Alaska Senator Ted Stevens exposed as blocker of bill...

[babylonsister]

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens exposed as blocker of bill to create a searchable database of government contracts

http://www.alaskareport.com/news11007.htm

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has been exposed, by the process of elimination, as the one who blocked a bill to make public the spending patterns of the government.
Ted Stevens

Twelve days ago, an unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search.

The measure had been unanimously passed in a voice vote last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It was on the fast track for floor action before Congress recessed Aug. 4 when Stevens put a hold on the measure.

more...

[Jacobin]

1. Alright, Alaskans

Would you pleeeeeze send this asshat packing?

I mean, this guy is a forking mobster.

[depakid]

16. They'll just send another far right looney

Alaskan's are just like Oklahomans in that respect.

[wordpix]

22. the tool of BigOil doesn't want anyone to know where the money's going

He didn't show up for committee meetings and now says he killed the bill b/c he had questions ----that were answered in those meetings!

He looks like a drunk in the latest videos. I'm not kidding. He either has a foot in the grave or he's sloshed---either way, we should get rid of that tool the same way bloggers outed him.

Great job, Bloggers, this jerk is acting like a criminal in hiding what the Senate is doing in terms of gov. contracts. I can't wait to see how much this ass has stolen over the years. He's been senator of AK forever.

[Ian David]

24. Maybe the bill got stuck in his private internet tubes? n/t

[BadGimp]

32. 2shay

[Nikki Stone 1]

39. A little roughage should help

the "bridge to nowhere" Stevens.

[harpboy_ak]

43. I've never voted for Totally Tubular Ted

I've detested Ted Stevens for most of my life.

Stevens has always been a pugnacious bully, from when he first came here as a Federal prosecutor. It got worse when he was elected to the Alaska House, where I remember watching him from the gallery as a school kid, ranting as Minority Leader. His obnoxious rants have never stopped.

I've never voted for him, and I doubt if any Alaskan on DU ever has.

He's got seniority, he brings home pork, and the oil patch rednecks that moved here during the 70s and control AK Repug politics will just keep voting for him.

Alaska before Big Oil was an extremely Democratic state. During the Eisenhower years, the Repugs didn't want to grant statehood and have 2 new Dem senators and a Dem congressman.

At that time, Hawaii was Repug. The logjam was finally broken when a bipartisan Alaska delegation asked that Hawaii also be admitted.

The oil boom increased Alaska's population by 33% in ten years, 200% between statehood and 1990. Many of those new voters are far to the right of old timers from Territorial days.

[LanternWaste]

2. I'm very, very interested

I'm very, very interested in hearing his justification on this one. I'm almost as interested in the justification we'll get as I am on what the actual reason is.


But I think it'll start something like this... "9-11 changed EVEYTHING!!!"

[Kagemusha]

3. Cost.

Mr. Pork King's worried about the bill's !*@^# cost.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001446.php

More like the cost to his way of doing business.

[babylonsister]

5. Thanks for that link; didn't find that when I searched. nt

[Kagemusha]

6. It's probably new.

At any rate, informative for the board so I'm happy.

[WePurrsevere]

10. Mr "Bridge to Nowhere" is worried about COST? Oh please.... he's so deep

in PORK yit with that bridge it's a joke that's no longer funny.

It's still slightly amazing to me that they're so darn blatant about being hypocrites. They either think it's in some way acceptable, think no one will notice, are total fools or some/all the above.

(edited for spelling/typo gremlins)

[alfredo]

13. Let's deluge his office, and major newspapers in Alaska demanding

his resignation.

[roguevalley]

33. www.adn.com is the leading newspaper. believe me, we hate him too.

[alfredo]

38. He needs to retire in disgrace.

[Odin2005]

30. They get away with it because voters are just fine with pork as long as...

...the pork goes to them. Any pork that goes to your state is a good investment and any pork that goes somewhere else is a waste of money in the mind of Joe Six-Pack. The politicians are hypocrites because the people who vote for them are hypocrites.

[WePurrsevere]

34. To some extent this is true but if folks find out about some of it...

there are also many that are not thrilled and I would (hope) that King's bridge was one of those to many (if not most) Alaskans. People need to be informed more about pork spending, some of it sort of makes sense but some of it is pretty ridiculous.

There was a very interesting NOW show on PBS back in February about pork spending. If you're interested here's a link to the transcript: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcriptNOW207_full.html.

Here's a couple of "facts"/snippets from it:
"In 1994, when the Republicans took over Congress there were 1,300 earmarks in appropriations bills. Last year,that number had jumped to 14,000. The total cost to taxpayers? $27 billion dollars."

"The highway bill that President Reagan vetoed contained only 152 earmarks. Compare that with last years' highway bill: the number of earmarks had exploded to 6371."

Between the increase in pork, the tax cuts for the rich, welfare for large corps that don't need it (ex: oil) and the huge deficit... the (so called) "party of fiscal responsibility" sure looks like the party of fiscal hypocrisy to me.


(edited to fix word that showed up as a smiley and a typo)

[Eugene]

20. Oh that's rich. Senator Million Dollar Bus Stop is troubled by the cost.

:rofl:

$200 million for a bridge to nowhere. Billions wasted on
contracts for Iraq and the Gulf Coast and $15 million
for some accountability is unnecessary.

We have passed through the looking glass!

[wordpix]

25. Sen. BigOil Liar already got caught in lie, saying his issues were about

costs but it turns out, whoops, these issues were already discussed and worked out in committee meetings. Trouble for Sen. Liar is he didn't bother going to the committee meetings.

[don954]

4. The DNC needs to paint a BIG target on this guys behind

NOW!
We need to go after them as hard as they would do the same to us.

[wordpix]

26. amen! Who's running against Stevens next time? Is it Nov '06 or 08?

[LifeDuringWartime]

7. Ted's legacy

The Internet is a series of tubes.

[wordpix]

27. OMG, this reads like a Bush press conference or interview-how do these

idiots get into office? They can't speak a sentence and they don't know an "internet" from an email.

[Bjorn Against]

8. WE CAN NOT HAVE PEOPLE SEARCHING THE TUBES

Senator Stevens is exactly the type of person we want to regulate the internets, he obviously knows so much about it. So lets send him an internet to thank him for keeping this filth out of the tubes.

:sarcasm:

[wordpix]

28. Stevens like all of BushCo always has the latest info on the tubes!

Whether they're net tubes or aluminum tubes proving Saddam had WMD, this gang of dangerous morons really knows what's what. :sarcasm: :rofl:

[sofa king]

9. I think Josh Marshall gets the credit for this.

As of yesterday he had it narrowed down to six possible Senators.

As usual, the print media is scared shitless of citing Marshall and his site. I think it's because he's so far ahead of their own reporting curve that they would risk losing readers just by naming him.

[alfredo]

11. What an asshole. He wants us to believe that exposing massive

fraud is too expensive. I'd like to find out where that 1.2 trillion missing from the pentagon went.

[silverweb]

12. And his reason was...

"...because he was worried about the proposal's price tag...."

Yeah, right! :rofl:

And his reason for doing this heroic deed secretly rather than openly was...???

His concern was so great that he failed to attend any hearings on the bill.

And he's so proud of his public-spirited concern that "Despite the fact that Stevens' office has refused until today to admit that he placed the hold, Saunders said, 'This senator does not place secret holds.'"



Such deep sincerity and credibility deserve a reward... like a permanent vacation!

:rofl:

[Unbowed]

14. He should be made to walk the bridge to nowhere.

[Rose Siding]

15. I bet he cries.

[Renew Deal]

17. What a slimeball.

Why is this guy even in congress anymore? He's an incompetent bulwark.

[Ka hrnt]

18. That pretty much sums up my view of him too. EOM

[wordpix]

29. my guess: he's a drunk. That's what he looks like in his videos

[HuffleClaw]

19. 'unanimously passed'

i guess NOW we know why. they knew it would be quietly 'dealt with'. this sort of calculated subversion of the legislative process is a disgrace.

[xchrom]

21. some things never change -- the sun gets up in the east

and goes down in the west

and stevens ''secretly'' put a hold on a bill that would promote easy scrutiny of how our money is spent.

[Critters2]

23. I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!

:eyes:

[Raster]

31. Hmmm, I vote for SOMETHING TO HIDE!

"It really is a mystery, not only who did it, but what the rationale could possibly be and why they would go to the mat on this," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a new Washington-based nonprofit devoted to helping the public understand Congress through the Internet. "There is no conceivable, rational explanation for killing this legislation unless they have something to hide."

[Vinca]

35. I'd love to know more about this guy's investments, businesses

any friends or family members might have, etc. Something stinks in the state of Alaska.

[robcon]

36. I was disappointed with Jon Stewart.

He nominated two Senators, Stevens and Byrd, as the worst in the Senate, and chose Byrd as the 'winner.' Stevens was always the worst Senator out of all 100.

[Supersedeas]

37. it did it for the Taxpayers...to make sure there's not another layer of

bureaucracy...

ALASKANS - if you have any self respect, please do something about your representation in the Senate.

[jazzjunkysue]

40. And his offices (Stevens) are being ransacked by the FBI as we speak

http://www.adn.com/news/government/story/8142285p-8034601c.html
Federal agents raid legislative offices

By RICHARD MAUER, RICHARD RICHTMYER and LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: August 31, 2006
Last Modified: August 31, 2006 at 02:47 PM


Federal agents raided Alaska legislative offices in Juneau, Anchorage, Eagle River and Wasilla, with search warrants served on the offices of several state legislators.


FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said warrants were being served at those offices, as well as an undiclosed location in Girdwood, but wouldn’t say who is being targeted, what the investigation is about or when it began.

“It’s an ongoing investigation is all I can say,” Gonzalez said.

Among the offices being searched were those of Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, and Senate Rules Committee Chairman John Cowdery, R-Anchorage. They’re next door to each other on the fifth floor of the downtown legislative offices.



Wonder if the two things have anything to do with each other? Hmmmm.......

[KamaAina]

41. That's his son's legislative office -- but his house is in Girdwood

and could well be the "undisclosed location" being raided. Ha! How Cheneyesque!

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens

Stevens' son, Ben Stevens, was appointed to the Alaska Senate in 2001, and is currently the Senate President....

Stevens' current home in Alaska is in Girdwood. His campaign political action committee is called the "Northern Lights PAC."

Obviously Ben Stevens is a hard worker, having risen from being appointed to the Alaska Senate only five years ago to its chairmanship today, entirely on his own merit. :sarcasm:

[rayofreason]

42. Robber Byrd....

...had his own hold on the bill as well. But the heat is up and he has dropped his hold.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/

Stop the pork. No more bridges to nowhere.