Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, or post manifestos.
Note: Crossposted from Congress Matters, which rawks!
Here's some of my thoughts on the news of the day from Washington. Feel free to add your own.
The person in charge of closing Gitmo, Gregory Craig, will resign.
White House officials declined to confirm the expected announcement but have said for many weeks that they thought Craig would leave and be succeeded by Bauer. The timing appears likely to coincide with announcements related to Guantanamo, in particular a pending decision by the Justice Department over the legal fate of some key detainees and whether Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, will be transferred to federal court for prosecution.
And not surprisingly, the same day that news hit, we also learned that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men being held at Guantanamo Bay will be tried in a New York City court.
Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Barack Obama's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.
"For over 200 years our nation has relied upon a faithful adherence to the rule of law," Holder told a news conference at the Justice Department. "Once again, we will ask our legal system in two venues to answer that call."
Naturally, the Republicans have decided that this idea is absolutely terrible.
Republican Sen. Jon Kyl said bringing Mohammed to New York was "an unnecessary risk" that could result in the disclosure of classified information. Kyl maintained the trial of Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called "blind sheik" who was tried for a plot against some two-dozen New York City landmarks, caused "valuable information about U.S. intelligence sources and methods" to be revealed to the al-Qaida terrorist network.
The only problem I see is that confessions obtain by torture may or may not be admissible in court.
In related news, I don't think that word means what Lieberman thinks it means.
It is "inconceivable" that the U.S. would bring the alleged terrorist masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks to New York for trial, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Friday.
Okay, maybe it does mean what he thinks it means. His argument is a rehash of the war criminal vs. common criminal debate. My question is not so much who tries these suspects as why it has taken so long. Perhaps the right to a speedy trial doesn't apply in this case either.
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On the health care front, Harry Reid is looking into a minimal tax increase for Medicare on workers earning $250,000 or more to pay for the health care reform bill.
Mr. Reid is apparently considering an increase in the Medicare payroll tax rate for workers with incomes of more than $250,000 a year, Senate aides said. One idea is to increase the tax rate by one-half of 1 percentage point, to 1.95 percent for high-income people, with an expectation that the government could raise $40 billion to $50 billion over 10 years.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly said that under his administration, people making less than $250,000 a year would not see any of their taxes increased.
If we get pushback from teapartiers not making that much, it is further proof that they 1) have no idea what they have no concept of economic self interest and/or 2) will blindly follow the whims of the likes of Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann.
Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress believes that the House bill would particularly help single women.
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Election officials are still counting votes in NY-23, even though the winner, Bill Owens has taken the seat and voted for the passage of the health care reform bill.
The New York Board of Elections plans to count more than 10,000 absentee ballots before certifying a winner. Owens's lead over Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman has tightened from about 5,300 votes on election night to about 3,000, but officials in both parties said Thursday that the Democrat is almost certain to remain the winner in the race.
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Since Congress can't walk and chew gum consider health care reform and global warming legislation at the same time, the Obama administration is considering a short term international agreement on Global Warming when negotiators meet in Denmark next month.
The scaled-back strategy is driven largely by the realities of domestic politics: The administration is hampered in making an international deal because Congress has not passed climate legislation. So any global pact would be postponed until next year when it would be constrained by whatever domestic climate legislation Congress enacts.
So how is the bill going? Currently, Senate Democrats are concerned about local impacts of Cap and Trade..
Fourteen senators, from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Colorado, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan, wrote leaders in charge of climate legislation to say that proposed cap-and-trade legislation would be inequitable to their home states.
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As if that is not enough, the Obama Administration wants Congress to tackle immigration reform next year.
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Not good news for the good guys. N.C.'s Etheridge bows out of running for Senate seat
Rep. Bob Etheridge was seen as a strong candidate to take on Senator Richard Burr.
Democrats are convinced that Burr can be beaten -- pointing to his relatively low job-approval numbers in a series of polls. But the unwillingness of people such as Cooper and Etheridge to run suggests that Burr may be stronger than he appears on paper.
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The Catholic Church's charity groups plan to single handedly derail same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.
Note to the Washington Post: the word "unable" should be in quotes. Accuracy demands the use of the word "unwilling."
From the church's perspective:
Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.
"If the city requires this, we can't do it," Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. "The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."
In a nutshell, the Catholic Church will not provide desperately needed social services in DC because someone with teh gay and who is married might want to come work for them. DC is the next battleground for this issue, folks. It will likely come up for a city council vote next month and Congress has the chance to review the ordinance.
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Speaking of the church, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) wants the IRS to investigate the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to see if their lobbying in support of the coat hanger amendment violated the conference's tax exempt status.
In related news, the RNC has dropped abortion coverage from its employees' health insurance coverage.
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Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida, the seventh ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, really wanted to meet with Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Since McChrystal's proposed solution to the escalating conflict in Afghanistan was leaked to the media in late September, some Republicans have grumbled that the Defense Department has curbed McChrystal's availability to lawmakers who support his request for more reinforcements.
All I can say is that elections have consequences.
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The teabaggers are at it again. This time, they plan to burn in effigy Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia because he dared to give everyone the option of getting health insurance...and probably for being a Democrat.
"At this point we feel we have no representation in Congress," Danville Tea Party chairman Nigel Coleman told the Chatham Star Tribune,
Whatever, dood. Between 2001 and 2008, I (along with half the country) felt like I had no representation in the White House. When I lived in Pa-05 (look it up) I felt like I had no representation, but I felt no need to act like an idiot and burn this guy in effigy.
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This story sailed under the radar. Earlier this month, the Senate narrowly invoked cloture on the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill.
This action effectively blocks consideration of Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Robert Bennett’s (R-Utah) controversial amendment to bar implementation of the 2010 Census unless it collected data on citizenship and immigration status for each respondent.
The scary part is that 39 Senators did not support cloture on the bill and were willing to risk a violation of the Constitution by not doing the census.
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The FDA is looking to ban drinks with both alcohol and caffeine.
The drinks, which combine malt liquor or other spirits with caffeine and fruit juices at alcohol concentrations up to about 10 percent, have become increasingly popular among college students. In a news conference, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the agency’s principal deputy commissioner, said consumption was associated with increased risk of serious injury, drunken driving, sexual assault and other dangerous behavior.
So of course, they have to be banned. Will this ban apply to Jack and Cokes that are routinely served at bars?
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NASA found water on the moon.
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Sarah Palin's book comes out on Tuesday. Surprisingly, no crayons are required.
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And finally, Joe Biden's going to be on The Daily Show. This will be a must see.