Warrantless wiretapping bill passed by the house.

"The bill, sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., that give legal status under certain conditions to Bush's warrantless wiretapping of calls and e-mails between people on U.S. soil making calls or sending e-mails and those in other countries.

Under the measure, the president would be authorized to conduct such wiretaps if he:

• Notifies the House and Senate intelligence committees and congressional leaders.

• Believes an attack is imminent and later explains the reason and names the individuals and groups involved.

• Renews his certification every 90 days.

The Senate also could vote on a similar bill before Congress recesses at the end of the week. Leaders concede that differences between the versions are so significant they cannot reconcile them into a final bill that can be delivered to Bush before the Nov. 7 congressional elections."

Just for this idiocy we need to get more democrats into Congress; even if I don't agree with everything they say. But it's got to be better then slowly watching our nation become a police state. I am wondering though, if the bill is to legalize Bush's actions does that mean that they're acknowledging that they're illegal? Time to look at the bills!

Ohio, Ohio, Ohio!

Hey!

Found this really good article off Time magazine's website about how important Ohio is come the election this November and how important it is for the future 2008 Presidential election. Its kinda lengthy, but still very indepth and informative.

~ Rachel

Senate Passes Broad New Detainee Rules

"Twelve Democrats crossed party lines to vote for the bill. One Republican, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, voted against it."

Inspiration

It seems not everyone is fully bloggy yet. In an attempt to provide a bit of inspiration, here is the Technocrati list of the most popular blogs:

Technocrati Top 100.

In addition, here are some noteable blogs by political scientists:

Charles Franklin

Brendan Nyhan

Daniel Drezner

Andrew Gelman

New group tracks Congressional reps

A new coalition of younger Americans introduced the Young Americans Fund, an organization that seeks to spotlight the records of Congressmen and Congresswomen in terms of global warming, national debt and Congressional ethics scandals.

The organization, whose Web site is here, have released a searchable Congressional Scorecard. According to the results of the organization, most of Wisconsin's Congressional representatives have done fairly well:

David Obey, 100%
Tammy Baldwin, 100%
Ron Kind, 100%
Gwen Moore, 100%
Russ Feingold, 82%
Herb Kohl, 73%

But the group does list some reps who have not faired so well, according to its standards:

Mark Green, 25%
Tom Petri, 9%
James Sensenbrenner, 9%
Paul Ryan, 0%

It's easy to see when the statistics are laid out this way, that this group certainly has its inherent biases, certainly having to do with the issues they take up. Why don't they take up other environmental issues instead of just global warming?

Also, it's interesting to note that the group plans to run ads on Facebook and MySpace that target specific collegiate students.

Members of The Young Americans Fund’s senior leadership and Advisory Board come from a diverse group of colleges nationwide, including: The University of Texas, The University of North Carolina, New York University, The College of William & Mary (Virginia), Princeton University (New Jersey), The University of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan University
(Connecticut) and Middlebury College (Vermont).

New Changes in Detainee Bill

These are some of the changes worked between senators and white house.

-In orignal language the suspect had the right to respond and examin all evidence, in the new bill word examine is dropped and only respond to is left.
-The new bill has dropped the words about evidence gathered outside the United States.
- "The bill also broadened the definition of an unlawful enemy combatant, from anyone “engaged in hostilities against the United States” to include anyone who “has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.”

315 Merrill Hall

To the 6 of you who did not make it: we meet here now.

1994, the Election to Embrace (and Avoid)

Here is a New York Times article comparing the 1994 and 2006 congressional elections. Another in a long line of articles.

Last fall in a CQ preview of the 2006 season, Gary Jacobson listed a number of election signposts in order to gauge the ability of the Democrats to take-over the House:

presidential policies
the economy
congressional and presidential polls
congressional ethics
candidate recruiting
incumbent retirements

The Times article points to the number of open seats (40 Vs 100) and the disparity in fundraising dollars as major problems that the Democrats would have to overcome, but does anyone want to offer a scorecard for the signposts?

Hillary is more evil then the devil himself?!

"Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton — not even a run by the devil himself."

Is Falwell saying that his constituent type would rather vote for Lucifer over Clinton? Is anyone even paying attention to anything he says anymore since he said we should assassinate that one guy?

Only 25% in Poll Approve of the Congress

As we approach the 2006 election congressional approval is nearing the levels of 1994.

We get a flashy headline and a story suggesting political upheaval is around the corner.

Those of you who make it to page 2 of the article will find:

"Thus, while 61 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job, just 29 percent said they disapproved of the way their own 'representative is handling his or her job.'”

Huh? How does that work?

Greens file for senatorial campaign committee

I saw a story about this somewhere yesterday, but can't find it today. But the Green Party Web site has the press release.

Since the Greens have filed with the Federal Election Commission, this may allow voters in Senate campaigns to have a choice in more than one dimension. Before, even in two dimensions, voters would have to find a spot closest to them on a linear, one-dimensional model connecting liberals and conservatives.

Also interesting from the release:

The filing sets further precedent because the Democratic and Republican Senate campaign committees were grandfathered in when the FEC was formed. The FEC has never dealt with a request to form such a committee.

A senatorial campaign committee allows the party to receive and disburse larger contributions, but these contributions are still fully regulated, of public record, and are not soft money, which the national Green Party has never used, even when it was legal.

Does this filing have any impact on whether voters are able to view senatorial choices in one dimension or two?

McCain's Stand on Detanee's may Hurt His 2008 chance

This article focused on how Senator. John McCain has gone against Bush's wants to be able to interpret the laws of the Geneva Convetion regarding proper treatment of detainees. Whether or not it will help McCain in his 2008 chances seems to be uncertain. His critics think that going against the administration will tear him away from the base of his party that will be needed to win the primary. While proponents of McCain think McCain's strategy of going against Bush will do the opposite and be popular. I'm not surprised McCain believes in the Geneva Convention because unlike President Bush, he was actually tortured in Vietnam. McCain seems to be a strong backbone to Bush's plans considering with him and the other Senators against Bush's detainee proposition have enough votes to block any legislative action. Dessertion among Republicans this late in the stage could have a negative impact in the upcoming elections and might force Republicans to side with McCain or the President. Both moves which could alienate possible conservative and on the fence supporters. As to following the Geneva Convention rules...it's ridiculous that we even want to interpret the Geneva Convention rules just so we can torture some suspected terrorists to get valuable information....say like how Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein are connected. Oh wait....that turned out to be false. If the United States legitimately thinks torture (whether it's pyschological or physical) is a justifiable means of attaining information than they're no better than the dictator they just overthrew. What is everyone's opinion on the article and the treatment of detainees?

Bush Addressing UN general assembly

While speaking at the UN general assembly President Bush defended his policies on Mid-East and fight against terrorism. He focused most part of his speach on broader middle east, as he said, "democracy was gaining ground in the region and terrorists were being marginalised". President Bush also stressed that, "Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions". Russia and China were the only 2 memeber of security council who were against sanctions on Iran if it failed to meet the demands of council, now it looks like that France is also joining these two, "France broke ranks with its European allies on Monday when President Jacques Chirac said he did not believe suspension of enrichment should be a precondition for the resumption of negotiations with Iran".

Type faster and maybe they'll hear us

Bloggers who were active in the Virginia Senate campaign have been uncovered as being on the payroll for the candidates they had been blogging about, the Washington Post reports.

Certainly there's something here to say about blogging and its increase use, but there's also something to say about the visibility of campaigns and campaigning and how they use the tool. Just as the McCain-Feingold was to bring visibility to the campaign finances, there should be some mechanism (one would hope internal ethics would do the case) that would shed some visibility on this new tool and how it's used in campaigns.

The goal of the paid bloggers, both campaigns say, is to deluge online political journals with positive tidbits about their candidate and draw attention to the most negative news about their opponent. The campaign bloggers sometimes write their own bits. Other times, they spread gossip generated by others.

I don't have a problem with that sort of blog, but I do have a problem when that blog is being produced by someone who is on a candidate's payroll.

President Bush's troubles with his own party

Some of the best known member of Republican party are disagreeing with President Bush on the creation of military tribunals for terror suspects. The main issue is what's permissible in trial and interrogation. The interesting thing is that Democrat are totally quiet on this issue. These are some of the Republicans opposing President Bush, John McCain of Arizona, John W. Warner of Virginia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Colin L. Powell. This is very important considering the fact that elections are just months away. This is huge contrast to Republican's approach in past few elections, when they looked in total harmony, and was one of the reason why they were so successful in recent past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/us/politics/15assess.html?hp&ex=1158379200&en=98da997176bcf3b5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

He's certainly getting publicity

This is how BBC World talked about Chafee's victory, "Tuesday's most significant primary took place in America's smallest state, Rhode Island, where the Senate's most liberal Republican fended off a challenge from a more conservative candidate.
Senator Lincoln Chafee, a big thorn in George W Bush's side, did not even vote for the president in 2004.
He has fought President Bush on tax cuts, the war in Iraq and Supreme Court nominees, and is almost single-handedly holding up the official confirmation of the president's UN ambassador, John Bolton". If despite doing all this and still getting large support from Republican party, it shows that Republicans are willing to put behind their differences and work for the cause of Republicans and make it hard for democratcs to win this winter's elections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5347576.stm

Chafee declared victor in Rhode Island

Hey,
Lincoln Chafee won the Republican nomination on Tuesday for the state of Rhode Island. This is the same case that we talked about in class. He will face Sheldon Whitehouse, the former Rhode Island district attoryney, in November. I have included a link from CNN.com that talks about the victory.
-Rachel Kirkman

Bush Confident GOP Will Hold Congress

Here is an interesting article published by fox news no less discussing how President George W Bush believe his party will retain control in November's elections. He actually seems quite oblivious to the fact that there is a threat at all, stating that he believes americans will recognize the good things that republicans have done the last two years such as tax cuts and also americans understand that the republicans are necessary to finish the job in iraq.
What do you guys/girls think?

-PatrickWGahagan

Primary Day

Today is primary day in a number of key states. Tomorrow we should have a pretty good idea at what the November races are going to look like.

Welcome

This is a blog for POL SCI 426 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. We are going to use blogs to carry class discussions out of the classroom.

The primary function of this blog will be to keep up with current events as a group during the busy campaign season.