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POPSSenate Shot Down Czar-Defunding Amendment..But Good News…
“It is unfortunate that a procedural tactic” was used to prevent an up-or-down vote on the amendment, Collins said. Under the amendment, no funds would have been provided for the White House policy coordinators unless the President allows them to appear before congressional panels and that they submit biannual reports to committees with jurisdiction over their policy issues. (CongressDaily, Sept. 25, 2009) But, Tapper reports that the Senate will hold hearings on the constitutionality and history of czars on October 6, thanks to Russ Feingold, who has been pushing for it. Earlier this month the liberal lawmaker asked the White House to identify the czars’ “roles and responsibilities, and provide the judgment(s) of your legal advisors as to whether and how these positions are consistent with the Appointments Clause” in Article II, section 2 of the Constitution, which states that the President “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,
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POPSObama Talks Afghanistan and Counterterrorism, Acorn Chief Addresses Scrutiny, Feingold Examines ‘Czars’ Antiterrorist: Obama will also make his first public visit to the National Counterterrorism Center today where he will deliver remarks. It’s the first terrorism-related event for the president since the arrest of terror suspect Najibullah Zazi last month in Denver. Obama’s remarks come a day after Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stressed the importance of cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies to stop terrorism at a Monday law enforcement conference in Denver.
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POPSDoJ Official Blows Cover Off PATRIOT Act more @ source. Only three of the 763 "sneak-and-peek" requests in fiscal year 2008 involved terrorism cases, according to a July 2009 report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Sixty-five percent were drug cases.
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POPSThere is A Blizzard in Hell Tonight! Dems Vote To Ban ACORN Funds!
Gregg did not surprise me. Hutchinson thinks she can be governor of Texas with missing such a big vote? Old unreliable McCain is sitting this vote out too. Michelle Malkin details McCain’s ACORN coziness Vitter is in LA and that is ACORN country so no surprise here either. I lope Louisiana doesn’t lift a finger to send Vitter back to the Senate! From Michelle Malkin's blog: 5:42pm Eastern. Roll call vote still underway. Several Democrats have voted AYE, including Cardin, Carper, Inouye, Johnson (SD), Murray, Tester, Warner, Bingaman, Begich, Nelson (NE), Webb, Landrieu, Bayh, Conrad, Rockefeller, Dodd, Pryor, Hagan, Kohl, Feingold, Boxer, Nelson (FL), Brown, Harkin, Lincoln, Wyden, Baucus, Klobuchar, Kaufman, Shaheen, Lautenberg (switched from no to yes), Menendez, Stabenow, Leiberman, Levin, McCaskill, Reid, Feinstein, Udall, Bennet (CO) Merkley, Cantwell, Dorgan, Schumer… I am shocked by some of the hardcore lefties here.
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POPSDepressed Democrats: Don’t Understand Why Americans Condemn Socialism Poor liberals. Instead of looking for change in the right direction with tort reform and other non-Socialist idea’s they dug in their heels and said “Socialism or bust!” Well, we choose bust. Now, we do want health care fixed by other means. We want tort reform, we want small groups to be able to band together and form larger qualified groups, ….there is plenty of things that can be done to lower the cost of health care. But Socialism is not the answer.
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POPS"Hillary:The Movie" ~ Does It Violate McCain-Feingold Law?
Former Solicitor General Theodore Olson called his client's movie a "long discussion" that "informs and educates" interested people on Clinton's qualifications and record. "In fact, as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press points out, the documentary is indistinguishable from other news media commentary," Olson said. Several justices quoted from the script, which is filled with criticism of the former first lady. It includes Dick Morris, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now a Clinton critic, saying the one-time candidate is "the closest thing we have in America to a European socialist." Olson pointed out that Supreme Court justices have written 22 separate opinions in the last six years trying to interpret the McCain-Feingold law. Justice John Paul Stevens' response? "Maybe those cases presented more difficult issues than this one." Kindlenacht crittenden http://www.julescrittenden.com/2009/03/25/kindlenacht/
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POPSWork to Kill This Power Grab-Election 2010 At least when the dysfunctional goal is money, it is pretty wide open to anyone who wants to take their shot. When the power grabbers are in control, most of us, by definition, are to be the VICTIMS of their power grab. We all get poorer, and we lose our freedom. Not in the abstract, as it was pre-Obama, but in reality. As it is NOW. Behind EVERY one of these daily "moves" lies an advancement upon power and control.
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POPSWelcome news... This is one of the most under-reported yet disasterous "executive policies" of the Bush administration. In a gov "of the people" those records are "the people's"... How can we hold government accountable if we don't know what they are doing?
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POPSObama Must Get Out of Afghanistan Once again, as in the run-up to the War in Iraq, too few people in Congress and the mainstream media are asking tough questions. There are some notable exceptions--see Friedman and Herbert--and in Congress, there's Senator Russ Feingold who writes in a recent op-ed: Few people seem willing to ask whether the main solution that's being talked about- sending more troops to Afghanistan--will actually work. If the devastating policies of the current administration have proved anything, it's that we need to ask tough questions before deploying our brave service members--and that we need to be suspicious of Washington 'group think.' Otherwise, we are setting ourselves up for failure.
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POPSSen. Feingold: Obama Must Restore Constitutional Rule of Law--Immediately Sen. Feingold (the lone Senator who justly opposed the PATRIOT ACT and the War on Iraq) is right on the mark in this, as he was interviewed recently by Bill Moyers (link in clip). failing to act swiftly to reverse the damage could essentially legitimize that conduct and the extreme legal theories on which it was based. Will Obama act swiftly to reverse these powers, and the legislation and exec. orders with it? Democrats in particular should listen to this interview as Moyers asks the question whether Obama will bring the most important Change or not. (I say no, he is a CFR shill, which is how he obtained powerful backing).
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POPSU.S. Corporations are Ugly Americans American corporations pay foreign countries for rights to extract oil, gas, and minerals from within their borders. Those governments have done nothing to regulate oil company practices that pollute the environment and otherwise endanger the lives of local residents. The Bush administration, in their typically arrogant, misguided, neocon, "corporations-can-do-no-wrong" attitude, have turned a blind eye to how U.S. corporations (as representatives of our country) have done little to provide for the locals needs and security. The security for these U.S. corporations are local military who use villagers as forced laborers and freely rape local women and children. U.S. corporations, stalwarts of democracy and human rights that they are, also turn a blind eye as long as they can keep their bottom line healthy.
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POPSThe New York Times is a “Pro-Obama Advocacy Organization”
by an standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Sen. McCain, attacks Gov. Palin, and excuses Sen. Obama. There is no level of public vetting with regard to Sen. Obama’s record, his background, his past statements. There is no level of outrage directed at his deceitful ads. This is an organization that is completely, totally, 150 percent in the tank for the Democratic candidate, which is their prerogative to be, but let’s not be dishonest and call it something other than what it is. Everything that is read in the New York Times that attacks this campaign should be evaluated by the American people from that perspective, that it is an organization that has made a decision to cast aside its journalistic integrity and tradition to advocate for the defeat of one candidate, in this case John McCain, and advocate for the election of the other candidate, Barack Obama.
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POPSIt's Biden You heard it here last folks. The text was sent pretty late, so I was long gone into dreamland. I woke up, turned on CNN, and caught the news. It wasn't much of a shock. Good choice, bad choice? Dunno. He could've done much worse and I don't think anyone in the running would be any better. There really wasn't a hit it out of the park choice available. Radical Clintonistas won't be happy, but at this point there are about 10 of them. Biden's Wikipedia bio is here . Obama got a lot of coverage out of his text message VP story -- which, let's face it, was a gimmick. But it was a very successful gimmick that sucked up all the oxygen in the newsroom for the past few days. Score one for Obama in the media war. The good news for me is that this frees up one of my dream cabinet members -- Bill Richardson for Secretary of State. Now, if we can just get people to start talking about Attorney General Russ Feingold, I'll be happy as a god
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POPSFannie Mae and Freddie Mac Time to Get Rid of Them McCain is right on this one, as is Powerline... The Democratic Party has long had a cozy relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, they take no responsibility, instead pursuing a policy of business as usual. As a reformist, McCain has often made life uncomfortable for his fellow Senators and Congressmen. I don't always agree with the reforms he advocates; McCain-Feingold is an obvious case in point. But if voters are looking for real change and want to elect a President who stands in opposition to the Washington establishment, they should vote for John McCain, not Barack Obama.
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POPSAnti-Obama Movie On The Way: Citizens United One prominent Citizens United movie is “Celsius 41.11,” which says it tells the “truth behind the lies” of the Michael Moore movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Other Citizens United movies are critical of the United Nations, illegal immigration, and the American Civil Liberties Union, while one movie promotes Newt Gingrich and his ideas. The conservative group is also looking to the U.S. Supreme Court for help in advertising the anti-Hillary movie. It is opposing a federal regulation, under the McCain-Feingold Act, requiring that a disclaimer that identifies the group be placed at the end of television ads promoting the movie and criticizing Mrs. Clinton. It is also arguing that it should not have to disclose how much it spent to produce the movie and the ads, nor who contributed to it. The Supreme Court is scheduled to decide next week whether it will hear the case.
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POPSMany Dems Not With Obama on FISA Barack really needs to talk to Feingold about this one. Who cares about immunity other than Republicans? There is no downside to siding with the damned Constitution.
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POPSObama Should Follow Feingold
That’s bad — not just because Obama is putting politics ahead of principle, but because he’s calculating the politics wrong. As Feingold proved when he was overwhelmingly re-elected in a swing state in 2004, after casting the sole vote against the Patriot Act, standing strong for the Bill of Rights attracts rather than sacrifices votes. Even worse is the deceptive claim that the “compromise” on FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) reached by the Bush administration and congressional leaders allows for meaningful scrutiny. As Feingold says, “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the president’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the co