Maine: Congress

The Obama adminstration has announced that it will restart tribunals of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama ordered such tribunals halted in January. I'll remind you that not one detainee held there has ever been convicted of a crime, and most have never been charged. From Democracy Now! link):
President Obama is expected to announce today plans to revive the military tribunal system for a small number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Obama shut down the military trials shortly after taking office as part of his repudiation of Bush administration policies in the so-called war on terror. According to the Associated Press, Obama will unveil new legal protections for prisoners in the renewed system.

Buried within the fine print of many consumer contracts for credit cards, home-building contracts and car purchases are clauses that stack the deck against ordinary Americans and force consumers to give up their rights before a dispute even occurs.  This is called "pre-dispute Mandatory Binding Arbitration."

Rep. Sean Flaherty (D-Scarborough) knows all too well the dangers that Mandatory Binding Arbitration Clauses pose to consumers.  In 2007, Flaherty, worked in Washington, DC to support federal legislation that would ban the use of such clauses in contracts nationwide.
"I was part of my job to research cases and prepare people who had been victimized by these clauses to testify before Congress," Flaherty said, "I met some incredible people who signed contracts for a new home, a new family car, or even employment without even realizing that if a problem was to arise, they would have no recourse whatsoever.

WASHINGTON — Big paper companies could each get hundreds of millions of dollars in cash payments from the Treasury this year by taking advantage of an alternative fuels tax credit in the 2005 highway bill, according to company filings and Wall Street analysts.

The alternative fuels clause, which appears on page 804 of the massive 2005 highway bill, was intended primarily to increase the use of ethanol and other biofuels in cars and trucks, said congressional sources and lobbyists who helped shape the measure.

But paper companies are now being richly rewarded for the long-standing practice of using a byproduct of the wood pulping process as a fuel to run their mills.

I have never served in the military, and only have limited knowledge of how the VA medical system works. For example, I didn't realize that currently when a vet is treated at a VA hospital for something not related to her or his time in the service, the VA bills that person's 3rd party insurance company. And at first blush, this seems like a reasonable method.

The Obama administration is proposing that this billing system be extended to all treatment that a vet receives, and this troubles Rep. Mike Michaud, and he notes in this letter to Eric Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs:

Dear Secretary Shinseki,

With the release of the Administration's first budget request, a new policy proposal has been introduced as a means of collecting revenue for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through billing of veterans' third-party insurance for the care and treatment of a disability or illness incurred as a result of honorable military service.