The House Appropriations Committee “has voted to block a Dubai company from taking control of some U.S. port operations, defying a veto threat by President Bush,” CBS News reports.

UPDATE: AP has details, and adds that Senate conservatives led by Majority Leader Frist blocked a Senate vote “on a proposal that would prevent the company from owning or operating U.S. ports.”

John McCain presents himself as a reformer, particularly in the area of lobbying reform. From Fox News Sunday, 1/22/06:

[L]obbying is out of control. But the reason why the lobbying is out of control is because of the process, the system that prevails here on Capitol Hill… We need to have the lobbying reform. We need to close those loopholes.

Behind the scenes McCain is slow-rolling real reform and pumping lobbyists on K-Street for big contributions. From The Hill:

Good-government advocacy groups working on lobbying reform say their longtime ally Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has played a smaller leadership role on the issue than they had expected. McCain’s lower-than-hoped-for profile on the sensitive subject coincides with what prominent lobbyists describe as a quiet effort by his political team to court inside-the-Beltway donors… McCain has been reaching out to K Street to strengthen his national fundraising network.

All aboard the Straight-Talk Express!

More on Sen. Pat Roberts — Chairman of the Senate Cover-up Committee — HERE.

“The discovery of executed people — sometimes from an entire family, often with their hands bound, their mouths gagged and shot in the head — has become commonplace.” – Washington Post, 3/8/06 (Via AS)

Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee led by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) voted to block an investigation into the NSA’s warrantless domestic spying program and made a deal with the White House to produce legislation allowing “wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.” Ranking Member Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) called the move “proof that the White House controls the Intelligence Committee.”

This isn’t the first time Pat Roberts has covered up for the Bush administration. Far from it.

Pat Roberts has been instrumental in the cover-up of virtually every national security scandal of George W. Bush’s presidency. ThinkProgress has produced a comprehensive report showing how Roberts and his Senate Cover-up Committee have obstructed investigations into everything from false Iraq intelligence to detainee torture to the CIA leak scandal.

Check it out HERE.

runs away from sweeping abortion ban. “Gov. Mike Rounds emphasized Wednesday that the legislation he signed into law ‘isn’t my bill‘” and if it faces a referendum this fall, he won’t “actively campaign either way” on the issue.

Vanity Fair is set to publish an in-depth interview with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff sheds new light on his close relationships with top conservatives, including some not typically associated with the Abramoff scandals like Ken Mehlman and Newt Gingrich. Some choice quotes:

On President Bush:

President Bush, who claims not to remember having his picture taken with Abramoff. According to Abramoff, at one time, the president joked with Abramoff about his weight lifting past: “What are you benching, buff guy?”

On former Rove deputy Ken Mehlman:

According to documents obtained by Vanity Fair, Mehlman exchanged e-mail with Abramoff, and did him political favors (such as preventing Clinton administration alumnus Allen Stayman from keeping a State Department job), had Sabbath dinner at Abramoff’s house, and offered to pick up Abramoff’s tab at Signatures, Abramoff’s own restaurant.

On Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX):

Abramoff has “admired Tom DeLay and his family from the first meeting with him,” he tells Margolick. “We would sit and talk about the Bible. We would sit and talk about opera. We would sit and talk about golf,” Abramoff recalls. “I mean, we talked about philosophy and politics.”

Read more

Yesterday on Hardball, Chris Matthews revealed that a well-placed source told him Cheney was set on invading Iraq as soon as he was elected Vice President. Watch it:

Transcript:

Let me not let one guy off the hook here, that’s Cheney, Bob. I talked to someone last night who knows better about this than anybody — off the record — who told me the first thing Cheney wanted when he got the vice presidency, during the transition of 2000, what he wanted was not a briefing on the world, all he wanted to know about, where do we stand in Iraq? He was keyed on that decision from day one, long before 9-11, and it certainly looks like these guys weren’t surprised by the decision to go to Iraq. They had it in their mind ahead of time.

While Matthews didn’t name his source, former administration officials also claim plans to invade Iraq preceeded 9/11.

New Jersey Assemblyman Peter Biondi (R) wants to ban anonymous online speech. Biondi has introduced a bill “that would require Internet forum operators to register their users’ real names and addresses or face liability for defamatory posts.” One problem: NJ’s Supreme Court has ruled banning anonymous online speech unconstitutional.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) “threatened to write legislation to limit funding for the [warrantless surveillance] program if he can’t get more information about it.” “If we cannot find some political solution to the disagreement with the executive branch, our ultimate power is the power of the purse,” Specter said.

$5.9 billion: The amount spent per month in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal notes, “War costs are rising despite Pentagon estimates of lower personnel costs.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus will introduce a plan today, dubbed the Common Sense Budget Act, to divert $60 billion in defense spending to humanitarian assistance, social programs, energy conservation, homeland security and deficit reduction.

More than 9,000 truckers are given cards to handle cargo at the ports of New York and New Jersey, giving them access to all areas of the ports. But a new Homeland Security report found that more than half of the truckers had criminal records and nearly 500 had bogus driver’s licenses. Read more