Recent Senate Votes

Confirmation of Janice R. Brown to be U.S. Circuit Judge - Vote Confirmed (56-43, 1 Not Voting) The Senate confirmed California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Sen. Judd Gregg voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Sen. John Sununu voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Confirmation of William H. Pryor to be U.S. Circuit Judge - Vote Confirmed (53-45, 2 Not Voting) The Senate confirmed William H. Pryor to the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals. Sen. Judd Gregg voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Sen. John Sununu voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

Recent House Votes

Agriculture Appropriations Act, FY2006 - Vote Passed (408-18, 7 Not Voting) The House passed this $99.6 billion bill funding the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration for the 2006 fiscal year. Rep. Charles Bass voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Withdrawing from the World Trade Organization - Vote Failed (86-338, 1 Present, 8 Not Voting) The House rejected this resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw from the World Trade Organization. Rep. Charles Bass voted NO......send e-mail or see bio WOW look at these set of votes. It's been an incedible week for New Hampshire's FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR RIGHT WING politions in Washington!

GOP Senators to Propose New Tack On Social Security By Charles Babington

Living With Social Security: Small Dreams and Safety Nets By JOHN LELAND and JODI WILGOREN

Poll Finds Broad Pessimism on Social Security Payments By ROBIN TONER and MARJORIE CONNELLY

We have such FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR RIGHT WING SENATORS in this state. Look at the people who have signed on to the resolution so far, Republicans from Idaho, Utah, and Iowa. But not EITHER of Our senators. They are on the same level of conservatism as senators from Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee.

I was wrong about NH being the only state that has both senators not signing on as co-sponsors. New Hampshire shares this distinction with Mississippi. Aren’t we proud. Now if only we had a movie about our state like “Mississippi Burning”, we could really hold our heads high.

Orrin Hatch (R-UT) signs onto anti-lynching resolution
by John in DC - 6/17/2005 01:29:00 PM

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) - (202) 224-4944
Robert Bennett (R-UT) - (202) 224-5444
Thad Cochran (R-MS) - (202) 224-5054
John Cornyn (R-TX) - (202) 224-2934
Michael Crapo (R-ID) - (202) 224-6142
Michael Enzi (R-WY) - (202) 224-3424
Chuck Grassley (R-IA) - (202) 224-3744
Judd Gregg (R-NH) - (202) 224-3324
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) - (202) 224-5251
Kay Hutchison (R-TX) - (202) 224-5922
Jon Kyl (R-AZ) - (202) 224-4521
Trent Lott (R-MS) - (202) 224-6253
Richard Shelby (R-AL) - (202) 224-5744
Gordon Smith (R-OR) - (202) 224-3753
John Sununu (R-NH) - (202) 224-2841
Craig Thomas (R-WY) - (202) 224-6441

Please call the holdouts and ask why they're opposed to making a strong statement against lynching.

From America Blog http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/06/orrin-hatch-r-ut-signs-onto-anti.html

Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, has been awarded a $30 million dollar contract to build a new prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

from C4AP

LAUER: "But when you stood on the floor and you said, 'She does respond', are you at all worried that you led some senators…"
FRIST: "No, I never said, she responded."

- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in an interview on the Today Show with Matt Lauer, 6/16/05

VERSUS

"I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond."
-- Sen. Bill Frist on the Senate floor, 3/17/05

from C4AP

AP - 22 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb attack killed five U.S. Marines, and gunfire killed an American sailor in a western Iraqi town, the U.S. military said Thursday.

from Yahoo News

Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, argued that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a “persistent vegetative state.”

“I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.”

Sen. Frist wasn’t the only member of Congress with a medical degree to claim she was responding to visual stimuli. Here’s Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL):

“That woman is not in a vegetative state,” he said this week, challenging media reports that claimed she was. “She responds to verbal stimuli, she attempts to vocalize, she tracks with her eyes, she emotes, she attempts to kiss her father.”

“As a doctor,” Weldon said, “I would never pull her tube out.”

Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin concluded that…Terry Shivos brain was “profoundly atrophied” nearly half the size of a normal brain– and that the damage was “irreversable.” He also says, “The vision centers of her brain were dead” – meaning she was blind.

From Think Progress Blog Post 1 & Post 2

I don’t know which is worse having these guys as Senators or the prospect that they might re-enter the medical profession if they are not re-elected.

Fred Jackson, news director of American Family Radio, called the historic win by Los Angeles' first Hispanic mayor "a direct result of what's been going on with illegal immigration," warning that Latino mayors would be popping up all over the nation.

from C4AP

With a plate of chicken as a prop, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) made the argument that Americans can know that Guantanamo detainees are being treated well by simply looking at the menu of their meals.

from C4AP

In a win for community and independent media, the Supreme Court "let stand an appeals court ruling that limits the number of television stations, radio stations and newspapers a media company can own in a single market.

from C4AP

From Sirotablog:

Sen. Joe Biden (D) is continuing his self-serving, arrogant and conceited attack on DNC Chairman Howard Dean, this time telling Don Imus that "The Democratic chairman does not speak for me, an elected United States senator. No party official speaks for me anytime, anyplace, under any circumstances. And I think the rhetoric is counter-productive."

All good Democrats and progressives should make a deal with Biden: he can continue stabbing his own party in the back with impunity for his own self-promotion, and say his party doesn't speak for him. In exchange, Biden should agree to never, ever claim to speak for Democrats.

Read more here

Here are the 20 Senators who
1) refused to co-sponsor the anti-lynching resolution passed yesterday, and
2) refused a roll-call vote so they'd have to put their name on the resolution.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
19 Republicans and 1 Democrat, a real wall of shame.

more info at Daily Kos

BOTH OF OUR SENATORS! The ONLY state with both senators not co-sponsoring. Does anyone else want to hear more BS from the state democrat party about how this state is turning blue. Two hardcore right wing extremist senators representing us. A little piece of UTAH right here in New England.

Update:
by kos
Tue Jun 14th, 2005 at 13:59:32 PDT

I just heard that Kent Conrad added his name today to the anti-lynching resolution passed yesterday, making the holdouts an all-GOP cast.

The leader of a conservative Christian lobby group suggesst that gays should be required to wear warning labels. I have a good idea how about making them wear pink triangles?
Don't thank me, it was Hilter's idea.

Read more here

See more amazing pictures here:

http://www.utterwonder.com/archives/2005/06/fashion_highs_a.php

So.. The same mainstream media that didn't bother to tell anyone that Bush had pre-decided to go to war and was just going through the motions with the UN and congress [because saying that wouldn't be polite... or fair and balanced].. NOW.. is saying.. hey everyone knew Bush was planning to go to war no matter what, this is old news. NO, NOT EVERY DOES!!!

Atrios nails it with this post on Eschaton:

Drum writes:

Was the Iraq war a foregone conclusion by early 2002? Of course it was. These new memos provide further evidence of that, but I'm not sure there's anyone who really doubted it in the first place.

Look, this is just bullshit. There are two sets of people here. One consists of inside the beltways types and assorted news junkies and the other consists of The Amerkin Public. The former knew the Iraq war was a foregone conclusion by early 2002, but didn't bother to tell the Amerkin Public. They still haven't. I knew the dance with the UN was bullshit and I tried to point it out, but my blog is not all powerful. The American press did not bother to tell people. And, now, they still don't want to bother to tell people.

from Atrios

From Think Progress:

On the Washington Post Op-Ed page this morning, Michael Kinsley – an editor at the LA Times – dismisses the controversy over the Downing Street Minutes as the product of an “overhang of extremists” in “the blogosphere.”

Kinsley discounts the Minutes because they were based on meetings by the head of British foreign intelligence (known as C) “in Washington.” As a result, the Minutes recount the conclusions of “people other than Bush” and aren’t worth our attention. But even Kinsley admits that C may have been meeting with “actual administration decision makers.” (Why would the head of British foreign intelligence brief Tony Blair – as Kinsley suggests is likely – about meetings with “freelance chatterboxes”?)

If “actual administration decision makers” were telling the head of British intelligence in July 2002 that war in Iraq was inevitable and the “intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy” isn’t that an important story? Shouldn’t the media and Congress investigate?

LA Times is a good paper and Kinsley is usually pretty progressive but just recently he came on the Al Franken Show and argued IN FAVOR of the nuclear option.