6 Dems vote to deploy untested missile defense

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Friday June 18, 2004 · 12:15 AM PDT

2004/06/18 · 00:15

Incredible.

The Senate rejected today, 57-42, an amendment, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), to the 2005 Defense Authorization bill that would have allowed deployment of the President's proposed missile defense system only after the mission related capabilities have been confirmed by realistic operational testing. Republican Olympia Snowe (ME) joined Democrats in voting for the amendment. Democrats Bayh (IN), Clinton (NY), Landreiu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Miller (GA), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE). Not voting was John Kerry (D-MA).

Shortly afterward, the Senate approved, 55-44, an amendment by Armed Services committee Chair John Warner (R-VA) to an amendment offered by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI). The Warner amendment would "require the Secretary of Defense to prescribe and apply criteria for operationally realistic testing of fieldable prototypes developed under the ballistic missile defense spiral development program." Warner effectively undemined Reed's efforts to put testing under the supervision of Thomas Christie, Pentagon chief weapons tester. Clinton, Lieberman and Nelson (FL) changed course and voted against the Warner amendment. Here's the roll call.

The Warner amendment is window dressing. What happened today is simple: the Senate voted today to deploy a missile defense system that has never been tested. In a Senate hearing in March, the Pentagon's own Thomas Christie said it was uncertain whether the system would work against a North Korean missile threat. I have no idea how these people can claim they are "strong on defense."

Follow this and other key votes: notsoforeignpolicy.

Senate votes to table amendment on "civilian contractors"

tyroneslothrop

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Wednesday June 16, 2004 · 2:41 PM PDT

2004/06/16 · 14:41

from notsoforeignpolicy.

The Senate voted today 55-43 to table an amendment offered by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) that would have limited the use of civilian contractors for certain DoD activities. Democrats Miller (GA), Nelson (FL) and Rockefeller (WV) joined all Republicans in voting to table. Not voting were Dems Bingaman (NM), Edwards (NC) and Kerry (MA). Check out the roll call.

The actual language is difficult to track down, so it is unclear how far the amendment would have gone. Still, I am disappointed at both the Democratic crossovers and the lack of initiative for taking this issue on.

Update [2004-6-16 18:48:16 by tyroneslothrop]: Here's the actual language. Here's a link to some of the floor debate.

5 Dems cross over, vote for new nukes

tyroneslothrop

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Tuesday June 15, 2004 · 5:39 PM PDT

2004/06/15 · 17:39

Five Democratic Senators voted today against an amendment to significantly cut funding for programs to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons.

Check out the details of this and several other key votes at notsoforeignpolicy.

Key Votes in the Senate Today!

tyroneslothrop

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Tuesday June 15, 2004 · 8:32 AM PDT

2004/06/15 · 08:32

The Senate resumed consideration of the 2005 Defense Authorization bill yesterday. Today, after 100 minutes of debate, they will vote on amendments on new nuclear weapons funding, war profiteering, limiting the use of contractors in Iraq, and hate crimes.

Other amendments, ranging from issues like missile defense to investigating the Iraqi National Congress to paying for the war in Iraq are coming up this week.

For all the details, come visit notsoforeignpolicy.

You can also watch the proceedings on C-Span 2

NYT Omits Politics of State Dept. Terrorism Report

tyroneslothrop

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Friday June 11, 2004 · 6:51 PM PDT

2004/06/11 · 18:51

So the NYT finally noticed that the State Department wildly underreported global terrorism. Or rather, they ran the AP story. Except they cut out the part of the story that refers to the electoral implications. It's written up in more detail on my blog notsoforeignpolicy

Drop by and play "rewrite the headline."

How was the SPEECH? (w/ poll)

tyroneslothrop

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Friday June 11, 2004 · 1:34 PM PDT

2004/06/11 · 13:34

Did anyone see Bush's speech? The press seems to have set the bar pretty high for him, and I'm curious to hear Kossacks assesments of "the most important speech of his presidency."

Herseth Dating Dem from TX

tyroneslothrop

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Thursday June 10, 2004 · 1:13 PM PDT

2004/06/10 · 13:13

I hate to be a rumormonger, but I confess to feeling some sincere disappointment at reading the news on the South Dakota politics blog. http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com/south_dakota_politics/herseth/index.html

Bush rebuked by Republicans on new nuke ambitions

tyroneslothrop

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Wednesday June 09, 2004 · 5:15 PM PDT

2004/06/09 · 17:15

The short version is that the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, David Hobson (R-Ohio) released the chair's mark of the 2005 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, in which he cut ALL of the administration's request for new nuclear weapons programs. A huge rebuke at the hands of his own party!

I wrote this up in detail on my blog: notsoforeignpolicy.  Check it out.  I am very interested in the opinions of Kossacks on my efforts over there.

Senate Takes Up New Nukes Today

tyroneslothrop

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Monday June 07, 2004 · 9:39 AM PDT

2004/06/07 · 09:39

Update [2004-6-7 15:18:23 by tyroneslothrop]: According to http://cq.com, the House and Senate have suspended legislative activity for today and tommorrow, which gives y'all a bit more time to contact your Senators about these votes.

The Senate resumes debate today on the 2005 Defense Authorization bill.  Thankfully, the framers saw fit to give the Senate the power of unlimited debate, which means no rules committee, which means that there will be floor votes on many of the amendments that David Dreier and the House Rules Committee ruled out of order.

Votes on the amendments start tomorrow.  From my perspective, few of these will be as important as the votes on new nuclear weapons funding, particularly the Feinstein/Kennedy amendment:

Sens. Feinstein (D-CA), Kennedy (D-MA), Reed (RI), Lautenberg and Feingold have offered amendment No. 3263 to delete funds in the bill for R&D on the nuclear bunker buster ($27.6 million) and advanced concepts ($9 million), money that could be used for research on small nuclear weapons. The Committee approved full funding for these two programs requested by the Department of Energy. These weapons are not needed because the U.S. already has 6,000 deployed nuclear weapons. Moreover, a U.S. decision to proceed with a new generation of nuclear weapons will undercut non- proliferation efforts.

The vote on this is expected to be VERY close, and if any of the following are your Senators, please consider calling them today and telling them to support this amendment and stop the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons:

Bill Nelson (Fla.)
Evan Bayh (Ind.)
Susan Collins (Maine)
Olympia Snowe (Maine)
Ben Nelson (Neb.)
Gordon Smith (Ore.)
Arlen Specter (Pa.) Read More

Add Tobacco to Bush Flip-Flop List

tyroneslothrop

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Friday June 04, 2004 · 11:59 AM PDT

2004/06/04 · 11:59

This just in:

In less than a month, the Bush administration has pulled a 180 on the issue of a program designed to aid tobacco farmers.

Here's the WaPo link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14685-2004Jun4.html

Check out the lead and first paragraph:

"WASHINGTON - Responding to a political outcry this election year, the Bush administration is reversing course and signaling support for a plan to pay farmers to stop growing tobacco.

The administration's position marks a switch from just a month ago, when President Bush said on the campaign trail in Ohio that he didn't think the system under which farmers grow and sell tobacco needed to be changed. "

I'm not sure who's keeping the master list of fliparoos, but I move that this one be added.

NRCC OUTRAISED DCCC 4-1 IN APRIL

tyroneslothrop

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Monday May 24, 2004 · 12:56 PM PDT

2004/05/24 · 12:56

This just in from CQ Midday Update:

"The National Republican Congressional Committee continued to swamp its Democratic counterpart in fundraising efforts through April 30, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. In April the NRCC reported receipts of $8 million, for a total of $28.4 million raised in the first four months of 2004. The committee had $18 million in cash on hand. It had poured $253,796 into independent expenditures supporting Larry Diedrich, the Republican nominee in the June 1 special election for South Dakota's at-large House seat. The Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee pulled in $2 million in April, giving it total receipts of $13.3 million for the year to date. It had $11.1 million in cash on hand at the end of the month. Independent expenditures supporting Stephanie Herseth, the Democratic nominee in South Dakota's upcoming election, totaled $238,712."

Any thoughts?

Were Pelosi's Comments Strategic?

tyroneslothrop

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Friday May 21, 2004 · 3:59 PM PDT

2004/05/21 · 15:59

I doubt anyone here disagreed with Minority Leader Pelosi's statement about the President. I, however, have to wonder about the strategic value of the timing.

Consider this: her statement came at a time when acrimony and divisiveness within the Republican Party had dominated headlines for two days, so much so, that Bush felt compelled to do damage control on the Hill.

Viewed from that perspective, Pelosi's remarks offered the GOP a convenient object of ire to rally around, and effectively changed the subject to one that would be hard (however accurate her observations) not to characterize as partisan.

While some have speculated that Kerry did something similar by calling for Rumsfeld's resignation, most proponents of that argument suggest that he did so knowing that Republicans would rally around Rummy, thus saddling the administration with a contentious figure for the duration.

So. Have at the poll. I'd be curious to hear any strategic speculations you might have.

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