http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4137637.html

Quote :

"WASHINGTON — In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver. An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search. "

Assuming this is ture, what is the gov. trying to hide here? And, how does a anonymous senator secretly stop a bill from being voted on? That doesn't seem very democratic.

8/28/2006 12:34:25 PM

I don't get that at all...and if its true, its stupid

If we have secret procedures to block bill votes, that's ok (because it probably serves a purpose historically, much like the "can't stop a senator on the way to vote") but it certainly shouldn't be abused to stop a bill that might derail pocket linings.

8/28/2006 12:39:48 PM

Quote :

"what is the gov. trying to hide here?"

i'm pretty sure none of us know the answer since its...hidden

8/28/2006 12:42:16 PM

Probably trying to hide where that $2.5 trillion dollars is going.

8/28/2006 12:43:45 PM

they are trying to hide how sick, twisted and corrupt our govt really is

8/28/2006 12:44:00 PM

^republicans AND democrats btw

8/28/2006 12:46:43 PM

I would also like to add to TreeTwistas sentiment, and point out that the Republicans have been in power for a while now.

[Edited on August 28, 2006 at 12:48 PM. Reason : ]

8/28/2006 12:48:02 PM

Ah yes, a majority in both houses totally obligates you to clean up the entire government, balance the budget, and end poverty.

8/28/2006 12:50:00 PM

^^I'd like to point out that you believe that there's a substantive difference between the two.

[Edited on August 28, 2006 at 12:51 PM. Reason : ]

8/28/2006 12:51:04 PM

bush and kerry are polar opposites...its not like they're both multimillionaire frat brothers

8/28/2006 12:53:11 PM

Quote :

"I would also like to add to TreeTwistas sentiment, and point out that the Republicans have been in power for a while now."

Except that the parliamentary rule that the senator probably used is one that was designed to protect the minority party (i.e. the Democrats).

8/28/2006 2:00:26 PM

^ To clarify: this is not to say that the Democrats prevented this bill from passing, but that even with Democrats in power, someone from either party could have scuttled this bill. Wish I could remember what the exact term for this sort of stalling was...

8/28/2006 4:45:55 PM

With all the secrecy you know the Jews must be involved...

8/28/2006 5:02:03 PM

and money

8/28/2006 6:07:18 PM

Quote :

"moron: Assuming this is ture, what is the gov. trying to hide here? "

No, I actually think it's just the same kind of corruption every government tries to hide from its people: political favoritism to donors/etc.

8/28/2006 9:19:46 PM

Quote :

"Assuming this is ture, what is the gov. trying to hide here? And, how does a anonymous senator secretly stop a bill from being voted on? That doesn't seem very democratic."

I know it's possible because it happened on The West Wing. And that's sad.

8/28/2006 10:31:24 PM

^^
Why is wondering what your gov't is spending your money on rate an "crazy conspiracy" dig?

Quote :

"Now the bill is in political limbo. Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote."

How did we allow the Senate to create these kinds of crazy rules?

8/28/2006 10:56:06 PM

Quote :

"^^ Why is wondering what your gov't is spending your money on rate an "crazy conspiracy" dig?"

Oh come on. You don't think they really spend $900 on a hammer, $500 on a toilet seat, do you?

8/28/2006 11:56:12 PM

The secret senator is.......Ted Stevens.

Quote :

"Sen. Stevens is 'the secret senator' POSTED: 6:55 p.m. EDT, August 30, 2006 From Andrea Koppel, Ted Barrett and Abbi Tatton CNN Washington Bureau Adjust font size: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The identity of the blogosphere's "secret senator" has been revealed. CNN has confirmed that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has placed a hold on a bill that would require the government to publish online a database of federal spending. "He does have a hold on the bill," Stevens' spokesperson Aaron Saunders told CNN. "At the time he placed the hold he notified Sen. [Tom] Coburn and his staff and identified several questions we had with the bill. Two weeks ago Sen. Coburn named Stevens as having a hold on the bill, so we don't consider it a secret." Senate tradition allows any senator to keep a piece of legislation from reaching the Senate floor by placing a hold on the bill. Coburn's office confirmed that Coburn had revealed Stevens' hold during a town hall meeting in Oklahoma two weeks ago. The bill has become a cause célèbre for both liberal and conservative bloggers as they tried to uncover the "secret senator" who had blocked passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). The bill was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Coburn, R-Oklahoma. The conservative-leaning, anti-government waste site Porkbusters urged readers to call their senators and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. TPMmuckraker, under the banner "blogosphere unites in pursuit of masked senator" also got in on the act, posting updates from readers around the country. The effort prompted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to weigh in online: Blogging at his political action committee Web site, Sen. Frist, R-Tennessee, called on "all members, when asked by the blog community, to instruct their staff to answer whether or not they have a hold." Saunders said Stevens did not attempt to keep his hold anonymous. "Sen. Stevens has a series of concerns and questions about the bill. He wants a cost benefit analysis to make sure it doesn't create an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and not meet its purpose," Saunders said. "He prefers to handle things at the member to member level or at the staff level," Saunders said. "That's the way Sen. Stevens has always operated." "This wasn't in any way secretive," Saunders said. "We're baffled as to why it's been called a secret hold." But a spokesperson for Coburn's office disputed the idea that Stevens had been open about the hold. "This hold was a secret," Coburn spokesman John Hart said. "His office has ignored media and bloggers' calls about this issue for weeks. We had to ask Stevens if he was the hold. His staff has still not met with us." "Senator Stevens sits on the committee where this bill was considered and never raised any objections because he skipped the hearings," Hart said. "His specific concerns were addressed at the hearings he skipped, and his office has yet to meet with us to discuss his concerns despite repeated requests." Last year a proposed $223 million for a "bridge to nowhere" connecting Alaska's Gravina Island -- population 50 -- to the mainland caused a nationwide furor. The allocation was backed by Stevens and fellow Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The earmarked funding for the bridge was later rescinded by Congress. However, Alaska's overall allocation of federal transportation funds was not decreased, and the state is free to spend the federal dollars to build the bridge if it wishes. When Coburn tried to block funds for the bridge, he was heavily denounced by Stevens on the Senate floor. "

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/30/secret.senators/

8/31/2006 12:41:34 AM

oh man if that's not classic washington

the biggest spender of them all claiming that this bill will cost "too much money" goshdarnit

8/31/2006 6:50:38 AM

Well, I'm writing this jackass a letter now.

8/31/2006 7:29:50 AM

Sent through his Senate Website:

Quote :

"Your hold on the database bill is an embarrassment to Republicans everywhere. Finally a bill to help monitor and control the wasteful government spending that has been going on for years (including in your state) comes along and you put in in political limbo so you aren't shown as the pork-barrel loving disgrace that you are. Let this bill into Congress NOW, Senator. Term limits seem to be the only way to deal with senators like you, but getting the Congress to do something sensible is out of the question. It is actions like this that cause faithful Republicans like me to stray to Libertarianism. I hope you're happy."

-Byron

8/31/2006 7:37:22 AM

^nice

8/31/2006 8:43:09 AM

I'd go further. This is an embarassment to open Democracy in general, and Republicans specifically.

8/31/2006 9:04:36 AM

Gamecat, you should write him a letter too

We all should:


http://stevens.senate.gov/contact.cfm

8/31/2006 9:11:54 AM

Quote :

"Your secret parliamentary hold on the bipartisanly-supported S.2590 is an insult to open democracy. Finally, a bill surfaces to allow taxpayers to monitor and control the wasteful government spending that has dominated our political system for decades--an issue with overwhelming popular support throughout the country--and you choose instead to put it and our fiscal security in political limbo. That a Republican Senator, of the same party that decades ago introduced us to the Government in the Sunshine legislation, would spit in the face of transparency in governance is shameful. Taxpayers are left to assume, given your record, that this represents an attempt to hide your own line items like the quarter billion dollar "Bridge to Hundreds," as well as other examples of pork barrel legislation submitted by equally-guilty members of Congress. This bill deserves consideration by Congress, Senator. Your interests do not supplant those of the nation."

Sent.

8/31/2006 9:54:06 AM

Does it strike anyone as weird that all countries are almost in concert saying how they are now monitoring everything and have the right to?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5301146.stm

8/31/2006 10:10:25 AM

(different sort of monitoring. but i do think it's troubling.)

8/31/2006 10:11:47 AM

^^^GG Gamecat. Speaking of popular support, the fact that you can't even find someone on TWW who approves of his actions says something.

[Edited on August 31, 2006 at 10:13 AM. Reason : once more for Bugs Bunny]

8/31/2006 10:13:18 AM

^^^ If we're doing it...

8/31/2006 10:22:53 AM

Quote :

"Dear Mr. Gamecat: Ha Ha Ha...what a cute little letter. To think I and my Senatorial brethren will change our ways because of some scribbles on a e-mail...amazing. Look, I'm just using the system you Americans allowed us to create. You're the ones who stopped paying attention and let us have our way with your gov't. People are more concerned with sports and celebrity dance-offs than what we're doing up here. And we love it! My time in the senate is coming to a close. Soon my corrupt liberal friends will be taking over for awhile. There are plenty of my kind waiting to slip by a inattentive and lazy electorate. Thanks for your letter...isn't it time to get back to the second half of the game, cat? Your friend, Ted Stevens"

8/31/2006 11:02:03 AM

Ou est le funny?

8/31/2006 11:13:22 AM

I guess it's somewhere behind all the trolling. But hey, what are you supposed to do when you have such difficulty expressing coherent arguments, right?

I've got to admit I'm shocked. I definitely thought Sen. Stevens--inarguably the most computer savvy member of Congress--would read an email sent by a non-constituent, change his mind because of it, and start a movement in Congress to end corruption.

Excoriator's non-local psychic machine must be in tip shape today because he totally understood and expressed exactly what I intended to do with that email. It's kinda eerie how dead on he could be.

Or how stupid.

I wrote primarily to be one more straw on the camel's back. I expect in a few weeks a junior staffer will read up to the word "insult" and tally another non-supporter of Stevens' actions.

That said, it's not like the substance of Excoriators trolling response is completely invalid at all. I'd argue it's probably closer to the attitude of most federally elected politicians than most voters are willing to admit, and is probably responsible for our consistently low voter participation.

In fact, his point even inadvertantly buttresses the point I was making in the concentration of wealth thread.

8/31/2006 11:34:11 AM

Search & Replace: Excoriator / EarthDogg

(Where was the fucking callout? Jesus that was retarded.)



---

It appears that our former Grand Dragon Sen. Robert Byrd is also behind the parliamentary procedure holding up the bill. I'm waiting for confirmation before sending a similar email to his office now.

[Edited on August 31, 2006 at 3:39 PM. Reason : ...]

8/31/2006 3:38:22 PM

Quote :

"A far-flung coalition of groups across the political spectrum supports the idea and their efforts were rewarded Thursday as the Senate passed a bill to build a Google-like search engine to allow people to track online approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans. [...] The bill, sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., passed after Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, dropped his objections. Senate leaders had tried to pass the bill in early August but [Sen. Ted] Stevens and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., blocked passage by lodging secret "holds" on the bill."

GG INTARWEBS!!!11!!!1!!!

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/09/08/ap3003226.html

[Edited on September 8, 2006 at 2:16 PM. Reason : ]

9/8/2006 2:16:16 PM

i keep reading "Secret paramilitary move blocks gov monitoring bill"

9/8/2006 5:14:50 PM