National:Was That The US Congress?
Republicans voted to force a debate on the Cheney impeachment measure last week. Then Democrats voted to refer to the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman John Conyers has expressed his reluctance to take the matter up. Republicans wanted an immediate vote with hopes to spark a HOUSE floor fight. The vote took about an hour.
Republican lawmakers credited Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) for coming up with the idea to try and make the Dems look bad by debating the issue of a Cheney impeachment. Like any spotlight under Cheney’s rock would be bad.The House Judiciary Committee released this statement on the Kucinich resolution to impeach Cheney.
Here is the Impeachment process broken down (like the brokeback dems would actually use this)
Wiretapping
Wiretapping whistle-blower, former AT&T technician Mark Klein is in Washington to tell his story and persuade lawmakers not to grant legal immunity to telecoms that helped the government spy. Klein has been trying to tell his story since 2004. Here is the whole report Mark Klein wrote WITH THE SCHEMATICS of the room AT&T used and the diagrams he used to route the splitters.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will be delaying the vote on telecom immunity until next week. To make the legislation easier to manage, the Committee only marked up Title I last week. Immunity is in Title II.
U.S. Military In Iraq Braces For An al-Qaida Comeback
Like many in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the U.S. commander for Baghdad, senses that insurgents are down but not out, despite a drop in violence across the country. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the umbrella insurgent group of Sunni militants, no longer has a foothold in Baghdad, Fil said. But he believes the organization's fighters remain poised to reassert themselves. "Al-Qaeda, though on the ropes, is not finished by any means," said Fil, speaking to reporters in Baghdad. "They could come back swinging if they're allowed to. In fact, we've seen it." Fil said areas of Baghdad that have previously been havens for Sunni militants can and have quickly become insurgent territory again if U.S. and Iraqi security forces are not watchful.
$5 GAS IN CA...
Gasoline prices continue to rise day by day on the Central Coast and elsewhere in the state. Premium is being offered at $5 a gallon in Gorda.Crude oil prices hit an all-time high Wednesday, topping $98 a barrel. Analysts said with worldwide oil demand rising, it is still not clear just how high prices will go.
Dow Drops 360 Points This Week On Continued Pressures
“We’re getting hammered from all sides today," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
“We’ve had all of these same pressures for a while: higher oil, inflation and slowing corporate earnings. All of a sudden it seemed to matter more to us," said Steve Sachs, director of trading at Rydex Investments.The U.S. dollar, which has fallen significantly since the Federal Open Market Committee cut the nation's key interest rate in September, once again fell against the major currencies.
The euro hit a new all-time high against the dollar at $1.4729 earlier on Wednesday.Concerns that China may seek to diversify its investments in foreign currencies added to the dollar's troubles.
The falling dollar will be another factor the Fed will have to examine when deciding on interest rates in December.“The real issue has become the dollar. It puts the Fed between a rock and a hard place now," said Pado. Read the full story here...
World:
Sarkozy Says Dollar Drop Risks Triggering Trade War
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a joint session of the U.S. Congress the Bush administration must stem the dollar's plunge or risk triggering a trade war.
``The dollar cannot remain `someone else's problem,''' Sarkozy said today on Capitol Hill. ``If we are not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be its victims.''
Sarkozy's complaints that the U.S. currency's drop against the euro is undermining European competitiveness struck a discordant note in a summit intended to demonstrate an improving U.S.-French relationship. His comments came as the euro surged to a record high against the dollar. The currency touched $1.4731 today, a 65 percent gain since the end of 2001.
Concern that the euro is too strong has been a Sarkozy theme since his presidential campaign earlier this year. Since his May 6 election, he has urged European Central Bank officials to lower interest rates to weaken the currency. Read on
Washington Fears Israeli Strike Against Iran Over Latest Nuclear Claim...
A claim by President Ahmadinejad that Iran has 3,000 working uranium-enriching centrifuges sent a tremor across the world yesterday amid fears that Israel would respond by bombing the country’s nuclear facilities. Military sources in Washington said that the existence of such a large number could be a “tipping point”, triggering an Israeli air strike. The Pentagon is reluctant to take military action against Iran, but officials say that Israel is a “different matter”. Amid the international uproar, British MPs who were to have toured the nuclear facility were backing out of their Iran trip.
Cloning: A Giant Step
A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys, raising the prospect of the same procedure being used to make cloned human embryos.
In Other News...
DC Tax Embezzlement: Workers Steal $20M+ Over 6 Years
Rudy Giuliani refused to say if he’d consider pardoning his old friend Bernie Kerik - who was indicted Thursday on federal corruption charges - if elected President.” “It wouldn’t be fair to ask that question at this point,” Giuliani said.
In a 53-40 vote last Thursday, the Senate confirmed Judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general, despite criticism of his refusal to explicitly call waterboarding torture. Six Democrats voted for Mukasey.
Michael Hirsh writes in Newsweek, Condoleezza Rice is, by her own admission, not ‘that self-reflective.’ But in an interview in her office on Thursday the secretary of state took a moment to contemplate the improved security situation in Iraq. “I’m sure there are lots of things we might have done better ,” she said.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the “economy was going to get worse before it got better, a message that received a chilly reception from both Wall Street and politicians.” He said the economy was about to “slow noticeably,” adding inflation was likely to “increase overall.”
“House leaders are pressing the Senate Democrats to force Republicans to stage more filibusters” when they use procedural maneuvers to block passage of bills. “That is the only way you can give Americans a a clear view of who is obstructing change,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said.
'24' producer: Hillary as president is 'nuts'
Hollywood producer Joel Surnow dismissed as “nuts” the notion that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton can be elected president and said he and other conservatives in the entertainment industry are leaning toward supporting Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign.
Musharraf declines to give date for end of emergency rule...
From The Right: Doug Giles: Hillary Will Kill Your Cat Listen, my persnickety friends on the Right: You can bust a nut over the various serious and not so serious foibles and philosophies of Rudy, Romney, Fred and John, but for moi the Republican gentleman who gets our party’s nod, whoever he is, will get my vote come November ‘08.
From The Left: Joby Warrick : Pakistan Nuclear Security Questioned When the United States learned in 2001 that Pakistani scientists had shared nuclear secrets with members of al-Qaeda, an alarmed Bush administration responded with tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment... to safeguard Pakistan's nuclear weapons. But Pakistan remained suspicious of US aims and declined to give US experts direct access to the half-dozen or so bunkers where the components of its arsenal of about 50 nuclear weapons are stored. For the officials in Washington now monitoring Pakistan's deepening political crisis, the experience offered both reassurance and grounds for concern.
Quote Of The Day: "I don’t — you know quagmire is an interesting word. If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you’d be saying: God, I love freedom, because that’s what’s happened. And there are killers and radicals and murderers who kill the innocent to stop the advance of freedom. But freedom’s happening in Iraq. And we’re making progress." G. W Bush
(Sources: Bloomberg, TimesOnline, BaltimoreSun, LATimes, TheHill, FOXBusiness, Independent, NYDailyNews, WashingtonTimes, USHouseOfRepresentatives, WashingtonPost, Wired, NYT, USSenate, Newsweek, TheHill, TownHall, TruthOut)
