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Republicans will take their first shot at derailing a top Democratic priority — climate change legislation — by offering as many as 200 amendments when the House Energy and Commerce Committee begins marking up its bill this afternoon. The markup, which could stretch over several days, probably provides House Republicans with their best opportunity for offering changes to a bill that will likely see limited amendments on the floor. “Our folks are united against cap-and-trade,” Energy and Commerce member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said of the carbon control policy being pushed by Democrats. Last week, Democrats agreed among themselves on a...

The Obama administration itself estimates that cap and trade will involve increased costs from 2012 to 2019 alone of $645 billion, and admits in its own budget that the actual costs could be much higher than that, depending on permit prices over those years. Indeed, other estimates put the costs three times higher. So the increased burden on each Ameri can over this period alone would be $2,100 to $6,300. For a family with two children, that would be $8,400 to $25,200, with much more to come after 2019. These increased costs are effectively a new tax on the American...

In an interview with CNBC, Representative Barney Frank says he wants to push for prosecution of the people who caused the country's financial meltdown. The Massachusetts Democrat says he has no specific targets in mind, but says the most significant thing lawmakers can do is make past bad practices illegal.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday promised to save American taxpayers 40 billion dollars a year by slashing waste in government contracting, with a special eye on bloated spending on defense. "I reject the false choice between securing this nation and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars," Obama said on a day when he signed a presidential memorandum reforming the contracting system across the entire government. "In this time of great challenges, I recognize the real choice between investments that are designed to keep the American people safe and those that are designed to make a defense contractor rich,"...

6,796.99 Down -265.94 -3.77%

The hits just keep on coming on the jobs front... The Labor Department this morning reported that the nation lost another 598,000 payroll jobs in January. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, jumped to 7.6 percent from 7.2 percent in December. That's the highest unemployment rate since late 1992. The December job loss number was worse than consensus expectations. And revisions to previous months darkened the picture even more.

BREAKING NEWS: Georgian troops are preparing to defend the town of Gori against the advancing Russian army.

Obama calls for oil crackdown By: Mike Allen June 22, 2008 12:39 PM EST With the cost of gas a top issue in the presidential campaign, Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a plan to crack down on oil speculation by tightening regulations on energy traders. The announcement is further evidence that an Obama administration would take an activist, populist approach to regulating business. Obama wants to close a loophole in federal law that exempts some energy traders from regulations that govern other exchange-traded commodities. Democrats call this “the Enron loophole” because it benefited the Houston energy-speculation firm that collapsed...

A bill introduced in Congress this week would "compel" oil and natural gas companies to produce from federal lands they are leasing. If only it were that easy to find and produce oil. Imagine, an act of Congress that could do what geology could not. These lawmakers ask why oil and gas companies want more access to federal lands to drill if they aren't using all of the 68 million acres they already have? Anyone with even the most basic understanding of how oil and natural gas are produced – and this should include many members of Congress – knows...

Consider: The Brazilian government has a 58 percent controlling stake in Petrobras's voting shares and 32percent of its total shares, which means that some of the profits go straight to the government's bottom line, giving the politicians more money to spend on bribing their constituents. In the United States, American politicians do not benefit from a successful oil industry, since corporate profits go to shareholders, pensioners and employees; therefore Congress has a much greater incentive to respond to the concentrated power of the special interest group known as the "greens." There are plenty of other examples, says O'Grady: In Mexico,...

Scott Rasmussen’s first law of politics is that America’s politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are. That law was clearly demonstrated earlier today when the United States Senate finally surrendered to the American people on immigration. Politicians may make things messy for a while, but over the long haul it is the American people who determine the nation’s fundamental policies.

FINAL ROLL CALL: 46-53. RINOS: Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Hagel (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), Lott (R-MS), Lugar (R-IN), Martinez (R-FL),McCain (R-AZ), Snowe (R-ME), and Specter (R-PA). Hats off to the Dems who voted agains this crap: Bayh (D-IN), Bingaman (D-NM), Brown (D-OH), Byrd (D-WV), Dorgan (D-ND), Harkin (D-IA), Landrieu (D-LA), McCaskill (D-MO), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Rockefeller (D-WV), Sanders (I-VT), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT) and Webb (D-VA). It should be noted that the following Republicans switched their vote for “Yea” to “Na” from the bill earlier in the week. They include: Bennett (R-UT), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Burr (R-NC), Coleman (R-MN),...

The Senate's revived legislation to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants faces a critical test Thursday after surviving potentially fatal challenges. Attempts from the right and left to alter key elements of the delicate bipartisan compromise failed Wednesday, including a Republican proposal to deny illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and Democratic bids to reunite legal immigrants with family members. The Senate killed, by a 56-41 vote, an amendment by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to provide more green cards for parents of U.S. citizens. By a 55-40 margin, it tabled a proposal by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to give family members...

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to increase fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon for cars and SUVs, the first significant boost demanded of automakers in nearly 20 years.

You can watch today's "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace on a podcast at the link. Krauthammer opines that only the House can stop the Immigration Bill, now. (Also, there's a really good interview with Petraeus.)

Key senators tentatively agreed on a plan to revive a stalled immigration bill on Thursday, aided by President Bush's support for a quick $4.4 billion aimed at "securing our borders and enforcing our laws at the work site." Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Republican and Democratic supporters of the bill were presenting their proposal to the Senate's top two leaders, who in turn arranged an early evening meeting to discuss it. Precise details to be presented to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were not disclosed. In general, according to officials familiar...

Port Of Spain - The four suspects in an alleged terror plot to bomb a New York airport were set up in an elaborate plan by the US Republican party to retain hold of the White House, the daughter of an arrested suspect claimed on Tuesday. Huda Ibrahiim, daughter of Amir Kareem Ibrahiim, one of four men accused of plotting acts of terrorism against the United States, said US justice officials had engaged in entrapment in breaking up the alleged plot. Huda, 20, speaking on behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago and the Guyanese Shi'ite Muslim community, read from a...

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens. "Everyone donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," said the former employee.

U.S. forces rescued 41 Iraqi civilians Sunday from an al-Qaida hide-out northeast of Baghdad, including some who showed signs of torture and broken bones, a senior U.S. official said.

Strangling Oil By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Thursday, May 24, 2007 Energy: As Americans get ever-angrier about soaring gasoline prices, Congress wants to do something, anything. So this week, the House passed a bill seeking to end "price-gouging." Fair enough — now, what is that? In the Senate, New York's Charles Schumer wants to break up big oil companies on the notion that more small companies would foster competition and cut prices. Others, including New York's other senator, Hillary Clinton, want to tax oil companies' "windfall" profits. Such measures, and others like them, demonstrate a woeful ignorance of basic economics. But...

Bowing to President Bush, the Democratic-controlled Congress grudgingly approved fresh billions for the Iraq war Thursday night, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew his earlier veto.

Torture, Al-Qaeda StyleDrawings, tools seized from Iraq safe house in U.S. military raid MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an...

NEW YORK After a surge of support earlier in the year after the Democrats took control, public approval of the job Congress is doing has slid again, and now stands even lower than President Bush's weak 33%. A Gallup poll released today pegged the approval rating for Congress at 29%. This is down from last month's 33% and well below the year's high of 37%. Of course, more Democrats than Republican give a thumb's up but even there only 37% of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing right now. That's down 6% since last month. This may reflect...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Thursday he believes President Bush's low approval ratings are hurting the GOP yet won't affect the party's 2008 nominee.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The number of cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court is declining in part because of the lack of significant legislation coming out of Congress, Chief Justice John Roberts said Thursday night at the Alaska Bar Association's annual convention. “No one actually knows why the number of cases we are taking is declining,” said Roberts, who was the keynote speaker at the association's banquet. “I think there really are three significant reasons. The first is the lack of any major legislation coming out of Congress in the last couple of decades.” Roberts also suggested the lower courts...

A senior Iranian official, Mr. Nabi Rudaki, has voiced interest in holding talks with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Republican Tom Lantos. Tehran's top MP Mohammad Nabi Rudaki, deputy head of the national security commission, has shown interest after Pelosi's controversial visit to Syria. "Parliamentary talks can discuss bilateral problems and bring US, European and Iranian nations closer. They could also consider Iran's peaceful nuclear issues," Mr. Rudaki noted.

The CIA and Pentagon would for the first time be required to assess the national security implications of climate change under proposed legislation intended to elevate global warming to a national defense issue. The bipartisan proposal, which its sponsors expect to pass the Congress with wide support, calls for the director of national intelligence to conduct the first-ever "national intelligence estimate" on global warming. The effort would include pinpointing the regions at highest risk of humanitarian suffering and assessing the likelihood of wars erupting over diminishing water and other resources.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday endorsed a March 31, 2008, target date for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq, moving Congress a step closer to a showdown with President George W. Bush over the war. By a vote of 50-48, the Senate defeated an amendment that would have stricken the withdrawal language from a $121.6 billion bill that mostly would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A final vote on the bill is expected later this week. ~ snip ~

WASHINGTON - Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) said Monday he won't block Senate passage of an Iraq war spending bill even if the GOP fails to kill its troop withdrawal deadline because he knows President Bush will veto it. Facing a cliffhanging vote this week, McConnell promised to fight the provision, which calls for combat troops to be brought home within a year. Even if he fails, McConnell said he won't stand in the way of the bill's final passage because the sooner it is sent to the president, the sooner Bush can veto it. Unable to...

<p>Live now, President Bush is making a strong response.</p> <p>THE PRESIDENT: Today I'm joined here at the White House by veterans, family members of people serving in combat, family members of those who have sacrificed. I am honored that they have joined me here today.</p>

Breaking a parliamentary roadblock, the Senate votes to begin debate on a resolution that calls for combat troops to leave Iraq by the end of March 2008.

At one press conference, Rep. Maxine Waters, now serving her 9th term in the House of Representatives, declared that under the Out of Iraq Caucus's plan, the United States could remove U.S. troops from Iraq "by August of 1980 [sic."] Then, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, reasoning that 1980 had already taken place, said the actual date was August 2008. Rep. Lloyd Doggett suggested that Mr. Bush, "the misleader," was to blame for his colleagues' confusion. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, California Democrat, tried to explain the caucus plan, but stumbled over the chronology of the withdrawal, saying at one point that...

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein says Pakistan should let U.S. troops into areas dominated by a resurging al-Qaida or send its own troops in to pursue terrorists. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," the California Democrat said she agrees with the Bush administration about the growing danger. A rebuilt al-Qaida "can easily extend the terrorist arm into the European community and Great Britain. That's a deep concern, because then it's just (across) the ocean for us." Pakistan says it will not allow U.S. or NATO troops into tribal areas where al-Qaida is believed to be recruiting and revamping its operations. Feinstein said...

When Ted Kennedy’s 12-year-old namesake, Edward, got cancer in 1973 and had to have his leg amputated and then underwent arduous chemotherapy treatments, all under the onus of an unknown prognosis, the senator from Massachusetts told him to give up. It wasn’t worth the fight. Fold your tents, he said. You can’t win this battle. Just kidding. The senator knew what a hard fight his son faced and he fought like hell to encourage him. But clearly, what was good for Edward Jr. is not good for America! Ted Kennedy does not want our troops to prevail in Iraq. He...

As of 2PM CST, C-Span 2 is running the following caption on TV: "SENATE REJECTS MOTION TO DEBATE IRAQ RESOLUTION, 56-34".

Just four days before the House took up the issue, the journal Nature Biotechnology published a study showing that cells from amniotic fluid, collected in the course of routine amniocentesis during pregnancy, could have many of the appealing properties of embryonic stem cells, without requiring the destruction of embryos.

WASHINGTON — President Bush, on a collision course with Congress over Iraq, said Friday "I'm the decision-maker" about sending more troops to the war. He challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his plan. "I've picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed," Bush said in an Oval Office meeting with senior military advisers. The president had strong words for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are lining up to support resolutions opposing his decision to send 21,500 troops to Iraq. He challenged them to put up their own ideas. "Some are condeming a plan...

Clinton, other lawmakers, head to Iraq By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and two other lawmakers are headed to Iraq this weekend as Congress engages in fierce debate over President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to salvage the U.S. effort there. Clinton, a Democrat from New York who is considering running for president, is traveling with Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), D-Ind., who had also eyed the 2008 race but opted out, and Rep. John McHugh (news, bio, voting record), a Republican from upstate New York. The three, all...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic and Republican senators voiced strong concern on Thursday that the Iraq war could spread to neighboring Iran and Syria if the U.S. military were to chase militants across the border. President Bush, who accuses Iran and Syria of fomenting the violence in Iraq, on Wednesday proposed sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to try to restore security nearly four years after the U.S.-led invasion. Bush sparked worries that the conflict may widen by his comment that "we'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing...

BEIJING — China and the United States on Saturday signed an agreement that paves the way for Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a multibillion dollar coup for U.S. business over French and Russian competitors. A memorandum of understanding supporting the transfer of nuclear technology to China was signed by China's Minister for the National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. "This is an exciting day for the U.S. nuclear industry," Bodman said at the ceremony. "It is an example that if we work together we can advance not...

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said he told Speaker Dennis Hastert after learning a fellow GOP lawmaker sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Reynolds, R-N.Y., was told months ago about e-mails sent by Rep. Mark Foley and is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. Foley, R-Fla., resigned Friday after ABC News questioned him about the e-mails to a former congressional page and about sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages. The boy who received the e-mails was 16 in summer 2005 when he worked in Congress as a page....

PARIS (AP) - The head of terrorist network al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has died, according to information from the Saudi police, transmitted by the Directorate-General of External Services (DGSE), and reported on the Lorraine daily newspaper L'Est republicain in its Saturday edition. "According to a commonly reliable source, the Saudi police believes that Osama Bin Laden has died," said a September 21st confidential note from the DGSE classified as "defense." L'Est republicain will publish it in its Saturday edition. The note, specified the daily newspaper, would be re-printed "un-edited." According to the note to be published by the L'Est...

<p>What President Bush wants from Congress is not clarity on the limits to which CIA interrogators might go in trying to get terrorism suspects to talk. He wants Congress to grant them absolution.</p> <p>As the standoff between the Republican White House and a band of GOP senators appears headed toward a resolution, we should not lose sight of this important point.</p>

According to a report released September 8 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Saddam Hussein "was resistant to cooperating with al Qaeda or any other Islamist groups." It's an odd claim. Saddam Hussein's regime has a long and well-documented history of cooperating with Islamists, including al Qaeda and its affiliates. As early as 1982, the Iraqi regime was openly supporting, training, and funding the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization opposed to the secular regime of Hafez Assad. For years, Saddam Hussein cultivated warm relations with Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist who was the de facto leader of the Sudanese...

House passed the minimum wage bill 230-180.. The bill would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next three years. Republican 196-21 Democrat 34-158-1 Will post voting lists as soon as possible. Bill was HR 5970 if you want to look it up.

WASHINGTON (AP) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has asked embattled Rep. William Jeffereson to quit the Ways and Means Committee.

Our illegal immigration counters are based on an estimated twenty million illegal aliens having been present in our nation as of January 1, 2004. In a letter dated February 2004, no less an authority than Arizona Senator John McCain recognized that Border Patrol apprehension figures demonstrated that "almost four million people crossed our borders illegally 2002" (read McCain's letter) – experts on the subject agree that illegal crossings have only increased since then. The Tucson sector Border Patrol union local 2544 on the number of illegal aliens in our nation: "There are currently 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in...

The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents. "There was a felony they were committing, and now they can't be prosecuted. That sounds like amnesty to me," said Sen. John Ensign, the Nevada Republican who offered the amendment yesterday to strip out those provisions of the immigration reform bill. "It just boggles the mind how people could be against this amendment." The Ensign amendment was defeated on a 50-49 vote. "We all know that millions of undocumented immigrants...

WASHINGTON - The House rejected an attempt Thursday to lift a quarter-century congressional ban on offshore oil drilling in coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico amid arguments that new supplies are needed to lower energy prices. A proposal to end the long-standing moratoria as it applies only to pumping natural gas was expected to be voted on later in the evening as lawmakers moved toward late-night approval of a $25.9 billion Interior Department spending bill. The proposal to allow oil drilling in waters off both coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico — areas off limits to...

WASHINGTON - The agency in charge of a domestic spying program has been secretly collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, including calls made within the United States, USA Today reported on Thursday. It said the National Security Agency has been building up the database using records provided by three major phone companies -- AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. -- but that the program “does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations.”