[poochee]

Huffpost - Dana Perino Nominated By Obama To Broadcasting Board Of Governors
First Posted: 11-19-09 09:55 AM | Updated: 11-19-09 01:20 PM

President Obama has nominated Dana Perino, George W. Bush's last press secretary and a frequent critic of the new administration, to a board overseeing government-sponsored international broadcasting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_363560.html

[xico]

Perverted Priorities: Obama, One Year Later / Paul Street
Barack Obama’s presidency was almost scripted by the corporate interests that backed his candidacy. A year after his election, his political trajectory is remarkably consistent with the requirements of late stage capital. “It was and is foolish, childish even, to expect progressive change from a carefully corporate-choreographed bourgeois election in the headquarters of world imperialism.”
http://www.greanvillepost.com/?p=1621

[LANMaster]

[poochee]

Senate panel notes 'red flags galore' in Fort Hood incident
The first sign of trouble was in 2007.
Updated 10h 16m ago
By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Military and FBI officials appeared to miss numerous warning signs in the months leading up to the Nov. 5 killings of 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, lawmakers said Thursday in the first congressional hearing into the incident.
The hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee kicked off a congressional push to examine laws and policies dealing with suspicious troops.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee's top Republican, said the military and the FBI failed to follow "red flags galore" about the accused killer, Maj. Nidal Hasan, 39.

The Army psychiatrist is charged with 13 counts of murder.

"It appears we did have a failure to share critical information and a failure to ask critical questions," Collins said. "It reminds me very much of the siloed information that was available throughout the federal government in different agencies before 9/11."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...te-panel_N.htm

[poochee]

November 19, 2009
House passes 'doc fix' bill previously defeated in Senate
Posted: November 19th, 2009 05:15 PM ET
CNN

The House approved the $210 billion bill on a 243-183 vote, mostly on partisan lines. Democrats called it a necessary step to address an annual problem under a 1997 formula that limits increases in Medicare reimbursement costs.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ted-in-senate/

[poochee]

November 20, 2009
Senate Ethics Committee clears Burris of legal wrongdoing
Posted: November 20th, 2009 11:36 AM ET
CNN

Washington (CNN) - The Senate Ethics Committee issued a letter Friday clearing embattled Illinois Sen. Roland Burris of any legal wrongdoing.

The committee admonished Burris, however, for failing to meet "a much higher standard of conduct."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...liticalflipper

[poochee]

November 20, 2009
Democrats slam GOP as party of 'fear' in health care debate
Obstructionists. They concentrated on trying to kill the plan from the beginning instead of contributing to the discussion.
Posted: November 20th, 2009 11:34 AM ET
CNN

Washington (CNN) – Traditional Senate decorum yielded to brass-knuckle politicking in the health care debate Friday as top congressional Democrats sought to close party ranks before a key procedural vote this weekend.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...liticalflipper

[poochee]

Sen. Nelson a 'yes' on health care test vote
November 20, 2009 12:30 PM EST | AP

The moderate lawmaker told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that he would vote with rank-and-file Democrats to move ahead on the legislation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w...h-care-nelson/

[poochee]

Holder's reasonable decision
By Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith
Jim Comey, a deputy attorney general and U.S. attorney in Manhattan during the Bush administration, is general counsel of Lockheed Martin Corp. Jack Goldsmith, an assistant attorney general during the Bush administration, teaches at Harvard Law School and is on the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law.
Friday, November 20, 2009

Reasonable minds can disagree about Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other alleged Sept. 11 perpetrators in a Manhattan federal court. But some prominent criticisms are exaggerated, and others place undue faith in military commissions as an alternative to civilian trials.

Mohammed is many things: an enemy combatant in a war against the United States whom the government can detain without trial until the conflict ends; a war criminal subject to trial by military commission under the laws of war; and someone answerable in federal court for violations of the U.S. criminal code. Which system he is placed in for purposes of incapacitation and justice involves complex legal and political trade-offs.

In deciding to use federal court, the attorney general probably considered the record of the military commission system that was established in November 2001. This system secured three convictions in eight years. The only person who had a full commission trial, Osama bin Laden's driver, received five additional months in prison, resulting in a sentence that was shorter than he probably would have received from a federal judge.

Excerpts from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...d=opinionsbox1

[LANMaster]

Can you guarantee a KSM conviction, Poochee?

[wacor]

What is crazy and have not heard anybody comment is regarding what Holder has stated about KSM. He said he was sure there would be a conviction. And if I am not mistaken I think I saw where he said he could get the death penalty. That kind of stuff is nonsense to state in public. Holder and Obama want us to show we are transparent and can give a fair trial. How on earth is it a fair trial when you state in advance you guarantee conviction and death penalty. The nutbags who hate us will still say this is a sham of a trial

[LANMaster]

Yah .... so much for "innocent until proven guilty"

It is a very poor decision by this Administration.

[poochee]

Originally Posted by LANMaster

Can you guarantee a KSM conviction, Poochee?

Can you guarantee he won't be convicted?

Ask the Bush administration. They sat on it for years because they were to chicken to move on it.

[Littlefield]

Its a real restaurant in NY .

[poochee]

Ryan Grim
Huffpost - Rep. Jackie Speier's Tough Bank Amendment Passes With Room Nearly Empty
First Posted: 11-20-09 05:34 PM | Updated: 11-20-09 06:59 PM

Don't sleep on Jackie Speier. The freshman Democrat from California came into the House Financial Services Committee room Thursday ready to fight for her long-shot amendment to limit the leverage ratio for big banks.

"I expected a roll call vote," said Speier, fresh off a star turn on the Colbert Report.

Lobbyists and committee staffers expected that the amendment -- which would mandate that banks essentially could not lend out or invest more than 12 dollars for every dollar they keep in reserve -- would only get a roll call and that it'd be soundly defeated, bounced by a coalition of Republicans and bank-friendly Democrats, who call themselves "New Democrats."

One of the two or three Republicans in the room asked for a roll call, but then quickly reconsidered and withdrew the request.

It passed by a unanimous voice vote.


Excerpts from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_365994.html