Take the money and run – Republican Party-dominated Congress attacks Federal Election Commission Vicki Kemper Angered by new regulations that restrict the use of campaign funds, members of Congress have gone after the nation’s elections watchdog. Although they’re in the business of policing electoral campaigns, employees of the Federal, Election Commission (FEC) don’t concern themselves […]
Is it fact? Or is it fiction? – sensationalism in TV news; realism in movies – Cover Story Deborah Baldwin From Hollywood to the 6 o’clock news, it’s getting harder and harder to tell. “Everything looks real, and therefore it is real; in any case the fact that it seems real is real, and the […]
No sacred cows – the Balkan crisis Deborah Lutterbeck The War Lobby In his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight Eisenhower warned that “unwarranted influence [exerted] by the military-industrial complex” could have disastrous results on national policy. That sentiment was sounded in the wake of the Vietnam War and heard again in the midst […]
Lobbying 101 – college student loan cuts provoke campus activism – No Sacred Cows Andrea Gilman Who says student activism is dead? The “Contract With America” may have caused barely a stir on college campuses, but when congressional Republicans aimed their budget-cutting axes at the student-loan program, students took notice. They began staging demonstrations, organizing […]
License to deal: how Uncle Sam helps weapons merchants arm the world – includes related article Deborah Lutterback The boxes are labeled “above-ground swimming pool” or “airconditioning equipment” and have innocuous sounding destinations like a ministry of eduction or a children’s hospital in some other part of the world. What these boxes contain, however, are […]
CC pushes for action on campaign reform bills – Common Cause; campaign finance restrictions – includes related notice of headquarters move to 1250 Connecticut Ave NW – Cover Story Common Cause’s nationwide grassroots campaign to press for action on S. 1219 and H.R. 2566, the first bipartisan and bicameral campaign finance reform bills, has helped […]
This secret agent is orange – Agent Orange Maurice Martin The Vietnam War ended 20 years ago and President Clinton recently normalized relations with the nation’s former enemy, but one of the conflict’s most infamous agents continues covert operations on the American home front. The defoliant Agent Orange lingers on in hardware stores and farms […]
In Common: keeping up the pressure for reform – campaign financing legislation lobbying by Common Cause Jackie Howell IN MAY CC LAUNCHED its 90 Day Countdown Campaign, a grassroots lobbying effort designed to ensure passage, before Congress adjourns for the year, of three vital reform and government accountability issues: campaign finance reform, lobbying disclosure and […]
We’re outta here! – modern political secession movements in the U.S – includes related article Peter Overby From the redwood forests to Staten Islands, America suffers from separation anxiety. Ulysses, Kan., population 4,800, is no hotbed of radical politics. Its civic center, a fluorescent-lit, folding-chair kind of place, isn’t Independence Hall. But there stood Don […]
How special interests cater to Congress Peter Overby Former Rep. Victor Veysey left Capitol Hill in defeat 17 years ago, but his luck improved at the 1991 annual gathering of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress. Veysey won a door prize — a new Mercedes-Benz. How did Congress’s alumni club get a $33,000 […]