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Hearings 
Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 22:18:59 PM MST
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I am one of those people who will actually watch those boring, boring, hearings on C-SPAN that most of us flip right on past while watching TV, and this past week I've been watching one of the longer events the channel broadcasts...but it's been far from boring.
The Coast Guard and what used to be the MMS were in Houston looking into what caused the Gulf oil spill and they're taking testimony from representatives of the involved parties...and let me tell you, this is more than just an accident inquiry-it's also a warm-up for the lawsuits that are surely going to follow.
We've had dozens of trial attorneys basically conducting a deposition process, witnesses who can teach a master course in "plausible unawareability"©, BP employees who have taken the Fifth and refused to testify at all, and, overseeing the entire process, a retired Federal District Court Judge and a Coast Guard Captain who might very well be on the way to trading his eagles for stars one day soon.
Do you really believe all those "we'll make it right" BP commercials?
If you watch this hearing, that impression may well change.
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Thu Jul 01, 2010 at 06:22:23 AM MST
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Since the Republicans have managed to stand tall on their instance that up to 2 million unemployed Americans should lose their meager benefits, perhaps it is time to start introducing them to some of the unemployed. We have heard the Dickensian pronouncements on the Senate floor that the unemployed are lazy, that the benefits they receive are keeping them from looking for work, that it is more important in a financial crisis to cut spending (and thus cut the over all recovery off at the knees) than it is to help our fellow Americans who, through no fault of their own, are now paying the price for financial deregulation.
As long as this debate is kept in abstract terms it is easy for those Republicans who have a conscience (all three of them) to talk about how we should be burdening our children and grandchildren with debt. It is time to use the very effective method of hearings to bring the real face of the long term unemployed right into the face of the heartless and petty Republican majority.
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Wed May 26, 2010 at 10:11:45 AM MST
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would have made a dodge ball player. In his testimony this morning before the House Natural Resources Committee he engaged in all five of the rules of dodgeball, he dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged. Maybe it is his history of being a Senator but the Secretary would not be pushed off message in regards to what is going on at MMS, the Deepwater Horizon leak or the Administrations intention to continue to try to develop the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
The Chairman started the questioning with questions about MMS and its ethical lapses. Secretary Salazar was quick to point out that there had been terminations and referrals for prosecutions as unethical behavior was identified. Unfortunately he used the now infamous term "a few bad apples" to describe the state of the agency. Later on under tough questioning by Rep Kildee the Secretary admitted that there was a culture of corruption that had to be addressed, which kind of disputes the "few bad apples" theory.
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