Conor Kenny's News Articles

Congresspedia takes on constitutional amendments

by Conor Kenny — July 8, 2006 - 6:51pm

As part of the expansion of Congresspedia beyond articles on individual members of Congress, we've recently created pages on the Federal Marriage Amendment and flag burning amendment. We've also created pages on the process to amend the Constitution and integrated existing pages on the Constitution itself.

The last vote on the flag burning amendment was on June 27, 2006, when it failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate. The vote was 66-34 in favor, with Republicans voting in favor by 52-3, and Democrats voting against by 30-14. There was one amendment to the amendment, offered by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), which would have turned the constitutional amendment into a simple law and ban "flag desecration" only if it was done in conjunction with the destruction of federal property (if the flag belonged to the government), an incitement of violence or an attempt to intimidate someone. The amendment, which required a simple majority, failed in a 64-36 vote against it.

In looking over the transcripts of the debate, we noticed that senators both for (Dianne Feinstein) and against (Daniel Inouye) the amendment were constantly debating whether or not it was the flag burning or the constitutional amendment to ban flag burning that was more offensive to veterans. Being committed to dealing in documented facts rather than rhetoric at Congresspedia, we decided to take a look at how the veterans in Congress actually voted on the amendment.

Congresspedia front-page updates archive, June 2006

by Conor Kenny — July 8, 2006 - 11:08am
  • Topics: Congresspedia News Updates, U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

    • The following news updates were among those added to Congresspedia in June 2006:

    • Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) was enraged to learn that he voted for a defense appropriations bill which included a provision he opposed.

    Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is a real estate genius (especially when the pork's been primed)

    by Conor Kenny — June 25, 2006 - 9:33pm

    Sunlight Foundation investigative blogger/Senior Fellow Bill Allison has been doggedly pursuing his scoop on Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's sketchy real estate deals on land that just happens to be near a multi-million dollar highway improvement project created by the Speaker himself.

    In essence, Bill, with the help of some intrepid on-the-scene citizen muckrakers, discovered that Hastert's financial disclosure forms failed to give

    Congresspedia at YearlyKos

    by Conor Kenny — June 8, 2006 - 5:44pm

    I’m in Las Vegas for the next few days for the YearlyKos convention (fear not, right-leaning readers, I’ll also be at the Conservative Political Action Conference next March).

    Scandals, Scandals, Scandals -- Part II: The Investigations

    by Conor Kenny — June 5, 2006 - 10:43am

    Add new revelations that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) may be under investigation by the Justice Department to the FBI’s recent raids on Rep.

    Scandals, Scandals, Scandals.

    by Conor Kenny — May 26, 2006 - 12:12pm
  • Topics: Politics

    • The biggest news in the Capitol this week was undoubtedly the May 20 raid of the congressional offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) by FBI agents.

    New additions to Congresspedia

    by Conor Kenny — May 14, 2006 - 11:50pm
  • Topics: Citizen Journalism, Politics, U.S. Government

    • It's been a busy week on Congresspedia. New additions to the site include:

    Also well worth checking out is the muckraking action over at the Sunlight Foundation blogs. The new Congresspedia article contributions include:

    Network neutrality update: more bills, more conflicts of interest

    by Conor Kenny — May 11, 2006 - 3:28pm

    In the week and a half since my first blog entry on network neutrality legisilation and the creation of the corresponding Congresspedia article, there have been two new pro-neutrality bills filed and two new conflicts of interest for the sponsors of the anti-neutrality legislation.

    It seems that in addition to Rep.

    New scandal: Rep. Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and the curious HUD Secretary.

    by Conor Kenny — May 10, 2006 - 4:56pm

    Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson has been in hot water over comments he made in late April in which he suggested that he cancelled a federal contract because the recipient stated that he didn't like President George W. Bush. Now Jackson is claiming that he made the story up and the spokesperson who originally talked to the press has gone on leave.

    New CIA nominee Michael Hayden: SourceWatch has been on the case since 2003

    by Conor Kenny — May 8, 2006 - 2:55pm

    The man nominated today to head the CIA by President George W. Bush, General Michael V. Hayden, has been tracked by SourceWatch (the "mother-wiki" of Congresspedia) users on his own profile page since 2003. It's still basic, but now that he's famous for more than not knowing what the 4th amendment says while serving as the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (see his profile), we hope it will be expanded by our community of contributors.

    As he moves through his confirmation process I also expect to see postings to the pages on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and its members as that committee's confirmation hearings for Hayden approach.

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