Let's take a time out

for a Geo Political update.

The current state of affairs in Lebanon is fairly well documented. It seems as though the time table for an Israeli invasion of Lebanon is in days; possibly hours. Syria and Iran will be watching/have to be watched very closely for their response to this. Also, it will be interesting because the actual Lebanese forces, which for the most part have been uninvolved to this point, are sure to at the very least defend their country from a foreign army.

Now there is this news from Somalia. It seems that Ethiopia has sent troops into that country to supposedly bolster the allied government. The Ethiopian government denies the troops prescence in Somalia. Meanwhile, Somalia Islamic leaders are calling for a "holy war"(I leave the contradiction discussion for later.) against Ethiopia.

Let's go to the map. As you will see by looking at the map you have nice cauldron of activity within a 1500 mile radius, with Beirut as the center, or in a radius that would cover New York City and Los Angeles with Lincoln, NE being the epicenter. Fun!

So, what the heck does all of this mean? It means the next 72 hours will see some of the most hustling diplomacy the world has ever seen. Hopefully. You have an area of the world that is absolutely critical to the world's economy(Bought gas lately?) which could quickly become embroiled in an all out shooting war that would probably start with Lebanon and Israel and could quickly involve Iran, Syria, Somolia, Ethiopia and Saudia Arabia. And who knows maybe Pakistan and India will decide have at each other, just so as not to feel left out.

I know this isn't exactly "happy Friday" fair but I felt it is worth mentioning. I will save any "How did we get here?" and "Why is it getting worse?" for the comments sections. That is if we get any.

Schools aren't teaching the US Constitution?

According to this editorial and the facts contained in it, many high schools aren't teaching US History and/or a Government/Civics class. I took both in high school and don't regret it. Yes, I took world history too and I view them all to be important. Like this writer, I don't understand how we can continue to be strong as a nation if we don't learn what it is we are trying to protect and what the laws actually mean.

The most appalling statistic to me was this on the First Amendment: 36% believed that before publishing, newspapers must first get government approval. What?

What you don't know can hurt you By Nat Hentoff

One day years ago, interviewing the usually cheerful Justice William Brennan in his Supreme Court chambers, I found him troubled. "Liberty," he said, "is a fragile thing. The Framers knew that. How can we bring the words of the Bill of Rights off the page into the lives of students?"

Were he still here, that paladin of individual liberties would have been even more troubled reading the words of retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor on this page: "Public schools have pretty much stopped teaching government, civics and American history. ... I truly don't know how long we can survive as a strong nation if our younger citizens don't understand the nature of our government. ... That is something you have to learn. It just isn't handed down in the genetic pool."

Add Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who is trying to get his American History Achievement Act - to test the degree of knowledge in schools - through Congress. He points out that half the states don't require a course in U.S. government.Full text

Texas Says "Kinky" Can Be On Ballot

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Writer and musician Kinky Friedman, who once sang "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore," may include the name by which he is best known on the ballot to choose Texas' next governor in November, the state's top election official said on Monday.

Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams said Friedman's nickname was not a slogan and thus did not violate state law. His name will appear on election ballots as Richard "Kinky" Friedman.

But Williams, a Republican, said Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is also running as an independent against incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry, cannot include "Grandma" as a nickname on the ballot.

File under: Follow up and "3rd Party" Politics

White House kept "major program secret

By Alan Elsner 35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration was running several intelligence programs, including one major activity, that it kept secret from Congress until whistle-blowers told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, the committee's chairman said on Sunday.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News Sunday he had written a four-page to
President George W. Bush in May warning him that the failure to disclose the intelligence activities to Congress may be a violation of the law.

In doing so, he confirmed a story that first ran in Sunday editions of the New York Times.

"I take it very, very seriously otherwise I would not have written the letter to the president," Hoekstra said...

Believe me when I tell you that when a Republican Congressman from the West side of Michigan is making statements like that it is a huge deal.

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.