Sen. Patrick Leahy: Investigate Bush-Cheney Abuses

Proposing the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate abuses during the Bush-Cheney administration, which may include the use of torture, warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws. 



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49 Killed as Continental Plane Crashes Into NY Home

County Executive Chris Collins said that there may have been as many as 50 people aboard the plane and crew members had reported mechanical problems as they approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Several injured people were taken from the scene to Erie County Medical Center for treatment.

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Engineers Revolutionize Nano Fabrication

Yale engineers have created a process that may revolutionize the manufacture of nano-devices from computer memory to biomedical sensors by exploiting a novel type of metal. The material can be molded like plastics to create features at the nano-scale and yet is more durable and stronger than silicon or steel.

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U.S. now sees Iran as pursuing nuclear bomb

The Obama administration seems to have reversed the US position (published in a NIE in 2007) that Iran is not currently pursuing nuclear weapons: (FTA) 'President Obama went so far as to describe Iran's "development of a nuclear weapon" before correcting himself to refer to its "pursuit" of weapons capability.'

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Cell Phone Guns; Deadly "James Bond" Micro Weapon

The cell phone gun is now in media view after a raid of an Italian Mafia group last fall. A 28-year old man captured had this device, but the the others got away. I fear this weapon - which is in the United States - would wind up in our high schools.

Click here for iReport version.

2/9/09: Presidential Press Conference - White House Video

This is from the White House:

On Monday evening, February 9, 2009, President Obama gave his first White House press conference. It was held in the East Room of the White House.

(this video is public domain)

The GOP opposes bi-partisan solutions.

The GOP was quick to vote for hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out rich Wall Street CEOs and bankers when then-President George Bush asked them to, but now that the money isn't going just to the rich anymore they are evidently closing up ranks. “Sen. Specter voted for the so-called stimulus bill, mortgaging the future of Pennsylvania’s children and grandchildren” said former daily talk-radio host and journalist Scott Wheeler, now the Executive Director of the National Republican Trust PAC in rhetoric emphasizing his desire to see the five-term Senator from Pennsylvania ousted.

Wheeler, formerly in the pay of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's News World Communications, went on to say, “It will just line the pockets of liberal political hacks to whom the Democratic Party is beholden. Sen. Specter and other Republicans who voted for this travesty will be held accountable.”

The plan includes a new public-private partnership that would seek to unclog the credit markets by buying up toxic securities. Senator Specter (R-PA), who voted against the release of the second $350 billion, on Friday said there were "aspects of this bill which give me heartburn." As a seasoned veteran of both the Korean War and many challenges in the Senate, Specter concluded:

...that’s the position you’re in if you’re a United States Senator. People are unhappy because they didn’t get the full amount from the Committee report, although absent this bill they get zero additional. People are unhappy about spending too much money, but it is imperative, as I see it, that we do something very, very substantial.

There are reasons to argue that this is a bad bill. I’m not saying it’s a bad bill; I’m saying there are reasons to argue that it’s a bad bill. But I do not believe that there is any doubt that the economy would be enormously worse off without it. That’s the kind of a choice we have to make.

Personally I would prefer not to be on the edge of the pin as so frequently is the case in this body. But I do believe that we have to act, and I believe that under all of the circumstances, this is the best we can do and we ought to do it.

For this, Specter is now unpopular with some at National Republican Trust PAC despite strongly supporting the death penalty and opposing most gun control (voting against background checks at gun shows, the ban on assault weapons, and handgun trigger locks.) He's written numerous articles advocating the the death penalty as a crime deterrent.

Sometimes labeled a moderate, Senator Specter provoked Democrats and women's groups by his combative questioning of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings, and asserting "flat-out perjury" in her testimony. Yet Wheeler has targeted his sights on Specter for being too cozy with the changes the voters mandated in electing Obama. Foreclosures and layoffs aren't on Wheeler's radar, evidently, now that Bush is not in the Oval Office.

Here's part of what Senator Arlen Specter, a son of immigrants, told the national media on Tuesday, Feb 10, 2008:

The current recession may go into full-scale depression like 1929. When we worked this through, we went as far as we could. We structured it very, very carefully and there were a lot of people who were objecting to it. Fortunately, the Chamber of Commerce, a very strong Republican conservative organization, agrees that this is necessary because of a perilous economic situation and because it does a lot to rebuild America and because a substantial part of it involves tax cuts.

Specter has acted in what he sees as the best interests of his constituents and the citizens of the United States of America. I salute his bravery in reaching across the aisle to craft a bi-partisan bill intended to stave off the worst effects of the economic crisis the previous administration has created.