If the Bush administration is guilty of crimes against humanity, and I believe that it is, then Pelosi and Rockefeller, along with Republican Roberts, who did nothing, and by so doing enabled it, are guilty of crimes against humanity themselves.
This clears the way for Tom Udall, as the only other primary contender is the editor of an alternative newspaper.
On the Republican side, it looks to be a race between Reps Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce.
I’m hoping for Wilson to win. She’s hip deep in the US Attorney scandal, and even if she did nothing technically, it ties her to Bush at the hip, which can’t be good.
Democrats now are expected to allow Senate Republicans to attach tens of billions of dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a $500 billion-plus government-wide spending bill. That move would be in exchange for GOP support on the huge spending measure.
The war money would not be tied to troop withdrawals, as Democrats want. But it would let Democrats wrap up their long-unfinished budget work and go on vacation before Christmas. It also would spare them from criticism during the holiday recess by President Bush for leaving work without providing money for the troops.
If they want to filibuster, make them talk. No more of this courtesy of withdrawing the bill because you can’t get cloture. MAKE THEM TALK.
Let’s be clear about this, the Alternative Minimum Tax is just a flat tax. You compute the regular, and the AMT taxes owed, and choose the higher. For all the talk of millions of people being hit, it’s not a big deal.
Most of these people, will pay a few hundred bucks more than they would have otherwise.
When the House passed this bill, they closed loopholes for oil companies and phony capital gains for hedge fund managers to pay for it.
At the very least, Reid could have insisted that the Republicans talk. We need a real filibuster, not one of these 24 hour talk fests, but one where you take a vote when the guy stops talking.
So far this year, the Republicans have filibustered more times than during any session ever, and each session covers two years.
Enough is enough. If the Republicans want to filibuster, make them filibuster.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has scheduled a vote tomorrow on whether to issue contempt citations to Rove and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten for ignoring Congressional subpoenas from the U.S. attorneys investigation. Of course, Republicans might defer the vote for another week. But at the latest, the citations would be sent to the Senate floor next Thursday.
The interesting thing is that congress does actually have its own jail in the basement, and the President cannot pardon contempt of congress, because it is an offense against the congress, not the Republic.
Former congressman Curt Weldon’s chief of staff has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges for allegedly helping a consulting firm championed by Weldon obtain federal funds and for concealing money the firm paid his wife, according to court papers filed yesterday.
Russell James Caso Jr. and a top official at the unnamed nonprofit consulting firm met repeatedly with Weldon to seek the Pennsylvania Republican’s help in obtaining federal funds for the organization’s defense projects, according to the court papers.
The ways things work, they got the plea, and now he has to roll on someone else. FWIW, Weldon is identified as “Representative A” in the document.
So has the national NARAL, though the Maryland Chapter was so mad about this they were ready to chew glass.
Al Wynn foted for the war in Iraq, he voted for the bankruptcy bill, against Shays-Meehan campaign finance, for interfering in the Schiavo affair, and for the give away to big oil that was the energy bill.
This incumbency protection racket here is insane. This is probably the second most Democratic district in the state, Baltimore City may very well be the most Democratic district on the Eastern seaboard, and the idea that a corrupt right wing liar gets high profile endorsements simply astonishes me. Particularly since his constituent service sucks so much that Chris Van Hollen from the neighboring district has to pick up the slack.
Edwards is on my Act Blue page (right hand column for link).
Equal application of the law means tþat there should not be one standard applied by the Justice Department to congressional investigations of Democratic administrations and another standard applied to congressional investigations of Republican administrations. I ask that you personally look into this matter and authorize the production of the documents to the Committee without any further delay.
He also notes that Janet Reno cooperated with Congressional committees, which I think is a subtle way of saying that if he does not make a statement for turning over the documents, that Reno is a better man than he is (insert Janet Reno jokes here).
Personally, I think that Mukasey is probably too much one of Bush’s lackeys to to the right thing, but I won’t be disappointed if I am wrong.
Well, the fact that his brother-in-law, Rickard “Dickie” Scruggs, was indicted on bribery charges may go a bit of a way towards explaining his leaving the senate.
Scruggs is perhaps best known for suing tobacco companies in multibillion-dollar lawsuits in the late 1990s. But he also acted as Lott’s lawyer, as well as the attorney for many Mississippi homeowners, in a successful lawsuit against State Farm Insurance when the firm denied thousands of claims in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
So, even if Lott has done nothing illegal, he probably does 3 wrong things before having breakfast, it sounds like it was a good time for him to look at the DC lobbying gig.
The current conventional wisdom is that he is doing this because he wants to avoid the two year wait that is required if he waits until after January 1 by the new ethics reform laws, but the fact is that he can do an awful lot, and get paid for it, as a “consultant” anyway.
Of further interest is that because he is resigning in an odd numbered year, Mississippi is required to hold a special election within 90 days, and with the DSCC flush, and the RSCC flat broke, this actually provides a small chance of a Democratic pickup in what would be a low turnout election.
There is the possibility is that some sort of scandal is brewing, most likely either something related to the VECO bribery that has ensnared the entire Alaska congressional delegation, or sex.
It it’s sex, it could be either the DC Madame, or the promised revelations by Larry Flynt.
My money would be on sex, particularly of the gay variety, since any bribery allegations would still end up seeing the light of day if he left.
Then again, this might just a big F$#@ you to Bush, who gleefully knifed him over his Strom Thurmond comments.
I think that the Democrats have a real pickup here, but they need to hit him hard. In addition to tying him to Bush, they need to bring up the fact that McConnel separated from the army after 10 days, allegedly for giving another guy a hand job in the shower.
The Republicans crossed a line when they went after Daschle in 2004. They need to be made understand that things have consequences.
Generally the protections come in the form of requiring purchasers continue leases of for 6 months following foreclosure.
Considering that about more than 10% of all foreclosures are non-owner occupied, and as the Times notes, “This figure probably underestimates the problem, according to the association, because buildings receive tax benefits if they are registered as owner-occupied”, we could see well in excess of 100,000 tenant evictions.
