Keith Olbermann reverses himself (sort of) and expresses some mild criticism of Obama’s position on FISA (sort of) in a “Special Comment“

This found via TPM…

With 23 Republicans up and only 12 Democrats, if the GOP holds onto what they currently have now it’ll be a miracle.

More about his decision…

I know at least one of my fellow bloggers here at Donklephant strongly disagrees, and while I understand and appreciate the views of those who think this FISA legislation is still a gross violation of our civil liberties, the previous incarnation of this bill earlier this year (without tougher restrictions on telcoms) [...]

A lot of left wing blogs are hammering Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi for reaching a compromise on the FISA legislation, but this is difficult bi-partisanship at work and it ultimately means getting to a better place than we previously were.
From Wash Post:
Ending a year-long battle with President Bush, the House approved, 293 to 129, [...]

That’s what one Dem congressman wants…
Today Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) called for former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify under oath regarding the devastating revelations made in his new book on the Bush Administration’s deliberate efforts to mislead the American people into the Iraq War.
“The [...]

Former Kentucky Commerce Secretary Bruce Lunsford is actually leading McConnell 49 to 44 in the latest Rasmussen polls.
So how is this possible when McConnell has a favorability rating of 52% in his own state?
Two words: Bush and economy:
While McConnell will try to make Obama a part of Lunsford’s name, Lunsford will emphasize McConnell’s ties [...]

Is it the VP slot? A place in Obama’s cabinet should he win? A Senate Majority Leader position?
My best guess is she won’t get the VP slot. It makes sense for electoral reasons (nearly 35 million votes when you combine their totals), but would really undermine Obama’s change message and may bring the anti-Hillary [...]

We’ve detailed the seemingly politically motivated prosecution and conviction of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman’s in February and March of this year, and now it appears that the House Judiciary Committee wants to put Rove in the hot seat to answer questions about whether he had a hand in it.
Here’s the scoop…
Representative John Conyers Jr. [...]

Here’s what I find so interesting about the poorly considered and irresponsible farm bill. Barack Obama supported it. John McCain opposed it. Apparently, for Obama, change does not include changing the way our government recklessly doles out money with more regard to the desires of lobbyists than to the needs of the nation. McCain, on [...]

Worries are mounting that the Republicans could lose up to 20 seats come fall.
From Politico:
The Republican defeat in Tuesday’s special election in Mississippi, in a deeply conservative district where, in an average year, Democrats cannot even compete, was a clear sign that the GOP has the political equivalent of cancer that has spread throughout the [...]

Senior Republican Party leaders are quite alarmed that the party lost a special election in a Mississippi congressional district that was once considered solidly Republican (the district went for George Bush in 2004 by a 25 point margin). While some Republicans have tried to rationalize away the defeat, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Cole [...]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has declared that we need another stimulus package. She was not forthcoming on the details but she made the statement alongside former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers who said the nation needs to focus on “increased unemployment insurance and food stamps and support for state and local governments.”
I think we [...]

After numerous years of debate and general inaction, it looks like Congress is set to pass a bill banning genetic discrimination. The bill is expected to be signed by the president.
This is good news. What the law will do is ban employers and insurance companies from using someone’s DNA profile to deny him or [...]

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has proposed a series of regulatory reforms focused on lessoning future market turmoil and preventing crises like the current one. The effect would be to make the Federal Reserve far more powerful, giving it regulatory control over all financial institutions that operate with government guarantees including the insurance industry. The plan [...]

Like everyone else, I’m not going to turn down my tax refund that will arrive this May. But that doesn’t mean I think the giveaway is a good idea. Like most economists, former Reagan and Bush I official Bruce Bartlett agrees. Writing in The New York Times, he offers a more prudent plan:
We need to [...]

Larry Lessig and Joe Trippi announced this Thursday what Change Congress will be.
Here’s more from Wired…
The professor wants legislators to promise to do four things which he says will reduce the influence of money on policymaking: To promise not to accept money from lobbyists and political action committees; support public financing of elections; commit to [...]

Well, this is really no surprise. Despite the support of John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, all of whom returned to Washington for the vote, the Senate overwhelmingly rejected a one-year ban on earmarks. Only 29 senators voted in favor of the measure.
Earmarks are the primary way our congressmen and women bring home the [...]

Yep, the donkeys are getting beat up in public opinion polls, but personally I give the Dems a bit of a pass on a lot of the things since they have razor thin majority, and Republicans aren’t interested in passing hardly anything they want to put on the agenda. That puts them in an impossible [...]

What is the real story? It is not about whether GWB or LBJ is the biggest spender. It is not about whether Republicans or Democrats are bigger spenders. It is not about whether GWB is hypocritically claiming to be an advocate of fiscal responsibility. The real story is about what happens to spending under divided vs. single party control of the federal government.

This is the second of three posts examining the question “Is Iraq like Vietnam?” In our last post we concluded this is the wrong question for Americans to ask about our involvement in Iraq now. In this post we look at the President’s historical reference in the speech at the Veterans of [...]