I can't understand how two Senators can make such convincing arguments about what is wrong with the "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008 in the form of H.R. 6304" (FISA Amendments), and then vote "yea" on Passage of the Bill.

I need someone to explain this to me.

I have included excerpts that contain remarks from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Senator Arlen Specter, as recorded in the Congressional Record for July 08, 2008. The complete record can be found here.

Again, Senator Whitehouse and Senator Specter both voted to make FISA Amendments the law of the land.

The AP is reporting that the International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands, "will present evidence of the war crimes in Darfur to judges Monday and one or more new suspects will be named. But court officials refused Friday to identify any of the potential new suspects."  According to the report, the chief prosecutor "will seek an arrest warrant Monday charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur."

This will not stop the genocide in Darfur, but it is more than anything else that has been done to bring the genocide to an end. Best estimates indicate that more than 300,000 people have been killed by janjaweed militias, who are aparently being sponsored by the Sudanese government.

Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed, the Sudanese Ambassador to the U.N. said, "It will have far-reaching, bad implications for the entire country, and all options are open for our reactions. If you indict our head of state, the symbol of our country, the symbol of our dignity, then the sky's the limit for our reactions."

The AP is reporting via Yahoo! News that, "Iraq's prime minister said Monday his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in the deal the two countries are negotiating. It was the first time that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has explicitly and publicly called for a withdrawal timetable — an idea opposed by President Bush."

It appears that al-Maliki supports the Democratic position, and the position of the majority of Americans, on withdrawal from Iraq.

The "Most Emailed Story" on the McClatchy Newspapers Homepage is a Commentary by Joseph L. Galloway. Galloway's commentary, "How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment," castigates everyone in Congress who supports "an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love."

It is worth a read for any and all who have an interest in the FISA amendments. In his commentary, Galloway says:

That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. That a majority on both sides of the aisle — not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties — intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

Yet another instance of John McCain's temper is being reported, this time with audio. The Gulfport/Biloxi area SunHerald has an article posted in which Republican Senator Thad Cochran is quoted as saying he "observed McCain engage in a physical confrontation with a Sandinista while participating in a diplomatic mission led by Sen. Bob Dole and others in the fall of 1987."  This altercation was not in some Nicaraguan bar; it happened during discussions at a "meeting table in a room lined with armed personnel." Senator Cochran said McCain "got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."

This man would be President?

New Yorker magazine has an online article by  Seymour Hersh titled "Preparing the Battlefield:
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran." Hersh says:

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

One of the worst things about the George W. Bush pResidency is the change in the federal judiciary. Bush has appointed nearly 300 judges to the federal courts, with another 28 nominations pending review by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican appointed judges currently control nine of the federal appellate courts. This would not be a problem if judges were impartial in their decisions, but it is apparent to the most casual observer that political ideology is now a part of many judicial rulings. Anyone who doubts that should review the case of Bush v. Gore.

A hearing was held Monday on the issue of Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers compliance with congressional subpoenas related to an investigation of fired U.S. prosecutors. The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit in March to compel them to respond to subpoenas. U.S. District Judge John Bates heard arguments from Irvin Nathan, a chief lawyer for the House of Representatives, and Carl Nichols, a Justice Department attorney.

During the three hour long hearing, Nathan said, "Not only doesn't it have the facts from the White House, it has false and misleading facts from former members of the Department of Justice." Nichols said Bolten and Miers have immunity and can't be compelled to testify about confidential advice they provided Bush.

U.S. District Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee said "Both sides have shown a little bit of intransigence," and "silliness."

The AP reports," China raised prices for fuel by as much as 18 percent on Friday in a move intended to cool the nation's surging energy consumption." Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $4.75 to $131.93 on the news. The increase in oil consumption by asian countries is well known, but the fact that China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and several other asian countries have subsidised oil for their industries and consumers has not been widely reported by many news sources.

The House Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform is investigating yet another "Iraq For Sale" oil scandal. This scandal involves awarding contracts to International Oil Trading Company (IOTC), a company that was not the lowest bidder for contracts. IOTC is headed by Harry Sargeant, a McCain campaign "Trailblazer" who has raised at least $100,000 in donations. Sargeant is also finance chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. Contracts awarded to IOTC total more than one billion dollars.

I just got an e-mail from Howard Dean. He says:

I wanted to drop you a quick note about a major policy change here at the Democratic Party.

As we move toward the general election, the Democratic Party has to be the Party of ordinary Americans, not Washington lobbyists and special interests. So, as of this morning, if you're a federal lobbyist, or if you control political action committee donations, we won't be accepting your contribution.

A new report on U.S. Climate Change Science Program Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States has been published by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the National Science and Technology Council. The report "integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) and draws from and synthesizes findings from previous assessments of the science, including CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Products and reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

From the "Summary and Findings" section of the "Fact Sheet" produced for the report:

... The conclusions in this assessment (...) draws on findings from previous assessments of the science, including reports and products by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), CCSP, and others. Together with CCSP’s 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products, this is arguably the most comprehensive assessment to date of the effects of global change, and especially climate, on the United States.

From the House Judiciary Committee:

Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), as well as committee members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), responded to former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove's letter, sent by his attorney, refusing to testify voluntarily before the Committee. Conyers advises Rove's attorney that he may seek to compel Rove's testimony if he does not agree by May 12 to testify voluntarily. The full text of the letter is linked along with a copy of Rove's attorney's letter.

From the Associated Press:

The nation's spy court approved a record number of requests to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies last year, the Justice Department said Wednesday. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,370 warrants last year targeting people in the United States believed to be linked to international terror organizations.

The 2,370 warrants represents a 9% increase from 2006, and is more than twice the number issued in years before September 11, 2001. Of the 2,370 warrants, the FISA Court denied three and part of another. That is a 99.8% approval rate by the FISA Court. Changes were required in another 86 (3.6%) before approval. In 2006, one warrant application was partially denied and changes were required in another 73 before approval.

It appears that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is allowing the government agents to keep track of the bad guys, as they should.

Last month, Forbes declared Warren Buffett to be "the world's richest man," putting his net worth at more than $62.0 billion. Yesterday, during an interview on CNBC, he said the U.S. economy is in a recession and that it will be more severe than most people expect. "This is not a field of specialty for me, but my general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think (...) This will not be short and shallow."

Warren Buffett thinks we are in for some bad times. I'm afraid that I agree.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released a new report, "Interference at the EPA: Science and Politics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency." The 108 page pdf document can be found here.

The report is based on survey results from 1,586 scientists employed at "EPA headquarters, all 10 regional offices, and more than a dozen research laboratories across the country." The survey included comments from more than 850 scientists in dozens of interviews with current and former EPA scientists. The results show

... an agency under siege from political pressures. On numerous issues—ranging from mercury pollution to groundwater contamination to climate change—political appointees of the George W. Bush administration have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations.

Andrew Leonard, a senior editor at Salon.com, has published an article about "how we'll know if the current recession is turning into something much worse."

Most informed people are now debating when the recession started, "and how bad it's likely to get." Leonard quotes the CEO of Wells Fargo, "We have not seen a nationwide decline in housing like this since the Great Depression," and Nouriel Roubini: "It is now clear that the U.S. and global financial markets are experiencing their worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."

He says that the phrase "since the Great Depression" is good reason to pause and take notice.

Nineteen days after the invasion of Iraq, Hans Blix was asked about the fact that no biological or chemical weapons had been found. He said:

United States as well as the United Kingdom always told us that Iraq possessed those weapons. We never accepted this statement as an established fact. Establishing this was exactly what our work consisted of. Sadly, both Governments were seen to be very impatient in the first days of March. And they did not leave us to finish the task. A few months were need for us to determine if the Iraqi possessed the arms the Americans and British insisted they had. I am very curious to know if they are really going to find them. I believe that no one has more interest in this than I.

Today Blix published an article in The Guardian, in which he said that the responsibility for the war must rest "on what those launching it knew by March 2003."