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Senate Democrats are going to be working over the Christmas break to deliver a lump of coal to the American people in the form of a radical changing of the Senate's rules. This is a naked power grab by liberals in the Senate pure and simple. The National Journal reports that Senate Democrats are laying the groundwork to chip away at the filibuster on January 5, 2011. They are going to push the idea that a simple majority of the Senate can abolish the filibuster rules, or radically change the rules, in a new Congress. Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/filibuster/2010/12/23/senate-democrats-poised-power-grab#ixzz190FZDuFW

The New START treaty has just passed the Senate, 71 to 26. The treaty needed 67 votes for ratification. UPDATE: Thirteen Republicans voted to ratify the treaty: Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Bob Bennett (Utah), Scott Brown (Mass.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Johnny Isakson (Georgia), Mike Johanns (Nebraska), Richard Lugar (Indiana), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Olympia Snowe (Maine), and George Voinovich (Ohio).

A blogger who specializes in outing “closeted” gay political figures claims that evidence of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.)’s homosexual lifestyle is about to be released. “I wonder if Lindsey Graham knows I have pictures of a man who spent the night at his house,” blogger Michael Rogers recently tweeted. A later tweet from Rogers indicated that he was meeting with an attorney on December 21 to discuss the release of the alleged pictures. On his website, BlogActive, Rogers writes that the meeting with his attorney indeed took place and that a letter has been sent to Graham’s office. “I’ve...

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, says Federal Communications Commission should be renamed the "Fabricating a Crisis Commission," following a vote by the panel's three Democrats to approve proposed rules that amount to a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally. The proposal - misleadingly described by proponents as an attempt to insure "net neutrality" by guaranteeing equal access to the Internet - was introduced a year ago by Julius Genachowski, President Obama's appointee as FCC chairman. A federal court has ruled that the commission has no authority to regulate the Internet, and a bipartisan group of senators...

Washington (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday led jubilant legislators and soldiers discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in singing "God Bless America" to celebrate the upcoming repeal of the controversial law. President Barack Obama will sign the repeal bill on Wednesday, and Pelosi did her part at the ceremony attended by hundreds of supporters of the repeal by signing the measure passed by Congress to send it to the White House. The "don't ask, don't tell" policy enacted in 1993 banned openly gay and lesbian soldiers from military service. More than 14,000 military members have...

Republican opposition to New START is collapsing. One Senate source just told me the vote for ratification could go as high as 75. Another said, “I don’t know if it will get that high, but it’s starting to tick up there.” As the sense builds that ratification is inevitable, Republicans are lining up to get on the “right side.” Lamar Alexander’s support, noted below, is a crucial sign of which way the wind is blowing, although he’ll probably be the only member of the Republican leadership to vote for it. At least Jon Kyl was able to get more money...

After basically evading reporters all day, the Massachusetts Republican recently announced that he will support the arms reduction treaty. Brown told reporters following a closed-session intelligence briefing that he had given the issue “due diligence” and hoped see the treaty ratified. “I believe it’s something that’s important for our country, and I believe it’s a good move forward to deal with our national security issues,” he said. A cloture vote is expected on Tuesday.

Instead of pressuring reluctant Republican senators for rapid ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, the Obama administration should just drop it, says Richard Perle, a key architect of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy to end the Cold War. “It’s a seriously flawed treaty,” Perle, now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV. “It’s certainly not the kind of treaty Ronald Reagan fought for and accomplished.” The pact is very weak on verification, he says. “For example, our right to inspections is limited to sites the Russians declare . . ....

Must read. Huge cover up underway by the Obama Administration. Tancredo blows the lid off the story and how the agents were armed with bean bag ammunition against AK-47's. Terry is dead because DHS refuses to allow agents to protect themselves against deadly drug cartel killers operating deep inside Arizona Territory! Why is Fox News refusing to cover any of the details of this senseless murder? http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=240945 Bean bags vs. AK-47s --------------------------------------------------------- Another Border Patrol agent on the Arizona border was shot and killed by Mexican drug smugglers last Tuesday. Of the eight attackers, four are in custody and a...

Her DADT and START votes are now a bridge too far. Health Care flirtations and Financial reform gave me indigestion, as did earmarks, but this is as serious as it gets: aiding and abetting our political opponents in an unprecedented un-Americam un-democratic lame-duck cram-down. Those votes make Oly my personal number one electoral target now for 2012. I cannot take the unreliability any more. I would rather see a (D) there from ME (as with CT) than sweat whether she can be wheedled and coerced to see things Rightly. Somebody please tell me where should I be place my online...

Less than an hour after the Federal Communications Commission approved net neutrality rules, Republican lawmakers began staking their claim in the next potential leg of the debate: repeal. The first calls to roll back the FCC's new net neutrality order came Tuesday from the House's most senior Republicans: House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, as well as the incoming leaders of the chamber's top tech and telecom committees. The members each threatened to limit the agency's funds or restrict its jurisdiction in the aftermath of the FCC’s vote, with Boehner proclaiming the "new...

Departing Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday said conservative Republicans who backed Tea Party challengers against establishment candidates in the recent elections engaged in political cannibalism. In his final floor speech, Specter complained there's scant room for centrists like himself in a polarized Senate where civility is in short supply. "In some quarters, compromise has become a dirty word," said Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator, who lost his re-election bid after three decades in the Senate. Specter complained that some GOP senators had helped Tea Party challengers beat incumbent Republicans like Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Mike Castle in his Delaware...

Gay rights activist Mike Rogers, the professional outer of closeted, hypocritical gay politicians, claims to have "pictures of a man who spent the night" with Sen. Lindsey Graham. He's supposedly meeting with his lawyer today before releasing them. Rogers' previous outings of Ex-Rep. Mark Foley, Ex-Sen. Larry Craig and Ex-RNC chair Ken Mehlman, among others, once earned him the completely arbitrary title of "most feared man on the Hill." He keeps a list, and there are still many names on it. Lindsey Graham has been hounded by gay rumors since his first runs for Congress in the '90s.

“[Senators] want to go home,” Burr said. “When you got a process that has a definitive end, you use slippage backward. That’s why all of these things were orchestrated to come up at this time of year.” Burr would have preferred to see the debate continue next session, since “there is no compelling reason that this needs to be done right now.”

The country's largest manufacturer of sleeping bags says new competition from Bangladesh could force it out of business if the U.S. does not level the playing field. Exxel Outdoors Inc., which employs nearly 70 workers in its Alabama factory and makes about 2 million sleeping bags per year, has been pressing the Obama administration to lift an exemption that lets Bangladesh import sleeping bags into the country without paying a 9 percent tariff. "You can't leave an American manufacturer at a competitive disadvantage with a foreign worker," Harry Kazazian, chief executive of the company, told FoxNews.com. But that's apparently what...

(AP) Republican Mark Kirk broke with his majority of his party Saturday to support repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military, casting one of the first high-profile votes he’s faced as Illinois’ junior senator. The Senate voted 65-31 to let gays serve openly in the military. President Barack Obama was expected to sign the legislation next week, although the change wouldn’t take immediate effect. The House had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-175, on Wednesday. Kirk was one of six Republicans to break ranks. The move was a reversal for him after...

(snip) Saturday's debate on the repeal of the "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy was only half an hour old when the Arizona Republican burst onto the floor from the cloakroom, hiked up his pants and stalked over to his friend Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Ignoring Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who had the floor, McCain hectored the men noisily for a few moments, waving his arms for emphasis. When McCain finally stormed off, Durbin shook his head in exasperation and Lieberman smiled. A minute later, McCain returned - he had apparently remembered another element of his grievance -...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that the failed Democratic effort to pass the DREAM Act in the lame duck session dealt a blow to future talks on a wider immigration bill. “It was an exercise to try and taint Republicans with Hispanic voters, knowing that the DREAM Act under these circumstances could never pass,” Graham told reporters in the Capitol after the bill sputtered on the floor. “What they have done on the DREAM Act is hurt overall comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. The DREAM Act, which would give legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the country...

H.R.5281 Latest Title: Removal Clarification Act of 2010 Sponsor: Rep Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [GA-4] (introduced 5/12/2010) Cosponsors (3) Related Bills: H.RES.1756 Latest Major Action: 12/8/2010 Resolving differences -- House actions. Status: On motion to to agree to the Senate amendments numbered 1 and 2, and that the House agree to the Senate amendment numbered 3 with an amendment Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 216 - 198 (Roll no. 625). Latest Action: 12/16/2010 Motion by Senator Reid to refer to Senate Committee on the Judiciary the House message to accompany the bill (HR 5281) with instructions to...

The Senate will act on two important pieces of President Obama's progressive legislative agenda today: the DREAM Act and the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers. By the end of the day, the path to final passage is expected to be set for DADT repeal, while DREAM is expected to languish for another Congress to pass. Starting at around 10:30 this morning, the Senate will take up a cloture vote on DREAM. Cloture -- voted in by a 60-senator super majority -- is required to cut off debate and move a bill to final passage in the...