In the News Today, Friday, January 19, 2007

110th U.S. Congress
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Senate OKs ethics, lobbying reforms
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APPROVAL FULFILLS DEMOCRATS' PROMISE OF RAPID ACTION
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The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed sweeping changes to ethics and lobbying rules, overcoming bipartisan reluctance to ban many of the favors that lobbyists do for lawmakers and to illuminate the shadowy legislative practice of earmarking money for special projects.
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Interpreting the results of the Nov. 7 election as a reaction to corruption scandals when Congress was under Republican control, the Senate has joined the House in adopting broad new rules that go beyond the proposals Republicans introduced last year, or the ones that Democrats campaigned on.
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The measure passed around 9 p.m. by a vote of 96-2.
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Wednesday, Senate Republicans nearly derailed the bill in a dispute over when the Democrats would agree to vote on a Republican proposal, a version of the line-item veto.
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Like the new House rules, the Senate proposal would bar members from accepting gifts, meals or trips from lobbyists or the organizations that employ them. It would end senators' use of borrowed corporate jets at discount rates. It would prohibit departing senators from negotiating with prospective new employers until after their successors had been elected and would restrict them from directly or indirectly lobbying the Senate for two years.
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Also like the House rules, the Senate measure would require disclosure of the sponsors, the purpose and the cost of earmarks, the pet projects that lawmakers have been able to tuck anonymously into complicated spending bills.
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Senate Democrats also have incorporated into the bill a provision to require for the first time that lobbyists disclose the most valuable favors they do for lawmakers: holding campaign fundraisers, soliciting campaign contributions and bundling checks from clients and friends.
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In the House on Thursday, as the new Democratic majority celebrated the completion of its populist 100-hour agenda, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, unveiled the party's next legislative target: an ambitious plan to wean the United States from foreign oil and slow global warming.
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Pelosi said Thursday that she intends to create a panel to help craft the party's environmental agenda and has asked committee chairmen with jurisdiction over the issue to pass legislation ``to truly declare our energy independence'' by July 4.
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The announcement came as Democrats completed their 100-hour agenda with passage of a bill that would repeal oil industry tax breaks and put the estimated $14 billion in revenue over 10 years toward research on energy conservation and alternative fuels.
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The legislation was the last of six bills the Democrats have plowed through the House in two weeks, including measures to increase the minimum wage, expand stem-cell research, implement Sept. 11 commission recommendations, authorize Medicare negotiations for lower drug prices and cut interest rates on student loans.
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Although House Democrats backed the 100-hour agenda almost unanimously, cracks in the caucus might appear as Democrats turn to energy, health care and immigration, among other issues.
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The bill to repeal oil industry tax breaks was approved by a 264-123 vote, but that and the other 100-hour measures still are far from becoming law.
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President Bush has threatened to veto the stem-cell legislation, which would expand funding for research using embryonic stem cells, and the Medicare legislation. Though Democrats also control the Senate, by a 51-49 majority, Republicans can use the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome, to kill House-passed bills.
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Mercury News Wire Services
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109th U.S. Congress
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Republican Ney sentenced to a former Republican congressman linked to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for corruption.
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Bob Ney's sentence was longer than the prosecution had recommended, the judge said, because the former lawmaker had violated the public trust.
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He will be on probation for two years after his term. He must pay a $6,000 (£3,000) fine and undergo counselling.
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Ney had pleaded guilty to trading political favours for money and gifts.
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He also admitted conspiracy and making false statements.
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On Friday, he apologised to his family, friends and former constituents.
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He reiterated his dependence on alcohol, saying he had battled "the demons of addiction".
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First prosecution
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Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said his alcoholism was no excuse.
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She barred him from drinking alcohol during his probation and ordered him to follow an alcohol rehabilitation programme while he serves his sentence in federal prison.
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Ney is the first lawmaker to be prosecuted in connection with the Abramoff scandal, which helped the Democrats seize control of Congress in November.
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He resigned his seat in Congress days before the elections.
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Before the Abramoff scandal erupted, Ney was perhaps best known internationally for his role in renaming French fries "freedom fries" in the Congressional cafeteria due to US anger at Paris's refusal to support the invasion of Iraq.
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BBC News

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Democrats' Delicate Strategy

Majority Democrats face a delicate mission in their first foreign policy clash with President Bush, determined to force an end to the Iraq war but eager to support the troops who are doing the fighting. No strangers to political combat, Republicans don't intend to make it easy on them.
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"What they really want is to cut off funding for the troops," Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Thursday.
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It was a claim that Democrats rebutted in advance.
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"The Congress and the American people will continue to support them and provide them with every resource they need," the top four Democrats in Congress pledged Wednesday night as they attacked President Bush's plans to deploy an additional 21,500 troops.
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"Our military forces deserve a policy commensurate with the sacrifices they have been asked to make. Regrettably, the president has not provided that tonight," added Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
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For the first time since the war began, Democrats have public opinion on their side _ and know it for sure.
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The midterm elections that swept Republicans from power in both the House and Senate demonstrated that, and comments by one-time Republican supporters of the president's war policy confirm it daily.
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Other Republicans are following.

READ THE FULL STORY

Think Tanks.

Bush's New Plan Not All New.

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There's Clearly "A Been-There, Done-That" Feel To Bush's New Plan.

Think Tanks.

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"They don't think; they justify."

• American Enterprise Institute.
• Heritage Foundation.
• Manhattan Institute.
• Hoover Institute.

President Bush needs to be 'Plutoed'.

President Bush is not the President to be making plans to stabilize Iraq.

To many mistakes.

To many lies.

President Bush needs to be 'Plutoed'.

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(If you have been "plutoed" you have been demoted or devalued, just as happened to the former planet Pluto when its status was downgraded).

By WestTexasBliss

Some of the best comments I have read.

Some of the best comments I have read in a long time, from one of the worst headlines I have ever red.

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Read some of my favorite comments, click on link below.

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By WestTexasBliss

I saw on TV the other day the Republicans crying about how the 110th Congress is not willing to work in a bipartisan way. This is a lie! The Republicans are already trying to put a spin on the 110th Congress, but they are not going to get away with it. You can see Karl Rove’s finger prints all over it. The Republicans think we Americans are nothing but a bunch of couch potatoes and all they have to do is lie to us and they think they can get away with it. No more! The 110th Congress will do more in one hundred hours then the 109th Congress did in its full term. The 110th Congress is willing to work in a bipartisan way with the Republicans. The Republicans should thank god the Democrats are willing to work in a bipartisan way with them. After what the Republicans did to the Democrats in the 109th Congress. I would not give the Republicans the time of day!

WestTexasBliss

110th U.S. Congress, First 100 Hours

Democrats Set To Take Over, Vowing To Run Clean Congress.

Democrats prepared to take control of both houses of Congress on Thursday after spending most of the last dozen years in the minority, with plans to quickly raise the minimum wage and toughen lobbying rules.

The Democratic takeover arrives with congressional leaders and President Bush stressing bipartisanship -- but with indications emerging of the partisan fights to come.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, is slated to become the new speaker of the House -- the first woman to hold that post -- and Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is scheduled to take over as Senate majority leader.

New members of Congress will also take their oaths in ceremonies on Thursday.

Exit polls showed that rising discontent over the war in Iraq and a spate of corruption scandals helped drive voters in November to hand Democrats control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994.

And a national poll released this week showed Democrats have strong support for nearly all the measures they want to pass in their first days in charge.

Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters that Democrats would move quickly on rules changes.

"On Thursday and Friday, we're going to adopt rules that will change the way the people's house operates to ensure its integrity, to ensure its openness and to ensure its transparency," Hoyer said Wednesday.

Tighter restrictions on spending earmarks, lobbying, gifts and travel will be proposed, Democratic House leaders said.

A $2.10 hourly increase in the minimum wage is among six bills Democrats pledged to advance in their first 100 hours of making new laws next week, after members are seated and committees are organized.

The minimum wage was last increased in 1997. Democrats want to raise it to $7.25, in steps over two years, a proposal that has drawn conditional support from President Bush.

But they may face a tougher hurdle in efforts to repeal Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. In the only veto of his presidency to date, Bush killed a similar bill that passed with bipartisan support last year -- and White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday that the president's position has not changed.

Other bills Democrats want to move in their 100 legislative hours would roll back tax breaks for the oil industry and redirect the revenue to alternative energy research; implement the homeland security recommendations of the 9/11 commission; cut interest rates for student loans; and allow administrators of the Medicare prescription drug program to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for discount prices.

The schedule for the 100 legislative hours stretches from Tuesday through January 18, five days ahead of Bush's State of the Union address.

Bush: Avoid 'stalemate'.

In a statement in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Bush urged Congress to make the tax cuts passed during his administration permanent and grant him line-item veto power, which would allow the president to cut specific spending from a bill without killing the entire measure.

And in an opinion piece published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Bush wrote that Democrats now have a responsibility to avoid creating a "stalemate" by passing bills "that are simply political statements."

"If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation," Bush wrote.

The Supreme Court killed a previous law giving the president line-item veto power in 1998, and Hoyer said he opposes renewing it.
Reid defended the Democrats' legislative agenda.

"There is nothing political about finding a policy to end the war in Iraq, raising the minimum wage, achieving energy independence or helping kids afford college," Reid told The Associated Press.

House Republicans, now facing life in the minority for the first time since 1994, complained that the Democrats are cutting them out of setting House rules. They urged Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to adopt the same "minority bill of rights" that Democrats had urged in 2004.

Though Republicans rejected that call at the time, Rep. Adam Putnam, a Florida Republican, said Democrats promised Americans "a new way of doing business" during last year's campaigns.

Republicans want guarantees that they will be able to offer substitute legislation and amendments to bills as they move through the chamber. Hoyer said Democrats would adopt such rules after their 100-hour package passes.

The revived talk of a minority bill of rights, said Rep. Louise Slaughter, shows Republicans are "terrified we're going to treat them the way they treated us."

"But we will not. We're going to treat them much better," said Slaughter, a New York Democrat and the incoming Rules Committee chairwoman.

Democrats also promise to beef up oversight of the Bush administration.

The new head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, is already butting heads with the Justice Department over documents relating to the interrogation of suspected terrorists. And the incoming chairmen of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees have already announced plans to hold hearings on the war in Iraq.

Party leaders got a dramatic show of pressure from anti-war protesters Wednesday, as peace activist Cindy Sheehan and others interrupted Hoyer's news conference with chants of "De-escalate, investigate, troops home now."

Poll finds strong support.

Hoyer said he believes the Democrats' first six bills "are overwhelmingly supported by the American people." The poll conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp. found strong support for five of the six.

"We see the first 100 hours as a mandate from the American people," Hoyer said. "We told the American public, 'If you elect us, this is what we will do immediately.'"
Eighty-seven percent of those polled said they want to allow Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors, to negotiate for lower drug prices. Only 12 percent opposed the idea.

An increase in the minimum wage drew 85 percent support. And 84 percent supported cutting student loan interest rates.

Implementing the 9/11 commission's recommendations had the support of 64 percent of those polled. Sixty-two percent favored funding embryonic stem-cell research. But the public was split 49-49 on the wisdom of cutting tax breaks for oil companies.

The CNN poll found 75 percent support for a crackdown on lobbyists' influence. And 79 percent said they would favor establishing an independent panel to enforce ethics rules.
In addition, 77 percent said they want to see "significant changes" to U.S. policy in Iraq.

Pollsters interviewed 1,019 American adults on December 15-17. The survey has a sampling error of 4.5 percentage points.
CNN - POSTED: 4:34 a.m. EST, January 4, 2007