It seems unlikely that the current members of the United States House of Representatives will effectively rise up against their Democrat and Republican leaders to require that the House be run in a fair and honest manner. Yet, the potential of more Republican members opposing on Tuesday the reelection of Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) as speaker of the House than the 12 Republican representatives who chose not to vote for Boehner in 2013 is helping bring to light the crooked process by which “the people’s House” so frequently operates. read on...
The US House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on HR 3398, legislation stating that it is the policy of the United States government to encourage other nations to require all citizens to have national identity cards. HR 3398 also directs the US government to work with multinational organizations and private entities on imposing registration, identification, and documentation laws on people around the world. As is often the case with legislation intended to increase government power and expand foreign intervention, HR 3398 presents as its justification helping the children—girls in particular this time. read on...
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), at a Thursday hearing of the United States House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, challenged Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel regarding the ongoing US war on ISIS. In particular, Jones complains that the US is engaged in the war despite the lack of a constitutionally required congressional declaration of war.
Jones also warns that, if Congress does some day consider authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) legislation, Jones expects that, like the AUMFs for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the ISIS AUMF will allow military action to continue without end. read on...
While you might expect there would be a “peace dividend” with the winding down of the US military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is making the rounds over the congressional recess to project the message that the United States Congress must not dare reduce military spending — even via fake sequestration “spending cuts” that just cut the rate of spending growth. read on...
While the United States Constitution says authority over declaring and funding war resides in the Congress, US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner refuses to allow a House vote regarding congressional authorization of the war on ISIS. Boehner says he disagrees with how President Barack Obama is pursuing the war. Boehner also says the House should vote on the war. But instead of calling a vote on the war — something Boehner could have done any time during the war’s escalation — Boehner just waits for the president to present him with a resolution that Boehner, like a diligent servant, promises to promptly put on the House floor for a vote.
Does Boehner not understand that he is the elected leader of one of two bodies of the legislative branch in which constitutionally the war declaration and war funding powers reside?
Has Boehner failed to hear any of his fellow House members’ appeals to him throughout the escalation of US military action against ISIS that the House should debate and vote the war up or down? read on...
Industrial hemp activists from around the country visited United States Representatives’ and Senators’ offices in Washington, DC this week to make the case for repealing decades-old US government restrictions related to the plant. When the activists were meeting together after their congressional office visits, RPI Advisory Board Member and former US Rep. Dennis Kucinich dropped in and offered some comments regarding hemp. read on...
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) has just released a statement strongly opposing the McKeon Amendment to the Continuing Resolution (HJ Res 124) scheduled for a vote today. The amendment would grant Congressional approval for the president's plan to arm and train "moderate" rebels fighting in Syria to overthrow the Assad government. Repeating the words of a former US Marine Commandant, Rep. Jones asks, "are we arming another Taliban?" read on...
The following is the informative and thought-provoking written testimony of Eastern Kentucky University Professor Peter B. Kraska for the United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Tuesday hearing “Oversight of Federal Programs for Equipping State and Local Law Enforcement”... read on...
You might think that, with the US government debt increasing year after year and bloated US military spending nearly equal to the combined military spending of the rest of the world, the US government would try to find a way to fight the Islamic State without increasing spending. Supposing the US government proceeds with further escalating yet another Middle East war, couldn’t President Barack Obama and Congress at least work together to pay the bill by transferring billions of spare dollars from elsewhere in the vast and wasteful US military and intelligence budgets? How about starting by canning the US government’s mass spying program?
If you are asking these sorts of questions, you obviously do not have the qualifications to serve as a US House of Representatives committee chairman overseeing the distribution of largess to the military-industrial complex. read on...
“The American People have the right to know the truth and to know the relationship with the Saudis at the time of the Bush administration,” declared Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) in a Monday discussion with Ron Paul on the Ron Paul Channel. Jones made the comment in support of his US House of Representatives legislation H.Res. 428 that seeks the declassification of 28 pages redacted from a joint House and Senate Intelligence Committees report regarding the attacks on America on September 11, 2001.
Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), who chaired the joint Intelligence Committees investigation that produced the report, explained at a March press conference hosted by Jones and other House supporters of H.Res. 428 that the 28 redacted pages make up an entire chapter that “dealt primarily with who financed 9/11.” Graham further states that thousands of Americans currently litigating against Saudi Arabia and other entities for complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks have been denied justice in part because of the withholding of information, including the 28 pages, that could sustain the court claims. read on...
