Senate advances SCHIP legislation.

post from Think Progress on 27 September 2007 02:11:00 PM. © Think Progress

Defying a veto threat from President Bush, the Senate just defeated a cloture motion on the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), by a vote of 69-30. The Roll call vote is here. Passage of the bill will occur shortly. During the debate, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), one of the 18 Republican senators to vote for the compromise legislation, excoriated the White House for holding the bill “hostage.” Roberts noted that Bush has nothing to offer himself:

I have yet to see a plan from the administration that can actually pass the Congress. In fact, I have yet to see an actual plan from the administration. I have yet to see bullet points from the administration. I have yet to see any plan that can be articulated in some fashion to sell to the American public, or to the members of this body. We don’t even have an acronym!

UPDATE: The National Review blog complains Roberts is “making matters much worse for conservatives right now” by “excoriating President Bush.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/27/senate-overhwelmingly-passes-schip/

Digg this

Dan Rather's Worthy Crusade

post from The Washington Note on 27 September 2007 02:06:00 PM. © The Washington Note

I'm not in a place to judge the veracity of Dan Rather's reporting on Bush's National Guard service, but as usual, Sidney Blumenthal has done an extraordinary job sequencing the bits and pieces of the Rather CBS story and...

Read The Full Article:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002380.php

Digg this

The Daily Show: Showdown at UN Corral

post from Crooks and Liars on 27 September 2007 02:05:54 PM. © Crooks and Liars

The Daily Show looks at the media buildup and the reality let down of the “clash” between Bush and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in competing speeches at the UN yesterday. Download (860) | Play (985) Download (354) | Play (564)Jeez, so it seems that Iran is not an aggressor nation, but a *passive aggressor* nation.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/27/the-daily-show-showdown-at-un-corral/

Digg this

Stop Satan: Shuttin’ Down The Supper Club

post from All Spin Zone on 27 September 2007 02:04:00 PM. © All Spin Zone

It looks like the "gays" have offended the "christians". Who would have thought that an ad using the imagery of The Last Supper could create such outrage as well as a boycott? I guess I'm going to have to start drinking Miller Beer and watching The Sopranos on A&E and Star Wars on my Fox Network affiliate. Oh the inhumanity of it all!

Read The Full Article:
http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/09/27/stop-satan-shuttin-down-the-supper-club/

Digg this

Waxman: Blackwater Cost-Cutting to Blame For 2004
Fallujah Ambush

post from TPMmuckraker on 27 September 2007 01:52:52 PM. © TPMmuckraker

Right on the heels of a Brookings Institution report detailing the problems private military companies create for counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has released a study...

Read The Full Article:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004311.php

Digg this

Leadership Now: On Iraq and Iran

post from MyDD on 27 September 2007 01:45:17 PM. © MyDD

This is a candidate series post. I am not connected to the Dodd campaign. Chris Dodd has been leading now on the most important issues of the day. On Iraq. On restoring the Constitution. And now, on Iran: "I cannot support the Kyl-Lieberman amendment on[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mydd/~3/162059490/220

Digg this

Nailah O. Franklin - Our hearts and prayers goes
out to the family

post from African American Opinion on 27 September 2007 01:41:00 PM. © African American Opinion

Missing Black Woman, Nailah O. Franklin found dead.

Bad and truly sad news from Chicago. As reported by Gina of the blog What About Our Daughters who has been following this bad story about this young black woman of major promise who was found dead today. The folks at Crime Blog, Missing Minorities, Black and Missing, Concrete Loop, Chicagoist and Bossip have also covered this story. Here is a surprise - major media outlets and TV personalities like Greta Van Susteren, and ABC News Story are now covering the story.

What kind of person (inhuman animal) could do this?
Why was there no dragnet to find her and no dragnet to find her killer?

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AfricanAmericanOpinion/~3/162182778/nailah-o-frank
lin-our-hearts-and.html

Digg this

Senate Hearing Highlights Warming's Threat to
VA's Coast

I was lucky enough to be able to attend yesterday's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on how global warming will impact the Chesapeake Bay (I work for the National Wildlife Federation). Gov. Tim Kaine and Sen. Jim Webb testified and Sen. John Warner sits on the committee.

Gov. Kaine did a masterful job of laying out the threats Virginia faces and calling for a national cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions:

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine told a Senate committee that low-lying Hampton Roads is considered the second most vulnerable population center in the country to rising sea levels linked to global warming. Only New Orleans is more exposed, he said.
"My message to you," Kaine told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, "is that each day that legislative action is delayed will have negative consequences for the Chesapeake Bay."

Also at the hearing, the NWF released a new report on how global warming will impact the Bay's fish and wildlife.When Kaine mentioned Virginia is a national leader in technology jobs, Sen. Warner said he hoped Virginia would soon be a national leader in "green collar" jobs -- producing low-carbon-emissions technologies. Neither Gov. Kaine nor I had heard the term, but we both had the same reaction -- excellent nickname for the industry!

In addition, the morning featured a bit of political theater, with some fireworks between Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and America's leading climate change denier, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).

You can read transcripts and watch video of the entire hearing at the Senate EPW Committee website.

Cross-posted from Raising Kaine

Read The Full Article:
http://thegreenmiles.blogspot.com/2007/09/senate-hearing-highlights-warmings.html

Digg this

Kicking Ass for the Working Class

Are you in the middle class, upper middle class or among the richest top 1 percent?Unbelievably, in 2004 when Al Gore dismissed George W. Bush?s plan for tax cuts as a benefit for the richest 1 percent, polls showed that 19 percent of Americans believed[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/09/27/kicking-ass-for-the-working-class/

Digg this

SCHIP

Perhaps I'm just having a negative day, but does anyone else think this is going to be another bad play by Democrats? If they fail to get the veto override vote in the House then they will have failed to pass the bill as well as provided opportunities for lots of Republicans to claim they opposed Bush on something.