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Wednesday, February 08, 2006

States slow to improve voting systems

Reuters
States slow to improve voting systems -report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many states have fallen behind in efforts to upgrade voting equipment and improve voter registration and identification ahead of November's congressional elections, a report issued on Tuesday said.

The report said nearly half of the states missed last month's federal deadline to implement changes required by the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed to help restore confidence in the integrity of a process shaken by the drawn-out 2000 recount saga in Florida.

The report, by the non-partisan Electionline.org project, said reforms have stalled across the country for a variety of reasons, including growing concerns about the reliability of electronic voting machines and about the legality of voter ID requirements.

"The lack of progress in nearly half of the states throws into doubt whether HAVA's goals can be achieved in time for the November 2006 vote," said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, which analyzes election reform efforts around the country.

The report said concern about electronic voting machines and their susceptibility to tampering has steadily grown since passage of the law, and 25 states now require either the use of paper audit trails or that a ballot be cast only on paper.

In California, the report said, concerns about the new e-voting machines have left some counties with warehouses of machines considered unusable for elections.

The creation of statewide databases of registered voters was the most costly and complex of the new law's requirements, the report said, and more than 20 states have not complied.

The number of states requiring all voters to show identification before voting has risen from 11 in 2000 to 22 in 2006, the report said, but political and legal battles over the issue have slowed its spread.

Georgia and Indiana passed the most stringent rules, requiring all voters to show a state or federal photo ID before voting, the report said. Lawsuits have been filed to block both laws and Georgia's law was struck down by a federal judge. An appeal is pending.

The report said more than one-third of states still do not have a machine available at each polling place for people with disabilities, as required by the law.

Senators rap White House on Iraq's economy

Reuters
Senators rap White House on Iraq's economy

By Vicki Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday it will take decades to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure as senators charged the Bush administration had fumbled reconstruction efforts, slowing a U.S. military withdrawal.

Rumsfeld was defending the Pentagon's $439 billion budget request for next year before senators on the Armed Services Committee.

Contrary to forecasts of administration officials before the March 2003 invasion, Rumsfeld said, "It's going to take decades" for Iraq "to get the infrastructure back to where a modern country would have it."

The senators also questioned Pentagon officials on progress in training Iraqi forces, which the administration says is key for withdrawing U.S. troops.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there still is just one battalion able to operate independently, and 60 capable of taking the lead in operations, with support of U.S. forces.

Senators generally backed the plan to boost the Pentagon's budget by nearly 7 percent to $439 billion. In addition, the White House said it will seek another $70 billion this year for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and $50 billion early next year. That would bring the wars' cost to $440 billion, with costs expected near $500 billion by next year's end.

In unusually harsh criticism, Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, the committee chairman, said the White House has "failed to bring together all of the resources necessary" to improve Iraq's economy and stem the joblessness that he said is fueling the rampant violence and corruption.

Warner said former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz "opined at one time" that Iraq's oil production would pay for most of its rebuilding costs, but instead Warner noted that Iraq's "oil production is slipping."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, said he was "troubled by the suggestions" that the White House would not seek new rebuilding money for Iraq on top of the $20 billion so far. "You can cut and run economically as well as you can militarily," he said.

Warner said living conditions must improve through a better infrastructure to stabilize the country, or "it's going to obscure the gains that have been made."

But Rumsfeld said it was up to Iraqis to rebuild their own country to avoid "creating a dependency."

Pace said the U.S. government should make various nonmilitary agencies work together more efficiently and deploy personnel overseas to help in rebuilding.

"General, those are nice words. We've been at this thing over two years now," Warner replied.

After the hearing, Warner told reporters he was considering legislation to force cooperation among federal agencies, similar to legislation that integrated the workings of the military branches.

Rumsfeld also fended off senators' complaints about his plans to restructure the Army National Guard, which some lawmakers said would amount to a cutback.

"The Army is not cutting the National Guard or Reserves. That rumor is false," Rumsfeld said.

The Pentagon plan had called for reducing the Army National Guard's authorized troop level from the 350,000 to 335,000, which is the actual current force.

Facing a wall of congressional opposition, the Pentagon proposed keeping in escrow money to pay for a 350,000 force-level to be used if the Guard can recruit to that level.

(additional reporting by Charles Aldinger)

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Karl Rove threatens to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president

insightmag.com
Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee

The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping.

Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.

"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.

The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.

"He's [Rove] lining them up one by one," another congressional source said.

Mr. Rove is leading the White House campaign to help the GOP in November’s congressional elections. The sources said the White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.

Those deemed disloyal to Mr. Rove would appear on his blacklist. The sources said dozens of GOP members in the House and Senate are on that list.

So far, only a handful of GOP senators have questioned Mr. Rove's tactics.

Some have raised doubts about Mr. Rove's strategy of painting the Democrats, who have opposed unwarranted surveillance, as being dismissive of the threat posed by al Qaeda terrorists.

"Well, I didn't like what Mr. Rove said, because it frames terrorism and the issue of terrorism and everything that goes with it, whether it's the renewal of the Patriot Act or the NSA wiretapping, in a political context," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican.

Treasury says extending tax cuts would cost billions

Reuters
Treasury says extending tax cuts would cost billions

By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Key White House tax proposals would cost the U.S. government tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue, the Treasury Department said on Monday, although the administration says they will help boost revenues in the long run.

Making permanent expiring tax breaks for dividends and capital gains, which expire at the end of 2008, would cost the government $7.74 billion in 2008 and $37.02 billion in 2009, Treasury said in its "Blue Book" description of revenue proposals in President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget.

Making dividend and capital gains tax breaks permanent is a central Bush administration goal in 2006, but critics say the administration will be hard-pressed to both keep the tax breaks and achieve its other priority, cutting the federal budget deficit starting in fiscal 2007.

The White House projects the deficit will widen in the current fiscal year.

Extending lower marginal tax rates for individuals, which are set to expire at the end of 2010, would push foregone tax revenues to $119.39 billion in 2011, Treasury said.

Although Treasury shows the tax cut extensions as losing revenue, administration officials say increased investment from extending the breaks will lead to greater investment and economic growth, and in the end, more returns to government coffers.

Lower tax rates on profits from investment have "been integral to generating economic growth," Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters at a briefing.

Separate White House economic forecasts issued with the budget proposal project revenues climbing to $2.42 trillion in fiscal 2007 from $2.29 trillion in the current fiscal year that ends September 30. Revenues would continue to rise, to $2.6 trillion in fiscal 2008, and $2.71 trillion in fiscal 2009.

So even though spending is also projected to rise in the next budget year to $2.77 trillion from $2.71 trillion, the White House says the budget deficit would drop to $354 billion in fiscal 2007 from $423 billion in the current fiscal year because of higher revenues.

Similarly, the deficit is projected to fall to $223 billion in fiscal 2008 and $208 billion in fiscal 2009.

Another administration tax initiative is extending for a single year provisions shielding taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax, a levy originally aimed at making sure high-income filers with many deductions pay some taxes, but that now applies to increasing numbers of middle-income taxpayers.

The AMT fix would forego $13.66 billion in revenues in the current fiscal year and $20.5 billion in income to the government in fiscal 2007, Treasury said.

The administration does not want the AMT protection to be any longer than a year, officials said, because changes to the program should ultimately be part of any broad tax overhaul.

That is because other changes to the tax code proposed last year by a presidential panel could actually raise taxes for some taxpayers, so providing relief from the AMT would be an essential balancing element.

The administration is not expected to announce its tax overhaul plan this year.

"We'll continue to work on that. We're not going to set a timetable," Fratto said.

The president's proposals to expand health savings accounts, which allow people set aside pretax earnings to pay for medical expenses, would total $5.48 billion in lost revenue in 2007 and $10.24 billion in lost revenue in 2008, Treasury said.

Louisiana governor vows 'hardball' with Washington

Reuters
Louisiana governor vows 'hardball' with Washington

By Stuart Grudgings

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned state lawmakers on Monday that corruption could no longer be tolerated as the area rebuilds from the Hurricane Katrina disaster and vowed to "play hardball" with Washington over oil and gas revenues.

Opening a special legislative session in the New Orleans Convention Center, where thousands of residents took refuge in the days after Katrina flooded the city, Blanco said the disaster that killed 1,300 people had become "yesterday's problem" for many in Washington.

"We had all better put Louisiana politics aside and worry about Washington politics or our people and our state will lose," she said.

Five months after Katrina, much of the city remains in ruins and two-thirds of its population has not returned. Local and federal officials have blamed each other for the lack of a clear recovery plan and the White House has come out against a proposed bill that would have bailed out uninsured homeowners with billions of federal dollars.

Blanco, a Democrat, has threatened to block planned August sales of offshore oil and gas leases unless Washington agrees to give the state 50 percent of the royalties.

Louisiana currently gets no royalties from leases more than 6 miles off its coast and says it needs the billions of dollars it would receive to help repair coastal wetlands that oil industry development has left vulnerable to hurricanes.

U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton could override the governor on the lease sale but that could trigger a lengthy legal battle.

"Industry leaders understand our predicament," Blanco said. "It's time to play hardball as I believe that's the only game Washington understands."

Blanco pledged to use the 12-day legislative session to push bills to unify the area's various levee management boards, which are widely seen as corrupt; to reorganize New Orleans' government to make it more accountable; and to create a housing trust to help families move back to their homes.

"Louisiana can no longer tolerate the perception that you must pay to play if you expect to do business in this state," she said. "We must put the sins of the past behind us and use our recovery as an opportunity to earn the trust and confidence of the nation."

Blanco chose to hold the session in the convention center, marking the first time in 125 years the legislature has met outside the state capital Baton Rouge, to draw attention to New Orleans' struggles.

Some analysts have attributed the Bush administration's reluctance to pour money into recovery efforts to the perception that local politics is rife with corruption.

Washington has made some relief funds contingent on reforms, such as the unification of the state's levee boards.

"The legislature is going to be analyzed in Washington to see if these people are serious about spending the money wisely or not," said Susan Howell, a political science professor at New Orleans University.

Clinton Fires Back After Being Labeled 'Angry' and 'Left-Wing'

ABC News
Clinton Fires Back After Being Labeled 'Angry' and 'Left-Wing'
Senator Responds to GOP Leader's Comments on 'This Week'
By TEDDY DAVIS

Feb. 6, 2006 — - Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., returned fire today against a GOP leader's charge that she hails from the "angry," left-wing of her party.

While speaking to reporters by telephone about President Bush's new budget, Clinton laughed off Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman's recent remarks about her made on ABC News' "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."

The former first lady said Republicans in Washington would be better off focusing on issues like Medicare and Head Start and "adopting different policies instead of talking about matters that have no impact on the lives of the people I represent."

She made similar comments earlier in the day while visiting a Head Start classroom in Manhattan.

While appearing on "This Week," Mehlman departed from Bush's recent characterization of Clinton as a "formidable" presidential candidate and suggested that she would not be successful because voters dislike "angry candidates."

"Hillary Clinton seems to have a lot of anger," Mehlman told Stephanopoulos. "I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates."

He also slammed what he called her "very left-wing" record.

Clinton, who is seeking re-election to the Senate in November, is widely considered to be laying the groundwork for a presidential run in 2008.

She currently leads potential 2008 presidential candidates with $17.1 million in total cash on-hand for a potential White House run, according to Federal Election Commission reports compiled by The Hotline.

The potential 2008 presidential candidates closest to Clinton are Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., with $15.6 million, and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., with $10.8 million. The leading Republican fundraiser at this point is Sen. George Allen, R-Va., with $6.4 million.

Clinton laughed off Mehlman's remarks while attacking the president's 2007 budget as suffering from misplaced priorities.

"The clear message of this budget is, 'You're on your own,'" she said.

RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt responded to Clinton's comments by saying, "We are going to let Ken's statement stand."

ABC News' Dan Nechita and Mike Westling contributed to this report.

New Voting Machines Await 4 in 5 Voters

1010WINS.com
Study: New Machines Await 4 in 5 Voters

By ROBERT TANNER
AP National Writer

Fewer voters will cast their ballots by punching a card or pulling a lever in this November's elections as the country continues to turn to newer, electronic machines, according to a study released Monday.

While the study says old systems that were prone to error are on their way out, experts also note that means many Americans will be voting on unfamiliar equipment this fall.

At least four out of five registered voters will use the newer generation of machines - either ATM-style touchscreen machines or ones that ask voters to fill in the blanks, a vast change from the contested 2000 presidential election that spurred states and Congress to push for improved equipment.

Back in 2000, just over half the voters had access to the latest technology.

By this fall, however, only one out of 33 voters will be asked to use the system that raised the most objections in Florida - punch cards - and just one in 10 will use a lever machine, according to a survey by Election Data Services, a political consulting firm that tracks election equipment. Six years ago, one in six voters used punch cards and one in five used levers.

The changes are bound to create their own glitches as voters and administrators learn how to use equipment they haven't voted on before, said Kimball Brace, president of Election Data. Just over 30 million voters will be casting ballots on unfamiliar equipment, he said.

"You throw that many people in on something new, you're always bound to see something go wrong," he said.

The changes have created new controversies, especially with accusations that touchscreen-style machines are vulnerable to manipulation. In response, 25 states have passed laws requiring election administrators to use machines that allow voters to verify their vote has been accurately counted, and that create paper receipts for a recount.

Buy AP Photo Reprints

Those paper trails - called voter-verified paper audit trails - are creating their own challenges, as manufacturers try to respond to lawmakers' demands for the equipment, Brace said.

Some of the survey results may change by the time the fall election arrives, the study said, because some states are still trying to change over from older equipment as encouraged by the federal Help America Vote Act, which was passed after the contested 2000 election.

The widespread push to modernize means that, in the six years between November 2000 and this fall's elections, nearly 82 million people in a nation of 170 million registered voters will have cast ballots on new equipment, the study concludes.

---

Dutch state to return Nazi loot

BBC NEWS
Dutch state to return Nazi loot

The Dutch state is to return 202 famous paintings worth millions of euros to the family of a Jewish art collector who died while fleeing the Nazis.

Jacques Goudstikker's collection was seized by the Nazi German authorities after their troops occupied the Netherlands in 1940.

The collection includes works by 17th-Century Dutch and Italian masters.

A Dutch junior minister said no compensation would be paid to the museums currently housing them.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Medy van der Laan, acknowledged that "it is a big loss for the museums". Some are displayed at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum.

After the war, the Allies handed the Goudstikker collection over to the Dutch state.

The collection includes works by Dutch masters Van Ruysdael, Van Goyen and Van Dyck.

After years of wrangling, an official restitution commission recommended that the 202 works should be returned to Goudstikker's daughter-in-law Marei von Saher.

She had appealed to the Dutch government for the works in 1998.

A further 40 artworks will stay in the Netherlands, as their ownership is in doubt, and another 21 were deemed to have been surrendered under an agreement the Goudstikkers made with the Dutch government in 1952.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4686966.stm

Q and A about Bush's $2.77 trillion budget

Reuters
Q and A about Bush's $2.77 trillion budget

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Following are questions and answers on U.S. President George W. Bush's $2.77 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2007 unveiled on Monday.

HOW BIG ARE THE DEFICITS EXPECTED TO BE?

-- The blueprint forecasts a record $423 billion deficit this year. But the White House sees it shrinking to $354 billion in 2007, $223 billion in 2008 and $205 billion by 2011.

-- The plan expects the deficit to narrow to 2.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2007, 1.5 percent in 2008 and 1.2 percent by 2011, from a 3.2 percent share of GDP this year.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DEBT?

-- The total federal debt would swell to $11.5 trillion in 2011 from $8.6 trillion this year.

HOW IS MEDICARE AFFECTED?

-- Bush would wring $36 billion in savings from the Medicare health program for the elderly and disabled over five years, slowing annual spending growth to 7.5 percent from 7.8 percent.

-- Proposed savings mostly come from curbing payments to hospitals and other providers. Medicare faces growing financial pressures as the baby boom generation ages.

WHAT DOES BUSH SEEK FOR DEFENSE, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN?

-- Bush proposed a record $439.3 billion defense budget, up 4.8 percent.

-- On top of that, the White House will seek a new infusion this year of $70 billion in emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Total war spending for 2006 is $120 billion, the single biggest discretionary item in the budget. The $70 billion in emergency funds is in addition to $50 billion that Congress already approved.

WILL AGRICULTURE BE CUT?

-- For the second year in a row, Bush proposed an across-the-board cut in farm payments and a $250,000 a year limit on payments per farmer.

-- The cuts would save $10 billion over 10 years. Congress rejected a nearly identical package of USDA cuts last year.

WHAT IS PROPOSED FOR FOREIGN AID?

-- U.S. foreign assistance, excluding food aid, would rise 14 percent.

-- Programs funding everything from child health care to foreign military sales and debt relief would rise to $23.7 billion in fiscal 2007, up from an estimated $20.9 billion.

-- Bush would spend $4 billion to fight AIDS and HIV globally, a $740 million increase.

WHAT IS PLANNED FOR ENERGY PROGRAMS?

-- Bush did not seek money to boost capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Congress is requiring the Bush administration to add almost 300 million barrels to the emergency oil stockpile.

-- The budget proposed $250 million in research funds to restart a controversial program that would reprocess spent nuclear fuel.

-- Bush sought to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and assumed a windfall from money that would be collected in leasing fees from energy companies.

WHAT ABOUT EDUCATION?

-- The overall education budget would take a 3.8 percent cut.

-- Bush wants fresh money for what he calls his competitive initiative, including boosting math and science teaching in public schools and high-tech training.

-- But some programs deemed not essential would be cut, including a vocational training program and a college preparatory program for low-income families.

Senate to vote Tuesday on asbestos debate

Reuters
Senate to vote Tuesday on asbestos debate

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate set a vote for Tuesday on whether to consider a bill to halt asbestos lawsuits as senators hurled verbal brickbats over the legislation and the intense lobbying it has engendered.

"I can't stand this legislation," fumed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who opposed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's attempt to bring the bill up for debate on Monday.

Asbestos fibers are linked to lung-scarring diseases, including cancer. Hundreds of thousands of injury claims have clogged courtroom dockets and helped push into bankruptcy proceedings more than 70 U.S. companies, including W.R. Grace & Co. and USG Corp..

Reid called the plan to create a $140 billion fund to compensate victims of asbestos-related diseases a "terrible" proposal. He said the bill was on the Senate floor only because lobbyists representing some companies that would benefit had spent over $144 million "lobbying to get it here."

His comments incensed the legislation's Republican sponsor, Pennsylvania's Sen. Arlen Specter.

"To accuse us to have been pawns in the hands of lobbyists is beyond slander, beyond insult, beyond outrage," Specter said.

The bill, sponsored by Specter and Vermont Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy, would pay victims from a $140 billion fund financed by asbestos defendant companies and their insurers.

Frist wants the Senate to consider the bill this week, but under Senate rules, if a senator objects to a bill coming up, there must be a procedural vote. At least 60 votes will be needed to go ahead with the debate. The vote was set for Tuesday at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT), Frist said.

Reid said the legislation did not do enough to provide for victims of asbestos-related diseases, while limiting the asbestos liabilities of a number of large corporations.

He said he did not know if he had enough votes to stop the bill, but that five Republicans had told him they would side with him. There are 55 Republicans in the 100-seat Senate.

Specter countered that a fund would help asbestos victims who were unable to collect from bankrupt companies or forced to wait months to have cases heard in court.

Specter did not say whether he thought he could muster 60 votes to keep the bill on the floor. But his Democratic co-sponsor, Leahy, urged colleagues to support the bill.

"What we have achieved is a significant and needed step toward a more efficient and more equitable method to compensate asbestos victims," Leahy said.

After speaking, Leahy left the Senate to visit a new grandchild, but an aide said he would be back for the vote on Tuesday evening.

The measure passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in May with three Democratic votes among its backers, but it has divided lawmakers from both parties, split industry groups and struggled to gain momentum.

Stocks of companies with asbestos liabilities closed lower on Monday afternoon. W.R. Grace shares were down 5.41 percent to $12.77 each. USG was down 5.36 percent to $91.20.

Monday, February 06, 2006

The Pusher Plagiarizes "Addiction to Oil"

HuffingtonPost.com
The Pusher Plagiarizes "Addiction to Oil"
Lawrence Bender

I'm one of those people who don't blog much because I'm not a facile writer and it's just hard for me to slow down at the computer in this multi tasking world to organize my thoughts. But I have not been able to stop fuming after the state of the union address last week. To watch the number one PUSHER, George Bush, talk about our "addiction to oil" just made me blow a proverbial gasket. First of all, this problem is no joke. We consume world wide about 80 million barrels of oil a day and 25% is consumed in this country and yet for the last 5 years, this administration has only helped push that consumption rate higher.

Let me back up and just say it was only a few years ago that along with Arianna Huffington, Laurie David, Arie Emmanuel, and Scott Burns, we shot a series of TV spots that said exactly that: America is addicted to oil and we had better kick that addiction quick. Why....for our National Security, for the problem of global warming, to help create millions of new jobs with renewable energy technologies, and for our health. We were willing to pay for the airtime, but we were banned from airing these spots by all the local affiliates. Because of the ban, the spots were picked up as news and we found ourselves in debate -- of course -- with the right wing shows such as Neal Cavutto, Tony Snow and others.....They were calling us unpatriotic.

How dare we ask people to buy smaller cars??? Everyone has the right to buy an SUV!!!! Well, the bottom line is unless we get ourselves off of this addiction, we will always be at the whim of places like Iran, and the level of CO2 in our atmosphere will create a planetary emergency that makes Katrina seem mild.

So now the President plagiarizes our language....(something I wish the Democrats would start doing). A brilliant move to confuse everyone into thinking he really "means it". The problem is, this is the biggest issue facing not only us but the world right now. Our consumption of oil and its effect on National Security and global warming. Let's hope everyone really recognizes it and doesn't just pay it lip service.

King George or President Bush? Shout It From the Ramparts

HuffingtonPost.com
King George or President Bush? Shout It From the Ramparts
Miles Mogulescu

The Senate Democrats got things spectacularly wrong in their handling of the Alito nomination. Take a look at the February 2nd Washington Post article entitled "REPUBLICANS WERE MASTERS IN THE RACE TO PAINT ALITO: Democrat's Portrayal Failed to Sway the Public". Let's hope they can do better in the hearings about Bush's warrantless domestic wiretaps which start on Monday, February 6.

The Democrats let the Bush Administration frame the Alito confirmation debate from the moment Bush nominated him: The role of a judge is to interpret the law, not make the law. It's a question of competency. If a nominee is intelligent, shines his shoes, loves his family, and shows a passing knowledge of constitutional history, then how dare you question him on judicial philosophy--You're asking a judge to promise how he'll vote and we'll damn well hear none of that. Besides, you're making his wife cry.

Within minutes of the Alito nomination, the Republicans and their Christian right supporters went into high gear repeating this simple message over and over through the Republican noise machine and into the mainstream media. Within days, the mainstream media adopted this frame and proclaimed Alito's confirmation as an inevitability. The wind was taken out of the Democrats' sails before they even had a chance to get started. They were never able to frame a coherent alternate story. By the time the hearings were over, half the Democrats refused to filibuster and the other half did so with little heart. It was a massacre by a President with 40% approval ratings and left the Democrats looking weak, divided and helpless. As a result of the Democrats' failure, we now face a 4th hard right Justice who likely will participate in reducing the rights of American citizens for the next 30 years. Even if the Democrats regain control of Congress and the Presidency, a right wing Supreme Court may block many of their initiatives for years to come.

The Judiciary Committee hearings on President Bush's warrantless wiretapping give Congressional Democrats a chance to redeem themselves. But they, and their allies among progressive organizations, media and the blogosphere, will have to frame the issue for the public and the mainstream media quickly, before the Bush Administration's frame is set in concrete.

In his State of the Union address, Bush stated "If there are people inside our country who are talking with Al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again." Expect to hear this simple refrain over and over again from Bush surrogates, conservative pundits and then the mainstream media. Bush is for aggressively preventing another terrorist attack. Those who question warrantless wiretaps on Constitutional grounds are weak on national security and use legal technicalities to try and prevent the President from defending America. Karl Rove has already said he wants to use the "us strong, you weak" mantra yet again to prevent Democratic gains in the '06 congressional elections.

Bush wants the public to see this as an issue of security versus weakness. The Democrats must get the public to see it as an issue of law versus lawlessness.

Let's get one Republican canard off the table right away. Of course everyone wants to know what Al Qaeda and its allies are talking to each other about. The simple response is that this can be done legally and efficiently with a FISA warrant which can be quickly and easily obtained, even 72 hours after the wiretapping begins.

The real question is do we want a President to obey the law or break the law? Do we want a Constitutional republic or a Presidential dictatorship? Is it King George or President Bush?

So, repeat these few simple phrases after me: King George or President Bush? Constitutional democracy or Presidential dictatorship? Law vs. lawlessness. Let's shout it from the ramparts, repeat it over and over on talk shows, in newspaper columns, in letters to the editor and in the blogosphere. Mobilize the grassroots. The United States is a democracy, not a monarchy, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that it stays that way. This is our sacred duty as a free people.

Key Republican Senator Specter Questions Attorney General's Justification for Domestic Spying Program

ABC News
Specter Criticizes Rationale for Spying
Key Republican Senator Questions Attorney General's Justification for Domestic Spying Program
By HOPE YEN
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not adequately justified why the Bush administration failed to seek court approval for domestic surveillance, said the senator in charge of a hearing Monday on the program.

Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday he believes that President Bush violated a 1978 law specifically calling for a secret court to consider and approve such monitoring. The Pennsylvania Republican branded Gonzales' explanations to date as "strained and unrealistic."

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, predicted that the committee would have to subpoena the administration to obtain internal documents that lay out the legal basis for the program. Justice Department officials have declined, citing in part the confidential nature of legal communications.

Specter said he would have his committee consider such a step if the attorney general does not go beyond his prior statements and prepared testimony that the spying is legal, necessary and narrowly defined to fight terrorists.

"This issue of the foreign intelligence surveillance court is really big, big, big because the president, the administration, could take this entire program and lay it on the line to that court," Specter told NBC's "Meet the Press."

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 established legal procedures for conducting intelligence-related searches and surveillance inside the United States.

Specter said the FISA court "has really an outstanding record of not leaking, and of being experts. And they would be pre-eminently well-qualified to evaluate this program and either say it's OK or it's not OK."

Leahy charged that Bush misled the public when he said during the presidential campaign in April 2004 that his administration was following the law by getting warrants for wiretapping.

"I think ultimately we're going to have to subpoena them," Leahy said on CBS' "Face the Nation," expressing doubt that lawmakers would get the material otherwise.

Under the National Security Agency program put in place after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the government has eavesdropped, without seeking warrants, on international phone calls and e-mails of people within the United States who are deemed to be a terrorism risk.

In testimony prepared for Monday's hearing, Gonzales argues that Bush had authority under a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing force in the fight against terrorism and that heeding the 1978 law would be too cumbersome.

"The terrorist surveillance program operated by the NSA requires the maximum in speed and agility, since even a very short delay may make the difference between success and failure in preventing the next attack," Gonzales said in statements obtained by The Associated Press.

Specter was not so sure.

"I believe that contention is very strained and unrealistic," Specter said. If the FISA law was inadequate, he said, Bush should have asked Congress to change it rather than ignore it. "The authorization for the use of force doesn't say anything about electronic surveillance."

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., was expected to press Gonzales on why, during Gonzales' confirmation hearings last year to be attorney general, he dismissed as "hypothetical" a situation in which the government conducted warrantless eavesdropping. The NSA program was long in place by then, and Gonzales was White House counsel.

Assistant Attorney General William Moschella, in a letter Friday to Feingold, said Gonzales was referring to as "hypothetical" the idea that Bush would allow warrantless monitoring that was illegal.

That statement is accurate, Moschella wrote in a letter obtained by the AP, because the administration's position is that Bush had legal authority under the 2001 congressional resolution.

Gonzales has acknowledged disagreement with former Justice Department officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft and Deputy Attorney General James Comey, about the legality of the program.

In responses to written questions from Specter, Gonzales challenged media portrayals about the scope of the spy program, saying it is not "a dragnet that sucks in all conversations and uses computer searches to pick out calls of interest."

The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported Sunday that the program involves computers sifting through hundreds of thousands of communications to select for human review. The program has resulted in thousands of conversations in which someone in the U.S. has been at least briefly monitored, the Post said.

The Post report said that nearly all of them were quickly dismissed as insignificant and that perhaps no more than 10 solid leads a year have been pursued with further domestic surveillance, usually with a court warrant.

But Gen. Michael Hayden, the No. 2 intelligence official in the government, said it was "not true" that "we somehow grab the content of communications and then use the content of the communications to determine which of the communications we really want to listen to."

"When NSA goes after the content of a communication under this authorization from the president, the NSA has already established its reasons for being interested in that specific communication," Hayden said on "Fox News Sunday."

In addition to possibly pursuing documents about the program's legal basis, Specter said he might seek testimony from Ashcroft and Comey.

"If we come to it and we need it, I'll be open about it," Specter said, referring to subpoenas. "If the necessity arises, I won't be timid."

Specter also said the administration should tread carefully when it came to using subpoenas against journalists to investigate leaks of classified information. The New York Times in December disclosed the existence of the NSA program, which is classified.

"I think if you move into the area of really serious national security issues, that there may be a justification for it," he said.

US triples spending to stop Iraq bomb attacks

Reuters
US triples spending to stop Iraq bomb attacks-NYT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is tripling its spending to about $3.5 billion, on a newly expanded effort to combat the rising number of increasingly powerful homemade bombs that are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq, The New York Times reported on its Web site on Sunday.

The move is a tacit acknowledgment that despite years of rising death tolls from the devices, the response has not been sufficiently focused or coordinated at the highest levels, the Times said.

Last year, 407 of the 846 Americans killed in Iraq were killed by the bombs, which are called improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the report said. The number of IEDs against allied and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians nearly doubled last year from 2004 to 10,593.

The intensified effort to combat the makeshift bombs, which at one time was led by a one-star general, was recently put under a retired four-star Army general, Montgomery Meigs, the Times said, citing interviews with a dozen military officials.

In the next few months, the Defense Department plans to double the number of technical, forensic and intelligence specialists assigned to the problem, to about 360 military service members and contractors in the United States and Iraq, the paper said.

Hundreds of other experts are being called in and new technology and training techniques are also quickly being pushed into service, The Times reported.

Some of the most deadly bombs use shaped charges, which penetrate armor by focusing explosive power in a single direction and by firing a metal projectile embedded in the device into the target at high speed.

U.S. intelligence officials say the most potent of these new weapons have been designed in Iran and shipped to Iraq, the paper said.

In 2005, the budget for the Pentagon's IED task force was $1.2 billion, double the previous year's. The details of this year's budget are still being refined, at about $3.5 billion, but senior officials say they essentially have a blank check, The Times said.