Tom Allen from Maine: "I believe it is the job of the Congress to bring our troops home, not legislate free speech."

What a concept. Tom Allen wants Congress to do its real work. The Republicans want to play political games. Still playing politics over Iraq cause that's what GOPers do. Tom Allen will make a great United States Senator:

"I respect General Petraeus and honor all of our troops. They have done a phenomenal job and done everything that we have asked of them. General Petraeus is a soldier who simply takes orders from the Commander-in-Chief, President Bush.

Unfortunately the President and his Republican allies in Congress have continued to order General Petraeus and the rest of our troops to continue fighting. What we need is a plan to bring our troops home.

I voted against this resolution today because I believe it is the job of the Congress to bring our troops home, not legislate free speech."

We will never, ever see that kind of strong statement from Bush's loyal toadie, Susan Collins. She doesn't stand for anything -- except whatever Bush says.

And, by the way, if Congress is so outraged about speech, where's the resolution condemning John Boehner's disgusting comment about the loss of life in Iraq?
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Democratic Debate Open Thread

The Democrats are in New Hampshire at a debate moderated by Tim Russert. It's live on MSNBC.

We'll be monitoring...it could get interesting. Although, I find it a lot easier to liveblog the Republicans. They're so easy to mock.

9:28 p.m. John Edwards went after Hillary Clinton hard for supporting Lieberman's Iraq resolution. Very hard. Equated her vote for that resolution with her vote for the Iraq war.

And is it me, or is Tim Russert a mess tonight? He looks like he needs a hair wash and a hair cut...and he's sweating up a storm...

9:36 p.m. The Democratic answers on immigration are so much more reasonable, sensible and human then the immigrant bashing that occurs at GOP debates.

9:52 p.m. Health care. Wow. That was a tough go-round. The knives were out for Clinton on that one. Health care clearly is the most important domestic issue. And Biden with that "old stuff" about Bill Clinton in the 90s...hmmm, that "old stuff" was political.

10:00 p.m. Gay question. Couched in the guise of a controversy about a story for second graders. Keep in mind that in New England, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont all have civil unions. Massachusetts allows gay marriage. Edwards, Obama and Clinton were asked. Obama and Edwards gave very strong answers. Clinton's wasn't quite as clear.

10:29 p.m. Okay, Social Security..I get the reasons for that discussion obviously. Maybe even the smoking question given its significance as a health issue. But do the Presidential candidates really need to weigh in on the drinking age?

10:46 p.m. So, trick question from Russert about torture using a quote from Bill Clinton that appeared to condone torture. But, Tim didn't tell them the quote was from Bill. Again, the answers on torture from Democrats are so different than what we'd hear from the GOPers.

Okay, that's over.

And the correct answer to the last question was, of course, Red Sox. The magic number is 2. Read More......

Two more provisions of Patriot Act found unconstitutional

Another defeat for George Bush's effort to destroy our basic civil liberties. A federal judge actually believes in the Constitution:

Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.

This is the second time in a month that a judge found parts of the Patriot Act were unconstitutional. Read More......

Air travelers still seeking help

I don't know what it's going to take to make airlines give back a bit of space because it's a miserable experience flying with just about any airline in terms of leg room and reasonable comfort. Maybe more research studies that prove the ill effects of flying might help but the airline industry will probably need something a lot more forceful such as a class action lawsuit to move since they are so unresponsive to consumer demands but after the lavish taxpayer handouts US airlines received from Congress after 9/11 the industry thinks they can do just about anything and get away with it. What an unresponsive industry.

People who fly are more than three times more likely to develop deep vein thrombosis, according to a study of regular travellers. Researchers, funded by the government and the EU, also found that travellers who are obese or particularly short or tall, women using the pill, and under-30s were most at risk. They said airlines should create more adjustable seats with more leg room for the tallest people to prevent DVT.

The study, which followed nearly 9,000 business people for five years, concludes that on average the condition occurs once in every 4,656 individual journeys. "It clearly shows this could be prevented if seats were adjustable or there was more space," said Suzanne Cannegieter at Leiden University Medical Centre.

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No decision in Craig's court case -- and he may be staying in the Senate

Larry Craig had his day in court, but got no decision yet:

Sen. Larry Craig's lawyers appeared in court Wednesday afternoon seeking to overturn his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting. But a judge made no immediate decision, saying he would issue a ruling no sooner than the end of next week.

And, if there's no decision, Larry's hanging around the Senate:

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig said this week he won't resign until "legal determinations" are made, CNN reported Wednesday.

If his hearing Wednesday in Minnesota doesn't result in a fast and determinant action, that could mean Craig won't resign by his self-imposed deadline of this Sunday.

CNN further quotes a "political source involved in discussions about the case," who said "Craig has made it clear he wants to find a way to stay in office."

This must make Mitch McConnell so happy. Read More......

David Brooks to the blue courtesy phone

I really, really wanted to avoid jumping on the Brooks-hating bandwagon this week -- not because it's not deserved, but just on a don't-feed-the-trolls theory. Plus, others have done a great job of eviscerating what was a truly stupid column about how Hillary's lead in the polls demonstrates that Dems are becoming more hawkish. See the links for a full shredding of this idea (especially, as always, Glenn's over at Salon).

But there is something that for some reason hasn't gotten mentioned, as least not that I've seen: Many, many Democrats who support Hillary erroneously think she's planning to remove all troops from Iraq within nine months.

Hillary's in the lead not *due to* her position on Iraq, but rather, one could persuasively argue based on this polling, because people are *projecting upon her a position she does not hold* (note to Mr. Brooks: polls are where opinions are determined empirically, which I admit is less efficient than just deciding everybody agrees with you, but almost certainly more accurate in the end).

Now, admittedly I'm somewhat less concerned with the evasion about final numbers than are others, and I think reasonable people can disagree about the appropriate pace of withdrawal (at least between "soon" and "really really soon"). But a much more interesting -- and intellectually honest -- column could have been about whether her support would be where it is if people fully understood her position. Instead, we get David Brooks on how everybody agrees with David Brooks. Read More......

GOP Senator Larry Craig goes before judge today to overturn his gay bathroom sex conviction

You just can't pay to be given headlines like that. Read More......

Is Gatorade junk food?

There's a debate in Congress, and elsewhere I suspect, as to whether drinks like Gatorade, that have a surprisingly large quantity of sugar and salt, are junk food. This is something I've been concerned about for a while - the level of salt in our packaged food. I only started looking at salt a few years ago, when mom mentioned that fat and calories weren't the only things to watch out for on food labels. I used to be a regular drinker of V-8, two fine glasses a day, until I read the fine print - 480 mg of salt per serving, meaning those two fine glasses of "pure" vegetables were giving me 40% of my daily recommended salt intake (there is a low-sodium version that's pretty disgusting).



Then there's cottage cheese, another "health food." Mom ruined that one for me too, when she showed me that I was eating 911 grams of sodium with each one cup serving - again, a good 40% of my daily required salt intake in "healthy" cottage cheese.

What is it with our country and the crap these companies put in our food? From trans fats to insane amounts of sugar (do Coke and Pepsi really need that much sugar? and why won't they ever make a half-sugar half-artificial-sweetener version? it's not bad) to Sodom and Gomorrah-like quantities of salt, the food industry is killing us. Congress should regulate these bastards more than they do now, and people should sue anyone who puts 40% of your recommended daily salt intake in a single serving of anything. When health food needs a warning label, you know we're in trouble. Read More......

Bush reportedly told Spanish PM that we'd invade Baghdad whether or not Saddam complied with UN weapons inspections

So, the war didn't happen because Saddam wouldn't comply. It happened because Bush and the Republicans wanted it to happen no matter what, whether or not it was necessary. Read More......

NSA 'may not realize' it collected info on innocent Americans, top US spy says

Come on now, I mean who HASN'T illegally spied on scores of innocent Americans at one time or another in their life? Read More......

UAW and GM settle strike

The UAW strike against General Motors is over. They've come up with a plan to deal with retiree health benefits:

The company is carrying some $50 billion in unfunded retiree health obligations on its books, a liability that GM executives contend has helped make the company less competitive against foreign manufacturers like Toyota. The Japanese auto giant is expected to supplant GM this year as the worlds largest car maker.

Under the agreement, responsibility for the retiree health plan will shift to a Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association managed by the union. Details about how the VEBA will be funded have not been disclosed. But it is expected to involve a one-time payment from GM that would give the union adequate capital to invest and pay for retiree benefits, while reducing the company's future annual expenses by billions of dollars. Implementation of the retiree health trust is to be monitored by a judge and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a statement released this morning by GM.

At a Detroit news conference, UAW president Ronald A. Gettelfinger said the memorandum of understanding outlining the health fund would secure retiree health benefits for decades to come.

"We've got it secure and in place," he said, according to the Detroit News.

The UAW is looking out for the health care needs of its retirees, as it should.

Meanwhile, Bush, by vowing to veto the S-CHIP legislation, is making sure that children in America don't have access to health care. Creating quite the legacy. Read More......

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Get it started. Read More......

Myanmar police fire warning shots and arrest monks

With the non-violent protests by Buddhist monks growing, the military junta announced an end to public gatherings and an early curfew, hoping to quell the uprising. 10,000 people ignored the threats and marched again in Yangon today with various reports of warning shots, arrests and beatings by the police.

UPDATE: CNN reporting 5 demonstrators killed today including at least one monk. Read More......

Iraq or American children?

Are we really having this debate? If we can afford 41 more days in Iraq we sure can afford to support our own children or else we're in serious trouble as a country. Read More......

At least Canada still offers oversite and cares about privacy

Our government sure doesn't. Any normal person would think that the theft of 45 million credit and debit cards might warrant a serious investigation, with the public deserving a clear answer but how silly that normal person would be. No, these are different times and nobody really gives a damn any more. Thanks to the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, we now have some answers on the TJX (owners of TJ Maxx, Marshalls) on this incredible loss of personal data.

TJX disclosed the breach in January, but the company and U.S. government investigators have yet to publicly disclose how they believe intruders initially broke into TJX's systems in a theft that exposed at least 45 million credit and debit cards to potential fraud.

"The company collected too much personal information, kept it too long and relied on weak encryption technology to protect it -- putting the privacy of millions of its customers at risk," said Stoddart, who announced the findings at an information security conference in Montreal on Tuesday.

Why did the US government feel it had to side with TJX instead of siding with the 45 million who were victim to corporate incompetence? This tired routine of always protecting business instead of consumers is really getting old. If the corporate world wants to be casual with the personal data of 45 million people, the public has a right to know about it and we shouldn't have to find out from another country what is going on in our own. What ever happened to Hillary's initiative on personal privacy? It seemed to die on the vine ages ago. Read More......

Open thread

I am up way too late. Leaving for an MTV/MySpace presidential thing tomorrow in NH (the actual event is Thursday). Then heading to NYC for the weekend - no plans friday day if anyone wants to do the AMERICAblog coffee thing, though I suspect people have real jobs... Anyway, more on the presidential trip when the sun rises. Read More......