Incoming House GOP chairmen have a long list of issues to investigate

House Oversight Committee to post complete hearing videos online
New House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the committee will post complete videos of every hearing online in hopes of spurring other committees to do the same. "No Congressional Committee has done this before. Going forward, we'll keep sharing high-quality videos of our tough oversight work," Issa said in a video announcement. "Under Speaker John Boehner, transparency through technology will be crucial to shaping a governme...

Sick 'Em, Darrell
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Newly minted Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Representative Darrell Issa, is wasting no time declaring his intentions to Probe certain actions taken during the reign of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triumvirate. Via the Washington Post: "Issa, who will have power to Subpoena government officials to appear before the committee, said he intended to conduct inquiries into the release ...

Blank/Issa 2012?
I have absolutely no clue who the 2012 GOP nominee is going to be.  There are probably five of six Candidates who are all serious contenders for the top of the ticket who’s fates are as dependent on who drops out first as much as they are on their campaigning.  Considering the combination of the facts that primaries typically favor the more ideologically extreme Candidates and the fact that the GOP tried a moderate in 2008 and lost, it is more likely that we will see a Gingritch, Hucka...

Investigate Justice Dept.'s efforts against terrorism
Given the Democrats' track record of investigating Republican administrations, they will lack credibility when they Protest Republicans investigating actions by the Obama Administration. Oversight is a primary function of any Congress. The new Republican House majority is expected to conduct several investigations. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has promised to lead six of them, including one that according to Issa's spokesma...

"Explosive" Debates Expected on House Homeland Security Committee
     Terrorist Threats targeting chemical facilities in densely populated urban areas remain a serious threat to U.S. security.      If newly appointed Chair to the House Committee on Homeland Security, Representative Peter King, (R-N.Y.), has his way, Legislation regarding this grave threat will move in the opposite direction from the last congressional session.      The last session of Congress saw the House Democratic majority advoca...

Cummings villainizes Issa for villainizing people (Daily Caller)
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, criticized the investigations instituted by incoming Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on Tuesday, calling them a “witch hunt” and saying that his efforts were distractions from the real issues. Cummings attacked the California Republican’s methods, saying that his focus was too narrow. “When I look at the list of things that he has said he wants to investigate, usually, they are more swayed...

Cummings: We'll Stop Any Issa 'Witchhunts' (VIDEO)
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) -- the man Democrats chose to go toe-to-toe with incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) -- is making the rounds on Cable News and showing off the aggressive style that helped him win the spot. Cummings said that he expects to see the tougher version of Issa -- in other words, not the Issa who walked back his harshest statements and said he wanted to work with the administration -- and said his staff is ready for an "avalanche of Subpoenas comin...

Lawrence G. McDonald: What You Should Know About the New Congress
Later today, all of the members of the House and a third of the Senate will be sworn in and the new reality in Washington will officially set in. The initiatives that will roll out of each body in the coming days and weeks will be a radical departure from the Democratic dominance of the past years. However, we expect that the most serious proposals will also be strikingly different from the long list of priorities that existed for both parties during the last two shifts in power. In addition t...

Coulter op-ed: Investigate This!
The Republicans are back in charge in the House of Representatives this week, and not a moment too soon! Forget "stimulus" bills and "shovel-ready" Bailouts (for public School Teachers, who need shovels for what they're teaching), the current Financial Crisis, which is the second Great Depression, was created slowly and methodically by Democrat hacks running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the past 18 years. As even Obama's Treasury Secretary admitted in congressional hearings, "Fannie and Fredd...

A multi-tasking Issa lies and redefines 'corrupt' on CNN
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the newly-minted Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was on CNN earlier today, redefining the word "corrupt" while lying about his past statements about the Obama White House: John King: But you have called them corrupt, sir. You just twice used the word "misused." That's a judgement on your part and you will have Subpoena power, you can have hearings, you can call up the witnesses and we will see what the evidence shows in the weeks and ...

Amy Goodman: Darrell Issa, Step Away From the Corporations
Remember "freedom fries"? That's what the House Republicans, when they were last in the majority, renamed French Fries, after France refused to support the invasion of Iraq. It seems like renaming fries might be just about the extent of food Regulation that some in Congress are willing to support. The new Republican majority threatens a barrage of investigations. California Republican Darrell Issa is the new chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Issa has been tweetin...

Issa defends calling Obama 'corrupt'
Washington (CNN) - Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), the brand-new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform, defended comments he had previously made that President Obama is "one of the most corrupt presidents of modern times." "I think people misunderstand the meaning of the word corrupt, and obviously, CNN does. 'Corrupt', or 'corrupted' or 'failure', it's no different than a disc drive that's given you some bits that are wrong," Issa said on CNN. Issa continued, "I...

Incoming House Ethics Chairman Taking Aim At Countrywide, Subprime Mortgages And Stimulus Spending
Rep. Darrell Issa is going to be a busy, busy man in the new Congress: Finally seeing the Countrywide Scandal investigated thoroughly will, itself, be a major victory for ethics. The Senate Ethics Committee was quick to exonerate Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd, but Bank of America was never even subpoenaed for reams of documentation they held up to and including recorded phone calls from Senators (including Kent Conrad) negotiating their VIP loans. How could the Senate Ethics Committee have...

The case for infrastructure projects
The Washington Post is running a series of articles highlighting failed projects funded by the U.S. Military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly $5 billion in funds has been appropriated through the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), which gives Military forces in combat money to put toward humanitarian assistance and development projects that advance the War Effort, to include reducing Unemployment and building support for U.S. objectives. The articles highlight numerous projects that h...

And he only charges $20 for -- you know -- giving head
Last month a senior House Republican, Representative Darrell Issa of California, nevertheless dispatched letters to 150 companies, trade groups and research organizations asking them to identify federal regulations that are restraining Economic Recovery and job growth. ...NYT ...

SC House Advisory: House Republicans To Unveil 2011-12 Agenda
(Editor’s Note: This is a media advisory from a political organization. It does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of FITSNews.com. To submit your news release, email blast, media advisory or issues statement for publication, click here ). COLUMBIA - House Speaker Bobby Harrell, Majority Leader Kenny Bingham, and the House Republican Caucus will unveil our 2011-2012 Legislative Agenda on Thursday, Jan. 6, following the S.C. Press Association For more information, contact ...

Senator Dorgan Signs On To Be Professional Lecturer
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Leading Authorities, Inc. is pleased to announce exclusive representation of Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) for lectures. He will discuss the current political environment, Energy Policy, and America’s Economic Outlook. “Senator Dorgan,” said Mark French, president of Leading Authorities, “has devoted his career to fighting for the interests of rural America. We look forward to the expertise he can bring audiences on topics such ...

Wall Street leaps in first session of 2011
By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK | Mon Jan 3, 2011 2:54pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks surged more than 1 percent as the new trading year kicked off on Monday and the rally of late 2010 resumed on encouraging signs about the Economic Outlook and a seasonal effect. Stocks got a boost from the "January effect" when fund managers are no longer engaged in year-end window dressing and instead focus on stocks they find attractive. The NASDAQ 100 hit a 10-year high, driven largely by...

David Fiderer: The Real Reason Fannie and Freddie Lost So Much Money
How did Fannie and Freddie lose so much money? There are many reasons, but the two most important ones are Alt-A and interest-only loans, which generated most of the losses. These are not products for low or moderate-income borrowers. But they are products that invite Fraud. Reports by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the St. Louis Fed lay it all out in context. Once again, we see how the root causes of the Real Estate bubble are traceable to Interest Rates and Fraud. Interest Rates: Gr...

Bank Of America Just Admitted That Its Fannie And Freddie Settlement Was A Bailout (BAC, FNM, FRE)
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Ever since Bank of America announced its Mortgage putback settlement with Fannie and Freddie on Monday the company's shares have been on a tear -- an indication that it did very well in the negotiations, which allowed it to settle for pennies on The Dollar. Obviously critics are freaking out (the critics include politicians, like Maxine Waters). And now Bank of America has basically confirmed that the critics are correct: It was the beneficiar...

INVESTIGATE THIS! (Ann Coulter)
The Republicans are back in charge in the House of Representatives this week, and not a moment too soon! Forget "stimulus" bills and "shovel-ready" Bailouts (for public School Teachers, who need shovels for what they're teaching), the current Financial Crisis, which is the second Great Depression, was created slowly and methodically by Democrat hacks running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the past 18 years. As even Obama's Treasury Secretary admitted in congressional heari...

BofA Freddie Mac Putbacks Resolved for 1 on $
Bank of America settled numerous claims with Fannie Mae for an astonishingly cheap rate, according to a Bloomberg report. A premium of $1.28 billion was paid to Freddie Mac to resolve $1 billion in claims currently outstanding. But the kicker is that the deal also covers potential future claims on $127 billion in loans sold by Countrywide through 2008. That amounts to 1 cent on The Dollar to Freddie Mac. Imagine if you had a $500,000 Mortgage, and you got to settle it for $5,000 — that i...

What libertarians should, and shouldn't, be blamed for
Has the U.S. government ever defaulted on its Debt? Ross Douthat is right to say that worrying about what would happen if Ron Paul seized ultimate power and decreed America a minarchy probably isn't a good use of anyone's time. But where Douthat thinks that minarchy is used as a way to dismiss Libertarians, in practice, I've tended to find it their first line of defense -- the right's version of "well, Marxism has never really been tried." To some degree, you see it in Douthat's post, when he qu...

Wall Street climbs in first session of 2011
By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Mon Jan 3, 2011 9:26pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks greeted the new year with a rally on Monday as encouraging signs about the outlook for Manufacturing around the world prompted investors to inject new money into the market. Data from the United States, Europe and China set the tone, helping the Dow and S&P reach new two-year highs and the NASDAQ 100 closed at its highest in nearly 10 years, but some investors think caution may be warranted in the short term...

Wall Street climbs in first session of 2011
By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Mon Jan 3, 2011 9:26pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks greeted the new year with a rally on Monday as encouraging signs about the outlook for Manufacturing around the world prompted investors to inject new money into the market. Data from the United States, Europe and China set the tone, helping the Dow and S&P reach new two-year highs and the NASDAQ 100 closed at its highest in nearly 10 years, but some investors think caution may be warranted in the short term...