Tell US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on new FEC commissioners

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) has launched a new campaign website called Fix the FEC. Since early this year, the Federal Election Commission has been without a quorum of its commissioners (there are only two of the normal six commissioners), rendering many of it's regulatory responsibilities useless.

Fix the FEC is very well-designed and easy to use. First and foremost, it asks the public to send a letter to US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to let the senate vote in new commissioners to return the FEC to quorum. You can send your letter right from the site's homepage. Then, you can send a letter to your family and friends about the campaign from another webpage. Background information about the current FEC crisis, its latest news and an FEC violation tipline are also easily located on Fix the FEC.

I highly recommend you participate with CREW using this great activist campaign website, Fix the FEC.

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Join tele-press conference, sign petition to demand hearing on substandard military helmets

The image above shows a helmet and the amount of kevlar that was left out due to Sioux Manufacturing's substandard production.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 28th, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), will join VoteVets.org and two whistle blowers to discuss the need for a congressional investigation into a $74 million Department of Defense contract awarded to a North Dakota manufacturing company, Sioux Manufacturing Company, which has been outfitting our nation's troops with substandard Kevlar helmets.

New tape recordings of employees discussing the production of the substandard Kevlar for helmets will be publicly played and posted for the first time during the TELE-PRESS Conference, tomorrow at 10:30 am. The call in number is 866-211-5938 (no passcode required).

The public is invited. For further conference details, please go here.

Also, VoteVets.org has a petition drive on its website-- Petition to Demand Hearings on Substandard Helmet Procurement, where you can show your support.

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U.S. Department of Defense contracts with faulty helmet manufacturer for more helmets!

CREW posts on its blog that a sub-standard military helmet manufacturer is nevertheless being contracted for yet more helmets by the U.S. Department of Defense!

6 Feb 2008 // Today, in light of evidence that a company has been outfitting our nation's troops with substandard Kevlar helmets, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees requesting an investigation into a Department of Defense $74 million contract awarded to Sioux Manufacturing.

The New York Times reported that Sioux Manufacturing, which makes Kevlar helmets, has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company had shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including helmets used by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense, aware of both the problem with Sioux's helmets and the company's efforts to cover it up, awarded another contract to Sioux a mere 12 days before the lawsuit was settled.

It has astounded me for years the level of incompetence and, frankly, immorality this administration has subjected its own troops, and veterans, to in the face of two ongoing wars.

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The Bush administration is stonewalling efforts to find its public emails

CREW, a public advocacy organization, was interviewed on January 17, 2008 by Aimee Allison of KPFA San Francisco about the current scandal of missing emails of the Bush administration. According to a January 16, 2008 CREW post,

The deletion of millions of email beginning in March 2003 coupled with the White House’s destruction of back-up copies of those deleted email mean that there are no back-up copies of emails deleted during the period March 2003 through October 2003. The significance of this time-period cannot be overstated: the U.S. went to war with Iraq, top White House officials leaked the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson and the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into their actions.

Lawsuits by CREW and others against the administration in pursuit of any backup copies during the time George W Bush has been in office are ongoing.

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U.S. House leadership: start cooperating with law enforcement agencies!

CREW, a public advocacy organization, has posted information about a letter sent today to Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Boehner asking that the House leaders start cooperating with law enforcement authorities pursuing legitimate criminal investigations involving members of Congress.

Leaders of the House have been improperly shielding members of Congress – including former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) -- from criminal investigation and prosecution through an expansive and aggressive interpretation of the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.

Members of Congress, like all other citizens, can hire attorneys to ensure that their constitutional rights are protected; this is not, however, the job of the House general counsel, hired at taxpayer expense.

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U.S. Department of Justice is accused of blocking Alberto R Gonzales probe

CREW, a public advocacy organization, has posted a Los Angeles Times article entitled "Justice Department Accused of Blocking Gonzales Probe."

The government agency that enforces one of the principal laws aimed at keeping politics out of the civil service has accused the Justice Department of blocking its investigation into alleged politicizing of the department under former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.

Scott J. Bloch, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, wrote Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey last week that the department had repeatedly "impeded" his investigation by refusing to share documents and provide answers to written questions, according to a copy of Bloch's letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

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Right wing power grabs for the Civil Rights Commission

CREW, a public advocacy organization, has issued a press release concerning the Bush legacy of politicizing civil rights-- the Civil Rights Commission is stacked with partisans.

Washington, DC – This morning, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) hosted a press conference call with the NAACP and MALDEF to demand that U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey rescind a Bush legal memo that authorized deceptive appointments of exclusively partisan Republicans to the bipartisan Civil Rights Commission.

The letter, signed by LCCR, CREW, NAACP, MALDEF, National Women’s Law Center, National Partnership for Women & Families, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Congress of American Indians and the ACLU is online:

http://www.civilrights.org/library/advocacy-letters/usccr-letter.html

In order to circumvent the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Bush Justice Department wrote a memo allowing Republican members of the Commission to switch their party affiliation to “independent.” That allowed the president to appoint more Republicans to the bipartisan eight person commission under the guise that they were somehow “independent,” allowing the Bush administration to circumvent the law requiring that no more than four members of any party serve on the commission.

During his confirmation hearing, Mukasey pledged to review “significant” decisions of the Office of Legal Counsel to ensure that such decisions were “sound, soundly reasoned, soundly based.” Allowing this deception in the appointment process was neither sound, soundly reasoned or soundly based and is a continuation of the Bush administration's legacy of undermining the credibility and subverting Congress' intent to retain the commission's independence and bipartisan membership

Mukasey is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

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Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2007

CREW has released the "Top Ten Ethics Scandals of 2007" list; it is in pdf file format and requires the free Adobe Reader software. Most of these stories you may remember, as they impact the quality of business in our nation's capital city.

Thanks go to all of our dedicated public interest groups, as shown in the left-hand column, for keeping these scandals at bay and to a limited number; it is always a struggle to keep ahead of breeches of rules and conduct, even at the highest levels of our government.

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As internet reveals government increasingly, Bush administration is secret

I am continually amazed at the rush of government databases available to the citizen these days. If you look at my left-hand column, you will see an ever-growing list of mostly free-to-use campaign finance, government finance and document databases.

As the internet has been integral in empowering American citizens to see what their government is up to, the Bush administration has been stonewalling most attempts by Congress to review Executive branch documents. In fact, it was determined in spring of this year that at least 5 million emails were destroyed by the administration between 2003 and 2005; there is still a chance there is a backup of these on tape. Now, according to a press release from CREW, the number of lost emails is probably much more-- between 10 and 20 million messages!

What has the Bush administration to hide, for such a long period of time? All government officials are ultimately answerable to we, the people, the citizens of the United States. Just as the law to maintain all emails was passed after the 1970's Watergate scandal, we must see that transparency in government is still very important to an accountable government.

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Report reveals full history of Department of Homeland Security mismanagement

CREW (Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington) has released a report on the mismanagement of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) during its first five years of operation. They also created a website devoted to the research project, called Homeland Security for Sale.

The DHS has lost billions of dollars already in its short existance; it can be argued, too, that our domestic security situation in America is not any better than when the department was first established. Hopefully, this report will inspire our Congress to take deep, serious steps to see that the DHS enjoys new, top management resources and practices during this age of illegal immigration and terrorism.

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Tell your U.S. Representative NO to House Ethics Task Force recommendations

CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) Executive Director Melanie Sloan is encouraging the public to contact their U.S. Representatives, in order to express discontent over the short-sighted recommendations of the the House Ethics Task Force.

In the wake of the 2006 elections, new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Dem-CA) began the process of developing a U.S. House ethics group to support the already in place House Ethics Committee. Unfortunately, as Melanie Sloan points out in her interview on C-Span, the long-awaited recommendations for the new group fail to (1) accept ethics complaints from outside of the House, and (2) subpoena House members for ethics complaint investigation purposes.

If you agree with CREW's Ms. Sloan, please contact your U.S. Representative in support of receiving outside of house ethics complaints from the public, and in support of house member subpoena powers for ethics investigations.

Here is Ms. Sloan's interview on C-Span:

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Report names the 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress

CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) has released it's third annual Beyond DeLay: The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch). This is an opportunity for all constituents (and future voters) to check to see if their Congressmen is on the list.

Reminder: every citizen of the U.S. is a constituent (has representatives in elective offices from the local to the national levels.) Become familiar with yours; I particularly am an active correspondent with my U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators. The white widget on the left panel of this page will take you to your own public servants' websites.

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Our public servants have committed to leadership; they are responsible for it

On September 4, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) faxed a letter to the ethics committee of the U.S. House of Reps., concerning the conduct of Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado. Proof is evident that he intimidated and threatened two of his own constituents in response to their published letter criticizing him.

We reformers receive coarse and uninspired reactions from our government servants when we shine a light on their professional misgivings. This is only a natural human response; never the less, our representatives' commitment to leadership is proclaimed when they run for their coveted public offices. That commitment is manifested in the presence of an ethics committee in their legislative houses.

And, more critically professional is the responsibilities of that ethics committee. The reformer's light shines brightest on those government servants who commit the most leadership. Kudos to CREW, for carrying the torch of reform in their call for action to the U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

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