Boston Globe highlights the abject failure of the Republican led Congress to perform their oversight duties, pointing to — amongst many other examples — the 140 hours of sworn testimony taken on Bill Clinton’s Christmas cards versus just 12 hours taken about Abu Ghraib.
Pre-empting the partisan issues involved here, the Globe points out that the Democratic-controlled House in ’93-’94 held 135 “oversight” or investigative hearings during the Clinton Administration, while the GOP House was only able to muster 37 such hearings last year with Bush in the White House.
In the meantime, Kevin Horrigan in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlights the “transcript” from one of those rare hearings…
Mr. Little: I was assured by Dicky Ducky that Halliburton could install a solid, gravity-proof sky within 90 days on an expedited, open-end, cost-plus basis, which Dicky Ducky said would cost $100 billion, tops.
The Chairman: And yet, nearly three years later, such a gravity-proof sky does not exist.
Mr. Little: I would point out, sir, that foreign fighters and insurgents have interfered with the work, despite the heroic efforts of our magnificent troops, whose mission is endangered by irresponsible mixed signals sent by members of this committee.
The Chairman: I thought their mission was to rid the world of the threat that the sky was falling, a threat you yourself now admit does not exist.
Mr. Little: Well, if you want to get into technicalities . . .
(Hat-tip to RAW STORY for the Globe link and to my father for Chicken Little.)
What a great blog, Brad! I’m still chuckling. Thanks for that GREAT picture of the duck-n-cover chicken hawk!!!
And thank you for the excellent links – facts don’t lie.
Post Dispatch link is just too funny……Do you think they might live in a parallel universe because their story sure is similar to whats been goin on in Washington…I’m Laffin…Great Blog, Thanks Brad
Kinda scary that the Pugs figure they can give a pass on torture and disrupting National Security, as long as it’s their party doing it.. but god forbid someone get a blowjob that isn’t tied to the wing-nuts..
I really can’t understand how people can live with themselves when they condone this kind of thing (or partake in it). How terrible of an upbringing they must have had to think it’s ok to crap on others, yet still get indignant when someone does it to them.
Some days the State of Nature sure sounds good.
Surely you’re not expecting the Fox to investigate the killings in the hen house are you?
Well.. no Tomz.. I mean, it’s not like the Democrat Foxes kept tabs on their own hen house, right?
Oh.. wait.. yeah, they did..
Red foxes are quite different than blue foxes.
Dicky Wicky and Georgie Porgie ran together twice, and lost both elections. But Nino Bandido and his friends in dark robes told them they won the first time, and Henny Kenny and Wally Folly helped them carry Ohio the second time.
Now all the voodoo has the world in deep doodoo, because Chicken Little knows the sky is falling but the little chickenhawks don’t.
Clearly the sky is not falling.. The earth has begun rapidly accelerating toward the sky.. and it’s because of all the tin-foil hats.. perhaps we should just ban tin-foil.
Chickenhawk Little may have been inspired by "My pet goat" after all.
OT
11-21-05: Diebold violates court order
On Dec. 16, 2004 Judge William A. McKinstry issued a court order on case RG03 128466 forcing Diebold Elections Systems Inc. to honor certain security protocols.
Black Box Voting has learned that Diebold has been violating that court order.
Black Box Voting investigator Jim March and Black Box Voting founder Bev Harris, lead plaintiffs in Alameda Superior Court Case RG03 128466, filed a claim against Diebold for making false claims to the state of California. Diebold entered into a settlement of this case, agreeing to a penalty of $2.6 million to reimburse California taxpayers, and also agreeing to court ordered procedures.
Among the terms of the court settlement: Diebold agreed not to cross-connect a Diebold central tabulator to the Internet, and a requirement that Diebold strip the Windows operating system of any Internet connectivity programs/drivers/etc from use unless doing so would cripple system functionality.
On Nov. 21, 2005, Jim March will file a declaration at the Diebold certification hearing in Sacramento, attesting to personally witnessing evidence that both these provisions were violated by Diebold.