Congresspedia’s “Congress in the News” updates, Nov. 8-Nov. 30, 2006
- Las Vegas police have recommended that no charges be filed against Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) in relation to an alleged assault. (News 3 story)
U.S. Government
The Newly Democratic House Changes Their Rules
Last week the new Democratic House majority passed a number of rule changes aimed at the less scrupulous aspects of the previous Republican regime. The most significant is probably the "pay/go" provision that requires new spending to be offset with increases in revenue or equal reductions in spending, but also included were several new ethics measures. However, most of the ethics reforms are fairly superficial and do not deal with the revolving door or campaign contributions. For those we'll have to wait until later in the session (or potentially much, much longer). The new Democratic majority in the Senate, which is moving through the slower committee process, is expected to deliver their changes next week.
The new House rules are as follows:
Boom Times for Scandal PR
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"The number one PR trend of 2007 will be dealing with the PR fallout from congressional subpoenas," predicts public relations industry blogger Alice Marshall. "Local law firms are already soliciting business. PR strategists are dropping quotes in the press hoping to attract clients. ...
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Lieberman, Bush and the Generals: The PR campaign around the troop "surge" in Iraq
President Bush is expected to make an announcement soon about his plan for Iraq, but a PR war has been raging for several weeks to prepare the ground for a "surge" in troop levels for Baghdad and Iraq. Bush and surrogates Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen.
Smithsonian-Showtime Contract Stymies Filmmakers
Submitted by Jonathan Rosenblum on
The Smithsonian Institution is defending a long-term multimillion dollar contract that limits access to some filmmakers in favor of Showtime Networks, a CBS affiliate. The scale of the contract with Showtime enables "an exponential growth in filming projects," Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small told the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
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Coming to the Table in 2007: Cloned Beef?
Submitted by Jonathan Rosenblum on
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has tentatively determined that milk and meat from cloned cows are safe to eat and indistinguishable from non-cloned cows. The agency may complete approval procedures for consumption of the animals and milk before the end of 2007.
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What Would the Other George Do? An Interview with the Author of "Saving General Washington"
I spoke with author J.R. Norton in June of this year about his book, Saving General Washington: The Right Wing Assault on America's Founding Principles. The following excerpts are from an interview on "A Public Affair" on WORT (89.9 FM), community radio in Madison, WI, and from a follow up in-person interview.
JSP: Why do George Washington and the rest of the Founding Fathers need to be saved?
J.R. Norton: Well, it's a bit of metaphor. It's in part aimed at rehabilitating and reintroducing these founding figures of American history, but on a broader level, on a more important level, it's about reintroducing the values that these guys stood for. Certainly over the last five or six years, I think we've really lost sight of those virtues.
Growers, Distributors Want Industry-Driven Regulation Despite E. Coli Outbreaks
Submitted by Jonathan Rosenblum on
U.S. safety regulations for produce have been relegated to the far reaches of government bureaucracies, tucked into an under-funded combination of U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight and state agriculture bureaucracies.
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New Committees and Stories for the New Congress on Congresspedia
We've been busy at Congresspedia updating all our information for the rollover from the 109th to the 110th Congress. The new chairs and members of the Senate committees have all been released and are fully updated in both the member of Congress profiles and on the committee pages.
Read Between the Redacted Lines
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Here is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article we wrote for The [New York] Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency's Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process," write Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann.
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