U.S. Studies Discuss Economic Effect Of Long Fed Shutdowns
Last week, the 2025 federal shutdown became the longest in U.S. history. Tomorrow, it enters its 42nd day.
Toxic Chemical Oversight Failing
By Cliff Montgomery – May 22nd, 2010The federal agency charged with investigating possible community exposures to toxic chemicals is failing at its job, according to a congressional testimony released on…
Possible Thailand Civil War
By Cliff Montgomery – May 16th, 2010Thai protesters are continuing their fervent protests in Bangkok, as troops loyal to Prime Minister AbhisitVejjajiva move in to quash the center of a…
Prisons Are Big Business
By Cliff Montgomery – May 9th, 2010The Congressional Research Service (CRS) last month released a study entitled, Economic Impacts of Prison Growth. Its essential findings were telling:A.) America now has…
Bp Lobbying
By Cliff Montgomery – May 4th, 2010A British Petroleum (BP)-leased oil rig located forty miles off the Louisiana coast exploded on April 20th,pouring gargantuan amounts of crude oil into the…
Obama Auto Force
By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 30th, 2010No honest person liked the federal government’scorporate bailouts of 2008-2009. But we at theAmerican Spark feel the special animosity somepeople exhibited toward the bailouts…
Afghanistan Public Opinion
By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 24th, 2010Wikileaks recently made available an interesting CIA analysis written in March of this year. It reveals just how governments work to shape issues in…
State Secrets Privilege
By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 19th, 2010The Executive Branch’s ‘state secrets’ privilege continues to be a controversial issue for U.S. legal experts and all others interested in protecting our civil…
Why UNions Still Matter
By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 14th, 2010The recent West Virginia mining disaster is a chilling reminder of why unions still matter.”Massey Energy Co., the company which owns the mine, is…
Us Cyberattack Policy
By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 4th, 2010″The current policy and legal framework regulating use of cyber-attack by the United States is ill-formed, undeveloped, and highly uncertain,” according to a press…
Oecd Tax Havens
By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 30th, 2010The Congressional Research Service (CRS) earlier this month released a study which discussed a major new international initiative against tax havens.The initiative has been…
DHS Hiding Records
By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 24th, 2010When Congress passed the Privacy Act in 1974, it ruled that each person’s right to privacy is fundamental to aworking democracy and that this…
Health Insurance Problem
By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 20th, 2010A Congressional Research Service study released in November 2009 reveals that the U.S. insurance industryis directly responsible for much of the explosion in America’s…
Declassification Does Not Work
By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 14th, 2010Executive branch departments and agencies in recent years have spent over a billion dollars to declassifyfederal records–but have produced few tangible results.Two executive orders…
Feds May Kill Us Citizens
By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 9th, 2010A Washington Post article printed on January 27th held a remarkable statement:”Both the CIA and the JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command of the Department…
FDA Lacks Oversight
By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 4th, 2010The federal agency that oversees public health barely monitors its own investigative activities, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).…
Pentagon Sexual Assault Prevention
By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 27th, 2010The Defense Department and the U.S. Coast Guard need to further improve their prevention and response tooccurrences of sexual assault, according to expert testimony…
Market Crash In 2013
By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 22nd, 2010Corporate Debt accumulated during the George W. Bush years of eased regulation may create a secondeconomic crash by 2013, according to DailyFinance, a financial…
Military Suicides
By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 16th, 2010Service-member suicides are “definitely” higher than official U.S. Army stats suggest, according to the Soldier’s Advocacy Group of Disposable Warriors, a G.I. activist group…
Republicans Federal Debt
By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 11th, 2010America’s federally mandated debt limit has been raised numerous times over the last 10 years, reveals aU.S. government study released in January.There is only…
Us Arms Exports
By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 31st, 2010The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is a government watchdog group which “warn[s] the public and policy leaders of potential dangers from scientific and…
Derivatives
By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 27th, 2010America’s economy has greatly suffered, in large part thanks to risky Wall Street speculation on future trends in volatile commodity prices, interest rates, foreign…