FC: Three Washington Post articles on how government really works

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13376-2003Jul18.html?nav=hptop_tb

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) introduced a resolution protesting 
the GOP's behavior, triggering an afternoon-long debate in which each side 
accused the other of debasing Congress. Democrats charged that Republicans 
were running "a police state," with Pelosi saying her colleagues had 
suffered "an indignity no member should be expected to endure."

Republicans recounted indignities of their own: When Rep. Scott McInnis 
(R-Colo.) had told Stark to "shut up" during the committee meeting, Stark 
denounced him as "a little wimp. Come on, come over here and make me, I 
dare you. . . . You little fruitcake. You little fruitcake. I said you are 
a fruitcake."

...

---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13372-2003Jul18.html

Comcast Cablevision yesterday fired Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano and 
canceled the sailing trip he had arranged for Maryland lawmakers next week 
in San Francisco during working sessions of the National Conference of 
State Legislatures.... Bereano, who was convicted of federal mail fraud in 
1994 and was disbarred in 2000, has reestablished himself in recent years 
as a leading lobbyist in Annapolis.

...

---


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20594-2003Jul20.html

The intelligence unit of the four-month-old Department of Homeland Security 
is understaffed, unorganized and weak-willed in bureaucratic struggles with 
other government agencies, diminishing its role in pursuing terrorists, 
according to some members of Congress and independent national security 
experts.

The vast majority of the department's intelligence analysts lack computers 
that are able to receive data classified "top secret" and above. The 
department has only three experts on biological terrorism, a number that 
lawmakers said falls far short of expectations, given U.S. officials' grave 
concern about that kind of attack.

...




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------