The Most Important Issue?

From salon.com

When the saints come marching in

Sorry, Sen. Inhofe, but the gentleman from Louisiana just passed you in the pandering lane.

The Republicans' constitutional amendment banning gay marriage got just 49 votes this morning, far short of the two-thirds majority it needed -- and was never going to get -- for passage. Along the way to the vote, Republican Sen. David Vitter defended the GOP's efforts on the election-year measure by saying: "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one."

We don't mean to speak for anybody else, but we're wondering if any of Vitter's displaced constituents in New Orleans -- or, say, the 57 Louisiana families who have lost loved ones in Iraq -- might see America's priorities just a little differently.

As senators voted on the ban this morning, Kansas Republican Sam Brownback vowed that "people are going to be responsible for this vote." Where men like Vitter are concerned, we can only hope that he's right.

-- Tim Grieve Link

Really, Mr. Senator?  Wow!

A Waste of My Money?

The national debt is increasing so quickly the clock in Times Square will run out of digits soon. We are fighting two wars and have numerous other government failures and ethical issues to address in Congress. So why is the Senate going to consider an amendment to the Constitution to stop people who love each other from getting married? Oh, that's right, it's an election year.

Senate to Tackle Gay Marriage Ban

Update: Just in case you want to see how many times the United State Constitution has been amended to stop the citizenry from doing something: here.

Congressman Caught on Tape, Documents Say

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 43 minutes ago

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Allegedly scamming a Virginia businesswoman could prove to be a major mistake for a Democratic congressman from New Orleans.

The FBI revealed Sunday that Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), under investigation for bribery, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer, according to a court document released Sunday.

At one meeting captured on audiotape, Jefferson chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" he told the businesswoman, who was wearing an FBI recording device.

Jefferson has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.Full Text

Being a coniving, corrupt politician knows no party boundaries.

Score one for democracy!

Follow up from March 6, 2006

Musician Kinky Friedman Moved One Step Closer To Texas Governor's Mansion Yesterday...
MUSICIAN and mystery writer Kinky Friedman brought his long-shot bid to become governor of Texas a little closer to reality yesterday when he turned in 169,574 signatures to get on the November ballot - more than 31/2 times the number needed. Friedman, clad in his trademark black cowboy hat and Western clothes, stood on the steps of the Texas secretary of state's office and quipped, "Thank God for bars and dance halls. Every signature counts, whether it came from a country club or homeless shelter."Source

Net Neutrality

Congress is currently considering a bill that would allow companies to prioritize and restrict traffic on the internet.  Further they would be allowed to charge you more money to have your email and internet uploads go faster ie charge you a toll to have it sent just as fast as it is now over and above what you already pay. 

Tell Congress to protect Internet Neutrality by visiting Savetheinternet.com. 

Letter to Senators Voinovich and DeWine

Mr. Senator,

I encourage you to vote against any energy bill that would open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge up to drilling. Furthermore, the concept of a $100 rebate, that would be taxed as income later, smacks of an election year stunt and is fiscally irresponsible. Both of these provisions should be removed from or not included in legislation.

Rather than further enabling oil companies who based on current profit reports certainly don't need our help. The Senate's time would be better spent in ascertaining why the oil companies profits gains are outpacing the rise in oil prices and in encouraging real investment in technologies such as the conversion of water to hydrogen for use in combustion engines.

Thank you,

You can write your Senators by clicking the link on the left.

It's the last train to nowhere and it's leaving...

My apologies to The Monkees or whoever wrote "The Last Train to Clarksville". But it appears someone is trying to top The Bridge to Nowhere. By about $100 billion, with a "B".

Flap over pet projects roils GOP
By Gail Russell Chaddock, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - Remember Alaska's "bridge to nowhere"? It's about to be topped by what critics call Mississippi's "railroad to nowhere," which is quickly becoming the poster child for excessive spending by the Republican-controlled Congress.

The project, which was added to a $106.5 billion emergency defense spending bill in the Senate, would relocate a Gulf Coast rail line inland, to higher ground. Never mind that the hurricane-battered line was just repaired at a cost of at least $250 million. Or that at $700 million, the project championed by Mississippi's two US senators is being called the largest "earmark" ever.

The controversy points to a deepening split in the GOP over whether to rein in spending in the face of wartime commitments and record deficits - and whether failing to do so threatens their majority in this fall's midterm elections.

Its sponsors say the motive is evacuation and safety. "Along the Coast, we too often seen motorists and pedestrians killed on the rails that have run parallel to our shores for more than a century," wrote Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record) (R) of Mississippi in the Sun Herald newspaper Monday. Mississippi's senior senator, Thad Cochran, chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, which drafted the bill.

But critics say it's also a bid to open land for developers to turn Mississippi's struggling Gulf Coast into Las Vegas South - and that emergency federal spending shouldn't pay for it, especially when Washington is on track to spend $371 billion into the red.Full Text

Congress

Congress is in recess for Easter. So there isn't much activity right now.

The Iran situation is heating up and reports of nuclear weapons, I refuse to call them tactical as the delivery might be precise but the fallout would still be widespread, are alarming but I would doubt that it is option #1. I do think that recent news articles about retired military personnel speaking out have more to do with proposed Iran plans than past actions in Iraq.

Primaries are sort of happening around the country. I say sort of because a lot of candidates are dropping out prior to the primary. Nothing like giving the people in political parties a choice. *sniff sniff* Yes, that is sarcasm.

Other than rhetoric, the politicians are on vacation. So, take a deep breath, relax and go have some fun. The fireworks show should start back up next week.

Senator McCain Courting Conservatives

Of course, I am not sure which conservatives these are. They look more like the religious type.

I will leave you to read the article on Forbes.com. Essentially, Senator McCain is starting early in Iowa(It is only 2006 right?). Part of his strategy involves mending fences with religious conservatives. These groups appear to be upset with the Senator because he doesn't sling enough poo at the Democrats, doesn't want to squash the rights of the minority party, wants to have more limits on campaign funding and is actually willing to work side by side with *GASP* Senator Ted Kennedy.

Maybe the Senator is actually trying to do his job. You know create legislation that is good for the whole country? Not just the ones that elected him. With regard to not abolishing the filibuster for judicial nominees, perhaps, the Senator et al realized that they might not always be the majority party...

Stay tuned.

Be Careful Senator McCain

McCain Softens Language on Jerry Falwell
WASHINGTON - Potential presidential candidate John McCain says he longer considers evangelist Jerry Falwell to be one of the "agents of intolerance" that he criticized during a previous White House run.

The Republican senator from Arizona will be the commencement speaker in May at Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., institution that Falwell founded in 1971.

"We agreed to disagree on certain issues, and we agreed to move forward," McCain said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In 2000, as he sought the Republican nomination that eventually went to George W. Bush, McCain said: "Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."

On Sunday, McCain said that Christian conservatives have a major role to play in the Republican Party, but added, "I don't have to agree with everything they stand for."Source

I would say that agreeing to deliver a commencement speech at Falwell's college would qualify as pandering, Senator.

John Dean Blasts Warrantless Eavesdropping

Partial text:

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Nixon White House counselor John Dean asserted Friday that President Bush's domestic spying exceeds the wrongdoing that toppled his former boss from power, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record) snapped that Democrats were trying to "score political points" with a motion to censure Bush.

"Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented," Dean told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it."

Testifying to a Senate committee on Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold's resolution to censure Bush, Dean said the president "needs to be told he cannot simply ignore a law with no consequences."...

"To me, this is not really and should not be a partisan question," Dean told the panel. "I think it's a question of institutional pride of this body, of the Congress of the United States."

It's good to see that a voice of experience understands what is going on here. If the Senate doesn't want to censure the President fine. However, I think it is necessary that Congress ensure that the balance of power remains.

Consumer Group challenges constitutionality of bill

As previously mentioned on this blog the President signed a bill that the House and Senate passed different versions of. It seems there is now a second lawsuit regarding the bill.

Consumer Group Challenges Deficit Law

Sorry, no text. It's late and your mouse works so go ahead and click the link.

It's official! The Dems don't have all the nuts...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Republican Senate candidate Stephen Laffey once told a newspaper columnist that God wanted him to run for mayor of Cranston.

He spent $2,000 to soundproof his mayoral office because of fears people were eavesdropping.

And when journalists noticed he had digitally erased a former friend from photographs on his campaign Web site, he suggested aliens were to blame.(Full text)

1,889 days and no vetoes: Bush gaining on Jefferson

By Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY Thu Mar 23, 7:02 AM ET

President Bush Thursday becomes the longest-sitting president since Thomas Jefferson not to exercise his veto, surpassing James Monroe.

Monroe was in office 1,888 days before he vetoed his first bill on May 4, 1822, a measure to impose a toll on the first federal highway. Jefferson never exercised his veto during two terms in 1801-09.

Thursday is Bush's 1,889th day in office, and no veto is in sight. As of Wednesday, Congress had sent him 1,091 bills. He signed them all.

Bush came close to a veto last month when Congress threatened to block a deal to turn over operations at ports in six states to a company owned by the Arab emirate of Dubai. He threatened a veto, but he avoided a showdown when the Dubai company decided to sell that part of its business to American interests.

"After that, we're not likely to hear a veto threat from him that much again," says G. Calvin Mackenzie, government professor at Maine's Colby College.

Some analysts say Bush's failure to use his veto shows an unwillingness to confront fellow Republicans who control Congress. "He doesn't want to fight battles unnecessarily and create a distance between himself and his party," says Mark Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist who has studied presidential vetoes.

Others say Bush's avoidance of the veto is a sign of strength. "Bush and his party are so close on most issues that there's no need to veto," Mackenzie says.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., scoffs at that: "This is a rubber-stamp Congress. Why would he veto anything?"

Still others say it is a matter of Bush's management style. "He's a CEO kind of guy. He gives his orders, delegates the negotiating to others and is willing to live with the outcome," says Robert McClure, a political scientist at Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

Bush has used veto threats to shape bills more to his liking. For example, the House wanted $370 billion for last year's highway bill; the Senate, $318 billion. Bush drew the line at $256 billion, then compromised at $286.4 billion, more than he wanted but far below the House and Senate levels.

Bush said Tuesday that the veto threat has helped him reduce the rate of domestic spending: "One reason why I haven't vetoed any appropriation bills is because they met the benchmarks we've set."

Come on George let's set a record!

BTW, are you allowed to pat yourself on the back for meeting benchmarks when you have a single discretionary spending project, which is quickly bordering on long term, that is now in the neighborhood of $280 billion?

We the Morons

Click the title above and be treated to a witty and insightful rant by Marty Kaplan about the Democratic party's bungling. Though the real crux is how people are more informed than ever and want to take a stand however, moderate Republican's(*taps fingers on desk waiting for Adam to respond*) feel as though their party abandoned them and Democrats who feel as though now is the time to strike scream into the wind as people like Harry Reid and Joe Lieberman sit on their hands.

US Government urges Congress to raise debt limit

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government appealed to Congress to raise the national debt limit by the end of this week or face a potential shutdown of federal operations for lack of cash.

"It's really the week this must be done because the Congress will be out of session at the end of this week," Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

Treasury Secretary
John Snow has issued increasingly urgent warnings to Congress that the statutory debt limit of 8.184 trillion dollars is fast-approaching, and that the government will then lose its borrowing power.

Last week, Snow said new issues of federal debt instruments would only raise enough cash to keep government operations financed until mid-March.

"I must advise you that the Treasury has now taken all prudent and legal actions to avoid reaching the statutory debt limit," Snow wrote in a letter to senior Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

"I therefore strongly urge Congress to pass a debt limit increase immediately."(full text by clicking title)

So, what happens if the debt limit isn't raised? All non-essential federal government operations will have to shut down. So, no Social Security, no HUD, you get the picture.

Just how out of control is this? The U.S. Federal Debt was around $5.5 trillion in 1997 and remained virtually unchanged through September of 2001.(Source) Then we went on an unprecedented spending spree while at the same time cutting taxes. For a little more perspective the Federal debt increased $3.1 trillion from 1980 - 1992. It has increased more than that in the last 5 years, going from $5.6 trillion to $8.8+ trillion.

Yes, there is some evidence here that it has to do with the party in control of the White House but it goes deeper than that. We as citizens have to call on our leaders to have a plan. Currently the plan is cut taxes and hope that the economy goes through the roof to pay the bills. Sounds nice. However, you can't spend money like a drunken sailor in the process. (No offense meant to our fine men and women in the U.S. Navy.) You have a chance to speak in November.

George Clooney: I am a Liberal. There, I said it.

From The Huffington Post.com
I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.

Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake.

And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.

This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.

That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom at home by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.

The fear of been criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."

Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits.

I am a liberal. Fire away.

House to see if Bush can find his pen

Bush Faces GOP Effort to Stop Ports Deal By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - His presidency already at a low point,President Bush now faces a GOP move in Congress to stop a plan he steadfastly supports: a Dubai-owned company's entry into U.S. port operations.

House Republicans have united around legislation that would block DP World from taking over significant management of terminals at six U.S. ports, ignoring a veto threat from the president.

"We are going to send a very clear signal that we want to have American interests secured by leaders in America," said Rep. Jerry Lewis (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif.

His House Appropriations Committee planned to attach the legislation Wednesday to a $91 billion measure for states recovering from Hurricane Katrina and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Offering few specifics, Lewis said only that his legislation would not single out any one country or company but would effectively prevent DP World from operating U.S. port terminals.Full text

Brilliant! I am sure that some folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue just had a coniption. It is about time that Congress, especially the Republicans, started acting like they have a spine and not a rubber stamp committee.

For the record, I am opposed to any foreign government having control of US ports etc. I am not saying Nissan shouldn't own land in Tennessee to make trucks. I am saying Japan shouldn't own the Nashville airport. There is a huge difference. Think of it this way: Imagine the backlash in Dubai if it were announced that the United States government would now be solely in charge of their airports.

Save Yourself for Kinky!

Kinky Friedman, author/musician/frequent Don Imus guest, is running for Governor of Texas as an Independent. God bless him.

Is Texas ready for Governor Kinky?

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent Mon Mar 6

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The line of well-dressed young executives stretches down a hallway, past a table of Kinky Friedman talking action figures and straight up to the candidate for Texas governor in the black cowboy hat.

"I'll sign anything," country singer and mystery novelist Kinky Friedman assures the crowd arriving for a downtown luncheon speech as they snap up Kinky T-shirts, bumper stickers and posters sold to finance his independent -- and decidedly nontraditional -- bid for governor.

With a blizzard of one-liners, a campaign slogan of "Why the Hell Not?" and an eclectic blend of policy ideas from all sides of the ideological divide, the former frontman for the band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys says he wants to "change the world one governor at a time."

Friedman hopes to tap voter frustration with Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Democrats and politics in general to become the latest celebrity governor, following wrestler Jesse Ventura in Minnesota and actor
Arnold Schwarzenegger in California....

"I just want Texas to be number one in something other than executions, toll roads and property taxes," Friedman says. But if he loses he promises to ditch Texas and head to Hawaii.

"If I lose this race I will retire in a petulant snit," he said. "I'm not going to go out gracefully, I promise you."Full Text

Amen to that!

At 75, Gorbachev Laments U.S. 'Arrogance'

Just a little perspective. And a catch up with one of the 20th Century's most important politicians.

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev's magnetic brown eyes shine as brightly as ever, and he speaks with the same passion about the collapse of the Soviet Union as he prepares to mark his 75th birthday on Thursday.

The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime continues to enjoy the limelight, globe-trotting on behalf of his political foundation and environmental group and taking part in charity projects.

At a meeting with foreign reporters this week, Gorbachev blamed the United States for losing a chance to build a safer and more stable world following the Soviet demise.

"Ending the Cold War was given as a gift" to the United States, but it only strengthened its arrogance and unilateralism, he said. "The winner's complex is worse than an inferiority complex, because it's harder to cure."

While praised worldwide, Gorbachev has been reviled at home, where a majority of Russians hold him responsible for the Soviet breakup and subsequent economic chaos that impoverished millions.

He won a mere 1 percent of the vote in the 1996 presidential election; he hasn't run since.

Many still accuse him of caving in to the West. Anatoly Utkin, a senior researcher with the U.S. and Canada Institute, chastised Gorbachev for drastically cutting Soviet nuclear arsenals and agreeing to Germany's reunification without getting anything in return.

"Gorbachev didn't know the West. And the West didn't trust the nobility of his motives and coldly used him," Utkin said in a column in the weekly Argumenty i Fakty.

Gorbachev's record as a man who gave freedom to his land also was tarnished by some darker pages.

One was his handling of the 1986 reactor explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which the Soviet leadership announced to the world only after scientists in Sweden detected a radioactive fallout.

Gorbachev insisted the Kremlin just didn't know the scope of the disaster, but many claim the Soviet leadership deliberately downplayed its gravity.

He is also blamed for a Soviet troop crackdown on demonstrators in Lithuania in 1991 that killed 14 and injured nearly 1,000.

Gorbachev said the troops were sent against the protesters in Vilnius on a secret KGB order of which he was unaware - a claim his foes shrugged off as improbable.

Gorbachev still bristles when he talks about the betrayal by his communist lieutenants who launched the August 1991 coup that briefly ousted him. The coup collapsed within days, encouraging the Soviet republics to declare independence and shattering Gorbachev's hopes of keeping them together in a looser federation.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who celebrated his 75th birthday in February, recently accused Gorbachev of having advance knowledge of the coup and waiting it out to see who would win.

"Yeltsin is a liar," Gorbachev snapped, rejecting the allegation as "sheer nonsense."

Looking back at the turmoil that preceded his resignation, Gorbachev says he has never regretted his refusal to turn to military force to prevent the Soviet collapse. He said that sometimes his "hands were itching" to use force, but he realized that could have led to a civil war and even a global nuclear conflict.

Gorbachev said this week that while he could have ended Yeltsin's political career easily by dispatching him as ambassador to a distant country, he didn't do so because such a move would compromise his principles.

Yeltsin humiliated Gorbachev by giving him just a few hours to clear out of the presidential office after he signed the Soviet Union out of existence on Dec. 25, 1991. He never invited him to the Kremlin afterward.

Gorbachev's relations with the Kremlin have seen a marked improvement under Vladimir Putin, whom he has praised repeatedly for ending the political chaos and economic decline of Yeltsin's era.

Despite his age, Gorbachev seems as lively and energetic as before, giving the impression of genuinely enjoying life. "I like good dishes from all over the world. I have tasted them all and I still can't name a favorite," he said.

He rarely touches a fiction book, but reads a lot of history, philosophy and political science.

"I also watch a lot of movies, mostly on TV. I have gotten sick of (American) blockbusters and love Russian movies," he said.