US Trade Representative Dodges Senate Fast Track Hearing (tags)
The US Trade Representative (USTR) declined an invitation to testify at the Senate Finance Committee opening hearing on the controversial “Fast Track” legislation – leaving an Ohio Republican, Sen. Rob Portman, in the position of representing the White House...
Congressional Budget Deal Betrayal (tags)
class war
Recently in addressing the issue of withdrawing troops from Iraq President Obama discussed the idea that to do so was honoring the troops that made so many sacrifices there. He discussed the idea that ending our mission there was the right thing to do. He essentially asserted that by ending the conflicts there and focusing on our home front that we as a nation were behaving honorably. He discussed honoring the Bush timeline as the right thing to do, though he didn't necessarily use those words.
Labor's Last Stand in 2011? (tags)
The stage is set, and the main actors in Congress and in the corporate establishment are ready to perform, having rehearsed behind closed doors for the coming assault on organized labor's most powerful sector, public workers. The final preparations were smoothed out in Obama's tax "compromise" with the Republicans, which gave details of the drama's first act. The tax plan purposely did not include a critical element for state funding, called the Build America Bonds program (BAB), which allows recession-sunk states to easily borrow money from the federal government. In the face of enormous deficits, the states would be left to drown. Reuters blogger James Pethokoukis explains:
Bush to Visit LA Area Thursday & Friday (tags)
Bush is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Republican National Committee on Thursday and help cut the ribbon Friday at the opening of the new Air Force One exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
Hey, They're Taking Slash-and-Burn to Extremes! (tags)
Republican leaders are deploying scorched-earth tactics, as if they ruled the nation 80-20, not 51-49, because cooperating with Democrats would cost even more votes from the conservatives.
''They want to ram their agenda down America's collective throat'' (tags)
With an extremist, dominating Republican party in control, we have lost our system of checks and balances, and ANY functional national forum for the meaningful public debate.
Betrayed by Bush, GOP's anger is moot (tags)
Small-government Republicans have been stirred up by conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. But when the election comes, the libertarian faction's anger will be "almost irrelevant... Are they going to vote for Howard Dean?"
More women accuse Governor Groper of sexual battery (tags)
Meanwhile, a new accusation surfaced from Escobar, a 41-year-old Los Angeles wife and mother and a waitress at a restaurant in the Fairmont Miramar hotel in Santa Monica. In an interview with The Times, she said Schwarzenegger had threatened to assault her when she was a teenager in the late 1970s.
Government moves to make Patriot Act permanent (tags)
Congressional push to remove the sunset provisions from the Patriot Act some time before 2005. If the govt. truly seeks to make this country safer it should stop bombing innocent people around the world in its push for greater world hegemony. No amount of spying will create peace and safety in that climate.
Ga. Newcomer Turns to Jews To Oust Rep. McKinney's Dad (tags)
ATLANTA — After mounting a successful campaign to encourage thousands of Republican voters to oust Rep. Cynthia McKinney in last week's Democratic primary, a small group of Atlanta-area political operatives are hoping for Jewish backing in their bid to unseat her father from his seat in the Georgia State House.