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By Cathy Wilkerson
$17.79
by Fidel Castro (Author), Luis Conte Aguero (Epilogue), Ann Louise Bardach (Introduction)
$11.86
$23
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Amal Graafstra / amal.net
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The California state Senate, anticipating a worst-case employment scenario that would make George Orwell and Karl Marx spin in their graves, passed a bill Thursday that prohibits employers from requiring that their workers be tagged with an implanted identification device similar to the kind that has become popular among pet owners to ID their lost animals.
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engadget.com
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AP is reporting that Sen. Ted Stevens may have broken the law by not declaring a gift from a longtime aide. Earlier this week, the FBI and IRS raided Stevens’ Alaska home as part of an investigation into the Republican senator’s relationship with a local contractor who admitted to bribing Alaskan lawmakers.
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AP Photo / Charles Dharapak
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Although Alberto Gonzales’ critics might say otherwise about the attorney general, Vice President Dick Cheney (pictured) thinks Gonzales is a real standup guy. In an interview with CBS, Cheney insisted that Gonzales has been telling the truth in his face-offs with the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he’s a “big fan” of the beleaguered attorney general.
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The FBI has raided the home of Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate’s history, who famously described the Internet as “a series of tubes.” Agents were apparently searching for documents related to a contracting company that may have profited from relationships with prominent lawmakers.
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By Amy Goodman — Republican and Democratic senators have reached agreement on a measure that would boost healthcare coverage for millions of poor children, but President Bush has vowed to veto the win-win legislation.
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“The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart and John Oliver take down the most recent Democratic disappointment: the Senate’s all-night session. Oliver, political theater critic for the show, gives his most scathing review to date.
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Well, we might have seen this one coming, but yet another plan to set a timetable to begin the gradual withdrawal of American troops from Iraq has been deep-sixed in the Senate.
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tdhstrategies.com
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The president is sick and tired of those Democrats and their pesky checks and balances and will not allow his aides to testify, as summoned, before the Senate. Bush and his legal team are relying on executive privilege—the notion that what happens in the White House stays in the White House. But Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy isn’t buying it.
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After attempting to collaborate on a workable immigration bill, President Bush and the Senate couldn’t see eye to eye on the issue. The vote count fell 14 short of the 60 required to pass the bill Thursday.
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Sen. Richard Lugar, a respected figure in the Republican Party and a traditional backer of the president’s war policy, has broken with the White House and called for a draw-down of troops in Iraq—ahead of the much-touted September review of the surge. In what some have described as a watershed speech on the Senate floor, Lugar warned that the coming election would make rational policy choices in Iraq politically unrealistic.
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Chances are your elementary school education about how the federal government works (or doesn’t) wasn’t much like the schooling of these L.A.-area public school students. Perhaps some big players on Capitol Hill might want to drum up their own hip-hop-inflected response to the key issues addressed here in “Showdown in the Senate.”
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — We have become political hypochondriacs. We seem eager to declare that “the system” has come down with some dread disease, to proclaim that an ideological “center” blessed by the heavens no longer exists, and woe unto us. An imperfect immigration bill is pulled from the Senate floor and you’d think the Capitol dome had caved in.
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slate.com
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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.
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news.yahoo.com
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Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that he had “concerns” over the military “surge” in Iraq during its planning and development. He said the operation would “likely have only temporary and localized effects” unless it was matched by efforts from the Iraqi government and American civilian authorities.
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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.
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Mark Danner —
In his commencement speech to the class of 2007 at UC Berkeley’s Department of Rhetoric, author Mark Danner gives the new graduates a crash course in Bushian rhetoric (not quite on par with Aristotle’s celebrated canon) and dubs Bush the “first Rhetoric-Major President.” (Note: Article courtesy of Tom Engelhardt at TomDispatch.com.)
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Senators on both sides of the aisle have serious misgivings about the immigration reform bill but, at the end of the day, it’s just too good a political opportunity to let slip away.
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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.
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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.
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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…
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The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday, demanding in full any e-mails between the attorney general and Karl Rove. Committee Chairman Pat Leahy also warned Gonzales that if wants to avoid further subpoenas, he’d better provide previously requested information, as promised.
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By Marie Cocco — Senate Republicans continue to oppose a minimum-wage hike, despite the fact that the buying power of the working poor hasn’t approved in five decades.
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The Senate on Thursday followed the House’s lead, passing the bill that allows $124.2 billion to be dedicated to the war effort so long as our troops begin pulling out of Iraq by Oct. 1 and continue withdrawing over ensuing months. The ball is thus in Bush’s court, and his veto is practically a foregone conclusion at this point.
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AP Photo/Dennis Cook
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Truthdig tips its hat this week to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who proved to be one of the most forceful, and appropriately relentless, interrogators of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales during his grilling (or perhaps broiling is a better word) by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
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varifrank.com
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President Bush may still be in denial, but Sen. Harry Reid is at least telling him the raw truth: The surge isn’t working, and the Iraq war is not likely to result in any kind of victory. The Democratic majority leader says he told Bush on Wednesday that the war “is lost,” judging by the “extreme violence” in Iraq lately.
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washingtonpost.com
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Facing the music (and some skeptical senators) Thursday about the U.S. attorney firing controversy, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales insisted that he had not acted out of any politically motivated impulses or pressures and had nothing to hide about his role in handing eight federal lawyers their pink slips.
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The president has threatened to veto a war spending bill that includes a timetable for the withdrawal of troops, but that didn’t stop the Senate on Thursday from passing one. The next step is for the House and Senate to work out the differences between their competing withdrawal plans, and then it’s off to the White House.
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washtimes.com
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The Senate narrowly defeated a Republican amendment Tuesday that would have removed a withdrawal plan from the emergency war spending bill. As the legislation stands, the U.S. will have to begin a troop withdrawal within four months after the law is enacted and complete the pullout by March 31, 2008.
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nytimes.com
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Three prominent Republican senators expressed their lack of confidence in Alberto Gonzales on Sunday. GOP support has dropped off since Justice Department documents released on Friday caught the attorney general misrepresenting when he first knew about a plan to fire eight U.S. attorneys.
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The Senate told Bush to shove his “take it or leave it” offer and ordered subpoenas for key figures in the U.S. attorney scandal. Sen. Pat Leahy had this to say about the president’s above-the-law attitude: “A system of justice does not serve at the pleasure of any person in this country.”
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The president gave Congress an ultimatum Tuesday regarding testimony in the U.S. attorney scandal: His aides will talk in private and off the record or not at all. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy balked at the proposal, setting up a possible constitutional showdown over executive privilege. Bush continued to dismiss the scandal, even as the Senate voted to require confirmation of U.S. attorneys.
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By Marie Cocco — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suddenly finds himself in hot water over the U.S. attorneys scandal, but the truth is, the Senate should never have confirmed him in the first place.
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ABC News
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Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., made it clear on Sunday’s “This Week” that he is determined to get to the bottom of the U.S. attorneys scandal and, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will use subpoenas to do it: “I want testimony under oath. I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this.” Leahy said he wanted to hear from Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and other administration officials linked to the firings.
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boston.com
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Despite the threat of a veto, withdrawal legislation moved forward in the House Thursday. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a weaker measure was successfully opposed by all but one Republican, two Democrats and Joe Lieberman.
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msnbc.com
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In an upcoming memoir, Bob Shrum, former adviser to John Edwards, says he pushed the then-senator to vote for the Iraq war authorization out of concern for his political future. Edwards denies the claim, saying of his vote: “It was not a political calculation. ... It was a mistake.”
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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday that there is now “direct evidence that Attorney General Gonzales was carrying out the political wishes of the president” when he fired U.S. attorneys.
(h/t: Alternet)
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apn.co.nz
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Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, said Sunday that Alberto Gonzales should step down “for the sake of the nation.” Schumer pointed to the partisan firing of U.S. attorneys and the FBI’s abuse of the Patriot Act as evidence that the Justice Department has become highly politicized under Gonzales’ leadership.
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Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has said there should be an ethics investigation of improper behavior related to the politically motivated firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The Senate is already conducting an inquiry into the matter, which involves at least three prominent Republicans in Congress.
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According to Media Matters, several media outlets noted a statement Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman made to Time magazine that there is a “very remote possibility” he will stop caucusing with Senate Democrats but failed to mention his pre-election promises to continue to caucus with them.
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Senate Democrats have given up pushing a nonbinding anti-escalation resolution, and instead will try to limit the scope of military operations in Iraq, the first step, they say, in ending the war. Meanwhile, the House plans to pursue a different strategy altogether, hoping to choke off the supply of troops to the Iraq grinder.
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Republicans managed once again to block debate on the anti-escalation resolution that continues to stall in the Senate. Democrats had billed the Saturday vote as a referendum on the war and, as Majority Leader Harry Reid rightly pointed out, “A majority of the United States Senate just voted on Iraq, and a majority of the United States Senate is against the escalation in Iraq.”
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In anticipation of Al Franken’s Senate run, Arianna Huffington cheekily posted a slew of video clips from mid-1990s era “Politically Incorrect,” in which the two of them—then ideological opponents—sparred over politics while in bed. Watch them here.
Posted on Feb 15, 2007
READ MORE 
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Longtime comedian and “Air America” host Al Franken has made it official: He’s running for the Senate in 2008. In this video he tells Minnesotans they have a right to be skeptical of his candidacy. (AP article here)
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from npr.org
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An internal review by the Pentagon found that the intelligence cherry-picking policy shop run by Douglas Feith (above), a group President Bush relied on to sell the war, acted inappropriately but not illegally. The inspector general’s findings will be made public at a Senate hearing Friday.
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bradblog.com
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During a 30-minute conference call, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told bloggers he was disappointed that his party was “playing it safe” by refusing to end the Iraq war: “The problem is a whole lot of middle-of-the-road Democrats who refuse to pull the trigger, who refuse to do what needs to be done.”
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Senate Republicans managed to block debate Monday on the anti-surge resolution offered by John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich. Joe Lieberman, who is fast becoming the president’s most loyal lapdog, argued that debate would hurt troop morale. Chuck Hagel retorted that he would have welcomed debate while serving in Vietnam, where he was wounded.
Find out how your senators voted (“nay” votes were to block the resolution)
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realcities.com
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Al Franken, the comedian, actor, author and radio host, will seek another title to add to his résumé: United States senator. According to multiple sources, Franken has finally decided to challenge conservative Republican Norm Coleman after years of debating the possibility.
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AP Photo / Seth Wenig
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Presidential contender Barack Obama has gotten serious about Iraq after months of public speculation on where he stands. The senator offered legislation Tuesday night that would set a deadline of March 31, 2008, for the withdrawal of all combat brigades from Iraq.
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msnbc.com
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A parade of experts before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed the power of Congress to “validly limit the presidential use of force.” Tuesday’s hearing came as legislators prepared to square off against Bush’s war escalation and amid the concern, shared by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that a constitutional battle is “imminent.”
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Greenland’s Great Melt Is Pinned on Climate Change
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