Hero/Hack: HIdden Conflicts
After a summer hiatus, Hero/Hack is back, jack!
This week's hero is the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
This week's hacks are Sens. Ted Stevens (AK) and Robert Byrd (WV).
They are the 'Phantom Menaces' behind the hold on the porkbustng bill:
This week's hero is the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
This is good against state actors, but not against terrorism. Still, another part of the Reagan legacy that was doubted when first announced, but has since come true.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military shot down a target ballistic missile over the Pacific on Friday in the widest test of its emerging antimissile shield in 18 months, the Defense Department announced.
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said it had successfully completed an important exercise involving the launch of an improved ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack.
This week's hacks are Sens. Ted Stevens (AK) and Robert Byrd (WV).
They are the 'Phantom Menaces' behind the hold on the porkbustng bill:
To the right of the masthead at the Web site porkbusters.org is a quote attributed to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott: "I'll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I'm getting damn tired of hearing from them."
Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) are probably damn tired of hearing from them too, but taxpayers ought to listen up--and applaud. The porkbusters led a pack of bloggers who outed the two senators for bottling up a bill meant to help the public track how its tax dollars are spent.
Sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the measure would create a searchable online database of federal grants and contracts.
An unnamed senator (or senators, as it turned out) was blocking that bill from coming to the floor. Under an arcane Senate rule, any member who has concerns about a bill can block it--anonymously. Party leaders know the blocker's identity but don't have to tell anyone, even the bill's sponsor.
When the porkbusters learned about the so-called "secret hold," they issued a call for bloggers to contact their own senators and demand to know: Are you the anonymous blocker? Readers at TPMmuckraker.com and GOPprogress.com joined in, and within days they had denials from 97 senators.
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