|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Richard Shelton
$13.04
$18
$21
|
|
|
|
zablanc.blogspot.com
|
The Democrats in Congress know Americans are frustrated with their failure to change Iraq policy and have devised a new strategy to try to convince voters to keep them in the majority. The plan includes weekly war votes to put the hawks on the defensive, along with more aggressive legislation that would set a binding withdrawal deadline, raise troop readiness standards and close Guantanamo.
|
overgaard.dk
|
John F. Kennedy referred to Theodore C. Sorensen (above, left) as his intellectual blood bank—a man who helped put the magic in JFK’s famous rhetoric. Here is his dream acceptance speech for the next Democratic nominee. While the actual speech will probably have more political calculation and pandering, it’s worth dreaming about an alternative.
|
|
By Marie Cocco — Most of the presidential candidates from both parties agree that we can’t allow Iraq to become a “failed state.” Unfortunately, that warning is about four years out of date.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Americans are fed up with the president and his war, but the opposition isn’t exciting many voters.
|
needlenose.com
|
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Bush are determined to push through the ailing immigration reform bill, despite heavy opposition from both sides of the aisle. Reid, who has partnered with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said Democrats would work through the July 4 recess if necessary.
|
slate.com
|
Senate Republicans successfully blocked a symbolic vote of no-confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday, although none defended his performance. A handful of Republicans, including some who have called for Gonzales’ resignation, voted with the Democrats, while Joe Lieberman voted against the measure.
|
|
Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., died at the age of 74 on Monday. Under Wyoming law, the state Republican Party will choose three candidates, and Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal will appoint the successor.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Two questions from Sunday’s Democratic debate: Does Joe Biden have to set himself on fire to get serious attention? And whatever happened to the lunch bucket issues that once made Democrats the dominant political party in America?
|
|
In case you missed it, or just want to relive the rhetorical pyrotechnics, check out this collection of debate highlights (including the Edwards-Obama-Clinton throwdown) assembled by PoliticsTV.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — So when Democratic presidential candidates get together, they argue about who has the best healthcare plan. When Republicans have a big discussion, it’s about torture and who’ll use it when.
|
AP Photo / Lauren Victoria Burke
|
Rep. Henry Waxman, who more than any other politician is fulfilling the Democrats’ election promise to bring good governance and oversight back to Washington, tells Truthdig about Iraq corruption, the tragedy of post-traumatic stress disorder, and why it’s only a matter of time before Congress—Republicans included—pulls the plug on the war.
|
|
Antiwar protest icon Cindy Sheehan says she is retiring from the spotlight and “going home for awhile to try and be normal.” In her Daily Kos diary, she writes: “Goodbye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.”
|
|
How did the third rail of American politics suddenly become the must-have political accessory in the 2008 election? It might have something to do with skyrocketing healthcare costs and the tens of millions of uninsured. Thus Barack Obama has become the latest candidate to call for universal health coverage.
|
AP Photo / Lauren Victoria Burke
|
Rep. Henry Waxman, who more than any other politician is fulfilling the Democrat’s election promise to bring good governance and oversight back to Washington, tells Truthdig about Iraq corruption, the tragedy of post-traumatic stress disorder, and why it’s only a matter of time before Congress—Republicans included—pulls the plug on the war.
|
|
By Marie Cocco — With the furor over the war funding bill, you may not have noticed that Congress did something right this week. Although it will likely threaten their tenuous hold on a majority, the Democrats pushed through legislation to further limit the influence of lobbyists in Washington.
|
|
Bill Maher explains why he thinks Jimmy Carter was right (before he changed his tune) when he said that George W. Bush is the worst president ever. Although, as the “Real Time” host points out, you don’t get to be the worst without just a little help from the opposition.
|
|
The Senate Intelligence Committee has declassified and released two prewar intelligence reports that warned a postwar Iraq could struggle with sectarian violence and might benefit al-Qaida and Iran. Democrats on the panel, along with Republicans Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe, criticized the Bush administration for ignoring the prescient warnings.
|
|
While opposition in Washington to the new immigration bill spans the political spectrum, the major proposals of the legislation find widespread support among the American people, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. A majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents say they support reforms to the immigration system, including the eventual legalization of immigrants and a guest worker program.
|
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stacy L. Pearsall
|
With a backdrop of increased sectarian violence, the discovery of a missing U.S. soldier’s corpse and the president’s promise of more troop casualties, Congress has approved $100 billion in funding for the Iraq war. Bush is happy with the bill, but from her comments, it’s clear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t: “This is like a fig leaf. ...”
|
|
Keith Olbermann and Newsweek’s Howard Fineman vent their disbelief and disgust over the Democrats’ war funding capitulation. Fineman likens the move to pushing piles of chips into the pot and then folding when the last card comes up.
|
|
The Democratic leadership in Congress is close to a deal with the White House to provide funding for the war without a timetable for withdrawal. The legislation will include benchmarks for U.S. aid, close to $8 billion in domestic spending and a minimum-wage increase, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that she cannot bring herself to vote for a bill that doesn’t set a withdrawal date for U.S. troops.
|
|
By Amy Goodman — The Democratic Party leadership is stabbing its base in the back with secret “free trade” deals made behind closed doors with the White House. Now congressional Democrats may be on the verge of a significant split.
|
|
The DNC chairman sits down with Stephen Colbert for a raucous discussion on the Republican debate, torture and why the Democrats won’t go on Fox News: “No sense in going on propaganda outlets when you don’t have to.” Other Dean zingers include: “Any Republican debate is torture,” and “John McCain knows something about torture, the rest of the guys were just windbags.”
|
|
Sens. Feingold, Schumer, Kennedy and Durbin have asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales if he cares to revise previous testimony after the revelations of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who gave contradictory testimony about Gonzales’ attempt to “take advantage of a very sick man.” If you’ve been overwhelmed by Bush administration scandals and missed the details of this one, here’s a primer.
|
|
By Ellen Goodman — I don’t doubt Oprah Winfrey’s marketing magic, although we don’t know yet whether she can do for politics what she’s done for publishing. Her endorsement of the candidate Obama may not be as successful as it was for the author Obama.
|
|
According to Gallup, a majority of Americans disapprove of the way all parties involved are handling Iraq, though the Dems got slightly better numbers than Bush or congressional Republicans. Most Americans want some kind of timetable, and a huge majority wants benchmarks for progress.
|
aftonbladet.se
|
President Bush has already decided to veto a second war funding bill that the House Democrats haven’t even finished drafting. The measure would require the White House to report on progress in Iraq in order to free up funds past July.
|
|
The Pentagon has told more than 35,000 troops that they could be headed to Iraq in the fall in order to maintain the “surge.” Meanwhile, House Democrats may decide to fund the war in two-month spurts, with an opportunity to cut off funding in July. The Senate will likely have to pursue a different strategy (see below).
|
|
Sen. Russ Feingold, Majority Leader Harry Reid and eight other Senate Democrats have decided to respond to Bush’s veto with an amendment that would halt war funding if troops were not safely withdrawn from Iraq by March 31, 2008. Exceptions would include operations against terrorist organizations, training for Iraqi soldiers and protection of U.S. infrastructure and personnel.
|
|
By Marie Cocco — Compared to the Democrats’ groundbreaking lineup of candidates, the 10 white men who gathered for last week’s Republican debate showed a determination to cling to the bad old days.
|
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
|
Presidential candidate Mike Gravel’s performance in the first Democratic debate took him from off the radar to Truthdigger of the week. Naturally we just had to pick his brain. The former senator from Alaska, who helped end the draft, tells Truthdig why he’s running, why there are so few mavericks in politics these days and why war makes him angry.
|
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
|
Presidential candidate Mike Gravel’s performance in the first Democratic debate took him from off the radar to Truthdigger of the week. Naturally, we just had to pick his brain. The former senator from Alaska, who helped end the draft, tells Truthdig why he’s running, why there are so few mavericks in politics these days and why war makes him angry.
|
|
Hillary Clinton has come under fire for her relatively hawkish stand on the war, but the candidate made an aggressive move Thursday to counter that perception. Joined by antiwar Sen. Robert Byrd, Clinton announced plans to de-authorize the war, saying: “If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him.” Update: Kucinich calls out Clinton…
|
|
The president says the Democrats are trying to substitute political opinions for military judgment (he should talk). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the president wants a blank check for the war and he’s not going to get one (at least for now). On Wednesday they meet to debate the issue in person. Here’s a preview.
|
|
President Bush is set to meet with members of Congress on Wednesday to try to work out a compromise on the Iraq spending bill. It’s not clear what they could possibly agree on, since Bush has said he won’t sign any legislation that calls for a withdrawal, and the essentially nonbinding timetable in the last measure was basically the least the Democrats could do to signal their opposition to the war.
|
|
Steve Kornacki, community outreach director of Unity08, the online independent party, speaks with Truthdig about his organization’s vision for a third way in the coming election, why our political system is broken and how he intends to fix it.
|
|
The community outreach director of Unity08, the online independent party, speaks with truthdig about his organization’s vision for a third way in the coming election, why our political system is broken and how he intends to fix it.
Posted on May 1, 2007
READ MORE 
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Niccolo Machiavelli, the 16th-century political realist and schemer, would relish the intricate calculations the three leading Democratic presidential candidates are required to make.
|
|
By Jeremy Scahill — The author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” argues that the Democrats’ withdrawal plan—even if it ever gets past a veto—isn’t anything to write home about.
|
|
President Bush is determined to keep American troops in Iraq well past Oct. 1, the date Congress set to begin the U.S. pullout in an agreement reached Monday. Although the House and Senate agreed to pour $124 billion more into the war chest, Bush says he’ll veto the bill, while his critics suggest he’s trying to save face as he rides out his term.
|
|
The folks at Gallup have noticed a unique trend in the race for the White House: Hillary Clinton’s numbers have been heading steadily down. In fact, no other candidate, whether Republican or Democrat, shows as clear and consistent a trajectory. Time for a May surprise?
|
|
Democratic presidential candidates are falling all over themselves to secure the support of Al Sharpton, whose own 2004 campaign and his role in the recent Don Imus controversy have elevated his profile as a national civil rights leader. John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will all attend the reverend’s annual National Action Network convention this week.
|
inthesetimes.com
|
According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 58 percent of Americans trust congressional Democrats to do a better job of setting policy for the Iraq war than the president. An overwhelming majority, however, disapprove of the job both branches of government have done so far.
|
|
George W. Bush is upset with the Democrats for wanting to withdraw from Iraq just when we’ve finally started to make progress. Just starting? The president has been citing “progress” in Iraq for years now, and Jon Stewart has the clips to prove it.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Roger Ailes, the mastermind behind Fox News, publicly fumed when the Democratic presidential candidates refused to participate in his network’s debates, but can he really blame Obama, Clinton and Edwards for avoiding a conservative ambush?
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
Arctic Tundra ‘Will Turn to Forest’
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
