Lawmakers, troubled by the prospect of taxpayer-subsidized influence-peddling, are threatening to crack down. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican, are pushing legislation that would explicitly bar companies from using bailout funds for lobbying or campaign contributions.
Although hard to enforce, the measure puts banks on notice that aggressive lobbying could set off a Congressional backlash.
TVNL Comment: Lawmakers are "threatening" to crack down? How about actually cracking down? What they hell do we have lawmakers for? Big talk from the criminals who are responsible for this mess!
As President Barack Obama declared with a fanfare his intention to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention camp last week, he made no mention of another growing US-run prison - with more than twice as many inmates and an even murkier legal status.
NewMajority is reporting that roughly $180,000 worth of clothing worn by Sarah Palin during her Republican vice presidential bid is stuffed in trash bags at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington D.C.
Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.
ITV and Channel 4 today announced they would screen an appeal to raise emergency funds for Gaza, as the BBC came under intense pressure from the government to reverse its decision not to transmit the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Ever wonder how many of President Bush's terror war detainees were released, only to "return to the fight"?
