Democrats in Congress kick oversight into overdrive

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Democrats in Congress kick oversight into overdrive
Stymied on its legislative agenda, the party finds greater success with a range of investigations.
By Richard Simon and Noam N. Levey, Times Staff Writers
March 18, 2007

....Less than three months since they took control of Capitol Hill, Democrats in both chambers have cranked the powerful congressional oversight machinery into overdrive.

In addition to the headline-hogging investigations, Democrats have launched probes into a wide range of less glamorous subjects, including the FDA's efforts to protect the food supply, the way federal agencies monitor energy markets and whether the White House sought to muzzle federal climate scientists who uncovered evidence of global warming.

When Democrats won both houses of Congress in November, they promised vigorous oversight in addition to an ambitious legislative agenda. So far, they appear to be accomplishing more through oversight. None of the bills that were part of the party's 100-hour spree has yet emerged from Congress. And with their razor-thin margin in the Senate, Democrats cannot count on passing any legislation that most Republicans oppose.

But Republicans can do little to stop the investigative juggernaut.

"The Democrats' most powerful weapons aren't legislative bills, but subpoenas and hearings," said John J. Pitney Jr., a former Republican staffer who is a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College....

***

Administration officials now find themselves regularly summoned to explain their actions and policies, something they didn't have to do quite as often when friendly Republicans were in power. The GOP cut the budget of the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, by about a third after it took over in 1994....

Democrats have taken their oversight responsibilities to heart....In the first two months of this year, they called on staff from the GAO to testify 47 times on Capitol Hill, three times as often as in the first two months of last year. And they say they have already held more than 100 oversight hearings....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-na-probes19mar19,0,4276207.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Hold it,

they are suposed to be doing nothing, just read this site

:sarcasm:

[Amonester]

2. Alright, alright. But they have done nothing in THAT case: (just read

this site):

http://icasualties.org/oif/


(It's URGENT...) :grr:

(to Address The Root Causes of Terra...)

(re: bu$che is "creating" more "terra"rists every f**king day that goes by!)


LA Times: Seeking a new life, Iraqi finds jihad
A Kurd looking for escape joins an extremist group, but it doesn't offer the sanctuary he expected.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
March 18, 2007

Been there
Been there

HALABJA, IRAQ — The young blacksmith with an easy laugh and the looks of a Kurdish Sean Penn wasn't particularly devout or angry at the West. He didn't aspire to "martyrdom." But five years ago, Karzan Rasool made a decision that haunts him still: He became a holy warrior in the army of Islam.

He joined Ansar al Islam, an extremist group with links to Al Qaeda, almost on a whim. Unlike true believers, he just wanted an escape from his desperate life.

"I didn't have any clear goal by going and joining them," the 24-year-old said during an afternoon of conversation and watermelon in this Kurdish border town, offering a rare peek into the capacities and organizational skills of one Sunni insurgent group operating in Iraq. "I wanted to go away from town and everybody there. I wanted to join a group from which there was no return."

He mastered the AK-47 and the art of insurgency. He set out on patrols with his comrades. After a few months, he fancied himself a mujahid.

But instead of escaping his demons, he wound up being consumed by them, an improbable holy warrior pushed to the brink of taking his own life.



more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-jihad18mar18,1,7142601.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true