A Republican congressman who issued a large number of subpoenas for Clinton administration officials in the 1990s has joined fellow Republicans in criticizing Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman for alleged overuse of subpoena authority, according to a story in today's edition of Roll Call.• Nothing to see--move along:
A former Clinton administration attorney fired back that the congressman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), was employing a double standard.
Burton chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the 1990s and became famous for issuing a wide variety of subpoenas to Clinton White House staff and other executive branch officials. In a report on the oversight activities conducted to date in the 110th Congress, Burton joined other House Republicans to warn Democrats not to "abuse" their authority.
"The minority is concerned the majority may abuse the deposition authority provided to this committee under the 110th House Rules. The minority also is concerned with the majority's practice of threatening subpoenas to witnesses unless they ‘agree’ to transcribed interviews," warned Burton, along with other Congressmembers.
Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s chairman and chief executive took in more than $400 million in compensation last year, the company said in a filing, one of the biggest single-year payouts in U.S. corporate history.In that case, what the hell...here's the rest of my money...
The largest part of Ray Irani's 2006 payout was $270.2 million from the exercise of options awarded from 1997 to 2006, representing more than 7.1 million shares, according to the company's annual proxy statement, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March.
[...]
"When you look at this, this is solid pay for performance," said Richard Kline, an Occidental spokesman. "It serves the best interest of the corporation and the best interest of the shareholder."
• Kucinich has some questions:
Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich is launching yet another investigation as chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This time, he's taking on Big Oil.Answer to Kucinich: "we're greedy, fat republicans and want to steal everybody's money. Fuck off."
Today, he sent a letter to a group of oil company CEO's demanding to know why summer gasoline prices are expected to hit $4 per gallon in some areas. His letter specifically inquires about refinery shortages in California, where Kucinich has campaigned heavily for president, and also seeks oil company views on alternative fuels.
"As we approach this year's peak driving season, the Subcommittee wishes to know how these factors of decreasing capacity, decreasing supply, rising profitablity and increasing market concentration may be related to cause new record highs in the price of gasoline," Kucinich said in the letter.
Lucky recipients of the letter include the heads of BP, Conoco Phillips, Chevron, Valero Energy Corporation, Exxon Mobil, Tesoro Corporation and Shell Oil. Kucinich gave them until April 25 to respond.
3 comments:
Speaking of subpoenas, I would love to see Congress subpoena a few things that they don't have guts enough to mention out loud:
1.All documents relating to Cheney's "Energy Task Force" meetings from the spring and summer of 2001.
2.All video tapes from every camera at the Pentagon pointing at the "airliner's" crash site from 9/11.
3.All three tapes from the three civilian security cameras that happened to be nearby, pointing at the Pentagon crash site, which were confiscated by the F.B.I. minutes after the Pentagon crash.
4.All documents relating to the Pentagon's (at least) seven separate "exercises" "coincidentally" held on 9/11.
5.All documents relating to the N.R.O. "exercise" held on the morning of 9/11 that involved the premise of "an airplane crashing into a building".
6.All documents relating to the F.E.M.A. Tripod II "exercise" held in Manhattan on 9/11 that "coincidentally" had a functioning medical triage center set up and ready to go a day in advance, all ready for 9/11 casualties.
7.All tapes of after-action interviews of F.A.A. air traffic controllers who were interviewed on 9/11 about what went on (These are impossible to subpoena, as the government has admitted that it soon after 9/11 had the tapes broken, the tape itself pulled out and cut into many small pieces, and thrown away in several different trash cans; I would just want to make them actually SAY IT again, in public).
So how about it congressional Democrats? Do you REALLY want to get to the bottom of this? Or are you just the fake opposition, pissing away your political capital on infinitely less important investigations and dutifully avoiding the real issue? I think I already know the answer to that question but let's see if you can prove it one way or the other once and for all.
That's the spirit! Americans wanted the democratic Congress to end the war and oust Bush and Cheney. They knew that. But a few minutes in Washington and they developed a pronounced case of beltway brain death. The next Congressional election should be really interesting.
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