By the way, congratulations to Big & Rich who scored their FIRST #1 on the charts with this song - JS

None other than Tom Tancredo…….

From CNN:

Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo-s campaign stood by his assertion that bombing holy Muslim sites would serve as a good “deterrent” to prevent Islamic fundamentalists from attacking the United States, his spokeswoman said Friday.

“This shows that we mean business,” said Bay Buchanan, a senior Tancredo adviser. “There’s no more effective deterrent than that. But he is open-minded and willing to embrace other options. This is just a means to deter them from attacking us.”

I’m sure they’re whining about this one…..and don’t we feel oh so sorry for them. Let me go get my violin.

The cost of running for the presidency is about to get a lot more expensive.

An ethics bill that won final approval in Congress on Thursday requires senators, Senate candidates and those seeking the presidency to pay full charter rates for trips in private planes. For House members seeking the presidency, the new rules are more restrictive: They are banned from flying on private jets.

Until now, candidates had to pay the equivalent of a first-class ticket for such travel - a fraction of the real expense. For example, a round-trip on a midsize charter jet between Washington and Des Moines could cost as much as $41,100. The first-class fare: about $1,500.

Meredith McGehee, of the non-partisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, said the discounted travel amounted to a “corporate subsidy to candidates and their campaigns” and opened the door to influence peddling.

More at USA Today

Video at Breitbart

From Politico:

In a massive flare-up of partisan tensions (video link courtesy Breitbart.tv), Republicans walked out on a House vote late Thursday night to protest what they believed to be Democratic maneuvers to reverse an unfavorable outcome for them.

The flap represents a complete breakdown in parliamentary procedure and an unprecedented low for the sometimes bitterly divided chamber.

The rancor erupted shortly before 11 p.m. as Rep. Michael R. McNulty (D-N.Y.) gaveled close the vote on a standard procedural measure with the outcome still in doubt.

Details remain fuzzy, but numerous Republicans argued afterward that they had secured a 215-213 win on their motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Democrats, however, argued the measure was deadlocked at 214-214 and failed, members and aides on both sides of the aisle said afterward.

A bipartisan effort in Congress to stop a proposed multibillion-dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia is gaining steam, and 114 lawmakers have now declared their opposition to the plan, which the Bush administration says would stabilize the Middle East.

Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) have gathered signatures for a letter to President Bush stressing members- opposition to the deal. Weiner and others released the letter at a Thursday press conference.

“If a sale containing weapons for Saudi Arabia is proposed to Congress under the Arms Export Act of 1976, we intend to stop it,” reads the letter to Bush.

Under the act, Congress is given 30 days to review any large arms package - such as the one being proposed between Saudi Arabia and several other Middle Eastern allies, including Egypt and Israel - once lawmakers receive official notification from the administration. Congress could then offer a joint resolution of disapproval, which could block the deal.

While Ferguson was the lone Republican to support the effort earlier this week, the number of GOP lawmakers who vowed to take action has swollen to 18.

More at the Hill

Oh they’ll go on vacation. You can take that to the bank.

The unresolved struggle over giving the Bush administration short-term authority for eavesdropping on terrorist suspects cast a shadow over the August recess on Thursday, as lawmakers from both parties reserved the right to stall adjournment if an acceptable deal is not reached.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, spent much of the day huddled with panel members negotiating his offer of a six-month fix to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested that the chamber would stay in session past Friday to ensure that Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Michael McConnell’s concerns are addressed.

“There is no choice. We should stay here until we get this done,” McConnell told radio reporters. “We cannot leave town without passing this FISA modification.”

Two likely deal-breakers loomed large. One focuses on the Democratic plan’s mandate for a warrant when tapping foreign targets who make a “significant” number of calls to the U.S., a standard that Republicans consider unclear. Another entails a GOP proposal to give exclusive supervision of wiretapping inside the U.S. to the DNI and the attorney general - a move Democrats staunchly oppose.

More at the Hill

That’s what I’m talkin about…….

Former Rep. Jim Nussle’s nomination to be White House budget director has run into trouble in the Senate.

The Senate Budget Committee voted 22-1 today to approve the Iowa Republican’s nomination, but at least two senators had placed holds on the nomination, blocking the full Senate from taking a final vote.

Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who cast the lone vote against Nussle in the budget committee, said President Bush was “way out of touch with reality” in thinking the economy is good and needed a budget director who will tell him otherwise.

Sanders said he “would love to hear from Mr. Nussle and the White House that instead of simply paying attention to the needs of the wealthiest people in this country that they are serious about addressing the concerns of the middle class and working families.”

He said he had not contacted the White House about his concerns.

At least one other senator had anonymously placed a hold on Nussle’s nomination, said the budget committee’s chairman, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Read more at the Desoines Register

This man is soooooo sick. He is an amoral asshole who has no compassion for ANYONE. This is supposed to be a press conference about the tragic bridge collapse. Who writes his speeches???? Whoever it is, they need to be fired and at the very least Bush owes the people of Minnesota an apology.

Olbermann reports on Jennings at congressional hearing yesterday. Leahy describes it as “the new way of taking the fifth.”

From TPM:

It’s hard to keep track of every distinct controversy sparked by Alberto Gonzales’s testimony last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is trying to make sure one particular element of scandal doesn’t fall by the wayside.

In response to questioning by Durbin and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Gonzales said it was “not so clear” that five interrogration techniques — painful stress positions, use of dogs in interrogation, nudity, mock execution, and the infamous waterboarding — were ruled out by President Bush’s recent executive order on CIA interrogations. Today, Durbin sent a letter to Gonzales asking him to make sure that’s really what he meant to say. The letter uses a somewhat confusing formulation about whether the administration thinks the use of such techniques on U.S. personnel is legal, but that’s simply a way of drawing out whether the Bush administration has created a loophole in its interpretation of the Geneva Conventions.

Full text below the fold.

Here’s Durban’s letter:

(more…)