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09
Apr
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by QuestionGirl • 10:44 pm
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You can watch the video of this hearing at Senator Nelson’s website. Following was in an email I received from his office. Senator Bill Nelson doesn’t always vote the way I’d like him to, but he’s got this one right, and hopefully congress will do something to correct this injustice. It’s so very shameful.
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Washington, D.C. - The federal government hasn’t tried any cases involving sexual assaults against women who work for contractors in Iraq or Afghanistan, despite a 2000 law giving that authority to the Department of Justice.
That information emerged this morning in often-emotionally charged testimony before a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations panel headed by Florida Democrat Bill Nelson. Since last fall, Nelson has been pressuring federal agencies about unpunished sexual assaults in the war zones, following a Florida woman’s report that she was attacked while working in Iraq for a defense contractor.
Another disturbing piece of information that emerged in testimony this morning was that the victims of sexual assault in the war zone felt pressured to sweep the incidents under the rug.
“I am unaware of any measures to date being taken against the KBR employee or the member of the U.S. military who attacked me,” Dawn Leamon said in remarks presented to the subcommittee. “I hope that by telling my story here today, I can keep what happened to me from happening to anyone else.”
Leamon, who has two sons who served as soldiers in the war zones, worked for Halliburton’s former subsidiary KBR. She says she was sexually assaulted just two months ago by a KBR coworker and a U.S. soldier at a remote military base near Basra, in Iraq. Her testimony marked the first time she has identified herself in public. Leamon was one of two victims to testify today.
Filed: CRIME, Congressional Hearings, Haliburton, Justice Department
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08
Apr
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by QuestionGirl • 9:04 pm
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Senator Russ Feingold
Senator Voinovich
Senator Joe Biden
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08
Apr
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by QuestionGirl • 6:13 pm
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Senator Dodd at Iraq hearing
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08
Apr
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by QuestionGirl • 1:16 pm
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Senator Graham (get puke bucket at the ready)
General David Petraeus Testimony
Senate Armed Services Committee
If you can stand it…….. Joe Liebermann
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08
Apr
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by QuestionGirl • 1:14 pm
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Senator Clinton questioning Petraeus
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01
Apr
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by Buck • 5:11 pm
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Why do we even bother paying taxes? With the spineless representation this Congress offers, we could certainly get away with it! I am tired of being a model citizen, paying my taxes on time, having elitists riding rough’shod all over me and a milquetoast government overseeing NOTHING!
Congress Presses Oil Execs on High Prices
Facing members of Congress unhappy about the soaring price of petroleum, executives from five giant oil companies today sought to portray themselves as part of the energy solution and not the energy problem. [...]
“I believe the laws of supply and demand when it comes to oil and gas are broken and completely malfunctioning,” said Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.). [...]
[Rep. Edward J.] Markey [D-Mass.] defended the House energy tax package that is still awaiting action in the Senate. “You can’t have it both ways Mr. Simon,” Markey said. “You can’t be nickel-and-diming renewables at Exxon Mobil and simultaneously fighting our efforts to move over the resources to renewables to help this country break its dependence on foreign oil.” [...]
“We’re working darn hard. We have a challenge to meet,” said Peter J. Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron Corp. “So life is not easy.”
Rep. Cleaver cited the companies’ high share prices on the stock market and said it didn’t sound like much of a struggle.
Filed: Congressional Hearings, Oil
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23
Mar
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by QuestionGirl • 7:30 pm
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Ahhhhh can’t congress ask Adm. Fallon to testify if they want to hear from them? Does the Pentagon have to “ok” it? I don’t think so.
The Pentagon on Friday ruled out including Adm. William Fallon as a witness before Congress when the top U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Baghdad testify next month on the way ahead in Iraq.
Fallon’s abrupt announcement March 11 that he was resigning, effective March 31, as chief of U.S. Central Command overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, triggered accusations by Democrats in Congress that he was being forced out for publicly opposing launching a war against Iran.
In declaring that Fallon would not join Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker as witnesses before Congress next month, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the decision had nothing to do with Fallon’s views on Iran or the reasons for his unexpected resignation and retirement.
More at ContraCostaTimes
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06
Mar
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by QuestionGirl • 6:13 pm
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These hearings are meaningless to me at this point. Do you remember when the Democrats took control in 06 and how excited we were about all the hearings they were holding…..thinking something would change. Now I just see it as busy work. Nothing ever comes of them. No one is ever held accountable. My respect for Waxman is in the tank. (Gee, can you tell I’m more disgusted today then usual?)
Three chief executives with ties to the mortgage crisis were paid $460 million over five years, according to a congressional report issued Thursday.
On Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is set to examine CEO pay in light of huge losses in the financial sector stemming from the mortgage crisis.
The panel, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will hear testimony from Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup Inc.; Stanley O’Neal, former CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co.; and Angelo Mozilo., chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender.
More at CNN.com
Filed: Congressional Hearings
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21
Dec
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by QuestionGirl • 9:39 pm
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by Katrina vanden Heuvel
We are lawyers in the United States of America. As such, we have all taken an oath obligating us to defend the Constitution and the rule of law. We believe the Bush administration has committed numerous offenses against the Constitution and may have violated federal laws. Moreover, the administration has blatantly defied congressional subpoenas, obstructing constitutional oversight . Thus, we call on House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to launch hearings into the possibility that crimes have been committed by this administration in violation of the Constitution. We call for the investigations to go where they must, including into the offices of the President and the Vice President. — American Lawyers Defending the Constitution
Over one thousand lawyers - including former Governor Mario Cuomo and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein - have signed onto the above statement demanding wide-ranging investigative hearings into unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush administration.
In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and winner of the 2007 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, said: “The majority of lawyers in this country understand that the Bush administration has really gone off the page of constitutional rights and off the page of fundamental rights, and is willing to push the Congress to restore those rights.” Ratner said he was “dismayed” that a Democratic majority has failed “to push on key illegalities… the torture program, and now the destruction of the tapes involving the torture program; the warrantless wiretapping, the denial of habeas corpus, the secret sites/rendition program, special trials, and of course what we now know is the firing of US Attorneys scandal. The minimal that absolutely is needed to get us back on the page of law is to have serious investigative hearings that go up the chain of command and figure out who is responsible for what.”
More at the Nation
Filed: Congressional Hearings, US Constitution
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04
Dec
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by QuestionGirl • 11:46 am
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Lock em up!
What we know that Congress has learned in its investigation of the purge of nine top federal prosecutors is disturbing. Cases appear to have been brought against Democrats and blocked against Republicans to help Republicans win elections. The stakes have grown steadily: it now seems that innocent people, like Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant, may have been jailed for political reasons. Congress has a duty to find out what happened.
Filed: Congressional Hearings, Justice Department
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03
Dec
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by QuestionGirl • 6:24 pm
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Now we’ll see what Mukasey is made of. I think I already know……….
From Froomkin:
The White House is refusing to let special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald turn over to congressional investigators key documents from his investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity as a covert CIA operative, including reports of interviews with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and five top White House aides.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman disclosed this morning that [tag]Fitzgerald is cooperating with the congressional investigation[/tag] and had agreed to turn over the documents — until the White House intervened.
Describing a renewed sense of urgency in the wake of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s recent assertion that “five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved” in the public disclosure of false information about the leak, Waxman today appealed to newly installed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to overrule his White House masters and release the documents.
“I hope you will not accede to the White House objections,” Waxman wrote in his letter to Mukasey. “During the Clinton Administration, your predecessor, Janet Reno, made an independent judgment and provided numerous FBI interview reports to the Committee, including reports of interviews with President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and three White House Chiefs of Staff. I have been informed that Attorney General Reno neither sought nor obtained White House consent before providing these interview records to the Committee. I believe the Justice Department should exercise the same independence in this case.”
Filed: Congressional Hearings, Mukasey
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29
Nov
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by QuestionGirl • 4:32 pm
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Good one, but where are you going from here? Good check…..now get to CHECKMATE!
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate chairman acknowledged explicitly on Thursday that President Bush was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys last winter and therefore ruled illegal the president’s executive privilege claims protecting his chief of staff, John Bolten, and former adviser Karl Rove.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply “immediately” with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House’s role in the firings of U.S. attorneys.
“I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation,” Leahy wrote.
The ruling is a formality that clears the way for Leahy’s panel to vote on whether to advance the citations to the full Senate.
The executive privilege claim “is surprising in light of the significant and uncontroverted evidence that the president had no involvement in these firings,” Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in his ruling. “The president’s lack of involvement in these firings - by his own account and that of many others - calls into question any claim of executive privilege.”
More at the Guardian
Filed: Congressional Hearings
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17
Nov
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by QuestionGirl • 10:22 pm
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Oh, ok……another “I didn’t know” story. Either this is the biggest bunch of idiots in the history of the world…….or the biggest bunch of liars. Either way…..we need to get rid of them ALL.
The lawyer for State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard asked on Saturday that he not be called to testify before Congress on discrepancies between his statements and those of his brother over the brother’s ties to the Blackwater security firm.
“There is no legitimate purpose to be gained by publicly pitting two brothers against each other,” Barbara Van Gelder wrote in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the government oversight panel.
The two brothers had differing recollections about whether Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard told Howard Krongard he was taking an advisory board position with Blackwater, which protects U.S. diplomats and other State Department officials in Iraq. Howard recalled Alvin stating he was not taking the position, and Alvin recalled saying he was taking it, the lawyer wrote.
“Alvin does not claim to have ever made any effort to inform Howard of the Blackwater position despite its obvious relevance to Howard’s oversight responsibilities,” Van Gelder wrote. The letter asked Waxman not to hold the hearing.
More at Reuters
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24
Oct
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by QuestionGirl • 11:25 pm
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Mike Mukasey, Bush’s nomination for attorney general, answering (or not) questions regarding whether waterboarding is constitutional. He claims not to know what waterboarding is, then when told what it is, he claims not to know if it’s torture or not, therefore he doesn’t know if it’s constitutional or not. Like Jonathan Turley stated, either way he’s no good. If he’s really that stupid as to not know what waterboarding is (and no one believes he is) then we don’t want him. If he’s lying (which anyone with a brain knows he is), then we don’t want him.
