Search Results for Congress

Why the Democrats Can’t Nail Bill BarrHouse Democrats have been waiting for more than a year to grill Attorney General Bill Barr, a man they’ve accused of all manner of professional misconduct—from repeatedly and inappropriately intervening to protect President Donald Trump to deploying federal agents to incite violence in American cities.Today they finally had their chance, as Barr testified, at long last, before the House Judiciary Committee. For Trump and Barr’s toughest critics, however, it was a frustrating experience. Barr defended the Justice Department’s handling of protests in Portland, Oregon, and other cities—“We’re not out to cause trouble,” he said—and his decision to order a reduction in the sentence that federal prosecutors requested for Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone (a punishment the president eventually commuted). “The judge agreed with me,” the attorney general insisted, in a rare moment when his voice betrayed annoyance. He denied that there was “systemic racism”…

When Conservative Justices RevoltUntil two months ago, Leonard Leo was among the unambiguous winners of the Trump era. The bookish lawyer and architect of the conservative legal movement has spent the past three and a half years executing his decades-long vision of remaking the federal judiciary—he was instrumental in the Supreme Court appointments of Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. But during the Court’s term this summer, an old conservative nightmare recurred: Republican-appointed justices, including Gorsuch, aligned with their liberal colleagues on big, consequential decisions about immigration, abortion, and LGBTQ protections.In recent decades, conservative justices have consistently moved to the left once reaching the bench: Anthony Kennedy, who was nominated by Ronald Reagan, routinely cast the deciding vote against social conservatives on gay rights. Conservative-movement stalwarts have never forgiven David Souter, the George H. W. Bush appointee, for voting to uphold the constitutional right to abortion in the 1992 decision Planned…

1000 Days: This President Continues To Be An EmbarrassmentGARYWORDS by The Real GabbyGary – I’m sorry, but, any truly conscientious person who has been paying close attention to the daily, real news coming out of Washington, D.C., the home of the United States Congress, White House and various federal agencies, should already understand why the Impeachment Inquiry in the House of Representatives is […] ….. Read More.GARYTALK – Conversations & Commentary | This, That and The OtherWed, October 23, 201910 months ago

Read Barack Obama’s Eulogy for John LewisFormer President Barack Obama delivered a eulogy today honoring Representative John Lewis of Georgia, who died July 17 after a decades-long career in the House of Representatives. Lewis, a civil-rights icon who led the 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and spoke at the March on Washington, spent his congressional years advocating for voting rights and equality for Black Americans. Known as the moral “conscience” of the Congress, Lewis lay in state for two days in the Capitol this week.Below, the full text of Obama’s remarks as delivered.James wrote to the believers, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” It is a great honor to be…

DOT “On Track” For HOS Reform Start DateRumors have been swirling for weeks that the planned Hours of Service (HOS) reform rules may be rolled back or delayed. According to regulators though, the changes are “right on track.” And there is no plan to delay. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Acting Administrator Jim Mullen told attendees to an online Truck Safety Summit that there is “no effort to abate or hold off on Sept. 29” start date for HOS changes. Some lawmakers had expressed concern that the HOS changes had been made without doing the proper research to see what the impact of the changes would be. Safety groups have been against the changes which they say will make truckers more likely to be involved in accidents. In response to noises from Congress though, an FMCSA official said that Congress doesn’t have the right to delay the reforms to…

Billionaires Have Made an Absolute Killing During the Pandemic. The Number Is Staggering.President Donald Trump thinks he is delivering the average American a winning hand right now—despite a cratering economy, mass unemployment, and no clear plan to fight the cause of all this calamity, the coronavirus. At a Monday afternoon press conference at the White House, Trump went so far as to say that “carpenters and policemen and farmers”—millions of ordinary Americans—are “the ones that benefit by having a good stock market, probably more than anybody else.” Probably more than anyone else? That’s absurd on its face (only 55 percent of Americans report owning stocks, a number that correlates with higher household income, among other things.) But it’s even more disconnected from reality when you collect the receipts: This pandemic period has been a bonanza for billionaires, for whom Trump’s brutalist coronavirus denial and inaction has reaped untold rewards, as…