The coolest place on the internet, according to this tagline.
AskArchiveFAQ

September 9, 2019

Remember the name Valerie Plame? If you were into politics around 2003 or so, it’s pretty hard to forget—she became a key target of the Bush Administration in its attempts to drum up support of the Iraq War, leaking her name and role as a CIA operative to journalist Robert Novak after her husband published an op-ed criticizing the intelligence that led to the war. It’s a complicated story with a lot of parts, and the guy who was convicted in the case, former Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, had his jail time commuted by President Bush and received a pardon last year. The Decemberists wrote a song about her.

Anyway, she’s running for Congress in New Mexico. Here’s her campaign video.

17:44 // 4 years ago
August 28, 2019
10:56 // 4 years ago
September 22, 2014

A rare sight: Congress working a full work-week

  • 4,700 the number of days since January 1, 1978 that both chambers of Congress have been in session at the exact same time, out of 13,000-plus total days. To put that another way, Congress works a little fewer than half of all weekdays on average—and they really like taking Fridays off. source
10:39 // 9 years ago
September 2, 2014

Don’t worry about Eric Cantor, he’ll be fine.

  • $1.4M the size of the sign-on bonus Eric Cantor received for joining a Wall Street bank after resigning from Congress. It’s part of a $3.4 million compensation deal with the investment bank Moelis. Cantor, the former House Majority Leader, left his post after losing a primary earlier this year. Nice cushion. source
10:51 // 9 years ago
May 10, 2014
Today, members of Congress can lease Lexuses, BMW’s, Infinities, Mercedes, all fall within the guidelines. Not all do that, but does that send a message to our folks back home that this is the right way to do it?
Rep. Rich Nugent (R-FL) • Arguing in favor of his amendment to a Congress pay bill, which would have taken away a perk for members of the House—the ability to receive a lease for a vehicle using their office budgets. Around 63 members of the House use their office budgets to pay for a car lease—at a cost of around $38,444.20 per month in taxpayer money. By the way, Nugent’s amendment failed.
23:29 // 9 years ago
April 26, 2014

Remember this video that went viral after this year’s State of the Union? In the clip, a congressman threatened a reporter who asked him some questions about a campaign finance scandal. That congressman, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), is facing an indictment over the whole deal.

13:52 // 9 years ago
March 17, 2014
theweekmagazine:
“The week’s best editorial cartoons
”
Finally, we know who’s wearing the pants in this surveillance scheme.

theweekmagazine:

The week’s best editorial cartoons

Finally, we know who’s wearing the pants in this surveillance scheme.

18:51 // 10 years ago
February 24, 2014
“I’m sorry, John, I can change! I’ll try harder next time.”

“I’m sorry, John, I can change! I’ll try harder next time.”

9:48 // 10 years ago
February 5, 2014

Clay Aiken’s announcement that he’s running for Congress starts out with a harrowing tale of the domestic violence his mother faced while he was just an infant. Pretty powerful stuff.

10:49 // 10 years ago
January 27, 2014

Oh SNAP: Compromise on farm bill reached, complete with food stamp cuts

  • $8B the amount that a compromise farm bill would cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program over a decade-long period, according to a preliminary estimate given to NBC News. That sounds bad and is a roughly 1 percent cut, but it could have been a lot worse—the GOP originally wanted to cut $20 billion from the food stamps program. source
21:40 // 10 years ago