BREAKING: Reid To Force All-Night Filibuster On Iraq Withdrawal
BREAKING: Reid To Force All-Night Filibuster On Iraq Withdrawal
Moments ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that in response to conservative obstructionism, he plans to force war supporters to physically remain in the Senate and filibuster Iraq withdrawal legislation.
Reid accused conservatives of “protecting the President rather than protecting our troops” by “denying us an up or down vote on the most important issue our country faces.” He said that if a vote on the Reed/Levin Iraq legislation is not allowed today or tomorrow, he will keep the Senate in session “straight through the night on Tuesday” and force a filibuster. From Reid’s speech:
Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end. They are protecting the President rather than protecting our troops.
They are denying us an up or down — yes or no — vote on the most important issue our country faces.
I would like to inform the Republican leadership and all my colleagues that we have no intention of backing down.
If Republicans do not allow a vote on Levin/Reed today or tomorrow, we will work straight through the night on Tuesday.
The American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and they deserve an up or down vote on this amendment to end it.
UPDATE: Watch the video:
OpenLeft, Firedoglake and others have also called for Congress to call the conservatives’ bluff and force them to filibuster the Levin-Reed Iraq bill.
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Flynt tracking 20 congressional sex scandals leads.
Flynt tracking 20 congressional sex scandals leads.
“Larry Flynt, the porn-industry magnate who first linked Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to the escort service of the ‘D.C. Madam,’ said Wednesday that his investigators are tracking more than 20 leads on alleged congressional sex scandals.”
As Vitter remained missing in action for two Senate votes on defense policy, Flynt insisted that he exposed the conservative lawmaker’s sexual indiscretions only because they contradicted Vitter’s longtime defense of the “sanctity of marriage.”
“If someone’s living a life contrary to the way they’re advocating … then they become fair game,” Flynt told reporters. “I don’t want a man like that legislating for me, especially in the area of morality.”
Snow: ‘There Is No Debate Right Now On Withdrawing Forces’ From Iraq
Snow: ‘There Is No Debate Right Now On Withdrawing Forces’ From Iraq
The New York Times reported today that White House officials are heatedly debating whether President Bush “should try to prevent more defections” of Republican war supporters by announcing a “gradual withdrawal” of U.S. troops from certain areas of Iraq.
But in comments to reporters this morning, White House spokesman Tony Snow insisted that the administration is still committed to staying the course:
“There is no debate right now on withdrawing forces right now from Iraq,” Snow said.
“The president has said many times that as conditions require and merit that there will be in fact withdrawals and also pulling back from areas of Baghdad and so on,” the press secretary said. “But the idea of trying to make a political judgment rather than a military judgment about how to have forces in the field is simply not true.”
Indeed, according to Robert Novak, the administration is actively trying to reverse the trend among conservative senators, with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley making visits to Capitol Hill to lay the groundwork for blaming a “depleted U.S. military” for the failure of Bush’s escalation strategy:
Hadley called his expedition a “scouting trip,” leading one senator to ask what he was seeking. It was not advice on how to escape from Iraq. Hadley appeared interested in how previous supporters had drifted from Bush’s course. In the process, he planted seeds of concern. Some senators were left with the impression the White House still does not recognize the scope of the Iraq dilemma. Worse yet, they see Bush running out the clock until April, when a depleted U.S. military will be blamed for the fiasco.
Novak adds that Hadley’s visit to the Hill “increased latent fears of the U.S. military being made the fall guy — a concern shared by many retired and some active senior officers, including a current infantry division commander.”
9/11 families decry McConnell obstructionism.
9/11 families decry McConnell obstructionism.
A group of family members of September 11 victims today called out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for blocking legislation that would implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations. The bill has already passed the House and Senate; McConnell is refusing to let it move to be signed by the President. “It is long overdue for passage and as a consequence, American lives remain at risk,” they write.
Read their full letter below: More »
Senators Say They Will Call On Patrick Fitzgerald To Testify
Senators Say They Will Call On Patrick Fitzgerald To Testify
Today on CNN’s Late Edition, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the committee’s top Republican, announced that they were interested in calling Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to testify about the CIA leak investigation.
Specter said he wanted Fitzgerald to appear so he could press him to justify the CIA leak investigation. “Why were they pursuing the matter long after there was no underlying crime on the outing of the CIA agent?” Specter said, echoing the common right-wing talking point. “Why were they pursuing it after we knew who the leaker was?”
Leahy, on the other hand, is apparently more interested in learning more about Fitzgerald’s interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Watch it:
As for calling Scooter Libby to testify, Leahy said it was a dead end. “It would do no good to call Scooter Libby. His silence has been bought and paid for,” he said, referring to Bush’s commutation, “and he would just take the fifth.”
Transcript: More »
Conyers Raises Specter Of Impeachment, Highlights Support For Removing Bush And Cheney
Conyers Raises Specter Of Impeachment, Highlights Support For Removing Bush And Cheney
This morning on ABC’s This Week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) highlighted the new American Research Group poll showing that nearly half of Americans want the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush, and 54 percent favor impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Conyers today about new reports that the White House will refuse new congressional requests for documents about the U.S. Attorney firings.
Conyers decried the administration’s stonewalling, adding, “We’re hoping that as the cries for the removal of both Cheney and Bush now reach 46 percent and 58 percent [sic - 54 percent], respectively, for impeachment that we could begin to become a little bit more cooperative, if not amicable, in trying to get to the truth of these matters.” Watch it:
Stephanopoulos responded, “I’m surprised you put impeachment on the table there. Are you open to pursuing that?” Conyers said he was not putting it “on the table,” merely pointing out the views of the American people.
Transcript: More »
Military killed ‘key al Qaeda leader’ twice.
Military killed ‘key al Qaeda leader’ twice.
“The U.S. command in Baghdad this week ballyhooed the killing of a key al Qaeda leader but later admitted that the military had declared him dead a year ago. A military spokesman acknowledged the mistake after it was called to his attention by The Examiner. He said public affairs officers will be more careful in announcing significant kills.”
Gore: Libby Had ‘Knowledge That Could Incriminate His Bosses In The White House’
Gore: Libby Had ‘Knowledge That Could Incriminate His Bosses In The White House’
This morning on NBC’s Today show, Vice President Al Gore called last week’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence “very disappointing” and “improper,” specifically highlighting the fact that Libby had “knowledge that could incriminate his bosses in the White House which included the vice president and the president.”
Asked how Bush’s commutation was different than some of President Clinton’s pardons, Gore said, “Well it’s different because in this case the person involved is charged with activities that involve knowledge of what his superiors in the White House did.” Watch it:
Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney authorized leaks of classified national security information to the media to defend the Iraq invasion, and Cheney wrote notes on Joseph Wilson’s original Iraq op-ed asking, “[D]id his wife send him on a junket?” But the full extent of their direct involvement in the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity remains unknown.
As the New York Times opined last week:
Presidents have the power to grant clemency and pardons. But in this case, Mr. Bush did not sound like a leader making tough decisions about justice. He sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.
On the day of Libby’s guilty verdict, juror Denis Collins famously told reporters, “It was said a number of times, ‘What are we doing with this guy here? Where’s [Karl] Rove … where are these other guys?‘”
Transcript: More »
Breaking:
Federal Doolittle probe digging deeper.
Federal Doolittle probe digging deeper.
“Federal prosecutors have recently contacted as many as a half dozen former aides to Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), seeking information from them in their investigation of the Roseville Republican’s association with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
Scooter Libby,
Wall Street Journal reporters stage ‘walk-out.’
Wall Street Journal reporters stage ‘walk-out.’
WSJ reporters “across the country chose not to show up to work this morning” to protest the potential sale of Dow Jones to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. The paper’s “long tradition of independence…is threatened today,” a press release states.
UPDATE: Eat the Press has more.
FLASHBACK: Bush Awards Iraqis Their Sovereignty — ‘Let Freedom Reign!’
FLASHBACK: Bush Awards Iraqis Their Sovereignty — ‘Let Freedom Reign!’
Three years ago today, the U.S. officially transfered sovereignty to Iraq in a “secretive ceremony” that was moved up two days “to thwart insurgents’ attempts at undermining the transfer.” The AP wrote at the time, “U.S. occupiers…wished them prosperity and handed them a staggering slate of problems — including a lethal insurgency the Americans admit they underestimated.”
Other notable moments from memory lane:
“The Iraqi people have their country back,” President Bush said at a NATO summit in Istanbul, Turkey. [...]
Bush, whose Iraq policy has drawn criticism abroad and, more recently, at home, was passed a note from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that put it this way: “Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign.”
Bush wrote “Let freedom reign!” on the note and passed it back, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
A few hours later, U.S. viceroy Paul Bremer, who had ruled the country for 14 months, “snuck out of the country” with a goodbye wave. Bremer had reporters photograph him entering the Air Force C-130 pictured above for the ceremony, “but after the Iraqis leave, because of security concerns, [he] gets out of that plane and moves to, I think it was a Gulfstream IV that then flies him out.”
858 U.S. soldiers had been killed in Iraq at that point. As of today, the number is 3,570.
UPDATE: A copy of Rice’s note:
You can see this photo and much more in our updated timeline of the Iraq war.
Key cloture vote on Senate immigration bill
Key cloture vote on Senate immigration bill
has failed. Only 46 senators voted to continue with debate on the legislation, short of the 60 needed.
UPDATE: Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA): “It is now clear that we are not going to complete our work on immigration reform. That is enormously disappointing for Congress and for the country.”
Vote to defund Cheney this morning.
Vote to defund Cheney this morning.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s (D-IL) amendment to restrict the $4.75 million budget for the Vice President’s Office will be voted on today, with debate beginning around 11:30 AM. (Read the text of the legislation HERE.) In a statement this morning, Emanuel addressed Cheney’s supposed reversal yesterday:
As you know, the Vice President previously claimed he was exempt from an executive order governing classified materials because his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.” Yesterday, the Vice President changed his argument, saying he remained exempt from the order because he is a member of the executive branch.
While the excuses may have changed, the Vice President’s willingness to ignore the rules remains just as strong as ever. Democrats are prepared to hold the Vice President accountable and ensure that no one in our government is above the law.
A graph from Emanuel:
Gonzales ‘overzealous’ about death penalty.
Gonzales ‘overzealous’ about death penalty.
“Paul K. Charlton, one of nine U.S. attorneys fired last year, told members of Congress yesterday that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has been overzealous in ordering federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, including in an Arizona murder case in which no body had been recovered.”
Justice Department officials had branded Charlton, the former U.S. attorney in Phoenix, disloyal because he opposed the death penalty in that case. But Charlton testified yesterday that Gonzales has been so eager to expand the use of capital punishment that the attorney general has been inattentive to the quality of evidence in some cases — or the views of the prosecutors most familiar with them.
“No decision is more important for a prosecutor than whether or not to . . . deliberately and methodically take a life,” Charlton said. “And that holds true for the attorney general.”
Bush’s domestic surveillance targets remain unknown.
Bush’s domestic surveillance targets remain unknown.
Glenn Greenwald responds to the New York Times’ assertion this morning that President Bush’s domestic surveillance activities “appear so far to have been aimed at mostly people believed to pose a terrorist threat, not a political threat.”
This passage…is simply misleading. There is no basis whatsoever for claiming that Bush’s NSA warrantless (and illegal) eavesdropping activities were “aimed at mostly people believed to pose a terrorist threat, not a political threat.” It is true — as [reporter Scott] Shane writes — that “there is no evidence” that the administration used its eavesdropping powers against, say, political opponents, but that fact is not exculpatory, because there is “no evidence” at all, one way or the other, regarding how the administration eavesdropped.
There has been no disclosure by the administration of any kind — not to Congress, nor to courts, nor to anyone else — of information revealing who was subjected to the administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program, a program which (by its terms and by design) was conducted in complete secrecy.
Read Greenwald’s full essay.
Ret. Gen. John Batiste:
CNN covers CNN covering Paris Hilton.
CNN covers CNN covering Paris Hilton.
“Talk about milking the story,” HuffPost’s Rachel Sklar writes. “CNN covered Paris Hilton arriving at CNN studios for her interview with Larry King.”
Wolf Blitzer cut his interview with Bill Cosby about inner city poverty to throw over to Carol Costello who was ‘watching another story’ — the story being the live shot of Paris Hilton getting out of her car.
As Costello voice-overed (”Paris Hilton is just arriving at the CNN studios…She’s arriving for an exclusive interview with our own Larry King”), the chyron similarly announced that “Paris Hilton Arrives For Post-Jail Interview With CNN’s Larry King” (a glorious event which was apparently “Happening Now”). How many “The Most Trusted Name In News” jokes can you make before it just makes you sad?
Gonzales to testify again.
Gonzales to testify again.
“Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is heading back to Capitol Hill — to testify again. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Gonzales originally agreed to appear before his committee on July 18, but then asked to reschedule. Leahy said he hopes Gonzales will agree to appear on July 26, although no date has been confirmed. Leahy said he’ll now provide the attorney general with some questions in advance of his appearance, ‘so that he won’t dodge 60 or 70 times by saying “I don’t remember,”‘ a clear reference to Gonzales’ evasiveness in his last testimony.”
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