Any time you get to see a United States Senator's mug shot, it's a pretty darn good picture. I love the US flag lapel pin.
And (of course) that means it's time for a poll. But wait, don't just ignore this one...
(A request from the Connecticut HQ of "Dennis Kucinich for President":)
The Senate Democrats must be thinking this:We've tried reasoning with George Bush.George Bush is a stubborn man. There's no doubt about that. But being stubborn by itself isn't necessarily a good trait.
We've tried appealing to his sense of civic duty to work with them.
We've even threatened to filibuster some of his more outrageous requests.
Nothing seems to ever get through to him!
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The last political scuffle of the year between the White House and the Democratic-led Congress played out on the floor of the Senate Friday morning -- even though nearly all the senators had left the Capitol for the Christmas holiday earlier in the week."George Bush: Ruining Christmas for people everywhere, even in Congress."
In a session that lasted under a minute, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, opened and then immediately gaveled closed the Senate.
His sole reason for doing so was to block President Bush from naming controversial "recess appointments" -- a constitutional mechanism that allows the president, during congressional recesses, to fill top government posts for up to one year and avoid Senate confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced late Wednesday he would keep the Senate open with a series of "pro forma" sessions through mid-January.
Tense talks had just broken down with the White House on a deal that would have allowed the president to make dozens of those appointments if he agreed not to appoint one controversial official, Steven Bradbury, to be the permanent head of the influential Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.
Bush declined to accept the Democrats' offer, and Reid refused to approve Bradbury because of Democratic concerns about Bradbury's involvement in crafting legal opinions for the administration on interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects.
Similar sessions were conducted for the same reason over the Thanksgiving recess.
Webb won't be the only senator tasked with presiding over the shortened sessions. Other Democrats -- including Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chuck Schumer of New York -- will share the duty.
This coming year's election cycle is unique, in that many states have moved their primary dates earlier than ever. This is an effort to give their state's voters more of a say in who will be selected for each party's nomination.Under the NASS plan, party primaries/caucuses would be grouped by region beginning in 2012.This system will allow each region to be spotlighted during each of the months, so candidates may make more effective use of their time and give voters in each region an opportunity to see them and make a more knowledgeable choice.
* A lottery would be held to determine which region would begin the sequence the first year of the plan. The next presidential election year, the region that held the first position would move to the end of the sequence, and the other regions would move forward.
* Iowa and New Hampshire would retain their leading positions in the presidential selection process based upon their tradition of encouraging retail politics.
* Primaries/caucuses in each state of a given region would be scheduled on or soon after the first Tuesday in March, April, May or June of presidential election years.
Regional Groupings Under the NASS Plan
East: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Guam.
One man can make a difference. 
Late yesterday, Senate Majority Leader and indisputable asshole Harry Reid grudgingly agreed to table the FISA extension bill discussion until after holiday recess.
Somebody, please tell me. 
During our debate last year, Senator Lieberman intoned that he wanted to “elect a Democratic President in 2008,” and that my election would “frustrate and defeat our hope of doing that.” With his endorsement of John McCain today, it is now clear that Joe Lieberman is the one working to defeat our hopes.
Last year, Senator Lieberman pleaded with voters to consider his full throated support for the invasion of Iraq as merely a “single issue” in the context of an otherwise progressive agenda. His endorsement of Senator McCain reminds us that the war in Iraq is actually Lieberman’s predominant issue, trumping all else – or maybe he is looking forward to joining Sen. McCain in a duet rendition of “Bomb, Bomb, Iran.”
A McCain presidency would make privatizing social security more likely, investing in our middle class less likely, and tipping the balance of the Supreme Court for decades a near-certainty. The court is one vote away from overturning Roe v. Wade and further expanding the power of the Presidency at the expense of our civil liberties and constitutional freedoms. It is ironic that Lieberman’s fellow Connecticut senator, Chris Dodd, is today courageously leading the congressional charge against illegal wiretaps, not to mention bringing America’s combat role in the Bush-McCain-Lieberman war to an end.
With voters just weeks away from making their first decisions, Democrats are lucky to have many extraordinary candidates running for President. I am disappointed that Senator Lieberman does not feel the same way.
Jim Himes addresses the room, with CGG, Gabe, and Irish Patti in the foreground.
Maura asks her questions. Did I mention that some of them were a bit difficult? None the less, she did a great job emceeing and running the event.
A crowd of roughly 40 contestants listens raptly. 
CGG (Melissa) was instrumental in getting so many people to the event tonight. 
Between quiz rounds, Jim enjoys a beverage while discussing 4th CD issues with Fairfield Rep. Tom Drew.
Branford Boy celebrates his team's come from behind victory. See what happens when you make goofy faces at my camera?
Speaking of goofy, here's your humble narrator hamming it up, with his lovely, somewhat less-goofy wife CT Joyce.
The House Judiciary Committee has before it a resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) calling for Cheney's impeachment and accusing the vice president of a raft of high crimes, including manipulating intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war, obstructing federal investigations and conspiring to expose the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.Visit the website below to show your support for the immediate, lawful investigation into the Bush/Cheney administration, and contact Nancy Pelosi's office to let her know that she isn't properly representing you.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said impeachment in strictly off the table, and the Judiciary Committee seems unlikely to move forward with any hearings. Wexler encouraged impeachment supporters to sign a petition on his new site to allay the notions of Democratic leaders that impeachment supporters are little more than "a fringe, marginal group of people."
Listen, I'm sure whatever it is you think you'll be doing this Saturday night, it won't be NEARLY as much fun as you joining us for the Pub Quiz, Part Duex for Jim Himes for Congress in beautiful downtown Bridgeport at the world-reknowned Murphy's Law Pub!
Tom Swan posted this on My Left Nutmeg, and it deserves to be seen:Destruction of torture tapes and the misrepresentation of Iran's nuclear weapons program were this weeks flavor of criminality by the Bush administration. My friend John Nirenberg has decided that he could not sit silently anymore and that he would walk from Boston to DC to deliver petitions to Nancy "off the table" Pelosi demanding that Congress hold Bush and Dick accountable. Check out John's blog on his march and think about stopping by to give him a warm CT welcome this holiday season:Today (Tuesday) John is marching through Old Lyme, tomorrow he'll arrive in Westbrook, then on Thursday the 13th he'll be in New Haven. From there, he expects to arrive in Stamford by the 16th and NYC by the 19th.
http://www.marchinmyname.org/?page=1
Peace
The Chris Dodd campaign sent netroots hero and 2006 Senate candidate Ned Lamont. "You're working for the most qualified candidate in the race other than me," Biden kidded Lamont, as he worked the crowd and offered as many hugs as handshakes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who famously stated when she became Speaker early this year that impeachment for President Bush is "off the table", apparently believes that torture belongs ON the table.Two senior Republicans and Democrats in Congress -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- were briefed on the CIA's program to use waterboarding on terror suspects in September 2002 and did not object, according to Sunday's Washington Post.This last bit is a supposition by the Post's reporter, but it does seem entirely plausible. Pelosi seems to be driven by some kind of personal ambition that is at odds with the majority of Democrats in the House; and indeed, she sometimes appears to have an agenda that is in direct opposition to what the majority of Americans want.
In the long-ranging article, which seemingly takes the lawmakers and the Bush Administration to task by discussing the practice's emergence in Nazi Germany and other totalitarian states, a Pelosi aide said the Speaker remembered discussion of "enhanced" interrogation techniques and "acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time."
"In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody," the Post wrote. "For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk."
"Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill," the Post added. "But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said."
[..]
Only Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) -- then the second-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee who would supplant Pelosi in 2003 -- formally objected. Harman, who was set to lead the House Intelligence Committee when the Democrats retook the chamber in 2006, was pushed aside by Pelosi when she took over as Speaker, in what was seen as an element of personal rivalry.
(On the plus side, it'll be shown on all the newsreels for decades to come)
House Democratic leaders could complete work as soon as Monday on a half-trillion-dollar spending package that will include billions of dollars for the war effort in Iraq without the timelines for the withdrawal of combat forces that President Bush has refused to accept, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday.Great. Just great.
In a complicated deal over the war funds, Democrats will include about $11 billion more in domestic spending than Bush has requested, emergency drought relief for the Southeast and legislation to address the subprime mortgage crisis, Hoyer told a meeting of the Washington Post editorial board.
If the bargain were to become law, it would be the third time since Democrats took control of Congress that they would have failed to force Bush to change course in Iraq and continued to fund a war that they have repeatedly vowed to end. But it would also be the clearest instance yet of the president bowing to a Democratic demand for more money for domestic priorities, an increase that he had promised to reject.
"The way you pass appropriations bills is you get agreement among all the relevant players, among which the president with his veto pen is a very relevant player," Hoyer said. "Everybody knows he has no intention of signing anything without money for Iraq, unfettered, without constraints. I think that's ultimately going to be the result."
The Democrats plan to take a three-step approach to completing the deal. House leaders are considering an initial allotment of about $30 billion, ostensibly for the war in Afghanistan and some other military needs, which all sides in the deal recognize could be shifted to fund the Iraq war.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) then would allow Republicans to increase that amount to avert a filibuster of the spending bill in the Senate. The goal of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is $70 billion for the war, more than the $50 billion short-term funding that House Democrats initially proposed but far less than the $196 billion Bush has sought.
The Senate-passed bill would then go to the House for final approval.
McConnell was the first to suggest the outlines of the deal, which would allow Congress to pass the 11 remaining appropriations bills for fiscal 2008. Hoyer said Democrats are ready to accept that bargain.
In today's Milford Mirror, local reporter Jill Dion writes that House Speaker James Amann is looking into a potential run for governor:Amann said he expects to announce next month that he is forming an exploratory committee to study his chances of winning a gubernatorial race. He said this week that he hasn't yet made a firm decision. He plans to first discuss it some more with his wife, Terri. "I think I'm ready for it," Amann said. "I know in my heart I have good ideas for the state. I do have some unbelievable support already. I draw from Democrats, Independents and Republicans."It'll be interesting to see what develops here. With Blumenthal almost a lock to run at this point, we may be heading for another Democratic primary in 2010.
[..]
"We have a number of candidates in the Democratic party who people are talking about for governor; as I travel, Jim Amann's name is among the names mentioned," DiNardo said. "The name most dominant is Dick Blumenthal. There are some definite indications he will run. I do believe there is a very good chance Dick Blumenthal will be running in 2010."
Amann, however, "has as good a chance as any," DiNardo said. He has name recognition throughout the state, not just in Milford. "He's absolutely a strong name," DiNardo said. "Jim has done a lot of good things in the House. I'm sure people recognize that. He certainly has the qualifications."
Today there's been yet another outbreak of a form of the naughty Ebola virus in Africa. Emerging viruses are bound to be discovered due to the superior disease tracking that's now being used, but that doesn't lessen the severity of this, or other outbreaks. From the Sun-Sentinal:GENEVA -- A new form of the deadly Ebola virus has been detected in an outbreak in western Uganda that has so far killed 16 people, the World Health Organization said Friday.Ebola is known as a "retro-virus", meaning it evolved "backwards" from a more complex life form. Ebola is made of a single strand of RNA, which invades the host cell and takes over its functions, which then creates new virus particles.
Tests conducted by a national lab in Uganda and confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the virus belongs to a different subtype than the four already known, said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.
"We are very concerned about this because it does not present (symptoms) in exactly the same way as other Ebola strains," he said, adding that the new subtype appeared to be associated with vomiting, which does not usually occur in Ebola patients.
Ebola typically kills most of those it strikes through massive blood loss, and has no cure or treatment. It is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.The Reston outbreak is especially worrisome, because even though it wasn't fatal to humans, it was devastating to monkeys. And the scary part is, it appears to have been transferred by air, not direct fluid contact.
[..]
"This could be a milder strain of the disease, but we still need additional information to confirm that," Formenty said.
The three main subtypes usually kill 50 to 90 percent of infected patients. A fourth subtype, Reston, does not cause any symptoms and is not fatal.
This lovely, hugable soft creature is a replica of the Ebola virus, magnified over a million times! 
Yay! Australia! Oi Oi Oi!
I just heard Dodd's interview on Imus, and I have only one thing to say about this:
