Jeanne D'Arc over at Body and Soul quotes from a new Salon premium article on the myth that the death penalty heals the victims' families, and provides her own insightful comments. For more, check out Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation--a growing group of victims' family members opposed to the death penalty.
In 1995, with much ado, the newly Republican-constituted House of Representatives enacted a total ban on receiving gifts from lobbyists. They've been chipping away at it ever since.
This month, in a party line vote, they eroded it even further by passing a new rule that:...allows lawmakers and their aides to once again accept free trips to golf courses and free meals catered to their offices from corporations and other special interests.Praise, however, is due Colorado Republican Congressman Joel Hefley, who said the rule goes too far:By relaxing the gift ban, Republicans have provided corporations, labor unions and other interest groups many new avenues -- which are closed to ordinary Americans -- to try to influence lawmakers and their staffs. Lobbyists footing the bill often get coveted face time with key lawmakers and their aides.
"As gifts are given, meals are paid for and vacations subsidized, these favors build up and it's just human nature members and staff will be responsive to those doing the favors," said Don Simon, acting president of Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that monitors congressional ethics. "It's not how government business is supposed to be conducted."
Now even a key Republican worries that the party is going too far by allowing House members to take free trips to charity events and accept free, catered meals.Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert are said to be behind the new rule--for personal reasons--Delay to be able to fly colleagues to "his annual golf tournament in Texas" which raises money for his foundation for foster children. "Scores of corporate lobbyists attend the event." Hastert wants to be able to continue accepting delivered meals from, for example, pharmaceutical firms, on the same night the House is voting on prescription drug legislation. They call this the "pizza rule.""I see my job as to keep people out of trouble," said Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), chairman of the House ethics committee. "We don't want to have the impression, nor the reality, that we're trying to weasel around ways to live high at someone else's expense."
Hefley said he was blindsided earlier this month when Hastert decided to weaken the gift ban without consulting him. At the behest of Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), Hastert drafted what Hefley and others worry might become the biggest loophole in the gift ban yet: allowing members to take all-expense-paid trips to charity fundraising events. The 1995 gift ban outlawed such trips because the practice was routinely abused.
Under the new rule, which passed 221-203, a corporation could anonymously underwrite a charity event on the greens of, say, Pebble Beach in Northern California and provide accommodations at a five-star resort. The corporation then could send its top executives and lobbyists to the event for a weekend of schmoozing with lawmakers.
"That is open to enormous abuse if we are not careful," said Hefley. "I don't want sham charities out there so congressmen have a nice vacation at a resort."
The Republicans are not only creating an appearance of impropriety with this rule, they are providing an opportunity for the impropriety to occur. Where was the media when this rule was proposed and voted on? Was it reported but glossed over with Republican spin? Why are we just hearing the true likely effects of the rule now, after-the-fact?
New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer announced Monday at a tribute for Martin Luther King, Jr. that he will file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court supporting Michigan's admissions policy.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, also present at the tribute, said she would join with several other senators in filing a brief supportive of Michigan's policy.
Spitzer told the assembled crowd:
In a major blow to the Bush Adminstration, the Washington Post reports that "France suggested today it would wage a major diplomatic fight, including possible use of its veto power, to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq."
Mexico goes to the World Court tomorrow seeking an order preventing the United States from executing Mexicans. There are more than 50 Mexicans on death row in the U.S.
From our earlier post on Mexico's lawsuit:
Mexico filed suit against the US in the International Court of Justice in the Hague over the U.S.’s failure to comply with the Vienna Convention’s guarantee of allowing foreign nationals access to consular officials prior to interrogation. Mexico is also seeking provisional measures, essentially a temporary restraining order, against all capital prosecutions in the US against Mexican nationals until the case is resolved. A hearing is tentatively set for January 20.
Newly Elected Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ( R ) said last week he would sign legislation to legalize medical marijuana, "giving new hope to advocates who say the drug can help relieve nausea from chemotherapy and other debilitating conditions."
"A doctor, a nurse and a cancer survivor are among the lawmakers drafting marijuana bills.
Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Dist. 11) of Owings Mills, a physician, wants to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana under strict controls. Two doctors would have to sign off on the prescription and follow up to see how patients are responding to treatment."
"Morhaim envisions the state government eventually growing and distributing marijuana to ensure consistent quality and control."
"We prescribe drugs much more dangerous than marijuana," Morhaim said. "We prescribe narcotics, we even prescribe cocaine on occasion. Like any medical tool, it's going to help some people and not others."
If Maryland enacts a medical marijuana bill, it could have a national impact, "both because Ehrlich is a Republican and because Maryland would be one of the first states on the East Coast to pass medical marijuana legislation. It also would put the issue directly on Congress' doorstep."
Marijuana use is thought to benefit patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma, nausea, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
Erlich is not a johnny-come-lately to the issue. While serving in Congress, he was one of a few Republicans to co-sponsor a medical marijuana bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA.)
Update: In other medical marijuana news, students at the University of Missouri have gathered enough petition signatures to force a vote before the City Council on legalizing marijuana for medical use. On Tuesday, the Council will vote either to pass the measure or put it before the voters on April 8.
The proposal was written by law student Anthony Johnson. According to Johnson, the measure also decriminalizes personal possession of small amounts of pot.
The Boston Globe reports that speculation on Rehnquist's retirement is growing.
Gary Hart will be speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City Tuesday on national security issues. The text of the speech will be available sometime after 6pm EST on Hart's new website, GaryHart News. The speech is entitled "In Search of National Security in the 21st Century."
Wednesday, January 22, Hart will be in Ames, Iowa speaking on Political Corruption and Campaign Financing.
Then he heads back to New York, and on Friday morning, January 24, he will speak at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on "Homeland Security After 9/11."
Lisa English of Ruminate This is on top of an important story the mainstream press needs to pick up on. The head of the Center for Public Integrity has charged that media companies are essentially buying political favor through hundreds and thousands of fancy all expense paid trips being given to politicians and FCC employees, respectively. Lisa and Democracy Now point out that the FCC, under Michael Powell's leadership, is aiming to remove the last vestiges of regulation on our media. The bottom line will be a media that is owned by very few -- and the likelihood of their corporate agenda reflecting the liberal ideology is nil. They see political endorsements on the horizen with further consolidation and deregulation, as well as a host of other problems.
From Democracy Now:Columbia Law School yesterday held a public hearing on the Federal Communications Commission's plans to loosen or scrap all remaining media ownership rules. The hearing was at the instigation of unions and media activists, originally organized by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Writers Guild of America, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Media Access Project and others.The six rules under review include:
*the ban on broadcasters owning television stations that reach more than 35 per cent of the country * the prohibition of mergers between the four largest TV networks
If those rules are scrapped, a single CEO could theoretically own all of the largest media outlets in the country. The event featured all-day panels where media activists, public interest advocates, representatives from think tanks and Hollywood guild members outnumbered industry reps like Viacom's Dennis Swanson, Fox Entertainment Group's Ellen Agress and David Poltrack of CBS.
- and the prohibition from owning a newspaper and broadcast outlet in the same market.
You can listen to the tapes from the Columbia Law School hearing here. You can download a free copy of the Center for Public Integrity's report, Off The Record: What Media Corporations Don’t Tell You About Their Legislative Agendas here.
"Three top Bush administration officials said today they would welcome exile for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and one, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, signaled the United States might allow Hussein to escape war crimes prosecution if he voluntarily steps down."
"Today's comments appeared to be a signal to Hussein that a bargain might be in the offing. "To avoid a war, I would personally recommend that some provision be made so that the senior leadership in that country and their families could be provided haven in some other country," Rumsfeld said on ABC's "This Week." "I think that that would be a fair trade to avoid a war."
Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice are also said to support asylum for Hussein. The U.N. Security Council is applying pressure, as are citizens around the world. Some Arab nations are said to be trying to convince Hussein to step down. Perhaps if his safety in another country can be guaranteed to his satisfaction, he'll consider it. It sure beats going to war.
Political Wire reports on the rise of Hillary Clinton, and Republican fear that she may be a VP candidate in 2004.
We have always been a big supporter of Hillary. We chronicled her 2000 election campaign for U.S. Senate, from September of 1999 through election day of 2000, in a special section we called "Run, Hillary, Run".
We think Hillary should be President rather than Vice-President, although, keeping with our belief that the Dems need to get away from centrist candidates, we'd certainly support a Hart-Clinton ticket. But we suspect she's gunning for 2008, not 2004.
We'd like to see her change her position on the death penalty (like her husband and Al Gore, she supports it), but she is a co-sponsor of the Innocence Protection Act, and that's a good start.
"A federal appeals court has ruled the Internal Revenue Service committed fraud and acted deceptively after giving secret deals to two pilots in return for their testimony against 1,300 other pilots who had bought into the same tax shelters."
"The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a previous ruling against the pilots who were found guilty of tax evasion and were ordered to pay more than $2 billion in penalties.
In order to remedy the IRS misconduct, the court ordered that all the pilots should receive the same deal that one of the pilots received."
The case is CIR v. Dixon and you can access the opinion here.
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