Scandal-rocked U.S. House passes ethics bill

[Judi Lynn]

Scandal-rocked U.S. House passes ethics bill
Reforms narrower than those promised at height of lobbying scandal

Updated: 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A new Web site will tell Americans which companies win government contracts and grants under an ethics bill passed by the scandal-rocked House of Representatives Wednesday, ahead of November elections.
(snip)

'Great disclosure bill'
Craig Holman of the consumer group Congress Watch called the measure "a great disclosure bill" that particularly will help disseminate information on the huge number of defense contracts that are now difficult and time-consuming to track.

Republicans have been linked with a series of scandals involving contracting abuses and other special-interest favors. Democrats have highlighted their opponents' ethics' problems as they try to capture control of the House and Senate in November elections.

The Republican-led Congress has not enacted broad ethics-reform legislation it promised in reaction to the Jack Abramoff and Randy "Duke" Cunningham scandals and instead is pushing narrower reforms.
(snip/...)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14833067/

[whistle]

1. Is it effective immediately or after November?

[Judi Lynn]

2. The wording was a little misleading, it seems...

The second paragraph says:

The legislation, approved on a voice vote, would create a new Internet site by 2008 giving the public quick access to information on the dispersal of billions of dollars in grants and contracts.
(snip)

If I understand it correctly, only the vote was accomplished prior to this November election, and the website won't be up until sometime in 2008. Sounds like a whole lot of foot dragging, doesn't it?

[whistle]

10. Foot and hand dragging like the cavemen, election positioning

[sofa king]

3. More likely never.

As usual, the article does not cite the bill number, so it's difficult to determine which reform bill was actually passed (there were at least three). The Senate has already introduced and crib-strangled several parallel bills.

The Senate will likely cite other priorities and let the passed House bill die the usual lonely death. Alternatively, they can approve a similar but not identical bill and delay the process further by requiring a conference to agree upon uniform language.

With less than a month before the Senate recesses, and with the White House desperately trying to save its own ass by having Congress retroactively approve all their torture and illegal imprisonment, it seems highly unlikely that this bill, which potentially reduces Republican power, will ever get passed. The point was in pretending to pass it.

[sofa king]

9. I stand corrected.

Josh Marshall is saying that it's the Obama bill which was passed in the House, meaning that all it has to do is float across the President's desk. So long as he doesn't hold it hostage for his torture exoneration, it looks like it might make it.

[Straight Shooter]

4. The Repubs will hire Joe Lieberman's web site team to be in charge.

:evilgrin:

[cyberpj]

5. Top 200 Federal Contractors - $388,017,686,748 (link to list of them)

With thanks to: The Straight Story Thu Aug-31-06 02:17 PM
Original message

Top 200 Federal Contractors
Total Purchases: $388,017,686,748

Here's some ground, let's get some shovels and start digging

Ths list shows rank, how much they got, what amt to military and how much to civilian.

Top 10 below (ugly format, the web site is a nice table)

http://www.govexec.com/features/0806-15/0806-15s2s1.htm

Rank Parent Company Total $ DoD $ Civilian $ DoD Rank Civil. Rank
1 Lockheed Martin Corp. $26,312,273,206 $20,016,273,528 $6,295,999,676 1 1
2 Boeing Co. 21,347,810,866 18,890,249,207 2,457,561,658 2 5
3 Northrop Grumman Corp. 15,632,683,034 13,742,026,915 1,890,656,119 3 7
4 General Dynamics Corp. 11,527,395,499 11,182,583,664 344,811,834 4 38
5 Raytheon Co. 9,953,128,166 9,444,816,263 508,311,901 5 23
6 Halliburton Co. 6,099,064,859 5,956,162,998 142,901,860 6 84
7 L-3 Communications Holdings 5,341,120,624 4,849,615,503 491,505,120 8 25
8 United Technologies Corp. 5,106,722,268 4,958,962,192 147,760,076 7 80
9 SAIC 4,779,067,074 2,788,583,917 1,990,483,157 10 6
10 Bechtel Group Inc. 4,639,268,807 1,556,699,544 3,082,569,262 20 4

[onehandle]

6. According to the Contract on America, you're supposed to be thrown out.

Warm up those resumes, crooks.

[w4rma]

7. Has Senator "Bridge to Nowhere" released his hold on this bill yet?

(the Senate version, of course)

[Kagemusha]

8. The Senate PASSED the bill, even

But whether the House then in turn passed the same bill as the Senate, I have no idea, and my gut would be to expect this to die in conference. But we'll see... I really haven't heard if the versions are different yet so, if they're not, Bush gets to sign or veto.

[keepCAblue]

11. House passes new ethics rule (you won't believe this!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060914/ap_on_go_co/congress_ethics


And now for your moment of zen:

"We are making a commitment to changing the culture of this institution," said House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif.

The change, in effect only through year's end, is aimed at curtailing a practice whereby lawmakers anonymously insert "earmarks" — narrowly tailored spending that often helps a specific company or project in their district — into bills.

How transparent is that!!!?? Change the ethics rules just for the couple months surrounding the Nov. elections. Why the hell are "we, the people" putting up with this kind of in-your-face corruption and deception from these rethuglicans?

Unbelievable.

But wait, there's more!

But there is currently no prospect for progress on more comprehensive lobbying and ethics overhaul. That had been highlighted as an urgent task at the beginning of the year after several lawmakers were tied to illegal or unsavory actions, particularly with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

No, no, wait! There's still more:

The effort at a compromise stalled over a House provision to limit donations to independent political groups known as 527s for the section of tax law under which they are registered. Such groups tend to be more helpful to Democrats; Senate Democrats objected to a lobbying bill that also takes up campaign finance limits.

WTF? It was 527's like the Swiftboaters that help Georgie Porgie steal the election. How is it that "such groups tend to be more helpful to Democrats"?

I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone. Somebody help me!

[Tace]

12. Have You Ever Had A Tick Sucking On You?

You take a cigarette, or just-blown-out match and press it on the tick, so that it pulls its jaws out of your skin, so you can remove it. And then it's in your fingers, legs wiggling, before you flush it down the toilet, or toss it away. This Dreier guy is like the tick, with its legs wiggling, before you flush it. : )

[keepCAblue]

13. Yep. Dreier's a closeted self-loathing gay...

...who is intent on destroying his own people, all for political gain and greed. Like the Jews who sold out their freinds and neighbors to the Nazi's.

[tocqueville]

18. ticks breathe with their anus

they have to do it since the head is buried under the skin to suck blood. One of the most efficient ways of getting rid of ticks is to put something up their ass like grease. A lot of grease. So they can't breathe. They fall by themselves, you pick them up and flush them.

The good thing is that you avoid accidental burns.

[Straight Shooter]

20. So Republicans are ticks?

:D

[LeftishBrit]

23. And that's who our Labour Prime Minister's son went to work for!

Ugh!

[rodeodance]

14. deceptive headline for turdy results

[keepCAblue]

15. The headline is Yahoo's, not mine. Just copied and pasted it eom

[Monkeyman]

16. Vets for Vets org is a 527

[ConcernedCanuk]

17. "you won't believe this!" - oh yes I will, the US has no surprises anymore

.
.
.

Anything murderous, evil, and so on is QUITE believable

selection or not

y'all are letting your government ruin your nation

could I say it any simpler?

[KoKo]

19. I have to say in all my time on DU, I've not seen such a dreadful

accumulation of bad news all in one day. FCC throwing out unfavorable report/Detainees Torture/Denial of Permits for NY Protest/Iraqi's protesting for Freedom from Occupation/25 Wounded Troops and Two Dead/Whitman investigation for "9/11" Environmental Lies...on and on and on. It's reading one after another of the Criminal Enterprise Steamrolling along. And the more we discover it seems the less there is that can be done about it. There's JUST SO MUCH!

Not just one tick that needs to be removed it's an infestation of something far worse that just will eat us alive. Flesh Eating Bacteria is more like it... :-(

[DeepModem Mom]

21. WP,pg1: House Votes To Disclose Earmarks: Defers Broad Lobby Reform

House Votes To Disclose Earmarks
Rule Change Defers Broad Lobby Reform
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006; Page A01

The House voted yesterday to shed more light on narrow-interest tax and spending legislation called earmarks, an incremental step toward openness that ended the prospect for a more sweeping overhaul of federal lobbying laws this year.

With a 245 to 171 vote, the House reacted to a year of congressional scandals by requiring its members to own up to the thousands of earmarks they sponsor each year.

Earmarks have been at the center of corruption investigations involving several lawmakers and lobbyists, and a public outcry against them helped spur a high-priority effort this year to devise ethics legislation that would have restricted contacts between lobbyists and members of Congress.

Instead, the House simply changed its internal rules to require that these targeted programs and their sponsors be disclosed in every type of bill, a procedure that does not currently exist. The measure, like any such rule change, could expire at the end of the year, but it is likely to be re-adopted along with the House's many other rules, Republican leaders said....

***

The rule change shelves a wider ethics bill, however, at least until next year. That bill became bogged down amid disagreements between the House and the Senate, and the reluctance of lawmakers from both parties to limit their interactions with lobbyists. The earmarks measure was brought up as a passable way to address voter unrest over the scandals, aides said....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401674.html

[trotsky]

22. "Quick, fellow Repukes!"

"Let's slap some lipstick on these pigs and see if we can get re-elected!"

:eyes: