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A Coverup That Won’t Stay Covered by Paul Craig Roberts CNN recently reported that "the Justice Department is re-examining its investigation into the 1995 death of a federal prisoner that the victim’s family alleges was murder at the hands of the government." The victim was Kenneth Michael Trentadue. At 7 AM on August 21, 1995, officials from the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office arrived at the new Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center for the body of a man recently picked up for parole violation who allegedly was a suicide by hanging. The astonished state officials saw a body with scalp split...

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - For a few moments on Thursday, the only sounds in the U.S. Senate chamber were the sobs of a grieving father. Oregon Republican Gordon Smith took the floor to introduce a youth suicide prevention bill named after his own dead son. "He saw only despair ahead and felt only pain in his present. Pain and despair so potent that he sought suicide as a release. As a release," Smith said, recalling his son Garrett, who killed himself in his college apartment last September, one day before his 22nd birthday. Smith recalled a "beautiful child, a...

Does anyone have contact info on these Senators so we can express our appreciation? Republican senators who called for Gorelick to testify: Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Trent Lott of Mississippi, Conrad Burns of Montana; Bob Bennett of Utah; Pete Domenici of New Mexico; Don Nickles of Oklahoma; Ted Stevens of Alaska; Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; John Cornyn of Texas Norm Coleman of Minnesota.

Former 2nd District Congressman Dr Tom Coburn has announced he will run for the US Senate. Coburn will run as a Republican for the seat Senator Don Nickles is leaving. He made his announcement on a website called Draft Coburn for Senate.com. On the website, Coburn says the decision to run was a difficult one. He lists six reasons for running including what he calls a deficit of moral courage in the US congress. He also mentions his concerns about Medicare, Social Security, trade issues and spending controls. Coburn is a medical doctor with offices in Muskogee.

EDITORIAL: Tax `loopholes' Most Americans this time of year begin addressing the matter of filing their tax returns. Meanwhile, some members of Congress discussing taxes remain blind to the forest as they stare down a tree. On Friday, Senate Budget Committee chairman Don Nickles, an Oklahoma Republican, decried the myriad tax "loopholes" that he called a "shell game" and argued the budget deficit could be reduced if lawmakers addressed the issue by amending the tax code. Among the items he cited were incorrect payments made under the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides a subsidy to poor families who don't...

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee asked the Treasury Department on Friday for a list of known tax loopholes, pledging to halt abuses and plug one transaction he called "a shell game." The statement from Oklahoma Republican Don Nickles adds tax avoidance to the items under scrutiny as lawmakers work to reduce the federal deficit. "If we can ... discover some other things that are really abuse of the system, we should shut them down earlier rather than later," Nickles told Treasury Secretary John Snow during a committee hearing. Nickles said Congress should look closely at abuse...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders on Monday killed a Senate plan to close a loophole allowing small-business owners to deduct up to $100,000 from their taxable income for buying a luxury sport utility vehicle. Language eliminating the SUV loophole was inserted into the Senate's version of a broad energy bill, which also has $23.4 billion in tax breaks for oil, natural gas, coal and other energy sources. But the provision was dropped after House negotiators rejected the Senate's change. Republican leaders swiftly moved to ensure no mention of the loophole was included in the final version of the energy bill,...

Rep. Brad Carson (D-Okla.) will enter the race to succeed senior Republican Sen. Don Nickles, who announced Tuesday that he won’t seek a fifth term. Carson plans to announce his exploratory committee next week, according to a Democratic source. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) is also expected to run for Nickles’ seat, while Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys (R) and Attorney General Drew Edmondson (D) are possible contenders. Nickles, 54, chairman of the Budget Committee and the former GOP whip, decided not to seek reelection even though his GOP colleagues and the White House wanted him to stay, and he was...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Don Nickles, R-Ponca City, who carved out a solidly conservative record across four terms in the Senate, intends to announce plans to retire rather than seek re-election next year, Republican officials said today. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as Nickles, the former Senate GOP whip, scheduled a midday announcement in his home state to announce his future plans. Nickles would become the second Republican lawmaker to announce retirement plans, after Sen. Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois. Nickles' departure would complicate Republican efforts to hold the seat and also to retain their current majority, although Oklahoma has...

Just breaking now on Fox.

Four of the 34 U.S. Senators up for election next year have announced their exiting--Zell Miller (Ga.), John Edwards (S.C.), and Ernest Hollings (S.C.), Democrats all, and Republican Peter Fitzgerald (Ill.) Now, signs are ominous that the next two senatorial shoes to drop will be those of Republican Don Nickles (Okla.) and Democrat John Breaux (La.). Word on the D.C. cocktail circuit over the weekend was that four-termer and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Nickles was anxious to make more money in the private sector, as was Breaux (who has been courted for every seven-figure lobbying job from legislative pointman of...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Sen. Don Nickles is keeping political leaders guessing about his 2004 re-election plans, but he's raising money for a race just in case. Nickles, R-Okla., was scheduled to be in Oklahoma City Monday evening for a fund-raising event at a private home. In a May 16 letter, he told supporters he would be accompanied to the event by U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans and invited them to help host the event or become a member of the "Senate Club 2004." In the letter, Nickles thanked supporters for their past giving and discussed his role as Senate...

Washington - New York Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton teamed up last week with a political opposite - South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham - to win Senate passage of a provision to boost health care benefits for military reserve and guard members. Since joining the Senate in 2001, Clinton has forged political alliances with the most unlikely members of Congress: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) on foster care, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) on allowing Israel its own Red Cross emblem and Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles (R-Okla.) on extending unemployment benefits.

<p>TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Politicians wondering whether Sen. Don Nickles will run for a record-setting fifth term are closely watching his bank account.</p> <p>The Oklahoma Republican has raised just $53,600 so far this year, and his campaign has $437,750 in the bank.</p>

Democrats, looking to capitalize on President Bush's decision to oppose the University of Michigan's affirmation action program, began a campaign Friday to make civil rights and equal education opportunities a major 2004 election issue. "Civil rights has always been the great unfinished business of America," Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy told a Capitol Hill Democratic forum. Democrats have been criticizing the GOP on civil rights issues since December, when Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi started an uproar with remarks praising the pro-segregation 1948 presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond. Then the Bush administration argued to the Supreme Court on Thursday against...

EDITOR’S NOTE: The newspaper accounts tell us that Senator Trent Lott is taking the names of who is or isn't going to stand by him while he tries to maintain his hold on power by any means necessary. Well, so is NRO. We know the senators want this matter to operate by the super-secret rules of the Skull & Bones Society, but it's too important for that. Excuse us for noting the performance of senators at a crucial time for the GOP. Don Nickles - Thank You. Over the weekend, while Trent Lott's 49 other colleagues were linking their arms...

StopDemocrats.com is asking for Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) to Step Aside. The petition reads: Recent comments by Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) involving Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential candidacy supporting segregation have created a controversy that may force the Senator to step aside as leader of the Senate Republicans. This petition asks that the same standards be applied to Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) ,who is the current President pro tempore of the US Senate, and demands that he resign from any leadership post in the 108th Congress for saying the following racist comments on National television 21 months ago. "My old...