U.S. Government

Meet the candidates: Congressional primaries in Georgia, runoff in Alabama today

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

Georgia is our first stop in the "second half" of the congressional primary season: according to our schedule, it is one of 22 states that have not held a nominating contest. Our citizen editors have been keeping track of all the races across the country, and it looks like a couple of the ones in Georgia will be interesting. In addition, voters in two Alabama districts will return to the polls for runoff primary elections.

(Click through for more on the congressional primaries)

Spinning the Spin on Barack Obama

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Obama New YorkerThe cover of the upcoming issue of the New Yorker magazine bears a satirical cartoon that incorporates practically every jab the right wing has taken at Barack Obama and his wife Michelle: the couple is pictured standing

No
Main Source: 
The Boston Globe (Boston.com), July 14, 2008
Topics: 
Left Wing
Right Wing
Crisis Management
Journalism
Election 2008
Terrorism
Democracy
Education
Ethics
Politics
Public Relations
Race / Ethnic Issues
Religion

Closer Scrutiny for Drug Companies' Impact on Mental Health

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on

Open pill blister packAs CMD recently reported, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, have instituted a voluntary, and therefore unenforceable, code to guide drug makers' relationships with doctors.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, July 12, 2008
Topics: 
Children
Corporations
Health
Marketing
Pharmaceuticals
Politics
U.S. Government

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (July 13-19, 2008)

Congress this week may send a housing relief package to President Bush for his signature. The other major action in the House and Senate will be on energy-related measures, as both Republicans and Democrats propose fixes for high energy prices. There is also a primary election in Georgia this week, as we prepare for the fall election season.

Federal officials announced early this morning that the government would take steps to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-founded companies that finance about half of the home loans issued in the United States. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the companies would be allowed to borrow money from the Federal Reserve, and the government might invest directly in the privately-held firms if their situation worsens. The steps are unprecedented, but officials have said the companies’ failure would cause further damage to America’s housing market and the overall economy.

Increased oversight of the firms is a central idea in the housing package approved by the Senate last week.

A Deal So Good It Could be Illegal

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on

Former Congressman Curt Weldon's employer Defense Solutions got a good deal in Iraq. So good, that "the deal, for decades-old, equipment, included terms so lopsided, they likely would have been illegal under U.S. law." Defense Solutions got a contract with the Iraqi government in 2005 to refurbish obsolete Soviet-era Hungarian tanks. While U.S. law would dictate that the company's fee be tied to performance, Defense Solutions' contract not only ensures payment, it also gives them a percentage of the total cost.

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Main Source: 
Wired's Danger Room, July 10, 2008
Topics: 
Iraq
U.S. Congress
Corporations
International
Politics
Secrecy
U.S. Government
War / Peace

Congresspedia Review: This Week in Congress (July 6-12, 2008)

The biggest news this week in Congress was the passage and signing of the FISA bill, which expanded the president's surveillance powers (to more closely fit the Bush administration's existing practices) and granted retroactive legal immunity to telecom companies for breaking federal privacy laws when allowing the administration to illegally tap domestic phone lines without a warrant. The Senate also passed a housing legislation package on Friday and Congress gave final passage to a bill preventing a cut in payments to doctors in the Medicare program (at the expense of federally subsidized corporate Medicare programs).

A Match Made In Political PR Heaven

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on

Karen Hughes and Mark PennFormer undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and longtime George Bush advisor and confidante Karen Hughes has taken a position with PR giant Burson Marsteller.

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), July 9, 2008
Topics: 
Left Wing
Right Wing
Election 2008
Public Diplomacy
Democracy
International
Labor
Politics
Propaganda
Public Relations
U.S. Government

Cheney's Office Pushed Purge of Climate Change Testimony

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

U.S. Vice President Dick CheneyU.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office was behind a push to censor congressional testimony that global warming poses a danger to the public, according to Jason Burnett, a former associate deputy administrator at the U.S.

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2008
Topics: 
Climate Change
Science
Secrecy
U.S. Government

Stauber Interviews Sirota: The War, Dems, MoveOn and The Uprising

Sheldon Rampton and I could see it coming soon after the Democrats took control of the Congress in 2007. In March, 2007 we pointed out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with the support of MoveOn, was advancing legislation that would fund the war in Iraq while giving Democrats PR cover, allowing them to posture against it while the bloody, brutal occupation of Iraq continues. We were attacked at the time by Democratic partisans, but unfortunately our analysis has proven correct and today the war in Iraq is as much of an interminable quagmire as it was when the Democrats took control of the House and Senate in January 2007.
Sirota The Uprising

Democratic political activist, columnist and author David Sirota has also strongly condemned this failure of the Democrats and "The Players," DC's professional partisan insiders such as MoveOn. On May 24, 2007 he wrote: "Today America watched a Democratic Party kick them square in the teeth - all in order to continue the most unpopular war in a generation at the request of the most unpopular president in a generation at a time polls show a larger percentage of the public thinks America is going in the wrong direction than ever recorded in polling history. ... That will make May 24, 2007 a dark day generations to come will look back on - a day when Democrats in Washington not only continued a war they promised to end, but happily went on record declaring that they believe in their hearts that government's role is to ignore the will of the American people."

This month, more than a year later, the Democratic controlled Congress once again gave the Bush Administration funding to continue the Iraq war well into 2009. David Sirota now has a new book out: The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington. In it he expands on his criticism of the Democratic Party and its partisan, professional antiwar activists in the leadership of MoveOn.

Sirota writes in his new book (page 82), "The absence of a full-throated antiwar uprising is tragic at a time when the country appears more skeptical of knee-jerk militarism than ever before. ...

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