Dallas County broke the '06 total vote yesterday, with over 57,000 early votes (not counting the mail ballots). We've looked at about 55,000 of those, and as best we can tell, virtually half have no '02, '04 or '06 primary history. Less than 3,000 have previous R primary history over the same period.

Harris County -- the third largest county in the United States-- is on pace to shatter the total vote from 2004 just with early voters. Harris County is working to turn blue in November, much like Dallas did in '06 and Travis did in '04, and this record turnout is sure to help that.

Attention, Parents: Larry Craig is Seeking Interns

The Idaho Republican has just announced he's taking applications for summer internships in his Capitol Hill office, which has been the brunt of gossip and many a colorful "wide stance" jokes ever since last summer, when Craig was busted in a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport men's room sex sting.

"Interns have the chance to be an essential part of a working congressional office," Craig said in a press release issued Tuesday. "They participate in the legislative process as well as ensure that constituent services run smoothly. For those interested in politics, it is an incredible opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at how our government functions while serving the people of Idaho."

Senate advances bill to cut Iraq funding

In an about-face, Senate Republicans on Tuesday agreed with Democrats to advance an anti-war bill because they said the debate would give them time to hail progress in Iraq.

The change of heart came after months of blocking similar measures. But unlike most of last year, security conditions in Iraq have improved, and Republicans say they now feel they have the upper hand on the debate.

"We welcome a discussion about Iraq," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared.

"This legislation would substitute the political judgment of legislators for the considered professional military judgment of our military commanders," the administration said in a statement.

Rep. Renzi indicted over Arizona land deal

The indictment charges Renzi, a three-term congressman, and business associate James Sandlin, 56, of Texas, with 27 counts of wire fraud, extortion, money laundering and conspiracies from real-estate transactions involving the two men.

Other counts charge that Renzi and another business associate, Andrew Beardall, 36, of Maryland, violated federal insurance laws by embezzling more than $400,000 in insurance premiums from a trust account of the Patriot Insurance Agency Inc. to fund Renzi's congressional campaign in 2001 and 2002. The Renzi family owns the Santa Cruz County business .

"Among the allegations contained in the indictment (Renzi) misused his public office by forcing a land sale that would financially benefit himself and a business associate, and in so doing, he betrayed the trust of the citizens of Arizona," said U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa of Arizona.

Helpline for Hillary Clinton on beating Obama

Hillary Clinton's increasingly desperate campaign team held a phone-in yesterday for supporters to offer their advice on how to defeat Barack Obama.

The "helpline to Hillary" came as the former First Lady prepared for a televised debate with her rival for the Democratic nomination in Austin last night, where she needed a strong performance to revive her bid for the White House.

With his opponent on the ropes and short of ideas, Mr Obama yesterday completed his 11th straight primary victory, winning the votes of overseas Democrats.

Remember the Democratic presidential debate when Sen. Barack Obama said he would have to see former President Bill Clinton dance before he could decide if he was a "brother?" Wonder what he would make of President Bush who swayed his presidential hips to the African rhythms in Liberia, his final stop in his six-nation trip in on that continent.

(click the picture or link to watch the vid)

Check out First Lady Laura in the background. She's got the same moves as the president, just what you'd expect from an old married couple.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said President Bush should veto a measure that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

McCain voted against the bill, which would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.

His vote was controversial because the manual prohibits waterboarding -- a simulated drowning technique that McCain also opposes -- yet McCain doesn't want the CIA bound by the manual and its prohibitions.

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker noted that McCain believes that waterboarding is already banned by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which includes an amendment he wrote barring inhumane treatment of prisoners. The act prohibited cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for all detainees in U.S. custody, including CIA prisoners.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client's corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself - instructing staff members to block the woman's access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist's client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

(snip)

"I would very much like to think that I have never been a man whose favor can be bought,"

The most famous postwar logo without commercial purpose -- or, at least, intended commercial purpose -- the peace symbol, turns 50 tomorrow.

Adopted with stunning speed by dozens of counterculture movements in the 1960s, its message expanded and now most people see it as a generic symbol of peace, adaptable to almost any pacifist cause.

"The peace symbol continues to exert almost hypnotic appeal," writes Ken Kolsbun in Peace: The Biography of a Symbol, which will be released by National Geographic's publishing arm in April.

"It has become the rallying cry for almost any group working for social change."

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush urged disgruntled conservatives on Monday to rally around John McCain, calling their criticism of the Republican presidential front-runner "grossly unfair."

"His character was forged in the crucible of war. His commitment to America is beyond any doubt," the 41st U.S. president, joined by his wife Barbara, told a joint news conference with McCain in a Houston airport hangar.

"You know, if you've been around the track you hear these criticisms and I think they are grossly unfair. He's got a ... sound conservative record but he's not above reaching out to the other side," he said.

"So I hear these criticisms and Barbara knows I get a little bit annoyed about them frankly," he said, later dismissing them as "absurd."

During the 2000 Republican presidential primary, Senator John McCain was the target of a whisper campaign implying that he had fathered a black child out of wedlock. (McCain's adopted daughter is a naturally dark-skinned child from Bangladesh). Voters in South Carolina were reportedly asked, "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child?". McCain would later lose the South Carolina primary, and the nomination, to George W. Bush.

In addition, on the week of the nomination vote, dozens of radio stations were called on the same day asking talk show hosts what they thought of McCain's having fathered a black child out of wedlock.

Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.

Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government.

What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.

U.S. forces should keep withdrawing from Iraq this year without a pause, Iraq's national security adviser said on Wednesday, disagreeing with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, whose post gives him a senior security role in the Iraqi government, said he would like to see U.S. forces draw down steadily to below 100,000 by the end of 2008.

Rubaie told a small group of journalists at Iraq's embassy in London that he understood the arguments for a pause "to consolidate the gains" made over past months.

"I understand. But I believe phasing out and making it a continuous but slow withdrawal is better than pausing, as it gives continuity to the process," he said.

The confirmation of US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was thrown into further doubt yesterday, when a Republican senator who is blocking the nomination renewed complaints that Sullivan has refused to loosen licensing rules for guns.

The development means that the future leadership of the US attorney's office in Boston will remain cloudy for the foreseeable future, because the Bush administration has been unable to nominate a replacement.

Under Senate rules, a single senator can put a hold on legislative action for months. Vitter and two Republican senators from Idaho, Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, have held up Sullivan's confirmation since December, saying the bureau is overly aggressive in enforcing gun laws.

Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts have both urged their colleagues to confirm Sullivan, whose nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in November. After Crapo and Craig put holds on Sullivan's nomination the following month, Kerry said he was "disappointed that his nomination is now in jeopardy simply because he has responsibly enforced our country's laws." A Kerry spokeswoman said yesterday that his position is unchanged.

U.S. Senate votes to ban waterboarding

The Senate voted to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods that have been used by the CIA against high-level terrorism suspects, setting up a confrontation with President George W. Bush, who has threatened to veto the bill.

The prohibition of coercive interrogation methods, part of a broader intelligence authorization bill, would limit all American interrogators to techniques permitted in the Army Field Manual, which bars the use of physical force. The Senate voted 51 to 45, with 5 Republicans joining 45 Democrats and 1 independent in favor of the ban.

"If the president vetoes intelligence authorization, he will be voting in favor of waterboarding," Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, declared at a news conference.

"We always supported allowing the CIA to use extra measures. I believe waterboarding is illegal and should be banned."

Senate Authorizes Broad Expansion Of Surveillance Act

The Senate yesterday approved a sweeping measure that would expand the government's clandestine surveillance powers, delivering a key victory to the White House by approving immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that cooperated with intelligence agencies in domestic spying after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

On a 68 to 29 vote, the Senate approved the reauthorization of a law that would give the government greater powers to eavesdrop in terrorism and intelligence cases without obtaining warrants from a secret court.

"It is inconceivable that any telephone companies that allegedly cooperated with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program did not know what their obligations were. And it is just as implausible that those companies believed they were entitled to simply assume the lawfulness of a government request for assistance," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who co-sponsored the amendment.

Having spent many years working in the telecomm industry, Dookie and I can vouch for Senator Feingold's words. They don't empty the trash around here without consulting the legal department. It is inconceivable that they did not know they were breaking the law by cooperating with the government in spying on Americans without warrants.

Thanks to the 2/3 of Senate democrats who joined Dodd and Feingold in opposing immunity. As for the other 1/3, and the Democratic (ahem) leaders who failed to make damn sure the amendment passed.... Well, here are there names. Call them and let them know what you think. And call your Representatives in the House and encourage them to stand their ground and NOT cave to the Senate on this issue. Tell them to let Dubya veto the extension of the "Protect America Act" and let the blame for the expiration of that (bad) law fall firmly at his feet.

Senators who voted to pass the bill and give immunity to the telecom companies that broke the law (Call and chew them out):

Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Robert Casey (D-PA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Jim Webb (D-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Joe Biden (D-DE), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Harry Reid (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), John Tester (D-MT), Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Neither Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) nor Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) voted on the bill.

Mr. Bush has often derided Congressional earmarks as "special interest items" that waste taxpayer money and undermine trust in government. Congress, he said, included more than 11,700 earmarks totaling almost $17 billion in spending bills for the current fiscal year.

But some of those earmarks were similar or identical to ones included in the 2009 budget that Mr. Bush sent Congress last week. For example, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, obtained an earmark of $1.5 million last year to deal with the emerald ash borer, a beetle that attacks trees, lawns and crops. Mr. Bush now wants more money to fight that insect.

(snip)

"Earmarks," as defined by the White House, "are funds provided by Congress for projects or programs where the Congressional direction (in bill or report language) circumvents the merit-based or competitive allocation process, or specifies the location or recipient, or otherwise curtails the ability of the executive branch to properly manage funds."

U.S. loses prison camp records of bin Laden's driver

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The U.S. military has lost a year's worth of records describing the Guantanamo interrogation and confinement of Osama bin Laden's driver, a prosecutor said at the Yemeni captive's war court hearing on Thursday.

Lawyers for the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, asked for the records to support their argument that prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired him and compromised his ability to aid in his defense on war crimes charges.

"All known records have been produced with the exception of the 2002 Gitmo records," one of the prosecutors, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone, told the court. "They can't find it."

Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, was the prisoner whose lawsuit prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the initial Guantanamo war crimes system. The charges against him were twice dismissed and then refiled and the military hopes to begin his trial in May.

After years of dodging and dissembling, the Bush administration today boldly embraced an interrogation tactic that's been an iconic and almost universally condemned form of torture since the Spanish Inquisition.

President Bush would authorize waterboarding future terrorism suspects if certain criteria are met, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said this morning, one day after the director of the CIA for the first time publicly acknowledged his agency's use of the tactic.

(snip)

"The United States may use waterboarding to question terrorism suspects in the future, the White House said Wednesday, rejecting the widely held belief that the practice amounts to torture.

"Asked whether the White House's reasoning was that torture is illegal, the attorney general has certified that the interrogation practices are legal, therefore those practices are not torture, Fratto replied: 'Sure.'"

Manfred Nowak, the special rapporteur on torture, said: "This is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law. [The] time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."

A $158 billion economic stimulus plan drafted by Senate Democrats that included relief for low-income seniors, disabled veterans and the unemployed was blocked by a Republican filibuster last night when the Senate fell a single vote short of the 60 needed to consider the measure

"Given a chance to act as recession looms, more than 40 Republicans today said no to helping 20 million seniors and no to 250,000 disabled veterans. They said no to those who have lost their jobs and no to small business," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said after the vote.

The Senate package, which included numerous provisions not offered by the House plan, attracted powerful supporters. Automakers Ford and General Motors, home builders, Realtors and mortgage bankers joined the AARP to press Republicans to embrace the Senate measure. Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) left the campaign trail to make rare appearances in the Senate chamber.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president, did not show up for the vote. Asked about his time away from the Senate, McCain, who was heading back to Washington aboard his campaign plane, said: "It's very hard. Obviously, I've missed a lot of votes. There's no doubt about it."

Granted, this is not even vaguely representative of how the votes would turn out in a general election, where the Dem is running against the Repub. However, it is very clearly representative of the level of interest between the two parties, with the Democrats clearly showing far more interest in the process than the republicans. While not a deterministic factor in the final vote-counts in November, it gives a pretty good indication of who will be plugging harder for their party and for their candidates.

Somebody call Karl Rove and ask him how that "permanent republican majority" thing is working out for him.

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama carved up the nation in the 22-state nominating contest on Tuesday, leaving the Democratic presidential nomination more elusive than ever. Mrs. Clinton won California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and her home state, New York, while Mr. Obama took Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota and his base in Illinois.

It was a night of drama as millions of Democrats cleaved sharply between two candidates offering them a historic first: The opportunity to nominate a woman or an African-merican to lead their party' effort to reclaim the White House. Yet it was also a night when neither Mr. Obama nor Mrs. Clinton could decisively lay claim - or even secure an edge - to the nomination, assuring an electoral fight that will unfold for weeks to come.

Mrs. Clinton won 584 delegates in Tuesday's vote, bringing her total to 845, according to a count by The Associated Press. Mr. Obama won 569 delegates for a total of 765, The A.P. reported. A candidate needs 2,025 votes to win the nomination.
NY Times

The Bush administration has failed to nominate any candidates to a newly empowered privacy and civil-liberties commission. This leaves the board without any members, even as Congress prepares to give the Bush administration extraordinary powers to wiretap without warrants inside the United States.

In a 2007 measure implementing 9/11 Commission recommendations, Congress reconfigured the oversight committee, known as the Privacy and Civil Liberty Oversight Board. The intent was to make the board more independent of the White House, require it to be bipartisan and make it more accountable to the public.

Terms for the board's original members expired on Jan. 30, but no nominations have been sent to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which must approve appointees for the five vacancies.

Civil-liberties advocates like Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, considered the board to be apologists for the government's anti-terrorism policies, rather than independent civil-liberties watchdogs.

"This board failed miserably in its mission of helping to protect Americans' privacy and instead acted mainly to help the White House whitewash programs like warrantless NSA wiretapping that violate Americans' civil liberties," Graves said. "Now that Congress has changed the board's rules to make it a little more independent, the White House appears to have no interest in appointing anyone to it."