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By Daniel Ellsberg
$11.56
By David K. Shipler
$40
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RJ Matson, Cagle Cartoons, The St. Louis Post Dispatch —
Posted on Jun 19, 2011
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Flickr / kathleencaring
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The U.S. is caught up in three wars, a budget crisis and high unemployment. So what are Republican politicians working on? Cutting long-standing environmental regulations and shifting the burden of oversight from the federal to the state level.
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Flickr / Dan Edelstein
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House Republicans have succeeding in amending a spending bill to deny the FCC money to implement new (and heavily gutted) network neutrality regulations. That’s right: banning a government agency from using government money to do government work.
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flnd.uscourts.gov
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On Monday, another federal judge from our nation’s south made a bid to squelch President Obama’s big health care win from last year by arguing that the mandatory health insurance component of the law makes the whole thing unconstitutional.
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For-profit schools, some of which are accused of failing to properly educate while loading students with debt, have banded together to fight the introduction of three federal reforms.
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In his latest bid to chip away at our nation’s trillion-dollar deficit, President Obama announced a new proposal Monday to freeze civilian federal employees’ salaries for the next two years, pointing to the need for all Americans to “sacrifice” ...
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Flickr / Rosie O'Beirne
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In a “how in the world can this happen” moment, federal employees have been put on alert after it was discovered that a worker at the General Services Administration sent the names and Social Security numbers of the agency’s entire staff to a private e-mail address, exposing 12,000 people to the threat of identity theft.
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AP / Ralph Freso
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By David Coleman — Some metrics drawn from football metaphors might help to convey more clearly the magnitude of Judge Bolton’s ruling. If a lawsuit was scored like a football game, the score might be of this magnitude: United States 48, Arizona 6.
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U.S. Department of Justice
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The Justice Department, as expected, has decided to file a lawsuit seeking to shut down Arizona’s SB 1070, a move that is likely to launch immigration even further into this year’s election debate as conservatives rally around anti-immigrant sentiment in scrounging for votes.
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Wikimedia Commons/Revisorweb
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America’s spend-a-thon has brought some inevitable consequences, not the least being that we now are looking at a federal budget deficit of more than $1 trillion for the first time ever, and that number is projected to nearly double by October.
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AP photo / Brennan Linsley
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Funny how declarations made in the heat of campaign season can be later forgotten by our nation’s elected officials. President Obama continued to do the reversal cha-cha late into the week with his decision to take up the very military tribunals he had sharply criticized before taking office.
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secureidnews.com
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The Real ID Act of 2005 requires all states to meet a national standard for identification cards and participate in a shared database, but some have objected, citing privacy and budget concerns. Maine has led the charge of about a dozen states that may pass laws objecting to and opting out of the federal mandate.
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Illustration by Peter Scheer
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The FDA has approved the use of a group of viruses as a food additive for ready-to-eat meat products, such as hot dogs and cold cuts. Companies that use the additive will not be required to inform consumers.
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From the AP: “The federal program that provides legal help to poor Americans turns away half of its applicants for lack of resources. But that hasn’t stopped its executives from lavishing expensive meals, chauffeur-driven cars and foreign trips on themselves.”
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In the face of stagnant federal policy, more and more localities have adopted their own measures to address the environment, stem-cell research and immigration. Impatient for action from deadlocked Washington, cities and states have increasingly crafted their own policies regarding the major issues of the day, even reaching out to foreign leaders.
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More and more towns are putting lobbyists on the payroll to tap federal tax money through earmarks (those special appropriations that make their way into omnibus bills in Congress). According to the NYT, “since 1998, the number of public entities hiring private firms to represent them in Washington has nearly doubled to 1,421 from 763.” Bridges, roads, walkways, pedestrian crosswalks… cities and towns are finding that a little bit of lobbying can go a long way.
Posted on Jul 2, 2006
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Officials from the Dept. of Homeland Security and the FBI are paying private data brokers to gather personal phone record information—circumventing the need to obtain warrants for such data.
It’s ironic that some federal agents are availing themselves of this potentially illegal service; other federal agents (from the FCC) are already investigating the practice. See “Feds Probe Sale of Private Phone Records”
And earlier: All Your Phone Call Records Are for Sale, Cheap
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Salon writer Rebecca Traister sounds off on new “Orwellian” federal guidelines that treat all women as pre-pregnant—regardless of whether or not they plan on being so any time soon. “Healthcare authorities,” she writes, are “letting you know why your health as a woman really matters”—i.e. as baby incubators.
Salon link (reg. req’d)
Washington Post story
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From us.altermedia.info
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The disgraced lobbyist and a business partner get five years and 10 months on fraud charges—the minimum they faced. Abramoff faces more jail time in connection with a corruption probe.
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From indybay.org
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Colleges and universities that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, even in the face of the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay people. John Roberts wrote the 8-0 opinion.
Posted on Mar 6, 2006
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The Federal Reserve finds that the average family has only about $3,800 in the bank, no retirement account and no stocks or bonds, and can’t pay off a $2,200 credit card balance.
Pretty grim…. But don’t fear. Tax cuts for the rich will make everything all better.
Posted on Mar 5, 2006
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But this total does not include money for some relatively small costs—like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after this year.
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The Supreme Court ruling had nothing to do with the underlying issue of abortion. Rather, the court ruled that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations. (Alito, by the way, sat this one out.)
Posted on Feb 28, 2006
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The federal government is examining lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s dealings with Russian energy executives, reports the Boston Globe. This is a scandal that could involve billions (not millions) of dollars.
Posted on Feb 23, 2006
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From crooksandliars.com
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The president put in the $700-billion proposal without announcement or fanfare. | story
Perhaps he thought no one would notice? Maybe he missed the standing ovation Democrats gave the sinking of that scheme during his State of the Union speech? | video
Posted on Feb 9, 2006
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The president has removed the chief prosecutor investigating the Jack Abramoff case. How? By nominating him to a federal judgeship. | story
Democrats find the move so suspicious that they are calling for a special prosecutor in the corruption case.
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Under a new law, it is illegal to anonymously send a message via the Internet that annoys its recipient. | story
This interpretation has its critics: here or here.
Posted on Jan 9, 2006
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Ex-GOP Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham went undercover to implicate others before copping a plea. | more
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It is the 11th state to do so, but users can still be prosecuted under federal law. more
Posted on Jan 4, 2006
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It’s good to know that some of our judges are standing up to the fundamentalists. A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled today that a public school district can’t require the inclusion of “intelligent design” in biology classes as an alternative to evolution. See story.
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Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King
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