On the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday, Representative Todd Akin of Missouri declared public schools a menace to society. And teaching children to read? According to Akin, that’s downright Soviet: The thing that strikes me the most, and I don’t want to overuse the welcome that you’ve extended to me, is this. There [...]

The practice of politics involves odd justifications for all sorts of things, from the naming of post offices to the placement of bridges. Sometimes, however, a justification for a previously-held position stands out head and shoulders above the rest. Today we award our Creative Congressional Justification Award to Representative Steve King of Iowa, who has [...]

The following is our transcription of testimony made this morning, November 19 2009, by Dr. Jeffrey Short of Oceana to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The topic: the environmental impact of offshore oil drilling on marine ecosystems and policy protections that should be implemented. Good morning. I am the Pacific Science Director for [...]

The following is our transcription of the November 19, 2009 testimony of John Amos of Skytruth, a non-profit environmental imaging organization, to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. After more than a decade analyzing satellite imagery in the commercial sector for oil and gas exploration, I founded Skytruth, a non-profit corporation dedicated to [...]

The next time you hear a U.S. Senator declare how vitally important offshore oil drilling is for the nation, you’ll have to ask yourself how she or he managed to come to that conclusion. On Thursday, November 19 2009, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee convened a hearing on the environmental impact of offshore [...]

Tim Ryan won election to Ohio’s 17th District congressional seat by a whopping 56 point margin in 2008. Such an overwhelming election result signifies that Ryan has quite a bit of wiggle room when it comes to policy. A landslide winner like Ryan could follow his policy dictates with a fair amount of free will, [...]

The following is our transcription of remarks made today by Greg Nojeim, Senior Counsel of the Center for Democracy and Technology, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security. Thank you for the opportunity to testify about cybersecurity and civil liberties on behalf of the Center for Democracy and Technology. CDT [...]

A peek into what a Senate committee hearing looks like comes to us today as the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security meets to hear testimony on “cybersecurity.” Here’s what the hearing room looks like. As you can see, the room is just packed… on the side of the room not containing U.S. [...]

You may recall that the 110th Congress was reviled by the right wing as a ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress for its supposed inactivity. As of November 7, 2007 the first session of the 110th Congress had met for 149 legislative days. But the 111th Congress is less active so far than the 110th, meeting as of November [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security will be holding a hearing this Tuesday at 10 AM entitled “Cybersecurity: Preventing Terrorist Attacks and Protecting Privacy in Cyberspace.” What happens in this hearing will set the stage for legislation to regulate the internet and to regulate people on it. How strongly will the [...]