Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:02 pm
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday said the United States may be unable to pay its bills this fall unless Congress raises the government’s borrowing authority, now capped at $8.965 trillion.
Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:01 pm
We look at what happens next as the latest iteration of a constitutional amendment on education falls into a kind of limbo, as restaurants and bars prepare for a new statewide smoking ban, as primary politics heats up and as a supreme court deadline to define adequacy in education reaches t-minus one week and counting. Full Story
Filed under: General — shadow @ 5:01 pm
Colorado Republican tells Iowans he will pay for a trip to Washington, including a tour of the Capitol, for anyone who can round up 25 people to back him in the Aug. 11 sample vote. Full Story
Filed under: General — shadow @ 5:01 pm
SOURCE: Buzzflash
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis
It is time to think about the “unthinkable.” The Bush Administration has both the inclination and the power to cancel the 2008 election. The GOP strategy for another electoral theft in 2008 has taken clear shape, though we must assume there is much more we don’t know.
But we must also assume that if it appears to Team Bush/Cheney/Rove that the GOP will lose the 2008 election anyway (as it lost in Ohio 2006), we cannot ignore the possibility that they would simply cancel the election. Those who think this crew will quietly walk away from power are simply not paying attention. The real question is not how or when they might do it. It’s how, realistically, we can stop them.
In Florida 2000, Team Bush had a game plan involving a handful of tactics. With Jeb Bush in the governor’s mansion, the GOP used a combination of disenfranchisement, intimidation, faulty ballots, electronic voting fraud, a rigged vote count, and an aborted recount, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court. A compliant Democrat (Al Gore) allowed the coup to be completed. Full Story
Filed under: General — shadow @ 5:01 pm
The Federal Communications Commission approved rules Tuesday intended to give consumers more choice in their cell phones and wireless devices after a new airwaves auction is held next year. Full Story
Filed under: General — shadow @ 5:00 pm
We look at what happens next as the latest iteration of a constitutional amendment on education falls into a kind of limbo, as restaurants and bars prepare for a new statewide smoking ban, as primary politics heats up and as a supreme court deadline to define adequacy in education reaches t-minus one week and counting. Full Story
Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:01 am
The long-awaited comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform bill cracks down on travel, gift-giving to members and bundling of campaign contributions and exposes earmarks dropped into spending bills ‘in the dead of night.’
Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:01 am
The labor, environmental, and access to medicines amendments to the Peru and Panama Free Trade Agreements made under Ways and Means Chairman Rangel s and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Levin s initiative represent significant improvements to these important provisions. Despite these improvements, however, major problems of the NAFTA/CAFTA model replicated in the Peru and Panama FTAs were not addressed.
The amended text of these FTAs represent the first time that a trade agreement contains binding obligations to adopt, maintain and enforce the terms of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. However, regarding the labor provisions, concerns remain because the FTAs allow discretion for FTA dispute settlement panels to interpret and apply the terms of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work differently than the Declaration has been interpreted and applied by the ILO itself.
Moreover, in the end even the best provisions of the amended text of these FTAs dealing with labor and environmental enforcement would be dependent on the Executive Branch for enforcement. The current administration, with a consistent record of undermining domestic labor and environmental enforcement, is unlikely to enforce the labor and environmental provisions of these FTAs and the future enforcement of the new provisions will rely on similar discretion by future Presidents.
Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:00 am
The House began debate Tuesday on an ethics bill designed to shed new light on big-time fundraising by lobbyists, and on stealthy spending tactics by lawmakers.
Filed under: General — shadow @ 11:00 am
We look at what happens next as the latest iteration of a constitutional amendment on education falls into a kind of limbo, as restaurants and bars prepare for a new statewide smoking ban, as primary politics heats up and as a supreme court deadline to define adequacy in education reaches t-minus one week and counting.