Filed under: Legislation, Mary Peters, Safety | Tags: lawbreaker, Mary Peters, open border, Senate
Mary Peters has until March 11 to get on the right side of the law.
That’s the day the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on her illegal pilot program to open the border to Mexican trucks.
But even before Mary Peters has to face that committee, she’ll be dressed down by another one. Thursday she testifies before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation. It will probably not go well for her.
How she must dread hearing those words — “You are in violation of the law” — from some of the most powerful people in the world.
Last week, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., told her exactly that. He also said that by March 11 she should rethink her decision to ignore the law that stopped the program that opened the border to unsafe Mexican trucks.
“The issue is safety,” he said. If Mexican safety standards and American safety standards were the same, Dorgan said, “You wouldn’t hear a peep out of me.”
He wasn’t the only one to tell her she’s breaking the law. During a recent House of Representatives committee hearing, three members of Congress told her she broke the law.
Make sure she hears those words again. Write, call or email the members of the Senate subcommittee on appropriations and urge them to tell her that she is breaking the law.
Here’s a link to the committee members:
Today Mary Peters said she wants to find ways to make rural roads safer.
Here’s a suggestion: Close the border to dangerous trucks from Mexico!
Filed under: Mary Peters, Safety | Tags: Elaine Chao, Labor Department, Mary Peters, Transportation Department, worker safety
Check out www.shameonelaine.org, which exposes the misdeeds of George Bush’s long-serving secretary of Labor.
Elaine Chao has been attacking workers longer than Mary Peters, since she’s been a Cabinet secretary for more than seven years. (Mary Peters became U.S. Transportation Secretary in September 2006.)
Mary Peters lets Mexican trucks endanger American drivers. Elaine Chao allows mining companies to endanger American miners.
Mary Peters makes it easier for big corporations to cut American truck drivers’ pay. Elaine Chao makes it easier for them to gyp American workers out of their overtime.
Mary Peters weakens rules to protect American drivers from fatigue. Elaine Chao weakens rules to protect American workers from injury on the job.
How unladylike. How un-American.
Filed under: Mary Peters, News | Tags: Congressional Investigation, Department of Transportation, Fire Mary Peters, Sen. Byron Dorgan
Mary Peters got a good tongue-lashing this morning from our friend Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
Peters was testifying on next year’s transportation budget – another reason to fire her, but that’s a different issue.
Dorgan recalled he had supported Mary Peters’ nomination as Transportation Secretary. ”I was pleased to do so,” he said. “Now I’m regretting that I did.”
You can guess why: Dorgan was angry that Mary Peters ignored the law that shuts down the pilot program opening the border to trucks from Mexico.
“You insist it doesn’t matter what it (the law) says,” Dorgan said. “That’s a cute interpretation by your attorney.”
“There is a prohibition on this pilot project going forward,” he said. “You are in violation of the law.”
All this was music to our ears, of course. So was this:
“Agencies that thumb their nose at Congress….will pay a price for it,” Dorgan said.
He hinted that he’ll ask for an investigation into the department’s unlawful spending of tax dollars.
Stay tuned.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Department of Transportation, Fire Mary Peters, IBT, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Mary Peters Sucks
This morning I saw a blog posting at MetroBlogging, Washington DC with a post titled, “Only in DC: Fire Mary Peters.” The writer states, “Then I realized how much it would suck to come to work every day on the Metro to see ads that you should be fired.”
I left the following message at the blog, which as of 3 PM still didn’t get updated.
I think what really sucks is that another member of the Bush Administration not only breaks the law, but simultaneously puts all Americans in harms way.
The Mexican trucking program, the great big promise to NAFTA, allows for dangerous trucks to roam the highways of the United States. The trucks and their drivers are not held to the same standards as American drivers and trucks. Think about that …Can you imagine driving next to a trailer that doesn’t have anti-lock brakes on a cold slippery day like today? Can you believe that these drivers out of Mexico can potentially be driving for upwards of 20 hours by the time they begin barreling past you on the highway? What about being a professional US driver and having to get a CDL license, a Haz-mat license – in some cases, and pass numerous drug and alcohol tests … now think of our Mexican brothers who are not required to do any of the above (and especially the pee tests … as there are no labs for that in Mexico).
You see, these trucks are not equipped with the braking systems that American trucks are REQUIRED to have. All professional drivers in the United States cannot work/drive for more than 11 hours before they are forced to take a break for a set amount of time; that’s fine … but what happens with a Mexican driver who traveled for 12- 15 hours before he got to the border — then went another 11? I don’t want to be near that driver when he is on hour 18 of his day; you shouldn’t either.
This is just a smidgen of why Mary needs to be sacked. She made a mockery of her position, defied Congress’ wish to scrap this dangerous program, and interpreted the law worse than Macbeth does math. Mary’s actions (inactions) on this simply abandons all logic; she is not fit for her job … she needs to go.
There are so many issues involved with the Mexican Trucking program that Peters refuses to stop (even though the President passed a bill on 12/27/07 to do just that), whether it is the sub-standard vehicles, the inexperienced untrained drivers, or the hours of service issue that comes up time and again around this.
I am of the opinion that, while the writer of the other blog is mostly accurate in writing “Only in DC,” getting Mary Peters should be a national issue.
