming out about our government's involvement in torture. We need to make sure President Obama doesn't listen to them.

Sign the petition now calling on the White House and the Justice Department to release the Bush torture memos on Thursday.

The American people have the right to know what is in these memos. Attorney General Eric Holder and the White House Counsel have reportedly already urged for their release.2

An Administration dedicated to transparency and the rule of law shouldn't hide the legal arguments its predecessor used to justify reprehensible acts carried out in our name.

With the Thursday deadline fast approaching, please act today and sign the petition urging the release of the torture memos.

Thanks for all you do,

Arn Pearson, and the rest of the team at Common Cause

P.S. Tell your friends! Please forward this to 5 friends by clicking here.

1. "More delays in release of 'torture' documents," CNN, April 2, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/02/us.torture.documents/

2. "'Holy Hell' Over Torture Memos," Newsweek, April 3, 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/id/192314

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Dire Obama budget neglects PAYGO fiscal policy

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: The Concord Coalition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:	CONTACT: Jonathan DeWald (703) 894-6222
March 20, 2009	communications@concordcoalition.org

Concord Coalition says that new CBO numbers demonstrate the high cost of abandoning PAYGO

WASHINGTON -- With today’s release of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimating that the President’s budget would result in annual deficits averaging more than $900 billion over the next 10 years, The Concord Coalition pointed out that much of the fiscal damage would be caused by abandoning pay-as-you-go rules (PAYGO) for $2.6 trillion of policy decisions --the largest of which would permanently extend most of the tax cuts due to expire over the next two years.

“The deficit and debt numbers in today’s report are truly staggering. We cannot afford to follow the path projected for the President’s budget by CBO. Within 10 years, debt would double and interest costs would be three times higher as a share of the economy. With the baby boomers moving into their retirement years, there is no reason to believe that the numbers would not deteriorate further unless we make some very hard choices. A good place to start would be to enforce PAYGO, not just for new initiatives as the President says he will do, but for existing policies as well. If we don’t, it will be much harder to get back to a more sustainable fiscal course,” said Robert L Bixby, Executive Director of The Concord Coalition.

The CBO report shows that the new official, current-law baseline produces a 10-year deficit of $4.4 trillion. This is $1.3 trillion worse than they forecast in January due to the cost of newly enacted legislation ($1.3 trillion, primarily the recovery package) and a deteriorating revenue base (another loss of $1.3 trillion). Partially offsetting those worsening factors was that lower interest rates and inflation reduce government outlays by $1.4 trillion. Another $140 billion was added to the 10-year deficit due to technical changes. Concord noted that the previous CBO baseline deficit was already $1.5 trillion worse than the current-law baseline the Administration showed in its February budget documents because CBO had already been more pessimistic than the Administration in their economic forecast.

“The biggest single proposal in the Obama budget contributing to the deterioration in the 10-year budget outlook is not spending on bailouts or stimulus or even longer-term health care reform, and not temporary tax cuts that are designed to provide immediate stimulus to the economy at only near-term cost, but rather permanent extension of most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts – with costs that grow dramatically over time. It explains why the Obama budget, according to CBO projections, will not only fail to make trillion-dollar-plus deficits an extraordinary and temporary phenomenon but will fail to stabilize the public debt as a share of GDP,” said Concord Coalition Chief Economist Diane Lim Rogers.

“President Obama and Congress face a policy choice regarding extension of the expiring tax cuts. In fact, Congress will have to write and pass new legislation, which President Obama will have to sign, in order to keep any of the Bush tax cuts beyond December 31, 2010. They will then become the Obama tax cuts and not the Bush tax cuts, and they will still add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit,” Rogers said.

CBO March Baseline Compared to CBO Estimate of President's Budget

###

The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to balanced federal budgets and generationally responsible fiscal policy. Former U.S. Senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) and Bob Kerrey (D-NE) serve as Concord's co-chairs and former Secretary of Commerce Peter Peterson serves as president.

CONTACT:
Jonathan DeWald
(703) 894-6222
communications@concordcoalition.org

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Obama Administration drops phrase "enemy combatants," may release Gitmo prisoners into U.S.

Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC USA. Image via Wikipedia

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Judicial Watch

Obama Administration Drops Phrase "Enemy Combatants," May Release Gitmo Prisoners into U.S.

Two recent decisions by the Obama administration significantly reduced the power of the President of the United States to prosecute the war on terror and, in my view, left the United States vulnerable to future terrorist attacks.

First off, the Obama administration ditched the term "enemy combatant," a descriptive category that has a long history and was used to describe captured terrorists after the 9/11 attacks. Here's the story according to Reuters:

"The Obama administration stopped calling Guantanamo inmates 'enemy combatants' on Friday and incorporated international law as its basis for holding the prisoners while it works to close the facility.

"The U.S. Justice Department filed court papers outlining a further legal and linguistic shift from the anti-terrorism policies of Republican President George W. Bush, which drew worldwide condemnation as violations of human rights and international law."

(It should be noted that the "worldwide condemnation" referenced by Reuters was expressed most enthusiastically by terrorist advocates and sympathizers.)

According to the Obama Justice Department "the legal structure for holding the Guantanamo prisoners will now be based on laws passed by Congress and, by extension, international law including the Geneva conventions..." You can read the Justice brief here.

So in other words, it is no longer the Commander in Chief calling the shots on defending the nation from terrorists. Now, it's Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, guided by international law.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, continues to move forward with plans to shut the Guantanamo facility down. And where will the U.S. government release these enemy combatants – or should we call now them "homeless detainees?"

How about the United States? Check this out from Thursday's Wall Street Journal.

"Attorney General Eric Holder said some detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may end up being released in the U.S. as the Obama administration works with foreign allies to resettle some of the prisoners....For 'people who can be released there are a variety of options that we have and among them is the possibility is that we would release them into this country,' Mr. Holder said."

So here we are -- Guantanamo Bay prisoners may no longer be labeled "enemy combatants." The Obama administration will now rely chiefly on the "authority" of Congress and international law (rather than the constitutional powers of the president) to detain terrorists. Plans to shutdown Guantanamo Bay due to pressure from terrorist advocates are moving forward. And some of these terrorist prisoners will be released into the United States, presumably taking their position in line for some "stimulus" money.

Feel any safer? I don't.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

President Obama signs Executive Order opening up previous presidents' records to the public

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shares a ...

Image via Wikipedia

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From: TPMMuckraker

Experts: Obama Order Could Let Us See US Attorneys Docs

By Zachary Roth - January 22, 2009, 12:04PM

The experts' verdicts on the potential impact of President Obama's executive order on presidential records are starting to come in. And they're bolstering our initial take that Obama's move could significantly boost efforts to release crucial records that the Bush administration has fought to keep secret.

Doug Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine law school and expert on executive privilege, told TPMmuckraker that the order makes it harder for former presidents to block the release of their documents.

And, crucially, he said it could impact current high-profile struggles over Bush's records, "whether it be the dismissal of US Attorneys, whether it be other assertions of executive privilege dealing with White House emails and the like."

Congress and the Bush White House have been struggling over a key memo that details the level of White House involvement in the US Attorney firings of 2006. And open-government groups have sued the Bush administration to gain access to White House emails on a range of subjects, including the Valerie Plame leak probe and the decision to invade Iraq.

Kmiec, a noted conservative legal scholar who nonetheless supported Obama's campaign, said he had done some work with the Obama transition team, and had offered his assistance to the new administration.

Kmiec said the order appears to shift power from former presidents to the current administration, and to the National Archivist. Under an order issued by President Bush, former presidents and vice presidents could compel the Archivist to keep documents secret. Under the new order, former presidents can still ask the Archives to do so. But the burden of proof is squarely on the former president to prove that secrecy is in the nation's interest, and the Obama administration can decline the request if it's not convinced. That approach reorients things toward the original intention of the Presidential Records Act, passed in the wake of Watergate.

"If the Archivist were to make a determination that those materials would be made public," explained Kimiec, "then holding it back would take something extraordinary," in terms of an argument from the former president.

Kmiec's view is supported by open-government advocates. Scott Nelson of Public Citizen believes, in the words of the Associated Press, that "researchers should find it easier to gain access to records under the new order."

And yesterday, Anne Weissman of CREW, which unsuccessfully brought a lawsuit against Dick Cheney's office to compel him to hand over records to the Archives, told TPMmuckraker that the order "does have the potential to impact ongoing litigation," including over the US Attorney documents.

So when might we see those documents? If the Archivist and the Obama administration agree to it (in practice, the Archivist would likely defer to the administration), they could be made public as soon as the Archivist has prepared them for public display. Of course, President Bush could sue to stop the move -- but it looks like he'd face an uphill climb in convincing a court that there's a pressing need to keep them secret.

It really is a new day.

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Monday, October 13, 2008

Congress breaks pledge to public and passes $8.5 billion in earmarks in defense bill

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 04: Surrounded by her gr...

Nancy Pelosi is sworn in as House
Speaker.
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: NewsTrust

Despite reforms, Congress hides $3.5B in defense earmarks

October 13, 2008
Submitted by Dwight Rousu

Seattle Times - by David Heath, Christine Willmsen - Oct. 12, 2008 (Investigative Report)
time after time, Congress exploited loopholes or violated those rules, a Seattle Times investigation has found. An in-depth examination of the 2008 defense bill found $8.5 billion in earmarks. Of those, 40 percent — $3.5 billion — were hidden.

And Congress broke its pledge — and President Bush's challenge — to cut earmarks in half.

More »

[NewsTrust article accepts comments]

Thursday, October 02, 2008

New booklet: The "War on Terror" and the Constitution- act today!

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From: Bill of Rights Defense Committee

BORDC Issues The "War on Terror" and the Constitution

Contact:
Nancy Talanian, Director, Bill of Rights Defense Committee
413.582.0110, ntalanian@bordc.org

“This booklet ... provides the basic tools with which the citizenry can begin to act to make this America again.”
— Nat Hentoff

The "War on Terror" and the Constitution Download the booklet:

Hi-Res PDF (5.11 MB)

Lo-Res PDF (3.35 MB)

Order copies from our online storefront

Northampton, MA, September 17, 2008 –The "War on Terror" and The Constitution, a new booklet by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), is a concise summary of how key anti-terrorism laws and policies enacted since September 11, 2001, affect Americans’ constitutional rights. The new laws are organized into chapters corresponding to sections of the U.S. Constitution and articles of the Bill of Rights. Stories in each chapter show how the lives of innocent Americans and foreign detainees have been affected. BORDC is issuing the 24-page booklet on Constitution Day, the 221st anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.

Nancy Talanian, BORDC’s director and the booklet’s author, sees the booklet as a roadmap to show Americans the current status of their rights and liberties compared to where they should be according to the Constitution. “Armed with that knowledge,” she said, “they can work with one another and with their legislators to restore the essential rights they have come to expect.”

Nat Hentoff, a nationally recognized authority on the Bill of Rights, agrees. “No matter who the next president is or what the composition of the next Congress is,” he said, “the extent and the depth of what the Bush administration has done to the Constitution and to our standing in the world will remain unless and until enough Americans know how much remains to be done—and this booklet by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee provides the basic tools with which the citizenry can begin to act to make this America again.”

According to Talanian, “We now have substantial proof that human failures within our government, not the laws and policies in place prior to September 11, 2001, contributed to the terrorist attacks on that day. Furthermore, no proof has been offered to substantiate executive branch claims that new laws and policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act have made this country safer. One could argue that the government is wasting resources prying into the lives of innocent people and storing millions of their private records in databases and treating potentially all of us as terrorism suspects.”

“The ‘War on Terror’ and the Constitution” (24 pages, $3.00) is available from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee at http://www.bordc.org/store.php. Download the booklet (PDF, 6.7 MB) at http://www.bordc.org/resources/war_on_terror.pdf.

In 2002, BORDC spearheaded a nationwide campaign that put city, county, and state governments on record for upholding their residents’ constitutional rights. The passage of eight statewide resolutions and more than 400 local resolutions and ordinances led Congress to strengthen its oversight when it reauthorized the PATRIOT Act in 2006. BORDC’s current focus is on the People’s Campaign for the Constitution, a grassroots effort to hold members of Congress accountable to their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

# # #

Links:

The "War on Terror" and the Constitution high resolution PDF (7.09 MB)
The "War on Terror" and the Constitution low resolution PDF (4.18 MB)
Purchase copies from BORDC's online storefront
BORDC website
People's Campaign for the Constitution website

Thursday, September 25, 2008

US Food and Drug Administration chooses industry studies over independents' on packaging chemical

:Original raster version: :en::Image:Food and ...

Food and Drug Administration.
Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Center for Media and Democracy

Whatever Industry Wants

Source: Integrity in Science Watch, September 22, 2008

Public interest groups, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, are blasting the Food and Drug Administration for relying on industry-funded studies in evaluating the safety of bisphenol A, a chemical widely used in food packaging materials. The FDA's BPA draft assessment says the chemical is safe, ignoring numerous independent and government-funded studies which show risk of harm including brain and prostate damage to developing infants, fetuses, and children, as well as increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. Instead, the FDA relied on two studies funded by an arm of the American Chemistry Council, a trade organization representing chemical manufacturers. Employees of SABIC Innovative Plastics and Dow Chemical, which manufacture BPA, coauthored the two studies. The studies' lead author, Rochelle Tyl of Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina, previously worked for the chemical industry and received research funding from the plastics industry.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tell Pres. Bush and your Congress members NO to company bailouts

WASHINGTON - JULY 11: U.S. Secretary of En...

US Sec. of Energy Bodman, US Sec.
of Treasury Paulson, Pres. Bush
and VP Cheney.
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: National Taxpayer Union

No More Bailouts!

Are you tired of hearing about how your tax dollars are going to bail out government-sponsored enterprises and private institutions? We are.

Did you send your hard-earned money to the IRS to cover the fiscal mismanagement at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, and AIG? We didn’t.

Do you like the sound of a new $25 billion bailout for big auto companies? We don’t.

It’s time to say “enough is enough!” Sign our “No More Bailouts” petition to Congress and the President today.

Unless people like you speak out, there’s no end in sight to this abuse of taxpayer dollars. Act today!

Sign this petition and notify:
President George W. Bush
Your Congressperson
Your Senators

As a taxpaying American, I demand an end to the public bailouts of government-sponsored enterprises and private institutions.

America's economic success is largely due to our free-market system, in which risk is a fundamental element. Some businesses succeed tremendously, some fail spectacularly. But they should do so on their own, not with the backing of millions of reluctant citizens' paychecks.

If troubled institutions seek relief, they should restructure their businesses the way millions of families have had to restructure their budgets, rather than bellying up to Congress' trough.

Bailouts that keep mismanaged organizations afloat delay natural corrections to unsound business practices. In the long run, bailouts do not "rescue" anyone because they stall the adoption of necessary reforms that would prevent future repeats of bad choices.

Enough is enough. No more bailouts. Not with my tax dollars.

Bush administration still increasing secrecy

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: PR Watch

Government Flunks Secrecy Test
Source: OMB Watch, September 9, 2008

A coalition of "consumer and good government groups, librarians, environmentalists, labor leaders, journalists, and others," OpenTheGovernment.org, has found that secrecy by the Bush administration continues to expand. The top twenty-five government departments in terms of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests all continued to carry serious backlogs. In 2007 there was a two percent increase in FOIA requests over 2006, as well as a decrease in the number of documents declassified. "These trends indicate that citizens will have to wait even longer to know what their government is doing," said Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org. Government secrecy is also expensive for taxpayers. "The report estimated the government spent almost $200 to maintain secrets for every dollar the government spent declassifying documents, a five percent increase over the 2006 ratio." McDermott added, "The current administration continues to refuse to be held accountable to the public. In recent years, polls have shown that a growing number of Americans believe the federal government is secretive -- terrible news for our democracy. Until we restore openness and accountability to the federal government, it will be impossible to win back the public's trust."

[Original article accepts comments]

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Friday, September 12, 2008

CREW sues VP Cheney over Vice Presidential records

WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 9: U.S. President Georg...

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From: Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW)

CREW sues VP Cheney over Vice Presidential records

8 Sep 2008 // Today CREW, along with two eminent historians and three organizations of historians and archivists filed a complaint against Vice President Cheney, the Office of the Vice President, the archivist and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), challenging their exclusion of a vast majority of Vice President Cheney's papers from the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and the obligation to preserve for the American public. In an executive order issued in 2001, President Bush declared that the PRA applied only to the "executive records" of the vice president. Since that time, the vice president has taken the view that he is not part of the executive and is attached, if at all, to the congressional branch. Moreover, the archivist takes the view that the congressional records of a vice president are his personal, not presidential, records that he is free to dispose of at will. As a result of these unlawful policies, without judicial intervention on January 20, 2009, the vast majority of Vice President Cheney's records will not be transferred to NARA for eventual release to the public, but instead will remain under the vice president's custody and control. CREW is also seeking an order mandating preservation of all of the vice president's records pending the lawsuit.

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Saturday, August 09, 2008

"Death and Taxes: 2009" representational poster of the federal discretionary budget

A White photo of President Bush, VP Cheney, an...

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From: WALLSTATS.COM

Death and Taxes: 2009

"Death and Taxes:2009" is a representational poster of the federal discretionary budget; the amount of money that is spent at the discretion of your elected representatives in Congress. Basically, your federal income taxes. The data is from the President's budget request for 2009. It will be debated, amended, and approved by Congress by October 1st to begin the fiscal year.

The poster provides a uniquely revealing look at our national priorities, that fluctuate yearly, according to the wishes of the President, the power of Congress, and the will of the people. If you pay taxes, then you have paid for a small part of everything in the poster.

To order a printed copy of this poster, please go to WALLSTATS products page.

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Monday, August 04, 2008

President Bush defies Congress and advances cross-border NAFTA trucking

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Lo...

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From: Public Citizen

Bush Administration Defies Congress, Extends Dangerous Cross-Border Truck Pilot Project for Two More Years

Statement of Lena Pons, Policy Analyst, Public Citizen

In announcing today that it would extend its cross-border trucking pilot project for two more years, the Bush administration continues to flout Congress at the expense of highway safety. This is the latest of many moves by the administration to give Mexico-domiciled carriers operating authority in the United States beyond a limited border zone despite lawmakers’ clear instructions to the contrary.

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Friday, July 25, 2008

Electronic Communications Preservation Act targets executive branch agencies

We periodically receive newsletters from a wide variety of government reform news sources; the organizations focus on only the major events within their respective areas of expertise. Here is a selection from a recent email newsletter:
From OMB Watch
http://bit.ly/1qWaaS

House Decides Saving E-mails is a Good Thing

The White House has threatened to veto an already weak bill targeted at preserving electronic records, despite legal action and recommendations from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the need for such accountability. On July 9, the House passed the Electronic Communications Preservation Act (H.R. 5811) by a veto-proof margin of 286-137. While targeted at the White House, this legislation will have an impact throughout executive branch agencies. [...]

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Bush administration continues its strong efforts to censor climate change information

We periodically receive newsletters from a wide variety of government reform news sources; the organizations focus on only the major events within their respective areas of expertise. Here is a selection from a recent email newsletter:
From OMB Watch
http://bit.ly/4ARfQz

White House Climate Change Policy -- Delay, Delete, and Deny

The Bush administration continues its strong efforts to censor climate change information that reaches the public and Congress. Recent reports indicate that the White House pressured the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make changes to its regulatory process regarding climate change and that Vice President Dick Cheney's office was responsible for suppressing key sections of the congressional testimony of a high-level official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [...]

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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Tell your US Rep. YES to inherent contempt for Karl Rove

Common Cause's Recapture the Flag campaign wants us to bring Karl Rove to the witness chair concerning possible politicization at the Department of Justice. Congress has the power and a duty to conduct investigations of possible wrongdoings in the Executive Branch. It's time to stop the stonewalling, and get the bottom of the questions about the firings of U.S. attorneys and other allegations about politicization at the Justice Department.

By voting for inherent contempt, Congress would be ordering the Sergeant-at-Arms to physically bring Rove in to testify. If he still refused, he could be jailed. Urge your Representative to support a vote of inherent contempt against Karl Rove!

Just personalize the sample letter if you desire, and send it off; a copy of your letter will be emailed to you if you prefer. Or, you may, instead, call your US Representative through the Capitol Switchboard; its number (not toll-free) is 202-224-3121. Thank you
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Tell your US Representative and two US Senators NO to illegal wiretapping of citizens

Common Cause has an online campaign to stop Congress from compromising with the Bush administration over the illegal wiretapping of Americans. Telecom companies wiretapped American citizens without legally-required warrants a few years ago, and now Bush wants retroactive immunity from any justice.

Just a few weeks ago, the House stood strong and refused to give immunity to the phone companies that engaged in this criminality. But now, Congress is considering a "compromise" bill that could make it impossible for us to find out the details of the domestic spying program and hold accountable anyone who broke the law.
Please go to Common Cause's letter webpage and send a message to your representatives and say "no compromise"! Thank you

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Contact your US Rep. and express your opinions on Impeachment bill introduced against Pres. George W Bush

Legislation including 35 Articles of Impeachment against Pres. George W. Bush was introduced in the US House recently by Dennis Kucinich (D-OH); Robert Wexler (D-FL) is a leading co-signor. Kucinich, a leader of the Progressive Caucus of the US House Democratic caucus, earlier this year ran unsuccessfully for his party's presidential nomination.

On April 24th, Rep. Kucinich introduced H.Res.333, Impeachment against Vice Pres. Richard Cheney. There are presently 26 Co-Sponsors- it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which has taken no action on the resolution.

Express your opinion on this legislation by contacting your US Representative- all congress members have official US House websites with feedback/contact forms; you may request a reply to your letter, but they are not always returned. A new, expanded "Contact your representative tips" is on this blog's left-side column. Thank you

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Tell US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi NO to President Bush and telecom immunity for illegal wiretappings

Common Cause is asking us to send a message to US House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi; there should be no immunity from legal action against President Bush and the telecom companies for illegally wiretapping US citizens a few years ago.

Speaker Pelosi and other House leaders are currently negotiating away this legal accounting of wrongdoing with President Bush and others. Please go to Credo Mobile's campaign webpage and send your message. Thank you