Monday, July 31, 2006

Net Neutrality Alert (10:33 pm)

Christy at firedoglake posts an alert that Ted Stevens is going to call a cloture vote on Thursday, before Congress is scheduled to recess this week. Apparently Stevens has been leaning on three Senators: Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Please call and/or FAX these Senators and let them know how important it is that they vote against cloture:
Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D- AR)
Phone: 202-224-4843
FAX: 202-228-1371
Email: http://lincoln.senate.gov/html/webform.html

Senator Ben Nelson (D- NE)
Phone: 202-224-6551
FAX: 202-228-0012
Email: http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D- CT)
Phone: 202-224-4041
FAX: 202-224-9750
Email: http://lieberman.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm?regarding=issue

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Fidel Temporarily Cedes Power (10:05 pm)

Anita Snow for AP reports that Castro “temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night because of surgery.”

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ABA’s Signing Statements Report (5:08 pm)

A little behind on this. I erred in thinking last week’s announcement was preliminary.

The American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine released its Final Report with Recommendations on July 24. The report criticizes President Bush’s use of presidential signing statements to avoid enforcing laws passed by Congress.

One learned commentator sums up the Bush II use of signing statements as follows: “When in doubt challenge the legislative process whether there is a serious issue or not.” He labels the Bush record on signing statements as “an audacious claim to constitutional authority; the scope of the claims and the sweeping formulae used to present them are little short of breathtaking.” They are “dramatic declaratory judgments holding acts of Congress unconstitutional and purporting to interpret not only Article II Presidential powers but those of the legislators under Article I … .”

via Tracy Van Slyke

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Chuck Hagel: Iraq = Vietnam (11:16 am)

Think Progress reports on Chuck Hagel’s evolving opinion about Iraq: “In an interview with the Omaha World Herald, the Vietnam War veteran said that the country had descended into ‘absolute anarchy’ and the war was ‘an absolute replay of Vietnam.’”

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Democrats Remind Bush of His Forgotten Iraq War (10:06 am)

Atrios has posted a copy of the letter sent to the President by Democrat leaders and ranking committee members.

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Sunday, July 30, 2006

A Few Bits of Newsiness (10:56 pm)

Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria Declares Rumsfeld “Deranged.”
Think Progress has video and a transcript of Zakaria’s appearance on ABC’s This Week.

Bolton Watch
Steve Clemons is the go-to resource on John Bolton. And he got Chuck Hagel to state that he has moved from “for” (when the Senate previously considered Bolton) to “undecided” now.

Twenty Five Year Old Buys Newspaper
Jared Kushner, whose most noteworthy attribute seems to be his age (25 years old) has just bought The New York Observer.
Kathryn Seelye for the NY Times reports on the purchase.

Condi and Olmert have decided “to throw in the towel — without admitting that they’re throwing in the towel.”
Billmon assesses the implications of Israel’s 48-hour suspension of air attacks in southern Lebanon.

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War War War, More War!!! (2:22 pm)

Pointing to evidence that the US is encouraging Israel to expand it’s conflict and attack Syria, Josh Marshall suggests that Bush and Cheney are playing “double or nothing to get out of the disaster they’ve created in the region.”

Update:
Atrios reports that CNN has a new show.

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Saturday, July 29, 2006

Ouch, That’s Really Really Gotta Hurt (2:34 pm)

“[The editorial page of The New York Times on Sunday endorsed Mr. Lamont over Mr. Lieberman, arguing that the senator had offered the nation a “warped version of bipartisanship” in his dealings with Mr. Bush on national security.]”

update:
The editorial is here.

update2:
What The NY Times harshly criticizes as a “warped version of bipartisanship” is alternatively celebrated as an “ability to bridge the partisan divide,” in the Orwell-in-Wonderland realm of the WaPo editor’s minds. Shoveling great heaping piles of cow puckey, the Wapo endorses Lieberman. (Seriously, you’ll want to bring some bathroom deodorizer with you when you click the link; the stench of disingenuous bullshit is pretty nauseating.)

As usual, the WaPo editors don’t bother to read their own news pages, wherein Shailagh Murray lists a few items on the list of that so-called “ability to bridge the partisan divide.”

While laying the foundation for his own presidential bid in 2004, Lieberman criticized Gore for mishandling their 2000 campaign by sounding a populist tone instead of appealing more to centrists. He showed interest in the Republicans’ plan for overhauling Social Security, he voted for a Republican energy bill that Democrats decried, he supported federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case, and he helped clear the path for a vote on Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s Supreme Court confirmation — although he voted against Alito.