The campaigns of House Reps. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) and Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) to become Philadelphia’s next mayor ended yesterday when each was defeated in the city’s Democratic primary election. Former City Councilman Michael Nutter won a decisive victory in the five-way race, collecting approximately 37% of the vote (watch acceptance speech).
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
A controversial nominee to head the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) just got more controversial. Michael E.
I've blogged previously about how the Congresspedia staff is working with research and advocacy organizations to build articles on federal legislation, but one particular aspect of these collaborations deserves highlighting: the ability to link the Congresspedia profiles of members of Congress to those on pieces of legislation.
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In the last several weeks, PR Watch and SourceWatch/Congresspedia readers have knocked out several collaborative citizen journalism projects, including identifying the party affiliations of members of Congress, tracking the activities of PR firms and getting the contact information for freshman members of Congress. Great work, everyone!
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In a move criticized as a "blatant attempt to bog down investigations of the [Iraq] war," a Defense Department official has issued guidelines that "prohibit most officers below the rank of colonel from appearing in [Congressional] hearings, restricting testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by President Bush." The guidelines were wr
CMD Founder and Executive Director John Stauber has been in Germany, Austria and Belgium for the past two weeks speaking in major cities and discussing the publication of "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" in German. On May 16 Vienna's daily paper Der Standard ran an interview with Herr Stauber that can be read in German by searching his name on their website. He was previously interviewed by Nils Klawitter for the German magazine Der Spiegel, and a translated portion of the interview is below. (Thanks to Orange-Press, publishers of the German edition of Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, for the translation.) If you would like to read the German interview in its entirety, please go to: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,481658,00.html
Both the House and Senate are in session this week, with each expected to debate and consider high-profile legislation. The House is set to vote on the fiscal year (FY) 2008 Defense Department authorization, while the Senate will spend considerable time debating possible changes to U.S. immigration policy. In addition to legislation, both the House and Senate are again planning to hold a number of important committee hearings. These include one by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on a bill which would grant the District of Columbia a voting member of the House, as well as a House Science and Technology Committee hearing on the current state of global warming. Here, courtesy of GovTrack, is a quick rundown of all of this week’s House and Senate hearings:
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
As of May 14, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) began "blocking access 'worldwide' to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks." General B.B.
It was an eventful week on Capitol Hill, as both the House and Senate tackled several high-profile issues. The House passed another Iraq War supplemental spending bill, while the Senate considered bills relating to both the FDA and the Army Corps of Engineers. For an in-depth look at the legislation considered in Congress since Monday, we again turn to Robert McElroy’s TheWeekInCongress.
What does it mean to be a nation at war? Is it possible to exercise democratic control over a wartime government that dismisses honest criticism as unpatriotic? What should citizens do when members of their military not only commit crimes -- as happens during every war -- but also rely on propaganda to hide mistakes and to embellish or even create victories, as happened in the cases of Army Ranger Pat Tillman and Private Jessica Lynch?
Those are big questions, but a few things are clear. One is that the secrecy, deception and constraints sought by wartime administrations are anathema to the transparency, accountability and freedom necessary to democracy. As James Madison warned, "Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other." Another truism is that citizens retain the right to receive information and provide guidance to their government during wartime. The last is that, while security concerns may legitimately restrict what information can be shared when, maintaining civilian oversight of war operations helps ensure that human rights standards are upheld. Perhaps the most important effort to provide oversight of ongoing U.S. wars was the April 24 Congressional hearing on battlefield misinformation.
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