Senate wants to pay us to shop for junk

Compare the Senate and House stimulus plans:

The Democrats in the House propose to increase spending to help poor, and to save schools and public works projects that have suffered under the tax cuts and silly stimulus packages that have gotten us into this mess. The Senate wants to pay us to shop for houses and cars, buying more environmentally harmful junk from companies and banks who can use taxpayer bail-outs to pay stock options and executive bonuses.

WaPO has a helpful graphic here.

AP's Comparison of economic stimulus plans here.

ACTION: Contact Congress easily - use this link!

The Things That Carried Him by Chris Jones

For Memorial Day:

The next day, Thursday, May 31, 2007, he sat in the heat on a distant tombstone, waiting until he could finish the rest of his work. Just after twelve o'clock, the first people arrived: a vanload of nine honor-guard soldiers up from Fort Knox, dressed in their green Class-A uniforms, with knotted ties and berets. Collins had seen them practicing and pointing at various spots in the grass when he dug the grave. Now seven of them stacked their M16's in one of those spots. Each gun held three rounds; Sergeant Aaron Huber, a broad-backed thirty-one-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq, had taken care to polish his ammunition to a high shine. Six of the soldiers, including Huber, then assembled in two rows between the grave and where they knew the hearse would park. The extra rifleman remained with the weapons, and the noncom in charge, thirty-seven-year-old Sergeant Kenneth Dawson, stood at attention nearby. The ninth man, Specialist Robert Leatherbee, a boy-faced twenty-six-year-old from Massachusetts, took his place about forty feet away. With his buzz cut and iron-crisp uniform, he looked like a soldier, but there seemed something smaller or gentler about him, at least compared with the others. Maybe it was just that he was holding a trumpet instead of a gun, his fingers tender on the brass.

Read more of this great story from Esquire here:

US, China Gang up for Greenhouse Gases; World Boos

China, the country that tortures monks, and the US, the country that tortures just about anyone else, joined forces to protect those who pollute and poison the world's residents at the Greehouse Gases Reduction Conference in Bali this week.


When unauthorized parallel meetings were held
at the Conference of 187 countries, leader Yvo de Boer, not known for his emotion, was overcome by jet lag and obstructionism and burst into tears.


According to the UK's Daily Mail:

Officials from China, which feels Western countries should do more to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, accused UN negotiators of ignoring conference protocol.

Mr de Boer, distinctively dressed in a floral shirt, stepped up to the microphone to defend his staff - only to find that the words would no longer come.
As his unfinished sentences trailed away, he broke down and walked off the platform to supportive applause.

"He wasn't just wiping his eyes, he was in floods of tears," said one observer.
"Three colleagues - one of them a woman - formed a protective group around him and escorted him out of the hall. It was all very dramatic."
Mr de Boer's breakdown came after nearly a fortnight of squabbling over proposals to cut carbon emissions.

Then there was piling by the US, recently overtaken by China for the spot of World's #1 Greenouse Gas polluter. US delegation chief Paula Dobriansky , a pretty face with an ugly message, was booed for refusing to support the Conference goals.


One delegate, from Papua New Guinea, pleaded with the US to lead on the issue. "Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

More info:

NYTimes

Sunday Mirror

Telegraph here and full coverage here

Celsias

FBI to trespassers: Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Democratic Party?

FBI detains and interrogates trespassers on their party affiliation. Again. This time on video.

The FBI did the same thing to NYC protesters at the Republican convention in 2004.

If you don't object due to the rights violations, object for the waste of FBI
resources and your Homeland Security tax dollars.

Here's a photo of the dangerous protestors threatening national security in April 2002 in Washington, DC.

WaPo: A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show.

* * * *

Similar intelligence-gathering operations have been reported in New York, where a local police intelligence unit tried to infiltrate groups planning to protest at the Republican National Convention in 2004, and in Colorado, where records surfaced showing that the FBI collected names and license plates of people protesting timber industry practices at a 2002 industry convention.

Several federal courts have ruled that intelligence agencies can monitor domestic groups only when there is reason to believe the group is engaged in criminal activity. Experts in police conduct say it is hard to imagine how asking questions about a person's political views would be appropriate in a trespassing case.

The Washington case centers on activities that took place April 20, 2002 -- a day of three cacophonic but generally orderly rallies that drew an estimated 75,000 people to the Mall. They included groups demonstrating against the prospect of war in Iraq, numerous supporters of the war, and Palestinians and others rallying for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and for peace in the Middle East.

Washington Post says administration's use of federal employees to manipulate elections is a bad idea

Republican incumbents should release their 2006 schedule, to show if they received this illegal GSA help.

Playing Politics at the GSA: Lurita Doan's willful disregard of the Hatch Act

Tuesday, April 3, 2007; Page A22

LURITA DOAN, the troubled and troubling administrator of the General Services Administration, wants us to "honestly and absolutely" believe that she has no recollection of a meeting she hosted for political appointees with a White House official that had all the feel of a Republican pep rally. There was a PowerPoint presentation on the 2006 elections and talk of using the agency to help GOP candidates in the next election cycle. Yet the Republican fundraiser, who's been in her post for only 10 months, would have us think she forgot.

* * * *

All this -- the PowerPoint presentation, the high-level official from the White House who did the presentation, the go-team cheerleading of Ms. Doan -- leads us to an important question: Who else in the federal government has seen this show? House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) asked that question and more in a letter to Mr. Rove on March 29. He, and we, are eager for a response.

Deepwater is in Deep Caca ...and Cheney's son-in-law?!

Crossposted on DailyKos and Raising Kaine.

WaPo reported today about the Deepwater Revolving door and pay-to-play politics that jeopardizes the Coast Guard, Homeland security and border control. The story mentioned Phillip J. Perry.

The Perry family of McClean, VA has donated generously to the campaigns of crooks like Bob Ney, Randy Forbes, and Conrad Burns, as well as Tom DeLay's ARMPAC, Robert Ehrlich, and Tom Davis. The Perry family donations exceed $50,000.

What did they get for their money? They got to go through the Deepwater Revolving Door. Formerly a lobbyist for Lockheed Martin, J. Phillip Perry, a son-in-law of Dick Cheney, was nominated to be General Counsel to the Department of Homeland Security from June 2005 until he left in February 2007.

After drafting the law that created DHS at OMB, Perry became its GC, a position he could have used to oversee some of the many problems Lockheed had complying with its contract to build boats that float on time and on budget for the Coast Guard. Perry returned to the DC firm of Latham and Watkins in March.

A significant target of the Perry generosity is Tom Davis (R-VA), who oversaw the Government Reform Committee during a period of pay-to-play politics and almost unprecendented scandal when the Committee set records for inactivity. The company escaped accountability for the waste and inefficiency so the money seems like a great investment. Here are the details of the Tom Davis donations from the FEC wbsite.

PERRY, GERALD STEPHEN------10/23/1998---$500.00-THE DUTKO GROUP INC-98034022477
PERRY, GERALD STEPHEN------05/05/1999--$1000.00-THE DUTKO GROUP INC-99034720146
PERRY, ANNE POWERS MRS----04/28/2000--$1000.00-HOMEMAKER-20036461485
PERRY, GERALD STEPHEN MR.-02/09/2001---$500.00-THE DUTKO GROUP INC./EXECUTIVE-21990247559
PERRY, PHILIP JONATHAN MR.-07/16/2001---$250.00-WHITE & CASE /ATTORNEY-22990118540
PERRY, GERALD STEPHEN MR.-03/13/2002---$500.00-THE DUTKO GROUP INC./EXECUTIVE-22990694379
PERRY, GERALD STEPHEN MR.-12/29/2003---$500.00-THE DUTKO GROUP INC./EXECUTIVE-24990181655
PERRY, GERALD STEPHEN MR.-07/15/2005--$1000.00-THE DUTKO GROUP INC./EXECUTIVE-25971136867

Contractor Accountability - who could possibly object?

Who is objecting to Contractor Accountability, Whistleblower Protection, and Testimony from Valerie Plame?

The purpose of the Contractor Accountability bill is "to improve Federal contracting and procurement by eliminating fraud and abuse and improving competition in contracting and procurement and by enhancing administration of Federal contracting personnel, and for other purposes."

Coming after the scandal of the contracting out of Walter Reed, which was done so poorly and at a higher cost then the government employees who had been working there for decades, the bill had broad support. Only 73 of 433 members of Congress, all Republicans, voted against the bill. Tom Davis and Eric Cantor voted against contractor accountability.

Tom Davis even voted with 190 Republicans against bringing the bill to the Floor for a vote.

The National Association of Govermnment Contractors is for the bill. They're tired of being used as a "piggy bank" for Congressional campaigns.

The Washington Post is for it. When the Democrats first introduced this in 2000, the Post hosted Paul Light, Vice President, Director, and Douglas Dillon Senior at the Brookings Institution. Light said,

"If we're going to have a contract work force, which we surely do, we ought to know what it looks like. Make it visible, understand it, track its movement, and make sure it is the highest quality for the dollar possible. We are increasingly in the business of buying labor through service contracts, but we continue to treat that labor as if it were nothing more than a stick of furniture. Our contract officers need to get smarter, better, and more agile at understanding the difference between buying toilet paper and procuring professional services."

Davis succeeded in attaching to the bill a provision that would prohibit all government agencies from awarding contracts to any institutions of higher learning that deny military recruitment on their campuses. This amendment split the Democrats and united the Republicans. Under current law, the ban applies only to contracts from the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and a few other agencies.

Davis also voted twice with the Republicans to prevent the Whistleblower Protection Act from coming to the floor here and here. It is obvious that the Walter Reed scandal came to light only because of whistleblowers; considering that Walter Reed personnel responded to the scandal by prohibiting employees and patients from speaking with the press, the need for this critical protection is obvious.

Davis is also "clearly unhappy" that Waxman has scheduled testimony from Valerie Plame on Friday, and Davis is trying to close the hearing.

See his Rubber Stamp voting record here.

Bush Power Grab-Let them Eat Spinach?

Now that global warming is confirmed by a broad scientific consensus that is almost unanimous, and food safety and exposure of imports to terrorism is widely acknowledged, George Bush found a revised secret route to undermine public safety legislation. Congress needs to step up and reassert its authority.

A new Executive Order would strip regulatory agencies of authority to regulate dangerous products unless it can establish "market failure."

The Bush administration ordered agencies to get White House approval before issuing "guidance" on regulatory matters, possibly subjecting such pronouncements to the same comment period and cost-benefit analyses as full-blown regulations. The executive order also requires agencies to document a "market failure" to justify any new regulation and puts a political appointee in each agency to oversee regulatory policies.

Thousands of Americans have died in Iraq - and more allies and civilians and contractors - and the Administration refuses to call it a failure. How many consumers have to die before it will declare a "market failure"?

The compelling testimony of Georgetown Law professor and Director of the Institute For Public Representation, David Vladeck, is here. He points out it applies to drafts, guidelines and policies as well as rules, and to agencies implementing laws passed by Congress that require hazard analysis, not market failure.

More from WaPo:

"There is no question who this panders to," said Rena Steinzor, a University of Maryland law professor who is critical of administration regulatory policy.

"It's maybe not surprising that having lost control of the Congress, the president is doing what he can to increase control of the executive branch," [said Peter Strauss, a professor at Columbia University law school].

There is no question of the resounding effect this will have on safety regulation as recognized by papers that cover Federal regulation. In Biotech-rich Thousand Oaks, CA, the paper said the "Power Grab [is] likely to change the country." TomPaine calls it a "chokehold. The Washington Times says the Order will establish Bush's legacy, which according to the Moonies is currently tainted because the Clinton regulations first blocked by Bush as anti-business did eventually go through relatively intact. The Times especially complains about Clinton's environmental protections, designed to prevent increased rates of global warming, and the Times denies the vast weight of climate change evidence.

The changes would be secret, too

In a February 13 hearing before a House Science and Technology subcommittee on oversight, chairman Brad Miller of North Carolina commented that new regulations could "be smothered in the crib by the RPO" without even the possibility of public scrutiny. ... Vladeck told the committee that the new executive order "goes back to the days when OIRA was allowed to conduct a big part of its business in secret."

C'mon, Congress. Eat your Spinach.

It's not over till it's under-Tyson's Tunnel

The Tyson's Tunnel Project has implications from Bethesda to the West to Prince George's to the East, and all the way around the Beltway. Tom Davis (VA-11th) is the Republican who refuses to cooperate with Henry Waxman's fraud tip line, who threatened Va Governor Kaine when he tried to trigger use of new technology to build a tunnel through Tyson's, and who shakes down fraudulent government contractors in Iran and the Hurricane-rattled Gulf to finance the campaigns for him and his wife.

The current project is ugly.

So who has Tom Davis's ear on the Tyson's tunnel project? Not voters, but real estate magnates.

...Northern Virginia Congressmen Tom Davis and Jim Moran [were] spotted with NoVa real estate investor Joe Robert, taking in the [Wizards baskletball] game [Wed., Feb 7th] from courtside floor seats with “nice full beers,” according to our source.

Who bought the floor seats? Well, the host seemed to be Joe Robert, who according to the FEC donated $161,000 to federal, mostly Republican, candidates including over $14,000 to Davis as an individual and as RNCC Chair, to Rick Santorum, Michael Steele, and crooks like Conrad Burns. Tom Davis's PAC and his wife are both in Robert's top 10 recipients (if not for Gov. Warner almost all donations are to pro-development Republicans). Robert donated another$50,000 to state races as JE Robert Company. He is also a Washington Baseball Club member. His "charity" All Children Matter has donated almost $500,000 to Republicans in Virginia.

When you want to influence Tom Davis, be sure to bring your VIP tickets. But remember, his biggest obsession baseball.

Davis leaves a cold trail, complains trail is cold

Tom Davis headed the Government Reform Committee since 1998. Despite allegations of torture, failure to provide adequate troop protective gear, waste, fraud, and missing packages of money called "footballs" used to "hand off," Davis issued no subpeonas and took almost no testimony on the issues related to the Iraq War.

Now that new Chairman Henry Waxman is holding a hearing, Davis is criticizing him for starting hearings so late. Then he undermined the Democrats newly established tip line.

Former committee chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., now the senior minority member ... criticized Waxman.

He said Waxman was rushing to "old judgments" in a hearing that was "old news."

Davis accused Democrats of trying to embarrass the administration.

He said Waxman's interest in finding out if government contractors were funding terrorism was "Self righteous finger wagging and political scapegoating [that] won’t make Iraq any more secure, it won’t rebuild that savage nation, and it won’t bring U.S. troops home any sooner.”

MSN:

The hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform scrutinized the chaotic days that began after a burning and looted Baghdad fell to U.S. troops four years ago. Bremer ran the country for 14 months.
* * * *
Waxman and a hearing witness, special inspector general for Iraq Stuart Bowen Jr., criticized Bremer for failing to install accounting systems that would have forced Iraqi ministries to account for up to $12 billion in Iraq's funds. The money came from a United Nations oil-for-food program and seized Iraqi assets, but fell under Bremer's control.

"Without strong standards, we have no way of knowing whether the cash could end up in enemy hands," said Waxman.

So much for homeland security.

Not all Republicans felt the need to defend the waste and corruption. Other Republicans disagreed with Davis's assessment. "Conservative Republicans should feel no obligation to defend waste just because it happened in Iraq," said Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn.

Democrats are planning more investigations coming up, many of them in Waxman's committee. The newly named, newly energized Oversight Committee scheduled further hearings this week on homeland security contracts and drug prices.

Davis, who had almost 9 years to establish a tip line while he was Chairman, then announced the Republicans would not cooperate with the new Oversight tip email. He had started his own email address, and did not offer to share information collected on it with the majority.

There you have it. Congressional Democrats and Republicans can’t even agree on a single tip line for whistleblowers to report waste, fraud and abuse. Makes you wonder how the warring parties will able to get it together long enough to manage the bigger issues on the national agenda.

Tom Davis makes National Quote of the Week

Surface Air Temperature Increase 1960-2060
NASA Home > Life on Earth > In Everyday Life

Government Reform Committee Chair Henry Waxman charged another White House cover up, this time on global warming, when he said,

"We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger,” said Waxman, adding that he is “not trying to obtain state secrets.”

The cover up facilitator for the past decade has been none other than former Chair Tom Davis of VA. Davis continues the White House spin in a linguistic gymnastic routine that earns him national recognition:

Here's my nomination for quote of the week: "The issue of politicizing science has itself become politicized." It was spoken by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., at a hearing on global warming.

* * * *

[Y]es, truth always has been elusive, and always will remain so. Once we seemed to be able to agree on facts. But now we are told to dismiss facts if they get characterized as political. In Davis' world, it's political, and apparently dismissive on that basis, to speak up to make the point that someone else has been political.

It reminds me of my cub reporting days so many years ago. The local political establishment was alleged to be corrupt -- election fraud and such. The alleged
ringleader responded by telling me, with a tone of utter disdain, that those who alleged his corruption were "politically motivated." As if that were bad, or disqualifying, or a surprise, or relevant to whether the guy and his allies were actually corrupt. Perhaps you're wondering how a charge of stealing elections could be anything other than politically motivated.

* * * *

We seem to have two options: We must draw the curtain on political performance art to permit the pursuit of empirical data about global warming. Or, we could try what might be the most effective tool of all, at least nowadays, which would be taking scientific fact and finding fresh and innovative ways to present it through political performance art.

Did someone say Al Gore?

What is Tom Davis Up To? Part III -- ICF in the Gulf

Today (Monday) the Washington Post did a story about the incompetence of a Fairfax firm, ICF, in its Hurricane Katrina response. ICF was awarded a contract worth about $8 million, to disburse $7 Billion to homeowners in New Orleans.

Since then, residents and state and federal officials have accused ICF of moving too slowly, paying its lawyers too much and valuing homes too low. The company's performance has been criticized by Donald Powell, federal coordinator of Gulf Coast rebuilding, and the Louisiana House and Senate have called for the contract to be canceled and for an audit of the company's $19 million in travel expenses...

Fairfax-based ICF is a mid-size contractor that provides consulting and technology services for government agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Defense Department, as well as some large companies.

ICF says the job is hard. Government officials and homeowers say that's why the company got $7 BILLION. If ICF can't do the job, will the company release the government from the contract and let someone else give it a try? Certainly not. Tom Davis had not asked ICF to explain itself, despite the widespread agreement that oversight was desperately needed. Henry Waxman, the new chair, now has ICF in his sites.

Waxman's oversight may be a wake up call for ICF. Before Waxman took control, when ICF had to testify at the Government Reform Committee in 2005, how did it respond? ICF donated to Committee Chair Tom Davis.

• On June 8, 2005, Sudhakar Kesavan of ICF donated $1,000 to Davis.
• On June 8, 2005, Peter Linquiti of ICF donated $1,000 to Davis.

What was going on on June 8? The ICF Committee hearing was being scheduled.

In addition to the campaign contributions, Tom Davis's wife is available to consult with ICF to prepare them for the hearing. No one will say whether she was the consultant for that job.

After paying the donations to Davis, ICF then got on the schedule after the summer recess, and got the "soft" hearing it needed to escape accountability.

ICF also had donated $2,500 to Davis's Victory Fund PAC before, putting his PAC in their top 10 recipients. Davis's wife also has been a recipient of ICF donations.

What is Tom Davis Up To? Part II -- Parsons in Iraq

Here is a recent story on the corruption and incompetence on an Iraq War contractor in Waxman's sites, Parsons. The company incompetence has been diaried here on DKos.

More recently, Waxman leveled his sights on Parsons Corp. The California-based international engineering and management services firm has been cited by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, for delays and other problems in the construction of dozens of health care centers across Iraq, and for work so shoddy in the construction of police academy barracks that raw sewage leaked through ceilings onto recruits.

James McNulty, chairman and CEO of Parsons, doesn't dispute the problems the IG has cited with his company's work, but he says the projects have been far more difficult than anyone anticipated.

So, the job is hard. That's why Parson's is paid top dollar. Instead of hiring Americans, or grateful natives, Parsons has used the cheapest imported labor to save even more money. If the job is so hard, shall we expect Parsons to give up the contract and give some money back? Admit they can't do it, and let another company take over? Certainly not.

How does Parsons get away with getting paid top dollar for its incompetence? Campaign contributions to Tom Davis (R-VA), the corrupt politician and oversight committee chair who was supposed to oversee their spending.

PARSONS CORPORATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE gave Davis $11,000 according to www.fec.gov

Parsons PAC also gave generously to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $5,000 every March since the Iraq War began in 2003, for a total of $20,000.

Davis's wife hires herself out for ICG Government to help witnesses prepare testimony for his Committee. Davis got her the job with his friend Don Upson. Hiring her is a potential conflict of interest - if not an actual conflict - that goes on anyway. Witnesses know paying her can't hurt their chances for softball questions from him.

Parsons also gave to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, but only one-tenth of what the NRCC got, and only starting in December 2005 when it became evident that Davis, the Committee Chair, was losing his majority rule. Parsons gave no money to incoming Reform Committee chair Henry Waxman.