Stat counter

I added a stat counter today to see how many people actually view the blog. WordPress actually has one that is seemingly "built in". I like the layout templates in WordPress better, but Blogger is way easier to move around in.

Use that stamp to lick credit rip-offs

Check out this article found in the Detroit News today. Sen. Carl Levin is proposing legislation to get rid of some outlandish credit card fees:

Penalty limits: The bill caps penalty rate hikes (such as when you pay a bill late) at 7 percent and would effectively eliminate the absurd “universal default clause” in which, even if you paid your credit card bill on time, the issuer raises your rate if you’ve been late on some other credit card bill.

No retroactive rate hikes: Rate increases could be applied only to charges after the increase goes into effect, not to previous balances.
Ending the fee-for-all: The bill outlaws piggy-backing fees, such as when a penalty puts you over your credit limit which, in turn, gets you socked with an over-limit penalty. It also bars interest on fees.
No more pay to pay: The bill prohibits the practice of charging $5, $10 or even $15 in some cases if you pay your bill by phone or online. This is a blatant rip-off since it costs less to handle these transactions than to cash a paper check.
Show your support
Unless you enjoy getting socked with underhanded overcharges at your credit card company’s whim, you want to support this legislation.
The first step is to get the bill heard by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, chaired by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., with ranking Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama.
You can call the committee at (202) 224-7391; send faxes to (202)-224-5137; write to 534 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; or e-mail by using the “contact” link at http://www.banking.senate.gov/.
Faxes and online work best, I’m told. Also contact Dodd and Shelby as well as Levin and our junior senator, Democrat Debbie Stabenow. To get contact info, call (202)-224-3121 or check at http://www.congress.org/.
So get those letters going, whether you click it or lick it. Because your best “stamp” investment is stamping out these credit card rip-offs.
Call your Senator in support of this bill.
Check out the article here.

U.S. Congress Votes Database

Curious to know who has missed votes recently? The Washington Post has put together a listing of all members of Congress from the 102nd to the recent 110th Congress. Interesting stuff! Let's take a look at a few, particularly the US Senator's who are currently running for President.

Note that all missed votes are for the current Congress only.

1. John McCain: Missed 85 votes (49.4%)
2. Barack Obama: Missed 11 votes (6.4%)
3. Hillary Clinton: Missed 3 votes (1.7%)
4. Sam Brownback: Missed 52 votes (30.2%)
5. Joe Biden: Missed 49 votes (28.5%)
6. Christopher Dodd: Missed 31 votes (18%)

I find it very interesting that McCain has missed so many votes, while Hillary and Barack have not. Haven't they been on the campaign trail just about as much as John? Missing nearly 50% of the votes. Common John, you still have a job to do! Some could argue that an important piece of legislation would or would not have passed because he wasn't present and his vote could have been the one that counted.

McCain in heated immigration exchange with peer

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn't spent much time in the Capitol this year as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination. But one of his rare appearances this week provided a pretty salty exchange with a fellow Republican.
During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources -- both Democrats and Republicans -- who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room.
Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. "Wait a second here," Cornyn said to McCain. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."
McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).
"[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room," shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn't be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.
Read more of the article here.

Cap & Trade: The Centrist Approach

Congress leads, the private sector finds and funds the solutions

*Cap and trade guarantees the carbon pollution cuts we need.
*Cap and trade drives investments and innovation to create jobs.
*Cap and trade helps farmers with credits for carbon reductions.

“Cap and trade” harnesses the forces of markets to achieve cost-effective environmental protection. Markets can achieve superior environmental protection by giving businesses both flexibility and a direct financial incentive to find faster, cheaper and more innovative ways to reduce pollution.
Cap and trade was designed, tested and proven here in the United States, as a program within the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The success of this program led The Economist magazine to crown it “probably the greatest green success story of the past decade.” (July 6, 2002).

Read about the approach here.

Rightometer: Ron Paul and his Spamming Supporters

Ron Paul and his Tinfoil Hat
Townhall.com's Dean Barnett is tired of the angry emails from Ron Paul supporters. Barnett opines, "I also decided that doing a serious post on Ron Paul would be tantamount to answering a question that no one was asking. Other than his 83 followers across the nation who seem to have nothing better to do than send angry missives when someone has the audacity to question their hero, the rest of the country is completely indifferent to the daffy Congressman."Right Angle's Nathanael Blake links to Russell Kirk's classic essay, "Chirping Sectaries" and adds, ", Ron Paul is an ideologue who refuses to deal with the realities of the world as it is. His extreme non-interventionism didn't even work at the beginning of the American Republic, and is impossible now. He is lacking in prudence, the hallmark of the conservative statesman."

Read more here.

Global warming? Maybe we were wrong...

Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics

Growing Number of Scientists Convert to Skeptics After Reviewing New Research
Following the U.S. Senate's vote today on a global warming measure (see today's AP article: Senate Defeats Climate Change Measure,) it is an opportune time to examine the recent and quite remarkable momentum shift taking place in climate science. Many former believers in catastrophic man-made global warming have recently reversed themselves and are now climate skeptics. The names included below are just a sampling of the prominent scientists who have spoken out recently to oppose former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, and the media driven “consensus” on man-made global warming.
The list below is just the tip of the iceberg. A more detailed and comprehensive sampling of scientists who have only recently spoken out against climate hysteria will be forthcoming in a soon to be released U.S. Senate report. Please stay tuned to this website, as this new government report is set to redefine the current climate debate.
In the meantime, please review the list of scientists below and ask yourself why the media is missing one of the biggest stories in climate of 2007. Feel free to distribute the partial list of scientists who recently converted to skeptics to your local schools and universities. The voices of rank and file scientists opposing climate doomsayers can serve as a counter to the alarmism that children are being exposed to on a daily basis. (See Washington Post April 16, 2007 article about kids fearing of a “climactic Armageddon” )
The media's climate fear factor seemingly grows louder even as the latest science grows less and less alarming by the day. (See Der Spiegel May 7, 2007 article: Not the End of the World as We Know It ) It is also worth noting that the proponents of climate fears are increasingly attempting to suppress dissent by skeptics. (See UPI May 10, 2007 article: U.N. official says it's 'completely immoral' to doubt global warming fears )
Once Believers, Now Skeptics ( Link to pdf version )

Check out the entire story from the U.S. Senate Committe on Environment & Public Works here.

Geez

Yeah, went back to the old blog style...

Poor Pelosi..can't get anything done!

Pelosi lowers the boom

PELOSI LOWERS THE BOOM Wed May 16 2007 14:43:59 ET After losing a string of embarrassing votes on the House floor because of procedural maneuvering, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has decided to change the current House Rules to completely shut down the floor to the minority. The Democratic Leadership is threatening to change the current House Rules regarding the Republican right to the Motion to Recommit or the test of germaneness on the motion to recommit. This would be the first change to the germaneness rule since 1822. In protest, the House Republicans are going to call procedural motions every half hour. Developing...

via www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

Boring

Yes, I know this new background is a tad boring, but I can deal with this until I find something. If you have any suggestions, comment!

New blog template

I'm trying out this new template. I have yet to find one that I really like and the templates given by Blogger don't really seem all that great to me. It seems hard to find something that fits me or the blog itself. I don't know if you noticed or not, but I have 2 links on the left hand side of the page. You can't click on them to take you to their sites, plus it put a space between them! I followed the instructions, but I guess I am an HTML dummy. I guess that's why my blog isn't called "HTML web design wizard".

Anywho, i'm going to keep this at least for a few days until I find something better.

Any suggestions, let me know.

Bloomberg poised for third-party campaign

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.5 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, personal friends of the mayor tell The Washington Times. "He has set aside $1 billion to go for it," confided a long-time business adviser to the Republican mayor. "The thinking about where it will come from and do we have it is over, and the answer is yes, we can do it."
"Bloomberg is H. Ross Perot on steroids," said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner. "He could turn the political landscape of this election upside down, spend as much money as he wanted and proceed directly to the general election. He would have resources to hire an army of petition-gatherers in those states where thousands of petitions are required to qualify a third-party presidential candidate to be on the ballot." Senior Republican officials -- including those supporting declared Republican presidential nomination contenders -- and several top Democrats told The Times they take the possibility of a Bloomberg candidacy as a serious threat in November 2008.

Read the rest of the article from The Washington Post here.

Who woulda thunk? Congress' approval drops to 35% -- same as Bush's

Congress' approval drops to 35% -- same as Bush's
May 13, 2007
BY ALAN FRAM WASHINGTON -- The caustic four-month stalemate over Iraq between President Bush and the Democratic-led Congress has produced plenty of sharp rhetoric, one veto and a dismal public view of the president and his Capitol Hill adversaries.
In an AP-Ipsos poll, a scant 35 percent of people said they approve of the overall job Bush is doing -- the same amount who rated Congress positively. That represented a 5 percentage point drop for lawmakers since last month, and left Bush at the same meager level he has been stuck at for months -- and near his record low in the AP-Ipsos poll of 32 percent last January.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was viewed more favorably than both but faces problems of her own, including a gender gap in which significantly fewer men than women support her. Backing is also eroding among younger voters and other groups.
Members of both parties point to Iraq as the culprit. The poll involved phone interviews with 1,000 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
AP
Read the story here.

2008 Democratic Presidential Primary- National Poll: Clinton 35% Obama 33%

For the fourth time in five weeks, a national Rasmussen Reports telephone survey ofLikely Democratic Primary Voters shows Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama within two points of each other. This week, it’s Clinton 35% Obama 33%. Former Senator John Edwards is in third place with 14% support. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is a distant fourth at 3%.
However, the race may not be as close as those numbers suggest. The Rasmussen Reports sample includes not only Democrats, but also independents who say they are likely to vote in a Democratic Primary. Among Democrats only, Clinton leads by eight percentage points, 39% to 31% (with Edwards at 15%). That’s little changed from a week ago when Clinton led by eleven among Democrats in the survey.
Obama does better when independents are included because he currently holds a two-to-one advantage over Clinton among those potential voters. Both the number and the preferences of independent voters is more volatile than the preferences of core Democratic voters. Some states have open primaries allowing independents to participate, others allow Democrats only. If the current trends were to continue throughout the Primary season, Clinton would handily win the states allowing only Democrats to vote while Obama would be competitive in others.
This puts Clinton in a similar position to John Kerry in 2004 and George W. Bush in 2000. As Kerry swept to the nomination, John Edwards was most competitive in states that allowed independents to participate in their primaries. In Election 2000, Senator John McCain was able to surprise Bush in New Hampshire due to that state’s open Primary and the fact that there was little competition on the Democratic side of the debate. Throughout his challenge, McCain was most competitive in places that allowed independents to participate. However, he was never a serious threat to Bush in states with Republican-only primaries.
Rasmussen Reports releases national polling data on the Democratic nomination process every Monday and on the Republican race each Tuesday. The current survey of 789 Likely Democratic Primary Voters was conducted May 7-10, 2007. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
New Hampshire, traditionally the first Primary, allows independent voters to participate in either the Republican or the Democratic primary. Most years, like 2004, there is only one competitive race and the independents who participate do so in that party’s primary. This year, however, it is possible that both Republicans and Democrats may have competitive nominating processes heading into New Hampshire. At the moment, independents say they are more likely to participate in the Democratic Primary, but it is impossible to know what the dynamics will be in early 2008. That’s consistent with an overall higher level of enthusiasm about Democrats--a separate survey of all voters found that Democrats currently enjoy an 11-point advantage on the Generic Congressional Ballot.
Another survey found that Republicans overwhelming believe Election 2008 has started too early. Many Democrats can’t wait.
In General Election match-ups, Clinton is now essentially even with Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani and the top Republican non-candidate, Fred Thompson. Clinton leads all other Republicans including McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Senator Sam Brownback, Senator Chuck Hagel, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Rasmussen Reports continuously updates favorability ratings and general election match-ups for all Democratic and Republican candidates. Also available are ratings for Members of Congress, Other Political Figures, and Journalists.
Rasmussen Reports also monitors underlying party identification trends and has found a substantial shift away from the GOP over the past six months.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/2008_democratic_presidential_primary

Obama: If you want to win, quit shooting yourself in the foot!

The Democratic candidate's tough rhetoric backfired in Detroit. Plus, griping about gas prices.

May 11, 2007 - Nine years ago this week, Al Gore warmed up his run for the presidency by making a visit to Motown and speaking to the Detroit Economic Club. I covered that speech and recall that Gore was entering hostile territory. Detroit, an SUV boomtown in those days, was deeply skeptical of the vice president, who famously called for the death of the internal-combustion engine. But Gore, keen on endorsements from Big Labor and contributions from wealthy auto execs, changed his tune in Detroit. "Here in Motor City, we recognize that cars have done more than fuel our commerce," he rhapsodized. "Cars have freed the American spirit, and given us the chance to chase our dreams."
My, how times have changed. This week, Sen. Barack Obama attempted to fuel his presidential run with a scalding speech to the Detroit Economic Club, castigating Motown's big wheels for driving our dependence on foreign oil. "For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," Obama told an audience stunned into silence after greeting him with a standing ovation."Whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could've saved their industry. Even as they've shed thousands of jobs and billions in profits over the last few years, they've continued to reward failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs."
"Sen. Obama embarrassed himself in Detroit with his lack of understanding of the problems facing the automobile industry, and what it will really take to fix them," the conservative-leaning Detroit News said in an editorial beside a political cartoon mocking Obama for criticizing a Detroit SUV that turns out to be a Toyota Land Cruiser. During his speech, the auto execs in the crowd—and there were many—began muttering that he didn't know what he was talking about. (One factual gaffe getting a lot of traction is Obama's assertion that Japanese cars average 45mpg, when the actual mileage is closer 30mpg). "It was definitely uncomfortable," says Eric Foster, a Detroit political consultant who sat near tables full of auto execs.

Read the rest of the story here.

The End of National Currency

Summary: Global financial instability has sparked a surge in "monetary nationalism" -- the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.
Benn Steil is Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and a co-author of Financial Statecraft.

THE RISE OF MONETARY NATIONALISM

Capital flows have become globalization's Achilles' heel. Over the past 25 years, devastating currency crises have hit countries across Latin America and Asia, as well as countries just beyond the borders of western Europe -- most notably Russia and Turkey. Even such an impeccably credentialed pro-globalization economist as U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin has acknowledged that "opening up the financial system to foreign capital flows has led to some disastrous financial crises causing great pain, suffering, and even violence."
The economics profession has failed to offer anything resembling a coherent and compelling response to currency crises. International Monetary Fund (IMF) analysts have, over the past two decades, endorsed a wide variety of national exchange-rate and monetary policy regimes that have subsequently collapsed in failure. They have fingered numerous culprits, from loose fiscal policy and poor bank regulation to bad industrial policy and official corruption. The financial-crisis literature has yielded policy recommendations so exquisitely hedged and widely contradicted as to be practically useless.
Antiglobalization economists have turned the problem on its head by absolving governments (except the one in Washington) and instead blaming crises on markets and their institutional supporters, such as the IMF -- "dictatorships of international finance," in the words of the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. "Countries are effectively told that if they don't follow certain conditions, the capital markets or the IMF will refuse to lend them money," writes Stiglitz. "They are basically forced to give up part of their sovereignty."
Is this right? Are markets failing, and will restoring lost sovereignty to governments put an end to financial instability? This is a dangerous misdiagnosis. In fact, capital flows became destabilizing only after countries began asserting "sovereignty" over money -- detaching it from gold or anything else considered real wealth. Moreover, even if the march of globalization is not inevitable, the world economy and the international financial system have evolved in such a way that there is no longer a viable model for economic development outside of them.
The right course is not to return to a mythical past of monetary sovereignty, with governments controlling local interest and exchange rates in blissful ignorance of the rest of the world. Governments must let go of the fatal notion that nationhood requires them to make and control the money used in their territory. National currencies and global markets simply do not mix; together they make a deadly brew of currency crises and geopolitical tension and create ready pretexts for damaging protectionism. In order to globalize safely, countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability.

Find the rest of the story from foreignaffairs.org here.

BTW, if you have never picked up a copy of "Foreign Affairs" by the Council on Foreign Relations, I strongly suggest you do so. Excellent articles, written by folks both on the left and the right.

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'08 Candidate Speeches

Romney on Iran
Richardson on U.S.-Asia
McCain on Foreign Policy
Obama on Foreign Policy
Republican Debate Transcript
Democratic Debate Transcript

Courtesy of www.cfr.com

Hillary Up, Obama Down

Hillary Up, Obama Down
by Robert Novak (More by this author)
Posted: 05/11/2007

Sen. Hillary Clinton's upward bump in Democratic presidential polls is viewed by insiders as a delayed reaction to Sen. Barack Obama's mediocre performance in the opening debate April 26.Not many people actually watched MSNBC's telecast of the debate from Orangeburg, S.C., but press accounts and word of mouth have spread the news of Obama's performance. When asked by moderator Brian Williams what he would do as president if he learned that "two American cities have been hit simultaneously by terrorists," Obama replied -- citing Hurricane Katrina -- that "the first thing we'd have to do so is make sure that we've got an effective emergency response." In contrast, Clinton responded that she would "retaliate."Obama's unsatisfactory answer generated criticism in Democratic circles that he is too inexperienced and that his managers are relying on his personality and biography rather than taking vigorous positions.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20676

Obama called hypocrite for wife's Wal-Mart link

As a fluent public speaker, independent-minded wife, devoted mother and professional woman, Michelle Obama has been hailed as an invaluable asset to her husband Barack's mission to capture the Democratic 2008 presidential nomination.
Yet, while her style and performance are winning plaudits on the campaign trail, a little-reported business interest of Mrs Obama's has opened her husband up to one of the criticisms that politicians fear most - the taint of hypocrisy.
She is taking a break from her main job, as a well-remunerated Chicago hospital executive, to campaign for her husband. But she has just been re-elected to the board of an Illinois food-processing company, a position she took up two years ago to gain experience of the private sector.
And the biggest customer for the pickles and peppers produced by Treehouse Foods is the retail giant Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation and the bête noire of American liberals, including Sen Obama, for its employment practices, most notably its refusal to recognise trade unions.

Find the article here.

What's that I hear? Hillary gaining on her lead!

Media Elites Struggle to Keep Ron Paul Under Wraps

Ron Paul is perhaps the only "true" conservative who is running for President. Against the war from the beginning, content on getting our troops home as fast as they arrived. He is a strict constitutionalist. What about him can the Republican party not like? If they are truly the party of "smaller government, less taxes, less social programs", then Ron Paul should be their guy. But will he? Nah, probably not. The media and the establishment will ignore him in the hopes that he will "just go away". He really needs a strong grassroots campaign. As I mentioned earlier about him being against the war from the beginning, one of the major things that bothers me about the Democratic candidates, is their "Yes, I voted for the war in the beginning, but after thinking about it for a while, I made a mistake and I am against the war". Do you know why they are against the war? Because it is an unpopular war. Our troops are dying in Iraq. The media talks about how there were no "weapons of mass destruction". (side note... one of the guys I work with served in Iraq and DID see the weapons. They did exist according to him. I guess he should know, he was there). If the war was popular and not stuck in some quagmire, then they would be for it. I guess that is a true politian for you. No longer a representative of the people that they serve, but a representative of their own selfish interests, a cozy retirement and a nice job of being a highly paid lobbyist in Washington after they get voted out.

Anywho, on with the story...

Remember three years ago when the major press organs of the country were all atwitter over the rocketing presidential fortunes of Howard Dean? Dean and his supporters had "mastered the Internet."
Their phenomenal work is now a case study on how political candidates can harness the power of the on-line world. (Only Dean's famous "scream," blasted way out of proportion by the establishment media, terminated his upward trajectory of support. For kicks, go back and compare the coverage between the candidacy ending Dean Scream to the McCain "bomb Iran" non-event. Yes, I know, after 9/11 everything changed, but humor yourself.)
Now in 2007, Ron Paul comes along last week and gives by most accounts of honest grassroots Americans the best performance in the first televised debate between GOP presidential contenders. Exclusively broadcast by MSNBC, Ron Paul led MSNBC's post election poll from start to finish with nearly a double digit margin over his nearest challenger Mitt Romney.
An even more crushing defeat of the rest of the pack occurred in an ABC News poll which at first had been posted on-line with only nine names on it — Ron Paul's being the one missing. Irate Paul supporters who complained in the poll's comment section at first saw many of their posts ominously deleted — some no doubt for language, others for editorial discretion bordering on the c word. After someone posted in the comment' thread the cell phone number of a Senior VP at ABC News, the Paul name was added to the poll.

You can read more of the article from The John Birch society here.

Dems backing down on promised reforms

Lobbying Reform Losing Momentum in Congress After Democrats Touted It for 2006 Election

Is it any surprise? House Democrats are suddenly balking at the tough lobbying reforms they touted to voters last fall as a reason for putting them in charge of Congress.
Now that they are running things, many Democrats want to keep the big campaign donations and lavish parties that lobbyists put together for them. They're also having second thoughts about having to wait an extra year before they can become high-paid lobbyists themselves should they retire or be defeated at the polls.
The growing resistance to several proposed reforms now threatens passage of a bill that once seemed on track to fulfill Democrats' campaign promise of cleaner fundraising and lobbying practices.
"The longer we wait, the weaker the bill seems to get," said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, which has pushed for the changes. "The sense of urgency is fading," he said, in part because scandals such as those involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., have given way to other news.
The situation concerns some Democrats, who note their party campaigned against a "culture of corruption" in 2006, when voters ended a long run of Republican control of Congress. Several high-profile issues remained in doubt Friday, five days before the House Judiciary Committee is to take up the legislation.

View the story from ABC news here.

Highlights of the article:

*Require lobbyists to disclose details about large donations they arrange for politicians.
*Make former lawmakers wait two years, instead of one, before lobbying Congress.
*Bar lobbyists from throwing large parties for lawmakers at national political conventions.

Think it's going to happen? I don't. Don't count on any major reforms from the Democrats. All talk, little action.

Democrats' Momentum Is Stalling - Can they govern?

Amid Iraq Debate, Priorities On Domestic Agenda Languish

In the heady opening weeks of the 110th Congress, the Democrats' domestic agenda appeared to be flying through the Capitol: Homeland security upgrades, a higher minimum wage and student loan interest rate cuts all passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
But now that initial progress has foundered as Washington policymakers have been consumed with the debate over the Iraq war. Not a single priority on the Democrats' agenda has been enacted, and some in the party are growing nervous that the "do nothing" tag they slapped on Republicans last year could come back to haunt them.
"We cannot be a one-trick pony," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who helped engineer his party's takeover of Congress as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "People voted for change, but Iraq, the economy and Washington, D.C., [corruption] all tied for first place. We need to do them all."
The "Six for '06" policy agenda on which Democrats campaigned last year was supposed to consist of low-hanging fruit, plucked and put in the basket to allow Congress to move on to tougher targets. House Democrats took just 10 days to pass a minimum-wage increase, a bill to implement most of the homeland security recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, a measure allowing federal funding for stem cell research, another to cut student-loan rates, a bill allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, and a rollback of tax breaks for oil and gas companies to finance alternative-energy research.
The Senate struck out on its own, with a broad overhaul of the rules on lobbying Congress.
Not one of those bills has been signed into law.

Read the rest of the story from the Washington Post.

Florida ignores national party threats, sets early primary for Jan. 29

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida took a step toward shaking up the presidential primary on Thursday, giving final legislative approval to moving the state's 2008 primary to Jan. 29 and bypassing a dozen other states set for Feb. 5.Moving up Florida's primary, which is currently in early March, would put the state's contest behind only the Iowa and Nevada Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary _ and on the same day as South Carolina's Democratic primary.
To view more of the story from the Sun-Sentinal.com, click here!

Leahy supoenas Rove e-mails from DOJ

After weeks of threats, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Wednesday subpoenaed the Justice Department, demanding any e-mails to or from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove involving the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Leahy also wants the Justice Department to turn over all Rove e-mails it has related to the outing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Rove was not charged in that case. But Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury.
The story from The Politico can be found here.