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Connecticut Democrats vote right

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

All four Connecticut Democrats voted against funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with no strings attached.

Here are the Democrats who didn’t cave:

Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen, Andrews, Arcuri, Baca, Baldwin,
Becerra, Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Boswell, Brady (PA), Braley (IA), Butterfield, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, Castor, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Cohen, Conyers, Costello, Courtney, Crowley, Cummings, Davis (IL), DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Doggett, Doyle, Duncan, Ellison, Engel, Eshoo, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Frank (MA), Green, Al, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hall (NY), Hare, Harman, Higgins, Hinchey, Hirono, Hodes, Holt, Honda, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Johnson (GA), Jones (OH), Kagen, Kaptur, Kennedy, Kilpatrick, Klein (FL), Langevin, Lantos, Larson (CT), Lee, Lewis (GA), Lipinski, Loebsack, Lofgren (Zoe), Lowey, Maloney (NY), Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum (MN), McDermott, McGovern, McNerney, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Michaud, Miller (NC), Miller (George), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Murphy (CT), Murphy (Patrick), Nadler, Napolitano, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Perlmutter, Price (NC), Rahall, Rangel, Richardson, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Ryan (OH), Sánchez (Linda T.), Sánchez (Loretta), Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schiff, Scott (VA), Serrano, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Sires, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Solis, Stark, Stupak, Sutton, Tauscher, Thompson (MS), Tierney, Towns, Tsongas, Udall (NM), Van Hollen, Velázquez, Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, Welch (VT), Wu, Wynn, Yarmuth.

Democrats not voting: Hastings (FL), Hooley, Jefferson, Johnson (E.B.), Kucinich, Markey, McNulty, Pastor, Thompson (CA), Wexler, Woolsey

Nonetheless, it is a sad commentary on our times that the Democrats couldn’t get their act together on this. It’s interesting to note that Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader, and Rahm Emanuel, the Chair of the DCCC, who insists that we race bait the immigration issue and who recruits right wingers to run for Congress as Democrats, are among the Democrats who, by process of elimination, must have voted to enable Bush’s wars. There is something very wrong when the leaders can’t get in front of the led. The first item of business in 2009 should be to show these folks back to the back benches.

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Fact free zones

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

According to the press no politician, particularly a Democratic politician, ever does something because it’s the right thing to do. Many of us believe that Chris Dodd saved the Constitution, at least temporarily, yesterday, but the AP knows best:

While his Democratic rivals campaigned in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. Christopher Dodd took to the Senate floor on Monday in hopes of pumping new energy into his presidential bid.

Dodd, D-Conn., spoke for several hours, seeking to block a bill that would shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits for their actions helping the government tap American communications after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

No doubt, all about presidential politics. But this is a twofer. First they degrade the actions of a real hero, then they lie about the issue. The companies weren’t “helping the government tap American communications after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks”. They were helping the government wiretap communications before the terrorist attacks. If the reporter was unaware of this fact, he had no business writing this story.

UPDATE: Chris Dodd thanks the troops for their support:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I4Z0_dyFMc[/youtube]

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A legislator doing good work

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Recently I passed on a suggestion from the comments that the Democrats in the Connecticut State Legislature should use their veto proof majority to keep Jodi Rell from appointing a replacement for Joe Lieberman, should Joe decide to depart for greener pastures. State Representative Tim O’Brien, (D. New Britain/Newington) wrote in to say that he proposed such a bill in the last session, and he’s planning to do so again this session. You can read the bill here. I thought I should promote this out of comments because 1) state legislators who do good things should be recognized, and 2) I’m not sure how many people read comments, and this is something that people should know about. I wrote my state legislators (and a couple of others) on this yesterday; so far no response from any of them. It seems like a no brainer, really. A companion bill to prevent the type of third party run he pulled in 2006 might be a good idea as well.

Speaking of Joe Lieberman, there was a piece about his McCain endorsement on the Olbermann show yesterday, in which there was a clip of Joe justifying his action by saying that none of the Democrats had asked for his endorsement and McCain had asked. Olbermann’s stand-in asked E.J. Dionne why none of the Democrats had asked, and for reasons that seem mysterious to me, Dionne danced around the answer. The same Democrats who ran interference for Joe in 2006 (looking at you Hillary and Barack) now realize that an endorsement from him would be the kiss of death in 2008. There’s not a one of them who wouldn’t be tempted to pay him to endorse one of their opponents.

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Strangeness

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I’m not a Hillary Clinton fan, though she’d be head and shoulders above any of the Republicans. But it’s a mystery to me why so many men in the beltway appear to feel that their manhood is threatened by her candidacy. Sure says more about them than it does about her.

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Another day, another corporate crime

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Via Susie:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission, overturning a 32-year-old ban, voted Tuesday to allow broadcasters in the nation’s 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was joined by his two Republican colleagues in favor of the proposal, while the commission’s two Democrats voted against it.

…

The two men blasted Martin for making changes to his proposal “in the dead of night” and just prior to the meeting that they said created new loopholes in the rule instead of closing them, as Martin pledged during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

“Anybody who thinks our processes are open, thoughtful or deliberative should think twice in light of these nocturnal escapades,” said Adelstein.

Adelstein said Martin’s proposal “will allow for waivers for six new newspaper-broadcast combinations and 36 grandfathered stations.”

In a lengthy statement, Copps described the commission’s action as a “terrible decision.”

“In the final analysis, the real winners today are businesses that are in many cases quite healthy, and the real losers are going to be all of us who depend on the news media to learn what’s happening in our communities and to keep an eye on local government,” he said.

Outrage fatigue.

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Another environmental threat we can ignore

Monday, December 17, 2007

The U.S. just blocked progress on global warming for another two years. Now there’s yet another major threat Bush gets to ignore, and if he can, make even worse:

Seven hundred miles west of Seattle in the Pacific at Ocean Station Papa, a first-of-its-kind buoy is anchored to monitor a looming environmental catastrophe.

Forget about sea levels rising as glaciers and polar ice melt, and increasing water temperatures affecting global weather patterns. As the oceans absorb more and more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, they’re gradually becoming more acidic.

And some scientists fear that the change may be irreversible.

At risk are sea creatures up and down the food chain, from the tiniest phytoplankton and zooplankton to whales, from squid to salmon to crabs, coral, oysters and clams.

The oceans are already 30 percent more acidic than they were at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, as they absorb 22 tons of carbon dioxide a day. By the end of the century, they could be 150 percent more acidic.

UPDATE: Speaking of global warming, check out this video (via Pharyngula) and pass it on:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg[/youtube]

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An excellent suggestion

Monday, December 17, 2007

A commenter on my recent Lieberman post says:

Shouldn’t the veto-proof majority in the CT legislature pass a law for direct election of Senators who resign, instead of Lieberman giving the GOP an appointment by Gov Rell between now and 2009?

An excellent suggestion. One would think that by now even Jim Amann, who actually thinks he has a chance to be governor, would want to head off such an event. But this is Connecticut, and we’re talking about Democrats. No doubt there are some who will still carry water for Lieberman, even though he has repeatedly demonstrated his contempt for them and his party. Still, it’s something worth bringing up with our state representatives and Senators, which I intend to do.

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Chris Dodd-patriot

Monday, December 17, 2007

This being a Connecticut blog, and Chris Dodd being the Democratic Senator from Connecticut, it is mandatory that I salute him for his attempt to stop the FISA bill that Harry Reid brought to the floor of the Senate. The Senate invoked cloture, and the filibuster is over. What a leader Harry is. He has been unable to stop a single Republican filibuster, but he had no problem breaking a Democratic filibuster. Maybe that’s because the Republican filibusters were about such trivial things as stopping the war, which hardly matters, while Dodd’s filibuster threatened the interests of important Congressional constituents: large corporations. Needless to say, the interests of the American people, and the mouldy piece of paper known as the Constitution are beside the point.

Here’s the roll of honor of those that voted with Chris:

Russ Feingold
Barbara Boxer
Sherrod Brown
Maria Cantwell
Benjamin L. Cardin
Tom Harkin
John Kerry
Robert Menendez
Ron Wyden of Oregon

All Democrats of course. It’s interesting that there are so many freshmen among the group. Profiles in Courage Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger to try to move either Reid or their fellow Senators to reject this bill, though they all claimed they were against it. Leaders all.

Dodd has done much to redeem Connecticut’s honor, though Lieberman does his best to besmirch it at every turn.

UPDATE: Seems like the New York Times overstated the case. Harry Reid has pulled the bill off the legislative calendar. DODD WINS.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Watch Dodd’s closing remarks here.

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Lieberman endorses McCain

Sunday, December 16, 2007

This will do McCain no good, but can we at least hope that, come January 2009, with an increased Democratic majority, Reid will tell Lieberman that he has no need of him as chairman of anything?

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John Edwards on confronting the corporations

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Via Atrios, this interesting exchange from one of this morning’s TV shows:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Four years ago, The Des Moines Register picked you. They said, “His time is now,” and it clearly gave a boost to your campaign then. So this endorsement of Hillary Clinton is a blow this morning.

EDWARDS: Oh, I think The Des Moines Register’s a great newspaper with good people. There are good people there. I think it remains to be seen how important it turns out to be, but congratulations to Senator Clinton.
I didn’t consider it a consolation prize. I’m excited about being on the cover of Newsweek. The only thing I would add is, we did have a very serious debate when I was at the editorial board about a really fundamental difference that I have with them, which is, I do believe we have to take on a very serious issue of too much influence of corporate power in Washington and how it affects the public policy in this country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to get into that. Because here’s what they said in the editorial this morning. They noted that they endorsed you four years ago, but then they went on to say this: “We too seldom saw the positive optimistic campaign we found appealing in 2004. His harsh anti-corporate rhetoric would make it difficult to work with the business community to forge change.”

How do you answer that charge?

EDWARDS: Well, we just — what I just said. I mean, they have a position. I respectfully disagree with it. I think that if we’re going to have serious change in this country, universal health care, attacking global warming, a tax policy that works for most Americans instead of just a few, a trade policy that creates jobs instead of costing jobs, I mean, all those things are going to require us to have a president of the United States who’s tough and willing to fight these powerful corporate interests that stand between us and the change that we need.

And I think the notion that you can sit at the table and negotiate and compromise, and these powerful interests will give away their power, I think is a fantasy. If it were true, it would have been working over the last few decades. And it does not.

I think we have a huge fight, an epic fight on our hands against those powerful interests, not against politicians. Nobody cares about politicians fighting. But I think we need a president who’s tough enough to take these people on and win, and I’ve been doing it my whole life.

Edwards is the only one talking about this stuff. That means he’s the only one, if elected, who could credibly claim a mandate to take on the corporations, not to mention the fact that he’s the only one who claims to want to do so.

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