By James Rowley and Nicholas Johnston
from Bloomberg.com

June 27 (Bloomberg) — The fate of U.S. immigration legislation was cast into doubt when at least six senators who helped revive the proposed overhaul said they either oppose or are leaning against a move to permit a vote on final passage.

The measure is in more jeopardy “than I thought a few hours ago,” said Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.

The supporters’ strategy of disposing of amendments that threatened the legislation’s bipartisan support hit a procedural snag late in the day, adding to the uncertainty. The Senate refused to set aside an amendment by Montana Democrats Max Baucus and Jon Tester that would dilute requirements employers verify the identity of new workers.

Under Senate rules, Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, now can’t move to consider other provisions without getting the consent of all 100 senators.

“I think this hurts” the measure, said Texas Republican John Cornyn, an opponent.

Earlier today, Senate sponsors had succeeded in killing a series of proposed changes that would undermine the measure’s support. Nonetheless, senators who voted yesterday to resume consideration of the bill were withdrawing support.

Leaning Against

Republicans Richard Burr of North Carolina and Christopher Bond of Missouri and Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska said they oppose permitting a vote on final passage. Virginia Democrat Jim Webb and Republicans John Ensign of Nevada and Pete Domenici of New Mexico said they were leaning that way.

It takes 60 votes, or three-fifths of the Senate, to shut off debate. Yesterday, the Senate voted 64-35 to permit debate to resume.

Five other senators who voted to resume the debate said they are undecided on the next procedural test. They are Republicans Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Democrats Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

The legislation would create a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants, tighten the U.S. border with Mexico and create a guest-worker program to help employers fill low- paying jobs. The Senate had planned to complete action on the bill by the end of the week.

Angry Senators

Sponsors of the bill shut off efforts by critics to offer their own changes, angering some senators.

“We are in trench warfare and it’s going to be rough,” said Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, a chief sponsor of the legislation. “But we are going to see the will of the Senate work one way or another.”

read more at Bloomberg.com

By Ken Fireman
from Bloomberg.com

June 27 (Bloomberg) — Anti-American sentiments are on the rise in many parts of the world, driven by concerns that U.S. leaders are prone to act unilaterally and have widened the gap between rich and poor nations, a new international survey found.

At the same time, global attitudes about China have also declined, with residents of many countries expressing concerns about China’s growing economic and military power, the survey concluded.

The survey of 45,239 people in 47 countries by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found “worldwide support” for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and substantial opposition to U.S. and NATO military operations in Afghanistan.

There is a question as to whether we are living up to our own values, which is what is making people question what our policies are,” former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at a news conference today announcing the poll’s findings.

America’s image “has plummeted throughout much of the world” over the last five years, the center said in its report on the survey, which was conducted April 6 through May 29.

It found sharp drops in favorability among traditional allies in Western Europe, as well as substantial declines in Latin America, the Middle East and elsewhere.”

Favorable Views Decline

For example, the survey found that favorable views of the U.S. among Germans slid to 30 percent this year from 60 percent in 2002, the first year that Pew surveyed global attitudes. In Brazil, the decline was to 44 percent from 51 percent; in Jordan, to 20 percent from 25 percent; and in Indonesia, to 29 percent from 61 percent.

This is not a matter of anti-Americanism taking over the globe, but an intensification of the areas where we’ve seen problems,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew center.

read more at Bloomberg.com

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Wednesday encouraged his supporters to donate to his campaign in response to “hateful” comments from conservative author Ann Coulter.

Edwards made his first comments to The Associated Press in response to Coulter’s suggestion that she wished he would be “killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” His campaign cited her remarks in two e-mails and a telephone text message to supporters for donations, with the fundraising deadline on Saturday.

It’s not the first time Coulter has given the Edwards campaign a financial boost. In March, she called Edwards a “faggot” and the campaign used video of the comment to help raise $300,000 before the end of the first quarter.

In the e-mails, the campaign asked supporters to send donations to defy her remarks and help Edwards meet his goal of raising $9 million in the second quarter. The first e-mail from campaign adviser Joe Trippi showed a clip of Coulter on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she made the comments on Monday.

In answering criticism of her March speech, Coulter referred to comedian Bill Maher’s suggestion, also in March, that “people wouldn’t be dying needlessly” if Vice President Dick Cheney had been killed when terrorists launched an attack as he visited Afghanistan. She contends that Maher - whose comment about Cheney drew little attention - was not joking. “So I’ve learned my lesson,” she said on the ABC program. “If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.”

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

If and when Mr. Cheney decides that he doesn’t need to address this subpoena and not turn over any documents, let’s see if Congress has the guts to call him on contempt of Congress. And with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) involved in this, I’m willing to bet “on the inside” he’s telling Cheney the same thing Cheney told him on the hallowed grounds of the Senate floor a couple of years ago: “Go f**k yourself”.- JS

WASHINGTON - The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration’s warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans.

Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee also is summoning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs, committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced.

Leahy, D-Vt., raised questions about previous testimony by one of Bush’s appeals court nominees and said he wouldn’t let such matters pass.

“If there have been lies told to us, we’ll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate,” Leahy told reporters. He did just that Wednesday, referring questions about testimony by former White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The escalation is part of the Democrats’ effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program.

The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective - pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information - such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision - to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

A note to all that Eric Burdon, former lead singer of The Animals, will be touring the U.S. with his new band. Plenty of Animals hits plus some great R & B. For dates and locations, check out Eric’s official website here. - JS

And congress approved it……….

From The Hill:
By Ben Breier

Federal procurement spending soared to $412.1 billion in 2006, setting a new record in government contracting, according to a report released by the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) assessment, released Wednesday and entitled “More Dollars, Less Sense,” said more than half the procurement spending was allotted to contracts not subject to full and open competition.

The study is a follow-up to one the congressman conducted last year of government contracting under the Bush administration between 2000 and 2005.

The new study calls attention to a 51 percent increase in procurement spending from 2005 to 2006 in the Department of Homeland Security. For the first time, 40 cents of every discretionary dollar spent by the federal government has gone to a contract with a private company.

2006 saw the largest single-year climb in no-bid and limited-competition contracts ever, from $145.1 billion in 2005 to $206.9 billion. Under Bush, federal spending has risen 48 percent, according to the report.

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Halliburton are the top six beneficiaries of federal contracts, together receiving nearly $100 billion in 2006, accounting for 24 percent of procurement spending.

More than 700 reports were reviewed by the Government Accountability Office, the Defense Contract Audit Agency and other agency inspectors. One hundred eighty’seven of those contracts, valued at $1.1 trillion dollars, were tainted by mismanagement, according to the report.

From Boston.com:

By Anne D’Innocenzio, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK –Fashion designer Liz Claiborne, whose styles became a cornerstone of career women’s wardrobes in the 1970s and 1980s, has died, the company she founded said Wednesday. She was 78.

Claiborne died Tuesday at the New York Presbyterian Hospital after suffering from cancer for a number of years, said Gwen Satterfield, personal assistant to Claiborne.

Claiborne founded Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976 along with her husband Art Ortenberg and Leonard Boxer. Their goal was to create a collection of fashions aimed at the growing number of women entering the work force.

The new approach to dressing revolutionized the department store industry, which had only focused on stocking pants in one department and skirts in another.

The clothes became an instant hit, and the company went public in 1981. By 1985, Liz Claiborne Inc. was the first company founded by a woman to be listed in the Fortune 500, according to the company’s Web site. The company, whose brands now include Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman and Juicy Couture, generated sales of almost $5 billion last year.

Liz Claiborne retired from the day-to-day operations in 1989.

The US Senate has issued a subpoena ordering the White House to give up documents related to its surveillance of domestic terror suspects.
The Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Bush administration to give up the papers as part of its inquiry into the controversial spying programme.

The administration has refused a series of requests to release the documents.

The president rejects claims that he broke the law by ordering surveillance without first securing warrants.

The programme, authorised after the 9/11 attacks, enabled the government to monitor the overseas e-mail and telephone communications of Americans suspected of ties to terrorists.

While the president says his wartime powers allowed him to authorise surveillance without the need for a warrant, critics say he violated Americans’ civil liberties.

The secret spying programme became public in 2005.

More at BBCNews

Former Treasury chief Gordon Brown became Britain’s new prime minister on Wednesday, promising a new direction after Tony Blair resigned, ending a decade of controversial rule.

The change of watch was made according to British tradition - quietly and behind closed doors in Buckingham Palace. Blair first called on Queen Elizabeth II to submit his resignation, and Brown arrived soon after to be confirmed as the new prime minister.

“This will be a new government with new priorities,” Brown told reporters outside his Downing Street office minutes later. “I’ve been privileged with the great opportunity to serve my country.”

Brown, a 56-year-old Scot known for his often stern demeanor, beamed as he was applauded by Treasury staff before heading with his wife, Sarah, to the palace, and he smiled broadly when he emerged.

The incoming leader, who for many lacks Blair’s charisma, must woo Britons by shaking off the taint of backing the hugely unpopular Iraq war. With promises of restoring trust in government, he is planning to sweep aside the Blair era after a decade waiting for the country’s top job.

More at NPR

A 23-year-old pilot took off Wednesday in a single-engine plane on the last leg of a trip to become what he says is the youngest person to fly around the world alone.

Barrington Irving left Orlando early Wednesday for the short flight to Opa-locka, the Miami area city he left March 23 in a Columbia 400 built of donated parts. He was optimistic his 27,000-mile, continent-hopping trip aboard the “Inspiration” would live up to the plane’s name and motivate young people.

He claims to be the youngest pilot and first black person to complete the journey alone, though it was unclear how those potential records would be validated.

The National Aeronautic Association, the aviation record-keeping authority in the U.S., does not track pilots’ age, sex or ethnicity, said Nathan Rohrbaugh, who helps coordinate records at the organization.

Continue reading at the Sun Sentinel

Time for term limits on these folks. THROW THESE DAMN BUMS OUT NOW!

(Pete Yost)

Court bars suit against faith-based plan

President Bush, left, makes remarks on No Child Left Behind reauthorization in the East Room…

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration’s faith-based initiatives got a boost Monday from the Supreme Court: a ruling that ordinary taxpayers cannot sue to stop conferences that help religious charities apply for federal grants.

President Bush called the 5-4 decision “a substantial victory for efforts by Americans to more effectively aid our neighbors in need of help.”

The court blocked a lawsuit by a group of atheists and agnostics against eight Bush administration officials including the head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The taxpayers set out “a parade of horribles” they contended could happen, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. None did and “in the unlikely event that any of these executive actions did take place, Congress could quickly step in,” he wrote.
[...]

The taxpayers’ group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation Inc., objected to government conferences in which administration officials encourage religious charities to apply for federal money.
[...]

In dissent, Justice David Souter said the court should have allowed the challenge to proceed.

The majority “closes the door on these taxpayers because the executive branch, and not the legislative branch, caused their injury,” wrote Souter. “I see no basis for this distinction.”

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have gone further that the rest of the court, favoring a repudiation of the 1968 decision that in certain instances allows taxpayer lawsuits.

“We had an opportunity today to erase this blot on our jurisprudence, but instead have simply smudged it,” Scalia wrote.

Story at Yahoo! News

No doubt he makes Rove smile! Can you imagine just how worse things would be if our dear president wasn’t “intelligence-challenged”? But, as bad as these people are for America, they are not nearly as bad as those Americans out there that, come hell or high water, plan on voting republican in 2008… regardless.

(Jo Becker and Barton Gellman)

Amending environmental laws to help business

Cheney left no tracks as he steered policy moves to ease pollution controls
[...]

In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought’stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake.

Law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in.

First Cheney looked for a way around the law, aides said. Next he set in motion a process to challenge the science protecting the fish, according to a former Oregon congressman who lobbied for the farmers.

Because of Cheney’s intervention, the government reversed itself and let the water flow in time to save the 2002 growing season, declaring that there was no threat to the fish. What followed was the largest fish kill the West had ever seen, with tens of thousands of salmon rotting on the banks of the Klamath River.

Characteristically, Cheney left no tracks.

Read more on Cheney’s shenanigans at MSNBC.com

Sounds like star’struck Sheriff Baca needs to start looking for new employment. I’d love to find out what his reaction is going to be when some unknown prisoner claims claustrophobia. Suck up!

Sheriff feared Hilton would commit suicide

Baca briefly put heiress under house arrest, causing public uproar

LOS ANGELES - Hours after a beaming Paris Hilton was freed from three weeks in jail, the sheriff criticized for briefly putting her under house arrest said on Tuesday he allowed her out because he feared for her life.

While stopping short of saying Hilton had been in danger of harming herself, Sheriff Lee Baca raised the issue of suicide in explaining why he released her to home detention — a move that was swiftly overruled by a judge after a public uproar over whether she was given special treatment.

“I think we all in this room know something about suicide,” Baca, who runs the Los Angeles County jail system, told a hearing called by the five-member county Board of Supervisors.

“As the sheriff of this county, I-m not going to let any inmate die in our jails,” he said.

“If I know something that can be done that solves the medical problem … What’s worth more? Serving time in the county jail for driving on a suspended driver’s license or a person losing their life?”
[...]

Hilton later said she suffers from claustrophobia.

More at MSNBC.com

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE
from The New York Times

Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.

The poll offers a snapshot of a group whose energy and idealism have always been as alluring to politicians as its scattered focus and shifting interests have been frustrating. It found that substantially more Americans ages 17 to 29 than four years ago are paying attention to the presidential race. But they appeared to be really familiar with only two of the candidates, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democrats.

They have continued a long-term drift away from the Republican Party. And although they are just as worried as the general population about the outlook for the country and think their generation is likely to be worse off than that of their parents, they retain a belief that their votes can make a difference, the poll found.

More than half of Americans ages 17 to 29 - 54 percent - say they intend to vote for a Democrat for president in 2008. They share with the public at large a negative view of President Bush, who has a 28 percent approval rating with this group, and of the Republican Party. They hold a markedly more positive view of Democrats than they do of Republicans.

Among this age group, Mr. Bush’s job approval rating after the attacks of Sept. 11 was more than 80 percent. Over the course of the next three years, it drifted downward leading into the presidential election of 2004, when 4 of 10 young Americans said they approved how Mr. Bush was handling his job.

read more at The New York Times

By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO!

SALT LAKE CITY - If it weren’t for the hot rocks down below Earth’s crust, most of North America would be below sea level, report researchers who say the significance of Earth’s internal heat has been overlooked.

Without it, mile-high Denver would be 727 feet below sea level, the scientists calculate, and New York City, more than a quarter-mile below. Los Angeles would be almost three-quarters of a mile beneath the Pacific.

In fact most of the United States would disappear, except for some major Western mountain ranges, according to research at the University of Utah.

“Researchers have failed to appreciate how heat makes rock in the continental crust and upper mantle expand to become less dense and more buoyant,” said Derrick Hasterok, a graduate student in geology and geophysics.

Hasterok and his professor, David Chapman, published their findings in the June online issue of Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth.

In what they said was the first calculation of its kind, the researchers said heat inside the planet accounts for half the reason land rises above sea level or higher to form mountains.

Scientists previously gave other factors greater weight in explaining elevation differences, such as the density and makeup of rocks and tectonic forces.

The Utah team calculated how much of North America would sink if the engine of heat was taken away, leaving regions as relatively cold as the bottom of the vast Canadian shield - bedrock that hasn’t changed for billions of years.

They did it by estimating temperatures under the North American plate based on previous experiments that bounced seismic waves deep underground. The waves travel faster through colder, denser rock. That data allowed the researchers to calculate how much of an area’s elevation is due to the thickness and composition of its rock and how much is due to the heating and expansion of rock.

Their measurements showed that among coastal cities, New York would drop to 1,427 feet below the Atlantic ocean, Boston and Miami even deeper. Los Angeles would rest 3,756 feet below the surface of the Pacific ocean.

read more at YAHOO!