David Drake

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to list on annual Senate financial disclosure forms the family charity she operates with former president Bill Clinton, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Sen. Clinton, a Democratic presidential contender, has been an officer in the family foundation since it was established in 2001, but none of her ethics reports since then have disclosed that fact as required by congressional ethics rules, the newspaper said.

The foundation has enabled the Clintons to write off more than $5 million from their taxable income since 2001, while dispensing $1.25 million in charitable contributions over that period, the newspaper reported.

[...]

"The details of the Clintons' charitable family foundation and Senator Clinton's role in it have always been publicly available but, in an oversight that leaders of both parties have made, it was inadvertently omitted from her Senate filing, which has been corrected," Clinton's spokesman Philippe Reines told the newspaper.

Democrats in the US are planning a challenge to President George W Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

Key senators are drafting legislation that would revoke the broad authority granted to the president in 2002 and replace it with a narrower mandate.

The text has not been finalised, but it is expected to restrict the role of US troops and start bringing them home.

It will face opposition from Republican senators, who have twice blocked a resolution criticising policy in Iraq.

Democratic aides have said the proposal could restrict US troops in Iraq to fighting al-Qaeda, training Iraqi forces and protecting Iraq's borders.

Officials say the precise wording is still being hammered out.

Some Democrats want to totally revoke the 2002 authorization which granted President Bush the power to use the armed forces to defend the nation against what the resolution described as "the continuing threat posed by Iraq." The reasoning now is that threat no longer exists.

Michigan Congressman Dave Camp, a Republican from Midland, says he supports the president's surge plan, saying reinforcements in Iraq are essential. To do otherwise, Camp said, would "handcuff" U.S. troops.

Harry Reid, Real Estate Mogul and Big Time lobbyist for Big Dairy and Big Lubricants - who also manages to find time to be the Democrat Senator from Nevada and Majority Leader - said he would not bring the resolution up again.

Reid, by saying he won't bring it up again, of course means it's just a matter of time until he reintroduces it or introduces a similarly themed resolution.

Dr Hegarty said after a 22-hour examination of the suspect that Mr Padilla had suffered from intense stress and anxiety following three-and-a-half years in custody as an "enemy combatant".

Mr Padilla claims he was tortured while being held on a brig at Charleston, South Carolina, a charge that officials deny.

The psychiatrist said Mr Padilla suffered from a facial tic, problems with social contact, lack of concentration and a form of Stockholm Syndrome, by which people in captivity sympathise with their captors.

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn is pushing to extend Minnesota's 6.5 percent sales tax to cosmetic surgery and appearance-enhancing procedures including chemical skin peels, laser hair removal, cosmetic injections and spider vein treatments.

Anybody who has the money for plastic surgery can afford to pay the tax, said Kahn, a Minneapolis Democrat.

"There aren't a lot of homeless people and there aren't a lot of people who don't have enough money for food who are getting optional cosmetic surgery," she said.

New Jersey is the only state that taxes cosmetic surgery, collecting an estimated $11 million this year. But plastic surgery taxes have caught the attention of lawmakers in Texas, Illinois and Washington in recent years as a potential new source of revenue.

Kahn said her proposal would raise about $7 million a year.

Most of that money would come from the bank accounts of hardworking women, said Dr. Richard D'Amico, president-elect of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons near Chicago. He said 90 percent of plastic surgery patients are female, with annual incomes averaging about $60,000.

"It hurts working women who save up their money and work hard and try to do something for themselves once in a while," he said.

[...]

"I think about how many South Carolinians have served in our military and who are serving today under our flag and I believe that we should have one flag that we all pay honor to, as I know that most people in South Carolina do every single day," Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview.

[...]

Other Democratic hopefuls, including Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, have said the flag should come down.

[Caretaker William] Sarpong alerted police to a large number of empty bottles of hydrogen peroxide left in bin bags for collection by Enfield Council refuse services. Hydrogen peroxide is said to have been a key ingredient in the manufacture of the bombs.

The jury also heard how police searches of the flat, after July 21, unearthed extremist Muslim material, along with CDs by artists such as Meatloaf and Michael Bolton.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, is one of six men accused of hatching an extremist Muslim plot to kill commuters in a series of murderous bombings on the London transport system.

They are alleged to have tried to set off four bombs - made of hydrogen peroxide and chapatti flour - which all failed.

But the easy-to-make yet deadly chemical cocktails were embraced in the late 1990s by Palestinian militants and suicide bombers bent on killing large groups of people.

Now, Yeager says, the "Mother of Satan" explosives are considered the most likely weapon that terrorists will use against the U.S., more so than a nuclear or radiological "dirty" bomb.

"Every serious terrorist group knows about them and knows how to make them," Yeager said. The forensic scientist heads the explosives unit at the FBI's laboratory in Quantico, Va., about 35 miles south of Washington.

[John] Murtha has a different idea. He would stop the surge by crudely hamstringing the ability of military commanders to deploy troops. In an interview carried Thursday by the Web site MoveCongress.org, Mr. Murtha said he would attach language to a war funding bill that would prohibit the redeployment of units that have been at home for less than a year, stop the extension of tours beyond 12 months, and prohibit units from shipping out if they do not train with all of their equipment. His aim, he made clear, is not to improve readiness but to "stop the surge." So why not straightforwardly strip the money out of the appropriations bill -- an action Congress is clearly empowered to take -- rather than try to micromanage the Army in a way that may be unconstitutional? Because, Mr. Murtha said, it will deflect accusations that he is trying to do what he is trying to do. "What we are saying will be very hard to find fault with," he said.

Mr. Murtha's cynicism is matched by an alarming ignorance about conditions in Iraq. He continues to insist that Iraq "would be more stable with us out of there," in spite of the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that early withdrawal would produce "massive civilian casualties." He says he wants to force the administration to "bulldoze" the Abu Ghraib prison, even though it was emptied of prisoners and turned over to the Iraqi government last year. He wants to "get our troops out of the Green Zone" because "they are living in Saddam Hussein's palace"; could he be unaware that the zone's primary occupants are the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy?

It would be nice to believe that Mr. Murtha does not represent the mainstream of the Democratic Party or the thinking of its leadership. Yet when asked about Mr. Murtha's remarks Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered her support. Does Ms. Pelosi really believe that the debate she orchestrated this week was not "the real vote"? If the answer is yes, she is maneuvering her party in a way that can only do it harm.

...eight concerts were announced by ex-US Vice President Al Gore, whose global warming film An Inconvenient Truth is up for two Oscars.

Johannesburg, London, Shanghai and Sydney are among the host cities.

Three other concerts will take place in the US, Brazil and Japan, with the cities still to be decided. There will also be a concert in Antarctica.

Mr Gore made the announcement at a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, joined by actress Cameron Diaz and rapper Pharrell Williams, who will perform at one of the shows.

"We have to get the message of urgency and hope out," Mr Gore said.

"The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement."

Seventeen of his Republican Party joined the Democrats in passing the non-binding motion 246 to 182.

[...]

"The president's escalation plan repeats past mistakes. The stakes in Iraq are too high to recycle proposals that have little prospect for success.

"The bipartisan resolution today may be non-binding. But it will send a strong message to the president - we here in Congress are committed to protecting and supporting our troops," [Said Speaker Nanny Pelosi)

House Minority Leader John Boehner had urged lawmakers to vote against the motion, saying it was "the first step towards a tragic, unthinkable goal".

"We face a sophisticated, determined enemy who wants to annihilate our way of life," he said.

[The] plans for placing conditions on how President George W. Bush can spend $93.4 billion in new combat funds would effectively stop an American troop buildup.

"They won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work. There's no question in my mind," [said Murtha].

[...]

"We're trying to force a redeployment not by taking money away, by redirecting money," Murtha said, adding he wants U.S. funds to be slanted more toward diplomacy and Iraq reconstruction.

"While American troops are fighting radical Islamic terrorists thousands of miles away, it is unthinkable that the United States Congress would move to discredit their mission, cut off their reinforcements and deny them the resources they need to succeed and return home safely," [said Republican John Boehner, House Minority Leader].

The plane was like a "sound-proofed coffin" when the windows were iced over, said Carolyn Faucher, another stranded passenger.

Greenberg said she and other passengers were getting testy because the flight attendants told them they couldn't hand out food or water until the plane had been grounded for at least four hours, citing a Federal Aviation Administration rule. At least two of the passengers were diabetic.

Another passenger said there was no power, and flight attendants had to keep opening the doors so they could breathe comfortably.

The company later apologized and said it would offer refunds and free flights to passengers delayed on-board a plane for more than three hours.

The story was front-page news for both New York tabloid newspapers and dominated local television coverage.

Barbra Streisand, actors Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Guest, Rob Reiner and Larry Hagman and the executive producer of television's "Saturday Night Live", where Franken got his start.

IN FACT, the former SNL writer and performer raised more than $1 million last year though his political action committee called Midwest Values.

He spent most of it, for political consultants, travel and fundraising.

Here is what you NEED TO KNOW. Franken's Midwest Values PAC gave $137,500 to Democrats running for office around the country last year, including here in Minnesota. The PAC gave $10,000 contributions to candidates Amy Klobuchar, Tim Walz, Patty Wetterling and Coleen Rowley.

And as his old partner Tom Davis observes, "He does have a conservative streak in him. When I first met him, he was actually pro-life."

[Franken] enlisted in the anti-war (Vietnam) movement, and avoided the military. Moreover, even though Franken practically brags about helping his brother to dodge the draft, he toured for the USO the last two holiday seasons.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that the deficit for the budget year that began Oct. 1 totals $42.2 billion, down 57.2 percent from the same period a year ago. The amount of revenues collected from October through January were up 9.7 percent from the same period a year ago, climbing to a record level for the period of $834.1 billion. Government spending also set a record for the period, but the growth was a slower 2.1 percent, pushing the total to $876.3 billion for the first four months of the current budget year.

The continued strong growth in revenues reflects the record profits corporations have been recording in recent years and low levels of unemployment, which means more Americans are working and paying taxes. For the full year, the Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that the budget deficit will shrink to around $200 billion. The deficit for the 2006 budget year, which ended last Sept. 30, was $247.7 billion, the lowest in four years.

February 8, 2007
You choose

As most of you know Al Franken is leaving AAR for other pursuits.

I'll miss Al and think there'd be no AAR without him, but I am psyched to have Thom Hartmann in the AAR lineup. Many of you know I am a big fan of his.

However, there's a rumor going around that Thom won't be carried by XM on the AAR channel. Instead they'll carry Ed Schultz. If I listened to AAR through XM- I'd be pissed.... let them know how you feel.

"Air America [is] rotten business people."[sic]

"If you listen to Air America, I don't want you listening to me."

"Mike Malloy is a hate merchant."

"Air America sucks!"

"[Air America] undercuts everybody."

"Air America lies."

"Air America sucks. They suck. They're mean and nasty."

"I wish Air America would go away and shut up."

"[Air America] has never sold an ad."

"Al Franken leaving is the best thing that ever happened [to Air America]."

"Air America is robbing people."

"I'm not going to be nice about Air America anymore."

"NJDC is deeply troubled by Governor Romney's choice of locations to announce his Presidential campaign. Romney has been traveling the country talking about inclusiveness and understanding of people from all walks of life. Yet he chooses to kick off his presidential campaign on the former estate of a well-known and outspoken anti-Semite and xenophobe. Mitt Romney's embrace of Henry Ford and association of Ford's legacy with his presidential campaign raises serious questions about either the sincerity of Romney's words or his understanding of basic American history," said NJDC Executive Director Ira Forman.

"...the realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station..."

15 minutes into hour one, "Anna Nicole Smith is a dead whore."
39 minutes into hour one, "I'm fresh out of sympathy [for Anna Nicole Smith]."

A group of St. Paul legislators want the state to pay off nearly $100 million in city debt on the Xcel Energy Center and the River Centre convention center, in part to help spiff up the facilities for the 2008 GOP National Convention.

A bill introduced at the Capitol seeks $98.5 million in debt relief, to pay off $55.8 million in bonds for River Centre and its parking ramp, and $42.7 million to pay off an interest-free state loan on the Xcel Arena.

City officials said the money would help upgrade River Centre before the GOP convention and pay for renovations at the adjoining Roy Wilkins Auditorium.

A chief sponsor, Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, said the state help would not benefit owners of the Minnesota Wild hockey team, which calls the Xcel Center home.

Cohen and St. Paul city officials point out that the Legislature paid off $87 million on bonds to clear the way for an expansion of the Minneapolis Convention Center in 1998. City Councilman Don Bostrom said River Centre and Xcel should similarly be viewed as a "statewide asset" since it draws state tournaments and conventions.

[...]

The 2008 GOP convention and the accompanying attention it will bring to the Twin Cities may give St. Paul extra standing for its request, although the city was considering a debt relief request to the state even before Republicans picked the Twin Cities.

While St. Paul's legislative delegation is entirely Democratic, they could have a Republican ally in U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, who led the drive for the Xcel Center when he was St. Paul mayor and was also instrumental in convincing the Republican National Committee to choose the Twin Cities for 2008.

"If you look at the amount the state has put into the Minneapolis Convention Center and the Twins stadium, doing this for Xcel and the River Centre makes it more equitable," said Bill Huepenbecker, a senior aide to Coleman and a former River Centre director.

"[You look great] are you working out?"

"Do you like campaigning [for President]?"

"How does it feel being the front-runner?"

"Why do you think the crowd in Iowa laughed when you were asked about 'evil men'?"

"Where do you stand on Iraq?" (Depends on the moment, Ed. Don't you know this by now?-Drake)

John Hottinger is in jeopardy over allegations he misused money from a client's lawsuit settlement, an infraction that he admitted took place while he was still a legislator.

The Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility board filed a petition Tuesday asking the state Supreme Court to suspend or disbar Hottinger from practicing law for taking $8,820 from a trust account set up when a personal injury lawsuit was settled. He has since repaid the money.

[...]

Hottinger said he effectively borrowed money from the trust account to help him pay his mortgage. He said he was financially strapped as a legislator making $31,000 a year. He said he planned to get the money from his retirement account once his career in the Legislature ended.

The $22,000 settlement reached in Jan. 10, 2006, for a client identified only by her initials was meant to pay her legal and medical bills and other costs. Hottinger personally received $4,910 for representing the woman.

Beginning Jan. 12, Hottinger wrote six checks from the trust fund ranging from $500 to $3,000. On April 12, the account became overdrawn when a check was made out to a clinic. Hottinger replenished the account in June.

"Minneapolis faces a serious public safety challenge that requires us to continue to make significant investments to fight crime," said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak on Tuesday, in a plea directed at Minnesota Legislators to restore local government aid to the city.

...utilizes patented technology to detect weapons-fire events over large, complex environments. ShotSpotter products range from systems for public safety agencies and 911 dispatch centers (which instantly identify, locate and give a visual of the location of a gunshot....

In her Des Moines debut, presidential candidate Clinton attempted to explain her 2002 vote in favor of a Senate resolution "to authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq" (S.J. Res. 45): "I said that we should not go to war unless we have allies. So (President Bush) took the authority that I and others gave him and he misused it, and I regret that deeply. And if we had known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote and I never would have voted to give this president that authority."

[...]

"There is a very easy way to prevent anyone from being put into harm's way, that is for Saddam Hussein to disarm. And I have absolutely no belief that he will. I have to say that this is something I've followed for more than a decade. If he were serious about disarming, he would have been much more forthcoming. ... I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information, intelligence that I had available, talking with people whose opinions I trusted, trying to discount the political or other factors that I didn't believe should be in any way part of this decision."

"It's deeply unfortunate, kind of pathetic, and completely unsurprising that Senator Norm Coleman and his Republican allies are already dragging out decades-old quotes and taking them out of context to suggest that Al is a homophobe and a crack addict."

"There was not as much cocaine as you would think on the premises. Yeah, a number of people got in trouble. But cocaine was used mainly just to stay up. There was a very undisciplined way of writing the show, which was staying up all night on Tuesday. We didn't have the kind of hours that normal people have. And so there was a lot of waiting 'til Tuesday night, and then going all night, and at two or three or four in the morning, doing some coke to stay up, as opposed to doing a whole bunch, and doing nitrous oxide, and laughing at stuff.

"People used to ask me about this and I'd always say, 'No, there was no coke. It's impossible to do the kind of show we were doing and do drugs.' And so that was just a funny lie that I liked to tell. Kind of the opposite was true, unfortunately - for some people, it was impossible to do the show without the drugs. Comedians and comedy writers and people in show business in general aren't the most disciplined people, so the idea of putting the writing off until you had to, and then staying up all night, was an attractive one. And then having this drug that kept you awake in an enjoyable way was kind of tempting too. But I only did cocaine to stay awake to make sure nobody else did too much cocaine. That was the only reason I ever did it. Heh-heh."

Originally, there was a band called Alice Cooper led by a singer named Vincent Damon Furnier. Under his direction, Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and huge boa constrictors, all coordinated by the heavily made-up Furnier. By that time, Furnier had adopted the name for his androgynous on-stage personality.

[...]

Released in the summer of 1972, School's Out was Alice Cooper's breakthrough record, peaking at number two and selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and a number one single in the U.K. Billion Dollar Babies, released the following year, was the group's biggest hit, reaching number one in both America and Britain; the album's first single, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," became a Top Ten hit in Britain, peaking at number 25 in the U.S.

...stood on a chair (Without a step stool? All by his little self?! - Ed.) and spun in a circle, saying he was doing something no other candidate can.

"Do you know why I can do it," Kucinich asked. "No strings. Imagine a president with no strings attached?"

Kucinich brought his presidential campaign to New Hampshire on Saturday, speaking to Cheshire County Democrats.

"I'm ready for the election and New Hampshire is going to change it all," he said.

Boats and helicopters were used to reach the stranded anglers off Sakhalin island in the Sea of Okhotsk.

[...]

...the ice supporting the anglers - said to include women and children - broke free in a number of places in Mordvinov bay, on the south-east coast of Sakhalin. Pushed by strong winds, it began drifting out to sea.

Shahbaz was arrested in June 2001 after he used the bathroom at a mosque. "Qari Rafique, the head of the mosque, asked him why he was using the toilet that was adjacent to the mosque."

Police responding to a 911 call yesterday evening found the infant in the back seat of a locked car in a supermarket parking lot. Officers said the child was crying...

the panel concluded that it was at least 90% certain that human emissions of greenhouse gases rather than natural variations are warming the planet's surface.

"I want to take those [oil] profits and I want to put them into a strategic energy fund."

"U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal: We cannot, we should not, we must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons," Clinton told the audience. "In dealing with this threat ... no option can be taken off the table."

[...]

...she called the Iranian administration's "pro-terrorist, anti-American, anti-Israeli rhetoric."

[...]

"We need to use every tool at our disposal, including diplomatic and economic in addition to the threat and use of military force," she said.

It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security.

Al Franken has decided to run for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 2008, a senior Democratic official from Minnesota said Wednesday.

Franken told the official, who did not want to be identified because Franken has not made an announcement, that he had decided to run in a recent conversation.

Mayor Gavin Newsom apologized Thursday for having a sexual relationship with his former campaign manager's wife.

"I'm deeply sorry," Newsom said during a brief news conference at City Hall the day after the aide resigned. Newsom appeared poised but visibly emotional. He spoke for about a minute and left without taking questions.

Alex Tourk, 39, resigned Wednesday after confronting his boss about his relationship with his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, 34, who once worked as the mayor's appointment secretary.

I'm sure the soldiers were expressing a majority opinion common amongst the ranks - that's why it is news - and I'm also sure no one in the military leadership or the administration put the soldiers up to expressing their views, nor steered NBC reporter Richard Engel to the story.

I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people.

I'll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to believe that they are manning the parapet, and that's where their frustrations come in. I'll accept as well that they are young and naive and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never changing situation in Iraq. Cut off from society and constantly told that everyone supports them, no wonder the debate back home confuses them.