The Washington Post is saying: Leak itself gains more attention than the contents. And another article in the WAPO: Is WikiLeaks the Pentagon Papers, Part 2? Parallels, and differences, exist.
Huffington Post has a list of reactions to Wikileaks War Diary Here.
Tony Hayward will get his life back: BP: Tony Hayward OUT, Robert Dudley IN As CEO On October 1 BP: Hayward Shipped Off To Russia
This may be the first test of the SCOTUS rules change of Corporate money being used top support candidates for office:
Target Corp. spending company money on candidates
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Here’s something Target Corp. isn’t advertising in its Sunday circular: The discount retailer is now a major donor to a group backing the Republican candidate for Minnesota governor.
And that’s not sitting well with every Target shopper.
Under new laws allowing corporations to spend company money on election campaigns, the Minneapolis-based chain gave $150,000 to a Republican-friendly political fund staffed by insiders from departing GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration. The group, MN Forward, is running TV ads supporting state legislator Tom Emmer, the presumptive GOP nominee.
The corporate money is flowing since the U.S. Supreme Court threw out parts of a 63-year-old law that prohibited companies and unions from donating to campaigns for or against candidates. The decision, which came earlier this year, changed rules in about half the states. But the change is so new that experts don’t have a good handle on the likely impact nationally.
The Hill is reporting a new poll: Poll shows majority of seniors are bewildered by new healthcare reform law
Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and Ryan Grim are reporting: Momentum For Senate Filibuster Reform Builds
Sam Stein is also reporting: Next DNC Attack Line: RNC Can’t Handle Its Own Budget, Let Alone Nation’s
More news in comments.
THANK YOU SAM SEDER FOR 
CONTRIBUTING TO BLUE ROOTS RADIO PANEL YA THINK? LAST NIGHT
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Recently I saw the screen name Mongo Lloyd in the comments section under a news article. I don’t remember what Mongo had to say. I was too distracted by the name.
These Democrats in office have NO balls. I don’t understand why it is that they can’t get 60 votes.
WTF ~ They all (almost all) need to be voted out. Except for Franken, Boxer & the like.
Howard Dean Fires Back At (Insulting) Fox News Statement During TYT Interview!
Papantonio: Hayward Gets $18 Million for Destroying Gulf
GE to pay 23 million dollars after Iraq bribery charges
Source: AFP
WASHINGTON — US industrial titan General Electric has agreed to pay over 23 million dollars to settle allegations that it bribed Iraqi officials, a US financial watchdog said on Tuesday.
GE had been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of being part of “a 3.6 million dollar kickback scheme with Iraqi government agencies to win contracts to supply medical equipment and water purification equipment.”
Four subsidiaries of the Connecticut-based company were accused of bribing officials at the Iraqi ministries of health and oil, trading cash, computer equipment and medical supplies to win lucrative contracts.
The SEC said the four GE units — two of which were not part of the firm when the alleged bribery took place — earned around 18.4 million dollars as a direct result of the kickbacks.
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OBAMA TALKS SMALL BUSINESSES, ENERGY, WIKILEAKS, JUDGES….
President Obama met this afternoon with the congressional leadership from both parties and both chambers today, and spoke afterwards about the agenda.
He began by endorsing the small-business-incentives bill that, according to the leadership, will be the next bill considered by the Senate, and may be voted on this week. The president transitioned to energy:
I know a comprehensive bill probably won’t see the light of day for several years, but it’s nevertheless nice to hear a reminder that “our current energy policy is unsustainable,” as the BP spill helps demonstrate. (The president has, by the way, been saying this for quite a while. It just hasn’t gotten much attention.)
As for the Wikileaks story:
And one of my personal favorites, the federal judiciary:
—Steve Benen
Sorry Steve, he can talk all he wants but the GOP aren’t going to let him get any of his agenda through Congress. He can talk til he turns blue and it won’t happen, Even the Blue Dogs are fighting him! And if we lose seats in the coming election, there’s little chance if any that the next 2 years will accomplish anything! And the economy will suffer. Belt tightening times worse than now.
I’m putting together a poll for our Blog Cause. I want to hear from each of you first with what you think it should be. Now the cause I have in mind is something we can all get behind and we will report here and on Ya Think? the progress we make. We might even have to donate a little money to this cause if it’s needed. But first lets get that cause that we can all get excited about.
Put your ideas in comments because I read them all. Issues too.
Some ideas:
Health Care
Campaign Finance reform
Unemployment Comp for 99ers
Health Clinics
Gulf Spill aid
Ideas?
@toniD: Get Elizabeth Warren heading the Consumer Protection Agency.
FYI-I’m starting on the YT? podcast right now. I had to eat some dinner. I skipped dinner last night and never had a chance to catch up till now. Won’t be too long.
SENATE GOP BLOCKS VOTE, KILLS DISCLOSE ACT….
We learned earlier today that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) would be away from Capitol Hill this afternoon, attending a funeral. At that point, it was all but certain that the DISCLOSE Act (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) would fail today to overcome the latest in an endless line of Republican filibusters.
With every member of the Democratic caucus in the chamber, the bill would need one GOP vote. With Lieberman out for the day, it would need two. And when it comes to promoting campaign disclosure from corporations, labor unions, and non-profit organizations, we saw unanimous Republican opposition to even allowing the Senate to vote.
There’s just no logic to the GOP refusing to allow a vote on this. It already passed the House — with a Republican co-sponsor, no less — and it’s really not that controversial.
Remember when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was a champion of campaign-finance reform? He refused to even let the Senate vote on a simple disclosure bill. Remember when Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) seemed like the kind of “moderates” who would support an effort like this? All three not only opposed the bill, but supported a filibuster to block a vote.
Democrats intend to use today’s vote in the future as an example of ridiculous Republican values. In expectation of the vote, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said this morning, “Today’s vote has the potential to be a defining one for the Republican party. This a choice between the public and big corporations and the Republicans seem poised to vote en masse for the corporations.”
Update: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), shortly before the vote: “This is a sad day for our democracy. Not only does the Supreme Court give those special interests a huge advantage, but this body says they should do it all in secret without any disclosure. That, my colleagues, transcends this election, transcends Democrat or Republican. It eats at the very fabric of our democracy. It makes our people feel powerless and angry.”
—Steve Benen
War Bill PASSES Congress
Antiwar Democrats have a rare opportunity to knock down a war funding bill, just days after Wikileaks released more than 90,000 documents confirming their worst fears about the direction of the conflict.
The House is bringing the bill up under a suspension of the rules, which require a two-thirds vote. Only 144 votes would be needed to to stop the war funding. The vote is expected to occur mid-afternoon. [UPDATE: So much for that. Only 102 Democrats joined a dozen Republicans and the war money passed, 308-114.]
The most recent vote on war money came July 1 and included an amendment to create a timetable for withdrawal. That measure drew 162 votes of support. A tougher amendment — to fund the occupation only for the purpose of withdrawing — garnered but a hundred votes.
The new House vote is required because the administration threatened to veto the House bill since it rescinded a small amount of education money for one program in order to offset other spending on education, police, firefighters and other state employees. The program that was cut was a pet project of Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey told the Fiscal Times that the administration had recommended cutting food stamps instead.
The bill includes unpaid-for war money and some funds for aid to Gulf states, Haiti and veterans. But much was taken out.
The White House veto threat, combined with a GOP filibuster, was enough to defeat the funding bill in the Senate. On July 22nd, the Senate sent the stripped-down war funding bill back to the House, leading to Tuesday’s showdown. Nine years into the war, the Senate approved funding on a voice vote.
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Ezra Klein: How To End The Filibuster With 51 Votes
If you can’t manage the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, you can’t manage the 67 votes to change the rules and end the filibuster. At least in theory.
But in practice, there’s another path open to the Senate’s growing ranks of reformers: The so-called “constitutional option,” which is being pushed particularly hard by Sen. Tom Udall, but is increasingly being seen as a viable path forward by his colleagues.
The constitutional option gets its name from Article I, Section V of the Constitution, which states that “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.” In order to fulfill this constitutional order, the Senate must be able to, well, determine its rules. A filibuster, technically, is a way to stop the Senate from determining something by refusing to allow it to move to a vote. Because stopping the Senate from considering its own rules would be unconstitutional, the chair can rule against the filibuster, and the Senate could then move to change its rules on a majority vote.
This is not a radical theory, or a partisan one: Both Richard Nixon, then the vice president and thus the president of the Senate, and Robert Byrd, then majority leader and considered the greatest parliamentarian to ever walk the chamber, have argued in favor of the constitutional option.
Martin Gold recounted Nixon’s argument in a 2004 article for the Harvard Law Review:
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You heard it first here — Last night’s Ya Think? podcast is available on the Ya Think? page here and on iTunes everywhere.
Was just listening to the first part of hour 2, I think zeek stole the show!
It’s the Opportunity, Stupid!
By ROBERT REDFORD
A small minority of Senators robbed America of a cleaner, more prosperous future last week. In the middle of the biggest oil disaster in American history, the hottest summer on record, and a war with an oil-rich nation, this group of cynics blocked efforts to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation. This was the moment brimming with potential for new jobs, a more robust economy and cleaner environment — this bill would have guided America down a profoundly safer and more productive path.
So therefore, the Senate is left to vote on an anemic energy bill of such remarkably limited scope that it could have been passed during the Bush era.
The elected officials who steered this turnaround have abdicated their responsibility to uphold our nation’s best interests, and have shown us, and the world, an America woefully deficient in both leadership and ingenuity.
This was our moment to create two million clean energy jobs here in the United States. This was our moment to outpace China in the clean energy market that will dominate the 21st century. This was our time to slash our oil imports in half. This was our time to confront the perils of climate change, which despite head-in-the sand-denial, is in fact happening.
The American people wanted a home run, not a bunt. A recent CNN poll found that nearly 80 percent of voters believe that reducing oil use and shifting to cleaner energy would make life better for Americans, while a Wall Street Journal poll in June found that an overwhelming majority of people specifically support passing legislation to limit global warming pollution.
Yet a handful of politicians decided they didn’t want to represent the will of the people. Given the chance to invest in American jobs and reduce dangerous pollution, they chose instead, to focus on their own interest and self-preservation.
The Republican Senate leadership has fought against every clean energy and climate measure simply because their political opponents were for it. This was the most shameful partisanship I have seen in my lifetime. We all know who really loses when GOP leaders block progress: American citizens. The economic recession and climate change don’t care which party you are in — they will make life harder for everyone until we put the right solutions in place.
But the GOP wasn’t the only force acting on its own behalf. A handful of moderate Democrats were so worried about being tarred by the Tea Party or losing reelection campaigns that they failed to show their support for clean energy and climate legislation — even those who are on record saying that we must fight global warming. When elected officials act as bystanders to a crisis, they reveal their deep cowardice.
We can’t forget that Big Oil and Big Coal reached deep into their pockets to inspire politicians to block climate action. Their undue influence in our nation’s politics has once again placed the desires of polluters above the interests of all Americans.
Stronger leadership from the White House could have helped burst through political obstructions. President Obama has certainly done more than any other president to advance clean energy, yet he never seemed to roll up his sleeves, bring lawmakers to the table, and work to rally the American public behind it. If he thought his move earlier this year to approve new offshore oil drilling for the first time in decades would pay off last week in the form of GOP support for this bill, I guess he got his answer.
I remember the last time our nation came this close to embracing clean energy — back in the late 1970s. I hope my children don’t have to wait another 35 years to seize the moment once again, because that moment, that opportunity might not be there.
Michigan Oil Spill Among Largest In Midwest History: Kalamazoo Spill SOAKS Wildlife (VIDEO)
As the Gulf Coast deals with the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Midwest is now facing an oil spill of its own.
A state of emergency has been declared in southwest Michigan’s Kalamazoo County as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River, the Kalamazoo Gazette reports.
The trouble began Monday at 9:45 a.m., when an oil pipeline owned by Enbridge Liquids Pipelines sprung a leak in Marshall Township. Enbridge Energy is a subsidiary of Calgary, Canada based Enbridge Inc., the Detroit Free Press reports. According to the company, it is the largest transporter of oil from western Canada.
The cause of the leak is under investigation, and the pipeline has been shut down–but not before it did some serious damage. U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer called the spill the “largest oil spill in the history of the Midwest.” Officials are suggesting all water activities in the Kalamazoo River be put on hold until the situation is resolved–and some are fearing contamination of local water supplies:
The Battlecreek Enquirer reports:
Residents living near Battle Creek and the Kalamazoo River valley have also reported strong odors and oil-soaked wildlife in the area.
Michigan politicians have vowed to hold Enbridge responsible for the spill. Skimmers and booms were deployed at the source of the leak in an effort to contain the spill Tuesday, the Free Press reports.
WATCH local coverage of the disaster here:
I have to listen since I missed the first hour.
@toniD: I knew I should have started later!
mb:
July 27, 2010 at 9:26 pm
…I knew I should have started later!
———-
Procrastination: It’s what’s for dinner.
@Crank Bait: Procrastination: A dinner best served cold.
mb:
July 27, 2010 at 9:26 pm
…I knew I should have started later!
————–
It’s worth noting that you put off putting something off. I’m not sure if it exemplifies mastery of procrastination or amateurish procrastination?
It’s either brilliant or bumbling.
@mb: Thankfully someones got it back.
But thanks!
Justice Hugo Black, circa 1971:
Justice Black is often regarded as a leading defender of First Amendment rights such as the freedom of speech and of the press.He refused to accept the doctrine that the freedom of speech could be curtailed on national security grounds. Thus, in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), he voted to allow newspapers to publish the Pentagon Papers despite the Nixon Administration’s contention that publication would have security implications. In his concurring opinion, Black stated,
In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. […] The word ‘security’ is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment.
—New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 714 (1971).[63]
@Crank Bait: I’ll have to get back to you on that one for an answer.
@gbasin: It’s amazing and sorrowful that a pseudo press, like Fox News, uses the First Amendment to destroy the document that gave it to them.
Military Madness
Just some things that made me smile this morning…
A letterhead used by Harpo Marx
Cats napping
Cat ‘n’ Racks at Cute Overload: It’s more than just kittehs nestled in bosoms.
@toniD: Re the Michigan oil spill — after watching GritTV on the water situation, the oil spill is even MORE dire. Clean water is gold — and will be platinum in the next few years.
They don’t know what caused the leak? Hey if I were Al Queda I’d know how to get at US folks — think of each of those oil pipes and off-shore wells as terrorist targets. Argh!
@Kate Anne: We need to do a count of how many oil leaks and spills there have been. There have been many just this year alone! Some News source or scientist org needs to do this to show what a problem it is. I’m going to google this to see if anything has been written up about it.
New Thread up about War Funds vs Wikileaks
@toniD: My issue are peace (member of FOR.org), healthcare (aux./activist member of PNHP.org), the environment (Riverkeeper, Nature Conservancy, others), BuyAmerican/Jobs, plus others, too — FOR is interfaith and progressive (we agree to disagree on abortion) and besides being for peace and nonviolence was active in the early Civil Rights Movement (one of the FOR people trained MLK on nonviolence) and peace touches MOST/all of the other issues. Bottom line, it is ALL connected. No justice, no peace. Know justice, Know peace. Amen. Peace hugs!