http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/ Posts for talk.poliitics.misc Mon, 19 May 2008 18:26:51 PDT http://www.nnseek.com/ http://www.nnseek.com/img/64.png 64 64 NNSeek http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/obama_warns_right_wing_trash_to_lay_off_his_wife_70438111t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/obama_warns_right_wing_trash_to_lay_off_his_wife_70438111t.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/20/barackobama.uselections2008


Obama warns Republicans: 'lay off my wife'

* Suzanne Goldenberg and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday May 20 2008
* Article history

About this article
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This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday May 20 2008 on p15 of
the International section. It was last updated at 01:19 on May 20
2008.

The likely Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, yesterday
warned Republicans to "lay off" his wife, demonstrating a more
forceful style of politics ahead of today's primaries in Oregon and
Kentucky. In his second heated response to Republican attacks in days,
Obama said he would not tolerate attempts to attack him through his
wife, Michelle, calling such efforts "low class".

"They should be careful, because that I find unacceptable, the notion
that you start attacking my wife or my family," he told ABC television
yesterday. "These folks should lay off my wife."

The state Republican party in Tennessee produced an internet
advertisement using footage of Michelle Obama telling a rally in
Wisconsin last February that for the first time in her adult life she
had felt proud to be an American. The ad mixed footage of the
candidate's wife with testimonials from Americans attesting to their
love of the country.

The warning from Obama follows his forceful rejection of attempts by
President George Bush and the Republican nominee, John McCain, to
liken his plan to talk to the Iranian regime to Neville Chamberlain's
appeasement of Hitler.

His comments seemed aimed at countering critics who suggested that
Obama would be a weak candidate, like Michael Dukakis, who lost the
election in 1988. Dukakis is widely believed to have lost because of
his seeming lack of emotion in a television debate about whether he
would support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and
murdered.

The clashes between Obama and Republicans have overshadowed the
continued primary contest with Hillary Clinton. Obama is expected to
use tonight's primary to lay claim to the Democratic nomination with a
rally in Iowa, the scene of his first victory last January. He is
favoured in Oregon, where on Sunday night he drew a crowd of around
75,000. A Suffolk University poll put him at 45%%, with Clinton on 41%%.
In Kentucky, polls predicted Clinton would beat Obama by 51%% to 26%%.

In an email to supporters yesterday, Obama's campaign team claimed he
was on course to secure most of the delegates elected by voters
tonight. He still remains short of the 2,025 needed to secure the
nomination, but his team said the night would be "a major milestone".
The attempt to lay claim to the nomination brought an angry protest
from the Clinton campaign, which said in an email: "Declaring mission
accomplished does not make it so."

Meanwhile, McCain went to the Illinois senator's Chicago stronghold
yesterday to deliver a speech portraying Obama as favouring higher
taxes and higher spending, rehearsing what will be one of his main
lines of attack in the November White House campaign.

McCain is also taking steps to try to counter Obama's charge that he
is a Washington insider who is too close to lobbyists linked to the
business world and foreign governments. Obama claims he has not taken
a dime from lobbyists during his presidential run, in contrast with
McCain, who has many lobbyists on his team.

McCain last week ordered members of his campaign team to choose
between him or their lobbying interests. Four have had to leave,
although McCain still employs Charles Black, the head of a leading
Washington lobbying firm.


--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed, http://yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (please contribute!)
http:yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_essays




--

What do you call a Republican with a conscience?

An ex-Republican.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8827 (From Yang, AthD (h.c)

"Prosperity and peace are in the balance," -- Putsch, not admitting that he's against both

Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed (free, 10-20 articles a day)
Zepps_News-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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a.a. #2211 -- Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

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]]> Mon, 19 May 2008 18:26:51 PDT http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/second_storm_threatens_burma_69810655t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/second_storm_threatens_burma_69810655t.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/14/cyclonenargis.burma2

Second storm threatens Burma cyclone survivors

* Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent, and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Wednesday May 14 2008

About this article
Close
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday May 14
2008. It was last updated at 12:58 on May 14 2008.
A man throws a net into water beside a wharf damaged by cylone Nargis
in Burma

A man throws a net into water beside a wharf damaged by cylone Nargis
in Burma. Photograph: Getty Images

A fresh cyclone could be developing off the coast of Burma, the UN
said today, as relief workers struggled to get aid to the 1.9 million
people left homeless by cyclone Nargis.

Weather experts said there was a good chance the tropical depression
in the Bay of Bengal could develop into a "significant" cyclone within
the next 24 hours.

UN relief agencies tracking the weather system are concerned about the
devastating impact of another severe storm on people living in the
open since cyclone Nargis struck, 12 days ago.

"We're hearing of the possibility of another cyclone," said Amanda
Pitt of the UN disaster management team. "It is very worrying that
people already coping with disaster may face further hazards."

But while more torrential rains are forecast in the coming days for
the Irrawaddy delta - the area hit hardest by cyclone Nargis - the UN
said it was impossible to tell when, or where, the developing storm
might hit the coast.

The new peril emerged as the UN and other aid agencies continued to
have only limited success in getting relief supplies and international
disaster specialists into Burma to tackle the aftermath of cyclone
Nargis, which is estimated to have killed more than 100,000 people.

"We are getting more supplies in," Pitt said. "But we are concerned
about the level of the response. Critical needs are not being met.
Everyone is concerned about preventing a second wave of death."

Speaking at prime minister's question time, Gordon Brown today
described the crisis as having touched "the whole conscience of the
world".

He said that, while more relief planes had been allowed into the
country, the situation was still "not good enough".

"A natural disaster in Burma, by the actions of a despicable regime,
has been turned into a ... manmade catastrophe," he said.

Yesterday, the Thai prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, flew to Burma to
meet the country's military leaders at the request of the UN secretary
general, Ban Ki-moon, who has expressed his mounting frustration in a
rare outburst over the handling of the disaster.

Samak is to try to persuade the isolated regime to accept the help of
specialist international disaster management teams to stave off the
threat of a fresh round of death from hunger and disease among the
survivors.

Earlier pleas have fallen on deaf ears, though Burma did yesterday
invite the neighbouring countries of Thailand, Bangladesh, India and
China to send as many as 160 personnel to help the cyclone relief
effort.

Today, Dr Thawat Sutharacha of Thailand's public health ministry said
he had received clearance from the Burmese health ministry for a Thai
team to conduct medical work in the cyclone-hit delta.

Should the team land in Burma as scheduled, on Friday, it will be the
first foreign aid group to work in the Irrawaddy delta.

Since the cyclone first hit, aid agencies have repeatedly warned that
a humanitarian and medical catastrophe could occur in the absence of a
full-scale relief programme.

The continuing stand-off between Burma's military government, which
has shown itself unable to cope with the scale of the tragedy, and the
international aid community came as the first reports from
international aid workers in the Irrawaddy delta area emerged.

Bridget Gardner, the head of the International Federation of the Red
Cross delegation in the country, visited five towns and described some
as "unrecognisable".

"The effects of the cyclone were devastating in the rural areas where
the people lived in small thatched houses," she said. "In the fields
now just the foundations are left - whole houses have gone.

"In more urban areas it's quite shocking to see the size of things
that were blown over. In Laputta and Bogalay almost every building
shows signs of the cyclone. In the small outlying places of the delta,
I can't imagine what it was like for the people there.

"[During the cyclone,] when people lost their houses, they were
grabbing on to whatever they could. People were being sandblasted by
wind, flood waters and flying debris. They've lost the top layer of
skin off their backs and legs."

She said the country's 27,000 Red Cross volunteers were coping with
hundreds of minor injuries every day.


--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed, http://yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (please contribute!)
http:yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_essays




--

What do you call a Republican with a conscience?

An ex-Republican.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8827 (From Yang, AthD (h.c)

"Prosperity and peace are in the balance," -- Putsch, not admitting that he's against both

Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed (free, 10-20 articles a day)
Zepps_News-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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Zepps_essays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
a.a. #2211 -- Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

no comments

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]]> Wed, 14 May 2008 06:18:15 PDT http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/heavy_fighting_in_basra_as_malaki_calls_for_surren_62326495t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/heavy_fighting_in_basra_as_malaki_calls_for_surren_62326495t.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/26/iraq

Iraqi PM orders Basra militants to surrender

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday March
26 2008. It was last updated at 12:02 on March 26 2008.
Iraqi policmen at a checkpoint in Basra, Iraq

Iraqi policmen at a checkpoint in Basra, Iraq. Haider Al-Assadee/EPA

The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, today gave Shia fighters in
Basra three days to surrender their forces.

Maliki imposed the deadline as clashes between security forces and
Shia militants erupted throughout the country.

He said gunmen who failed to hand over their arms and sign an
anti-violence pledge would be targeted by Iraqi forces.

The ultimatum came on a second day of fierce fighting between
government troops and the Madhi Army, Shia fighters loyal to the
radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Yesterday, 15,000 soldiers were sent into Basra in an attempt to take
control of the southern Iraqi city, which has fallen into Madhi Army
hands since British troops withdrew in September.

Violence has spread to the Sadr City area of Baghdad - a Sadr
stronghold - and other cities around Iraq.
At least 55 people have been killed and 300 injured in the fighting.

A US soldier on patrol was killed in a mortar attack thought to have
been launched from Sadr City, and three Americans were seriously
wounded when the US Green Zone in the capital also came under rocket
fire.

The Basra crackdown is widely seen as a test of the Iraqi government's
ability to control the country.

Failure for it to do so would have implications for the continuing US
occupation, and would undermine claims by the US president, George
Bush, that Iraq is heading from civil war to political reconciliation.

The clashes have put immense strain on a ceasefire declared by Sadr in
August.

The ceasefire had been a major factor in a reduction in violence in
recent months in areas – including oil-rich Basra - in which Shia
militia have been vying for control.

Sadr yesterday threatened to declare a "civil revolt" if attacks on
his followers continued.

Major General Ali Zaidan, leading the Basra operation, said it would
"not stop until it achieves its objectives".

None of the 4,000 British troops stationed at Basra airport were
involved in yesterday's fighting.

The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, spoke out against the
non-involvement and said UK forces had "a responsibility to maintain
security and stability".


--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed, http://yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (please contribute!)
http:yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_essays




--

What do you call a Republican with a conscience?

An ex-Republican.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8827 (From Yang, AthD (h.c)

"Prosperity and peace are in the balance," -- Putsch, not admitting that he's against both

Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed (free, 10-20 articles a day)
Zepps_News-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
For essays (donations accepted, 2 articles/week)
Zepps_essays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
a.a. #2211 -- Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

no comments

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]]> Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:38:29 PDT http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/rush_limbaugh_we_re_trying_to_avoid_a_50_state_lan_56859871t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/rush_limbaugh_we_re_trying_to_avoid_a_50_state_lan_56859871t.html
BradBlog, February 21, 2008

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5717

In response to critical comments by former Republican Secretary of
State Lawrence Eagleburger, rightwing talker and self-proclaimed "Dean
of the Limbaugh Institute for Conservative Studies," Rush Limbaugh,
offered a fresh and perhaps telling explanation this morning for his
ongoing attacks on presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John
McCain.

"We're trying to avoid a fifty state landslide!" Limbaugh shouted
angrily in reply to the comments from Eagleburger, who had slammed him
and fellow Republicanist entertainer Sean Hannity of Fox "News" and
ABC Radio.

"I don't know who elected Rush Limbaugh or Hannity as the heads of
this conservative movement," Eagleburger says at the beginning of a
clip from MSNBC last night that was aired on today's radio show. "They
throw that word around as if it was theirs and theirs alone."

"I thought I was a conservative, but that doesn't mean that I have to
buy off on everything these poobahs thinks is what's necessary to be a
conservative," continued the former Sec. of State, before defending
what he sees as McCain's conservative national security credentials.

Eagleburger's slam would lead to a telling outburst in reply from
Limbaugh (full audio posted at the end of this article)...

The apparently irksome comments by the former high-ranking Republican
statesman reflects the continuing confusion and dismay among an
increasingly dispirited, disjointed and desperate Republican Party,
torn apart after seven years of what all but 19%% of America sees as
the failed Presidency of George W. Bush, coupled with the party's
inability to select a 2008 Presidential nominee perceived as being
both Conservative on all fronts and entirely flip-flopless.

On the taped portion of his comments, as aired by Limbaugh,
Eagleburger concluded by adding, "They boggle my mind in terms of what
it is they think they're doing. The whole thing is so confusing, and
so illogical that I cannot understand what they have on their minds,"
before El-Rushbo broke into his tirade.

"We're trying to win. We're trying to avoid a fifty state landslide,
Dr. Eagleburger!," Limbaugh hollered in reply. "We're trying to win!,"
he said again.

He then launched into an attack on the former State Department
official who served under Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr., and
who now serves as an analyst for MSNBC --- referred to by Limbaugh
conversely as "DNC TV" and "PMSNBC" on the program.

"We've always wanted to win!," Limbaugh continued in his defense
before releasing a huge sigh of exasperation. And then..."We don't
have a death wish!"

He went on to attack Eagleburger at length, yet again, later in the
broadcast. Limbaugh's telling admission came during the first hour of
his nationally syndicated radio broadcast this morning.

--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed, http://yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (please contribute!)
http:yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_essays



--

What do you call a Republican with a conscience?

An ex-Republican.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8827 (From Yang, AthD (h.c)

"Prosperity and peace are in the balance," -- Putsch, not admitting that he's against both

Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed (free, 10-20 articles a day)
Zepps_News-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
For essays (donations accepted, 2 articles/week)
Zepps_essays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
a.a. #2211 -- Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

no comments

Reply

]]> Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:04:32 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/uk_to_nationalize_northern_rock_56146143t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/uk_to_nationalize_northern_rock_56146143t.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/17/northernrock.nationalisation


Northern Rock to be nationalised

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Sunday February
17 2008. It was last updated at 16:34 on February 17 2008.

The Treasury today announced that the beleaguered bank Northern Rock
will be nationalised.

In a statement, Chancellor Alistair Darling said "under the current
market conditions" neither of the two private proposals delivered
"sufficient value for money to the taxpayer".

It marks the failure of the government to reach a deal with the
private sector over the future of the bank. Emergency legislation will
now be rushed through Parliament.

Mr Darling said the move met "our objective of protecting taxpayers'
interests".

He said he had been told by the Financial Services Authority that the
bank was solvent and that its mortgage book remained of good quality.

Ron Sandler, the former chief executive at Lloyd's of London, will now
run the business.


--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed, http://yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (please contribute!)
http:yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_essays




--

What do you call a Republican with a conscience?

An ex-Republican.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8827 (From Yang, AthD (h.c)

"Prosperity and peace are in the balance," -- Putsch, not admitting that he's against both

Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed (free, 10-20 articles a day)
Zepps_News-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
For essays (donations accepted, 2 articles/week)
Zepps_essays-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
a.a. #2211 -- Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

no comments

Reply

]]> Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:49:25 PST http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/alive_day_34181087t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/alive_day_34181087t.html http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082107E.shtml

War's Chilling Reality
By Bob Herbert
The New York Times

Tuesday 21 August 2007

Bryan Anderson, a 25-year-old Army sergeant who was wounded in
Iraq, was explaining, on camera - to James Gandolfini, of all people -
what happened immediately after a roadside bomb blew up the Humvee
that he was driving.

"I was like, 'Oh, we got hit. We got hit.' And then I had blood on
my face and the flies were landing all over my face. So I wiped my
face to get rid of the flies. And that is when I noticed that my
fingertip was gone. So I was like, 'Oh. O.K.'

"So that is when I started really assessing myself. I was like,
'That's not bad.' And then I turned my hand over, and I noticed that
this chunk of my hand was gone. So I was like, 'O.K., still not bad. I
can live with that.'

"And then when I went to wipe the flies on my face with my left
hand, there was nothing there. So I was like, 'Uh, that's gone.' And
then I looked down and I saw that my legs were gone. And then they had
kind of forced my head back down to the ground, hoping that I wouldn't
see."

HBO's contribution to an expanded awareness of the awful realities
of war continues with a new documentary, "Alive Day Memories: Home
From Iraq."

Mr. Gandolfini, one of the executive producers of the film, steps
out of his Tony Soprano persona to quietly, even gently, interview 10
soldiers and marines who barely escaped death in combat.

The interviews are powerful, and often chilling. They offer a
portrait of combat and its aftermath that bears no relation to the
sanitized, often upbeat version of war - not just in Iraq, but in
general - that so often comes from politicians and the news media.

Dawn Halfaker, a 28-year-old former Army captain, is among those
featured in the documentary. She lost her right arm and shoulder in
Iraq, along with any illusions she might have had about the glory of
war.

"I think I was a little bit naïve to what combat was really like,"
she told me in an interview on Sunday. "When you're training, you
don't really imagine that you could be holding a dying boy in your
arms. You don't think about what death is like close up.

"There's nothing heroic about war. It's very tragic. It's very
sad. It takes a huge emotional toll."

Still, she said, there was much about her experience in Iraq that
she was grateful for.

"Nobody in the film is asking for pity or sympathy," she said.
"We're just saying we had this experience and it changed our lives,
and we're coping with it."

The term "alive day" is being used by G.I.'s to refer to the day
that they came frighteningly close to dying from war wounds, but
somehow managed to survive. There are legions of them.

Miraculous advances in emergency medicine, communication and
transportation are enabling 90 percent of the G.I.'s wounded in Iraq
to survive their wounds, although many are facing a lifetime of
suffering.

It's become a cliché to talk about the courage of the soldiers and
marines struggling to overcome their horrendous injuries, but it's a
cliché embedded in the truth. Sergeant Anderson, a chatty onetime
athlete, is doing his best to put together a reasonably satisfactory
life without his legs or his left hand, and with a damaged right hand

He told Mr. Gandolfini, "If I didn't have my hand, if I lost both
my hands, I'd really think, you know, it wouldn't be worth it to be
around."

He has a wry take on the term "alive day."

"Everybody makes a big deal about your alive day, especially at
Walter Reed," he said. "And I can see their point, that you'd want to
celebrate something like that. But from my point of view, it's like,
'O.K., we're sitting here celebrating the worst day of my life. Great,
let's just remind me of that every year.'"

Last year HBO produced a harrowing documentary called "Baghdad
E.R." that showed the relentless effort of doctors, nurses and other
medical personnel to save as many lives as possible from what amounted
to a nonstop conveyor belt of G.I.'s wounded in combat. At the time,
Shelia Nevins, the head of documentary programming at the network,
said, "We tried to put a human face on the war."

They've done it again with "Alive Day Memories," which is
scheduled to premiere Sept. 9.

There are no politics in either production. They are neither pro-
nor anti-war.

But the intense focus on the humanity of the men and women caught
up in the chaos of Iraq, and the incredible sacrifices some of them
have had to make, is an implicit argument in favor of a more
thoughtful, cautious, less hubristic approach to matters of war and
peace.

--
"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government
talking
about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're
talking about getting a court order before we do so"
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com
For news feed, http://yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (please contribute!)
http:yahoogroups/subscribe/zepps_essays



--

One of the [Gold Star mothers], Elaine Johnson, recounted a meeting that she had with
President Bush in which he gave her a presidential coin and told her
and five other families: "Don't go sell it on eBay."

--from interview broadcast on NPR

Putsch: leading America to asymetric warfare since 2001

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.
For the finest in liberal/leftist commentary,
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For news feed (free, 10-20 articles a day)
http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/zepps_news
For essays (donations accepted, 2 articles/week)
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a.a. #2211 -- Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

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]]> Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:29:37 PDT http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/senate_passes_minimum_wage_bill_94_3_9663711t.html http://www.nnseek.com/e/talk.poliitics.misc/senate_passes_minimum_wage_bill_94_3_9663711t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/washington/02wage.html?hp&ex=1170392400&en=9176151c38ad45d9&ei...

Senate Passes Wage Bill, but Obstacles Await

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By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: February 2, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to
increase the minimum wage and give $8.3 billion in tax cuts to small
businesses.

The increase in the wage, the first in 10 years, was a victory for
Democrats, who had made it a key plank in their successful midterm
election campaign to gain control of Congress.

But despite the huge margin of the Senate vote, 94 to 3, the increase
— to $7.25 from $5.15 — must clear several hurdles before it becomes
law. Democratic leaders in the Senate face their first big conflict
with their counterparts in the House as the two chambers try to
negotiate differences between the Senate bill and the one the House
passed last month.

House Democrats promised that if they gained the majority they would
pass the increase in the minimum wage, along with ethics reform and
other measures, in their first 100 hours of legislating, and they
succeeded.

But the House bill did not include the tax breaks. House Democratic
leaders have said they want a “clean” bill that simply raises the
minimum wage.

That approach failed in the Senate last week. Democratic leaders there
say that they cannot get the Republican support they need without
adding the tax provisions.

That leaves it to the Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid of
Nevada, to negotiate with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of
California, and Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, the
chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

The House could block consideration of the bill or strip out the tax
provisions and send it back for another Senate vote.

Mr. Reid said in a meeting with reporters early Thursday that he
thought the Senate might approve a clean bill if the House sent it
back for another try. But his office later said that he did not
believe the vote count had changed and that he expected that the
differences could be worked out in negotiations.

“It’s not exactly clear what road we’re going to take,” said Senator
Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee.
But, Mr. Baucus added, “the desire to get the minimum wage passed is
going to trump” any concerns or delays in negotiations.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has
championed the bill, said it was “unrealistic” to expect that it would
simply go through the House.

Still, Mr. Kennedy said: “The minimum wage is going to go up. I wish
it was going to be tonight or tomorrow that we get it to the
president’s desk, but it is going to increase, and the only question
is whether it’s going to take perhaps a week or it’s going to take two
and a half, two weeks or so.”

Senate Republicans continued to insist that the bill would not pass
without tax breaks.

“No one should be mistaken,” said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa,
the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee. “It is House
Democrats, not Senate Republicans, who are delaying passage of the
minimum wage.”

“The easiest and quickest way to send a minimum wage bill to the
president,” Mr. Grassley said, “would be for the House to send the
Senate a bill identical to the Senate-passed bill.”

In a statement, President Bush encouraged the House to support the
increase and the tax cuts, saying it would “maintain a strong and
dynamic labor market” and promote “continued economic growth.”

Republicans argue that Democrats agreed to similar tax breaks the last
time Congress raised the minimum wage, and that they should go along
with them now to offset the costs of an increase to small businesses.

“It’s not a clean issue,” said Senator Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, the
ranking Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee. “It’s a complicated issue.”


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Posted In: talk.poliitics.misc

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