NewsTrust - Congressional Oversight - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

New Evidence of Scott Walker Lying to Congress

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By John Nichols - May. 27 (News Report) - there is new evidence to suggest that Walker’s testimony to Congress about when he began preparing his anti-labor legislation—which sparked mass demonstrations and a recall movement that will culminate with a June 5 vote on whether to recall the governor—was not truthful.

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Super Tuesday guide: Finding truth in the attacks

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Becky Bowers - Mar. 04 (Fact Check) - As 10 states prepare to vote on Super Tuesday, here’s PolitiFact’s guide to the multimillion-dollar ad blitz. With the field down to four Republican contenders, campaigns and super PACs are attacking their opponents with hot-button allegations about supporting Planned Parenthood, Obamacare and even Nancy Pelosi that are designed to strike fear in the hearts of Republican voters. There's been some piling on. We've seen several examples where two (or more) candidates have made the same attack. The one candidate who hasn't been attacked much: Ron Paul. He's has been busy attacking others — but we didn’t find ads attacking him. ... >>More

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EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Brad Blog - Jan. 31 (News) - Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans -- and even Newt Gingrich -- would have called it massive "voter fraud". But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich's own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so ...

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Gingrich On Climate Change

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Dec. 07 (Fact Check) - Newt Gingrich went too far when he claimed that “I’ve never favored cap-and-trade.” It’s true he’s never favored the approach taken by Democrats, but he said in 2007 that he would “strongly support” cap-and-trade if combined with “a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions”.

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The FBI Has Been Violating Your Liberties in Ways That May Shock You

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - Feb. 03 (News) - As Congress seeks to renew the Patriot Act, new information exposes egregious FBI violations.

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EFF Uncovers Widespread FBI Intelligence Violations

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

eff.org - By Mark Rumold - Jan. 30 (Research) - EFF has uncovered widespread violations stemming from FBI intelligence investigations from 2001 - 2008. In a report released today, EFF documents alarming trends in the Bureau’s intelligence investigation practices, suggesting that FBI intelligence investigations have compromised the civil liberties of American citizens far more frequently, and to a greater extent, than was previously assumed.

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Watchdog: U.S. Risks Wasting Billions In Afghan Security Aid Given 'Inadequate Planning'

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Amanda Terkel - Jan. 27 (News Report) - The United States is at risk of wasting roughly $11.4 billion unless it comes up with a plan for constructing and maintaining nearly 900 Afghan National Security Forces facilities, according to a new report by a top federal watchdog. The news comes as U.S. President Barack Obama considers a military-backed proposal significantly boost the size of those forces.

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US Government 'hiding true amount of debt'

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Melbourne Herald Sun - By Gregory Bresiger - Sep. 20 (News) - The actual figure of the US' national debt is much higher than the official sum of $US13.4 trillion ($14.3 trillion) given by the Congressional Budget Office, according to analysts cited on Sunday by the New York Post.

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Private Contractors and Covert Wars in Latin America

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

UpsideDownWorld - By Cyril Mychalejko - Jun. 15 (News Report) - U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) threatened to issue subpoenas against the U.S. Defense and State Departments last month if they continue to refuse to accurately account for billions of dollars spent on private contractors assisting Washington in the 'war on drugs' in Latin America. But McCaskill's concerns raise broader questions about oversight and transparency of a controversial industry and its ever expanding role in Washington's foreign policy.

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Ex-EPA Officials: Why Isn't BP Under Criminal Investigation?

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold - May. 28 (News Analysis) - Why hasn't the government launched a criminal investigation into BP? That's the question several former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have been asking in the aftermath of the catastrophic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last month that killed 11 employees and ruptured a newly drilled well 5,000 feet below the surface that has spewed tens of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf if Mexico. Scott West, the former special agent-in-charge at the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division,read more

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BPing the Arctic?

Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Subhankar Banerjee - May. 25 (Special Report) - If you’ve been following the increasing ecological devastation unfolding before our collective eyes in the Gulf of Mexico since BP’s rented Deepwater Horizon exploratory drilling rig went up in flames (and then under the waves), then you should know about -- and protest -- Shell Oil’s plan to begin exploratory oil drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas this summer.

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EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Ex-CIA Official Reveals New Details About Torture, Plame Leak

Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold - May. 12 (Special Report) - In a wide-ranging video interview with Truthout, former CIA counterterrorism official John Kiriakou reveals new information about the capture and torture of "high-value" detainee Abu Zubaydah and discloses, for the first time, his role in the events that led to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.read more

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A Campaign Promise Dies: Obama and Military Commissions

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold - Mar. 09 (Investigative Report) - The crowd at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, gathered to hear their candidate outline his grand strategy for a new way forward and Barack Obama delivered. "I will reject a legal framework that does not work," Obama said, his words slightly drowned out by the loud applause that erupted. "There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. read more

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slight paranoia: 8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

paranoia.dubfire.net - By Christopher Soghoian - Dec. 01 (Special Report) - It is unclear if Federal law enforcement agencies' extensive collection of geolocation data should have been disclosed to Congress pursuant to a 1999 law that requires the publication of certain surveillance statistics -- since the Department of Justice simply ignores the law, and has not provided the legally mandated reports to Congress since 2004.

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Fed Beaten: Bill To Audit Federal Reserve Passes Key Hurdle

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By The Huffington Post News Team - Nov. 20 (News Report) - In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with an...

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Grayson, POGO Use ACORN Defunding Push to Go After Military Contractors

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Sep. 22 (Breaking News) - Ryan Grim has the story, I have stifled guffaws. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between [...]

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The Iraq War Is Now Illegal

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Bruce Ackerman, Oona Hathaway - Jan. 03 (News Analysis) - The Bush administration's infatuation with presidential power has finally pushed the country over a constitutional precipice. As of New Year's Day, ongoing combat in Iraq is illegal under US law. In authorizing an invasion in 2002, Congress did not give President Bush a blank check. It explicitly limited the use of force to two purposes: to “defend the national security of the US from the threat posed by Iraq” and “enforce all relevant UN Security Council resolutions.” Five years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the government of Iraq no longer poses a threat. Our continuing intervention has been based on the second clause of Congress' grant of war-making power. Coalition troops have been acting under a series of Security Council resolutions authorizing the continuing occupation of Iraq. But this year, Bush allowed the UN mandate to expire on December 31 without requesting a renewal. At precisely one second after midnight, Congress' authorization of the war expired along with this mandate.

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Congress Ignored Critical Bailout Oversight

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

American News Project - By Lagan Sebert Danielle Ivory - Dec. 19 (Special Report) - [Video 6:24] On December 19th, Henry Paulson urged Congress to release the second half of the $700 billion of the bailout money. But no one seems know what banks have done with the first $350 billion. Despite the fact that Congress wrote more than one hundred pages about oversight in the bailout bill, they left a gaping hole.

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Bar groups seek Stevens law license suspension

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

juneaublogger.com - By Ap - Nov. 20 (News Report) - ANCHORAGE - Bar associations in Alaska, California and Washington, D.C., are seeking the law license suspension of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens over his felony convictions. Spokesmen for bar associations in all three jurisdictions say they have filed or will file to suspend Stevens’ licenses.

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Living In the Shadow of the Bombï¿½Thrower

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Pruning Shears - By Dan Fejes - Sep. 11 (News Analysis) - The legacy of the contemporary Republican party is that of a corrosive pessimism about the government's ability to work. Its primary inspiration is still on the scene but doesn't get the credit he deserves.

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The Ongoing Awfulness of Michael Mukasey

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Pruning Shears - By Dan Fejes - Jul. 31 (News Analysis) - The Attorney General has done little more than parrot talking points and make excuses since his appointment. His latest performance may be his most disgraceful yet.

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EPA Quietly Releases Climate Change Health Effects Report

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Rick Piltz, Dylan Blaylock, - Jul. 20 (News Report) - Last week, EPA Administrator Steve Johnson essentially snubbed the Supreme Court, Congress, and the public by dismissing the Clean Air Act as a tool ill-suited for achieving greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and opened a comment period that will end after the November election.

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Return of the FEC

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Matthew Blake - Jun. 03 (Special Report) - ...if the FEC does return to business, the government watchdog will continue its tradition of commissioners with strongly partisan ties. The president, with Congress, seem to have again ensured that during an election year the FEC probably won't bite McCain, or any politician.

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In the Rezko Trial, A New Name Surfaces: Karl Rove

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Michael Isikoff - Apr. 27 (News Report) - The trial of Chicago developer and political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko has been closely watched for any mention of the defendant's onetime friend, Barack Obama. But last week, prosecutors threw a curveball, telling the judge that one of their witnesses is prepared to raise the name of another prominent Washington hand: Karl Rove. Former Illinois state official Ali Ata is expected to testify about a conversation he had with Rezko in which the developer alleged Rove was "working with" a top Illinois Republican to remove the Chicago U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.

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Failure to Launch

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By James Sterngold - Jan. 20 (News Report) - Inside the Bush administration's dream of resurrecting the nuclear weapons complex--and the old-school Republican congressman who stood in its way

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