Dems Win VA, Implementing 9/11 Commission's Recommendations Top Priority

[Gold9472]

Democrats Lay Out Agenda for Majority Rule in House

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-08-voa81.cfm

(Gold9472: As Kyle Hence (http://www.911blogger.com/node/4308) recently said at a showing of 9/11: Press For Truth, "We can't let Pelosi get up there and champion the recommendations of this damn Commission without first getting to the bottom of what really happened, and answering all of the questions that the families raised.")

By Dan Robinson
Capitol Hill
08 November 2006

After their victories in Tuesday's mid-term election, Democratic Party leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are laying out their agenda for majority rule, while Republicans analyze their losses. Democrats have again called on President Bush to work with them on a plan that would bring U.S. troops home from Iraq.

Democratic leaders in the House used separate news conferences to talk about how they intend to use their new power in the House.

Voted into the majority with a gain of at least 30 seats in the House, Democrats plan to tackle a range of foreign and domestic issues, from the war in Iraq to the economy and corruption in Congress.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, (r), and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of^House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Rahm Emanuel, chief architect of the Democrats' campaign strategy, says they will use their majority to move the country forward, while trying to avoid what he calls the politics of polarization practiced by Republicans.

"There are not just good Democratic ideas and bad Republican ideas, or good Republican ideas and bad Democratic ideas; there are ideas that either move you forward or take you back and if we approach it that way I think we're going to make a lot of progress," he said.

Democratic priorities, include implementing recommendations of the bipartisan commission that investigated the September 11 [2001] attacks, increasing the minimum wage, and laying the groundwork for an eventual U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, poised to become the first female to hold the powerful post of Speaker of the House in January, says Democrats want to bring integrity and civility to Congress, and held out the offer of cooperation to President Bush.

"We pledged partnerships with Republicans in Congress, and with the president, and not partisanship," she said.

But for Democrats to achieve their goals will partly depend on the final election results for the Senate, now hanging on the outcome of one still undetermined race in the state of Virginia.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, are analyzing their losses.

Congressman Tom Reynolds, who headed his party's campaign operations, blames losses on what he calls the sour national [political] environment, asserting the results while disappointing were not really surprising.

"The election really was a matter of history repeating itself," he said. "Second term, mid-term elections are the toughest for the president's party, and one like last night is absolutely no different."

In a post-election telephone conversation with President Bush, House Speaker-designate Pelosi says she emphasized the need to work together on Iraq.

"We know that stay the course [in Iraq] is not working, has not made our country safer, it has not honored our commitment to our troops and it has not brought stability to the region. We must not continue on this catastrophic path."

Pelosi and other Democrats will have an opportunity to drive home their views on Iraq and other matters when they meet with the president on Thursday.

In a news conference Wednesday, the president stood firm in his position that any precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be harmful and undermine democracy there.

Prospective House Majority Leader, Congressman Steny Hoyer, said Democrats want success in Iraq no less than Republicans, adding that an upcoming report by a special commission headed by former Secretary of State James Baker will be a key to charting a new course.

Baker has said that report was delayed to ensure it would not influence the results of the congressional mid-term election.

[somebigguy]

So when is the next terrorist attack that will supposedly prove all those Dems wrong???

Wake up dems, expose 9/11 Truth or be made to look like fools!!!

[Gold9472]

So when is the next terrorist attack that will supposedly prove all those Dems wrong???

Wake up dems, expose 9/11 Truth or be made to look like fools!!!

I just posted this as a blog on blogger. Please promote it to the front page.

[Gold9472]

This seems like such a "set-up" to me. With the "good" Democrats in power, people can now relax, and not be so pissed off. With the "good" Democrats in power, they can pass the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, and lend "credibility" to them. Making it seem like something is being done, when in fact the only thing being done is the destruction of our civil liberties.

It's ok. The "good" Democrats will turn this country around... a full 360 degree turn.

[Ian C]

jon, while we're going to have to wait and see if Dem leadership will step up to the 9/11 plate, there are some House democrats who understand the stakes. Here's Rep. Dennis Kucinich (who I proudly voted for in 2004 primary) just last week...
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Looking Past One-Party Rule

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601030_kucinich_one_party_rule/

Posted on Oct 30, 2006

By Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Editor’s note: In advance of the election, Republicans painted Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) as the specter of a Democrat-controlled House. In this piece for Truthdig (originally posted on 10/30), Kucinich responds to the attack, and gives the American people a preview of what’s to come.



The Founders envisioned and created a national government with an intricate series of checks and balances. One-party rule has demolished that system. It has led to a government which has abused the war power, corrupted the Bill of Rights, established a national security state, and sharply accelerated upwards the wealth of the nation.

Under these circumstances, the American people, fed up with an illegal and untenable war, are demanding accountability and a true restoration of the two-party system. The 2006 elections will reflect the American people’s desire for a new start and a new direction. The desire for change is palpable. Few are more aware of this shift than the operatives of the Republican National Committee, who, in this election season, have attempted to make a new art form of the political smear.

A few days ago the RNC singled me out for obloquy (http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1161938260225110.xml&coll=2). Let us consider the source. The tenor of their fear-driven attack is a measure of their anxiety-ridden anticipation: They have been institutionally and constitutionally incapable of publicly (and legally) accounting for their conduct of state.

I will not prejudice with any criticism or charges any oversight hearings of any committee I may chair in the next Congress. However, I do know that the American people still have unanswered questions about 9/11, WMDs, the abandonment of international law and the Geneva Conventions, the war in Iraq, the White House Iraq Group, the Rendon propaganda machine, Afghanistan, Abu Graib, Guantanamo, the Pat Tillman case, Iraq war casualties, the missing $10.8 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds, the human and economic toll of the war, rendition, wiretapping, domestic spying, and plans for an attack on Iran.

I do know that the American people cannot believe what has happened to this country in the past six years. I do know that the American people are demanding accountability.

And, in whatever capacity I serve in the next Congress, I will uphold the solemn oath I take to defend the Constitution of the United States, without regard to fear or favor.

[Ian C]

the other thing i'd like to say about this is that the "first 100 hour" list is designed to be non-controversial. so don't put too much stake in that. But we'll see if the heat rises as we move deeper into 2007...it's hard to expect a lot, but there's at least hope at this point.

And with the the release of LC Final Cut in theaters sometime early next year, I think that could really be a catalyst, with the help of 9/11: Press for Truth folks, to push Congress into some new 9/11 hearings.

[Gold9472]

After retaking House, Dems to move quickly on 9/11 proposals

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/29667-1.html

By Alice Lipowicz
Staff Writer
11/9/2006

With the Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives next January for the first time since 9/11, the nation is likely to see changes in antiterrorism policy and increased domestic spending.

With the Democrats winning a majority of the House in Tuesday’s elections, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the presumptive Democratic majority leader, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who is expected to be named chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, are likely to begin moving forward on a number of Democratic homeland security goals, including carrying out the recommendations of the 911 Commission.

Pelosi said in a Nov. 7 Web posting that if the Democrats become the majority she intends to move quickly to carry out the 9/11 Commission’s advice. “We will make our nation safer and we will begin by implementing the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission,” Pelosi wrote on the Huffington Post blog.

The commission issued 41 recommendations in its final report in July 2004, including advice to DHS to improve incident command, cargo screening, intelligence and information-sharing and private sector preparedness. The Public Discourse Project issued in December 2005 a report card on progress toward achieving the commission’s recommendations.

"The 9/11 Commission has recommended numerous steps that must be taken to secure the U.S., (and) the Democrats have made fulfillment of all recommendations the center of their security platform," Frost & Sullivan Senior Homeland Security Analyst Matthew Farr said in a news release today.

Other antiterrorism areas of emphasis for Democrats in Congress have included urban and mass transit security; chemical security, port security, first responders, disaster preparedness and privacy.

Thompson, who is the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, has been a vocal advocate for the 911 Commission recommendations, as well as for expanding interoperability for first responder communications, strengthening border security and protecting rails and mass transit systems from terrorists. He also has supported Democratic efforts to increase homeland security spending by billions of dollars.

“Unfortunately, there is much left undone in homeland security,” Thompson wrote in the Web statement. “The Committee has found numerous vulnerabilities and gaps in the Department’s efforts to date to protect our nation. Indeed, Hurricane Katrina made clear that our nation was not prepared to respond to a natural disaster, more less, a terrorist attack. I want to make sure that those vulnerabilities and gaps are addressed and our nation is better for it.”

Thompson, in the 109th Congress, sponsored legislation to review the role of the DHS’ chief privacy officer; name an assistant secretary for physical infrastructure security; establish a database for small businesses involved in homeland security; establish interoperable communications for fire and police agencies and create a federal grant program for mass transit system security.

On the Senate side, with races in Virginia and Montana still too close to call at press time, it’s not clear whether the Senate will become majority Democratic.

Leadership of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs also is uncertain. The senior Democrat, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., won reelection as an independent. Had he remained a Democrat, Lieberman would have been next in line for the chairmanship, but now the outcome is not certain.

Lieberman consistently has pressed for large increases in homeland security spending. Earlier this year, for example, he proposed to increase DHS’ budget by $8 billion above the White House’s budget request for fiscal 2007 to better prevent and respond to terrorism and natural disasters.

"The Democratic take over of the House and possibly the Senate will likely result in significant new funding for homeland security initiatives,” Frost & Sullivan’s Farr said.