Sen. Ted Stevens kills anti-pork bill

[Xiahou]

I remember hearing recently that a budget transparency bill was held up anonymously by a single senator- using an obscure procedure known as a "hold", which can stop a bill indefinitely. A very short list a shameless porkers came to mind and Stevens was at the top. Now, after bloggers flushed him out, I see I was right. :idea2:

The acknowledgment by Stevens, a Republican, ended an innovative exercise in Internet-based political activism. Several blogs had urged readers to call senators and ask whether they had placed a hold on the legislation to create the online database. Many activists believed the catalog would make it easier to root out pork-barrel spending.

By midday Wednesday, the blogs had obtained from 97 senators denials that they had placed the hold, which under unwritten Senate rules prevented the legislation from moving to a floor vote. With the suspects narrowed to a small group, Stevens' office acknowledged that the senator had blocked the bill.

The bill was drafted by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in response to public concerns about the size of the federal deficit generally and, more specifically, the tendency of lawmakers to earmark funds in spending bills for favored projects back home.linky (http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0608310210aug31,1,2057814.story?track=rss)

[Kanamori]

Thank God. I don't think I could stomach living in a country where the meat is banned outright... Islamofascists.

~:cheers:

[Crazed Rabbit]

I first I just saw the 'stevens kills pork bill' part and thought 'what, stevens? no way!'

I was correct. What slime.

Crazed Rabbit

[Lemur]

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to eat my hat. Without any sauce. Corruption, pure and simple.

Ted Stevens ... does he ever do anything good? Or is he just a open valve for sleaze and nonsense?

[Vladimir]

Isn't he "Mr. Hulk tie" from Alaska? What is that state if not a swine farm?

Edit: Oh, and why?


Stevens, a Republican

and not


Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

Oh wait, this is from Chicago; Daily's little despotism.

[Don Corleone]

I'm just curious if DA would still rant about the evil Democrat running against Stevens in his next election. I don't care who they are, they HAVE to be more fiscally conservative then Stevens.

[Lemur]

Isn't he "Mr. Hulk tie" from Alaska? What is that state if not a swine farm? Oh wait, this is from Chicago; Daily's little despotism.
From the article's first sentence:

Ending a mystery that had captivated conservative and liberal Internet activists, Ted Stevens of Alaska emerged Wednesday as the senator who secretly held up action on a bill
In fact, the article emphasizes Alaska before it bothers to mention that Stevens is a Republican.

It is now safe to remove your tinfoil anti-media-manipulation helmet.

[Vladimir]

*yawn* So you actually registered for that site I take it? Perhaps you didn't appreciate the little nuance in the article?

[Lemur]

Vlad, I think the issue of Stevens' behavior is far more important than whether or not the Chicago Tribune is yet another (repeat after me) liberal elite hotbed of anti-Bush hysterical cut-and-run appeasement MSM bias. If you've got a deep, revealing insight into why this article isn't accurate, feel free to share.

I'm busy being disgusted by the most blatantly corrupt legislator of this congress. And that's saying something; he's got competition.

[drone]

This is at least a few days old, I saw this on Slashdot and CNN on the 30th. The search for the secret owner of the "hold" was done by bloggers both on the right and left, so it's not really a partisan issue. It's an issue of the complete disregard for the American tax dollar. My question is whether the GOP will lean on him to remove the hold, since obstructing this bill cannot be good for their image in the upcoming congressional elections.

[doc_bean]

But isn't the pork good for his state ? It is Alaska after all, they could probably use all the support they get (or do they get oil rights ?). If the pork is good for his voters, he shouldn't vote against them, that's the way it works, he represents a state first, a party second, doesn't he ?

[Don Corleone]

The problem with that approach Doc Bean is that it runs counter to the political philosophy of the party Ted Stevens belongs to. One would think that being a Republican, he would at least pay lip service to limited govenrment, shrinkage of entitlement programs and more accountability at the federal government level. It's a plank in the party platform, and Ted Stevens has no right calling himself a Republican if the only difference between Ted Stevens and Ted Kennedy is their last name and time zone.

[doc_bean]

The problem with that approach Doc Bean is that it runs counter to the political philosophy of the party Ted Stevens belongs to. One would think that being a Republican, he would at least pay lip service to limited govenrment, shrinkage of entitlement programs and more accountability at the federal government level. It's a plank in the party platform, and Ted Stevens has no right calling himself a Republican if the only difference between Ted Stevens and Ted Kennedy is their last name and time zone.

Then the party should kick him out.

You people have a wonderful thing: direct election of representatives. We have all are parliamentarians (errr..is that even a word ?) appointed by the parties. They can have no personal vision, they don't dare speak up, because then party leaders will just kick em out, or take away their position on the list, or do whatever. It's disgusting, we might as well, have the party leaders as only elected individuals, the rest are just appointed anyway. :furious3:

Now, all i hear in the backroom is whining about how someone doesn't follow the party line: that is a good thing ! It means you can vote for people who vote for what you care about, if you don't like em you can simply vote 'em out. We're stuck with the same people until they lose their use for the party leaders.

[Don Corleone]

I agree with you, Doc Bean, it's an important thing to be your own man. But in Ted Stevens case, he is operating in a way that is in direct opposition to his stated political philsophy. This makes him a hypocrite. If he wants to encourage big government spending and pork barrelling for the folks at home, he should form his own party, the "I'll get every dime I can for Alaska, to hell with the conseuqences" party and declare his platform to be playing both of the major parties to get as much money for Alaska pork projects as possible.

Now, as he's an incumbent, I the voter can say well, he's a hypocrite, he doesn't do what he says, so I don't trust him and I won't vote for him. But, what about a new guy running? He says he's a fiscally conservative Republican, then gets elected and increases income taxes, gas taxes you name it. He announces $650 billion in new spending initiatives for the next year. Isn't that fraud?

As for direct election of representatives ecouraging mavericks to be independent of party leadership, it works and it doesn't. It's definitely better than your system, but there's still a lot of croneyism and boot-licking. Junior congressmen will either 1) tow the party line and get good committee assignments or 2) tell the truth about the hypocricy of the party leadership and find themselves chairing the special sub committee to decide once and for all if Miller Lite is more popular because it tastes great or because it's less filling. Much of what Congressmen "do", and then tell their voters about why they should be elected, happens at the committe level. The party leadership controls who gets onto which committees, and which committees are empowered to do what.

[doc_bean]

Now, as he's an incumbent, I the voter can say well, he's a hypocrite, he doesn't do what he says, so I don't trust him and I won't vote for him. But, what about a new guy running? He says he's a fiscally conservative Republican, then gets elected and increases income taxes, gas taxes you name it. He announces $650 billion in new spending initiatives for the next year. Isn't that fraud?



Yes, one of the things we definitely haven't worked out with democracy is how to punish blatant liars.

[drone]

Another thing to note is that we (all Americans not living in Alaska) cannot vote him out. The Alaskans apparently think he is doing a great job (he's been their Senator since 1968, his next campaign is in 2009), all we can really hope for is his death (maybe one of the internet tubes will fall on him :sweatdrop: ). The GOP is not going to kick him out, at best they could remove him from the appropriations committee.

The wiki page for the secret hold says that Senator Byrd also put a hold on this bill, but has since removed it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_hold
While it would not surprise me that Byrd would do this (he is or was the Dems pork king), I hadn't heard anything on this. Can anyone confirm this?

Edit-> just saw this nugget on CNN, apparently the FBI raided the offices of 6 Alaska state representatives, including Ted Stevens' son.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/01/alaska.lawmakers.raid.ap/index.html
The feds are looking into ties between the lawmakers and an oil services company. Wonder if this had anything to do with Ted not wanting the oil execs sworn in when they were called in front of Congress? :inquisitive:

[Xiahou]

Wow, sounds like Alaska wants to give New Jersey a run for its money when it comes to corruption and graft. :dizzy2:

[jayrock]

unfortunately, you have no idea how far the pork spending and corruption go.... its rampart through out most of the state and federal levels, of gov, the only form of honest government is local, i think thats mostly out of fear of the locals, simply put, if i wanted to i could prob make a few phone calls and have five or ten minutes of any of our local council members or even the mayors time the next day. thats at least on aspect of the old system thats hasnt changed yet... they at least try to give the image their in touch with the people...

as to fed level, we have three and old uncle teddy isnt even the worst offender, he comes in a distant 2nd.. our rep to congress don young is the biggest pork spending bastard you ever will meet... but unlike ted, hes a truly nasty person, ive met him and i can only spend about 5 min in a room with him before i want to hurt him, hes a mean and spiteful old man...

then we have teddy, hes a jerk, but at least he has some manners.., and finally we have lisa murkowski, who is our other senator, shes nice enough, but i think thats because she didnt win her job, when her father who is now the soon to be ex govenor of this state, won his governorship he appointed his daughter to replace him in the senate... can everyone here say ethics violation, i know i screamed it at the top of my lungs at the time.

the the sad state of affairs in this state, we are so reliant on certain industries in this state for our economic future, we have a tendency to say thats not right, but in the same breath, we also realise that doing anything about will be an economic disaster for us...

we are tied heavely to the oil industry, about 40 to 50% of all peoples income in this state are either directly tied to them, or can be traced back to them, our second is tourism which accounts for 10 to 15%, but its seasonal from may to september. be honest who in their right mind would come up here for a visit in jan or feb when its -10 to -20 below zero, and we have 6 to 8 feet of snow on the ground, more in some places. the rest of our industries couldnt make up for the loss of the oil industry... so we have an abnormally high number of elected officials in bed with oil, these six offices they raided should just be the tip of the iceburg...

as for voting them out, it'll never happen both young and stevens have been in office for so long, why should we as a state, correction a very small state politicaly, want to lose the power they have gained through their senority. now dont get me wrong im against pork spending, but i also remember a time when we as a state couldnt even get a few million dollars to bring things like water and sewage treatment to some of the larger villages in this state, we still have communities out here that are still use the honey bucket system, the have no treated water or sewage facilities, most have no medical service or even police. when it comes to upgrading the communities basic needs, ill indulge that kind of pork,