Senate passes SCHIP - with a veto-proof majority.

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Patty Griffin covers the Sam Cooke song:

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Now pegged to the Schrute Buck.

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I like it when the cockroaches come right out in the open like this:
“Ohio and Florida, which provided the decisive electoral votes for President Bush’s two razor-thin national election triumphs, have enacted laws that election experts say will help Republicans impede voting by Democratic-leaning minorities in 2008,” McClatchy reports.
The new Ohio law aimed at reducing [...]

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Beautiful photo essay on the personal losses from this war.

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Great, huh?
WASHINGTON — New-home sales resumed falling in August, sinking to the lowest level in seven years, and prices tumbled, signaling the housing sector will remain a drag on the U.S. economy.
Sales of single-family homes decreased by 8.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000, the Commerce Department said Thursday. July [...]

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The U.S., of course, is officially troubled over the situation:
NEW DELHI — Security forces in Myanmar raided two monasteries early today after a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in which at least one person was killed, according to news and witness accounts trickling out of the closed-off country.
Seeking to prevent a 10th consecutive day of [...]

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We “can’t afford” national health insurance.

Better schools are too expensive.
Expanding and fixing Amtrak is too expensive.

Taking care of the soldiers we used like Kleenex is too expensive.
Just about everything is too expensive for these fiscally-responsible Republicans except war and more war:
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday to approve an additional $42.3 billion for [...]

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Anyone who’s still surprised by this has been in a coma for much of the past six years.
It’s all too similar to the Iran tapdance we’re seeing now.

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Apparently there are a few judges left who believe the Constitution stills takes priority over a politically-motivated state of manufactured fear:
Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the [...]

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I’m feeling more than a little fried lately, what between sprained ankles, flat tires, the state of the world and the baffling cooperation of the Democratic party with this madness, this domestic coup. I mean, there’s Burma, a general complaining about immoral gays, the incredible unreality of an impending war with Iran, people trying to [...]

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Joe Jackson from his brilliant “Night and Day” album:

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Go read Arthur, and then tell me: Is he right?

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Kyl-Lieberman, with amended language. TPM has more.

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Dahlia Lithwick:
Another one for you to file under “fox guards the henhouse”: The Senate rules committee votes tomorrow (Wednesday) on whether to give Hans A. von Spakovsky a full six-year term on the Federal Elections Commission. For Senate Democrats to even consider allowing someone with von Spakovsky’s background to sit on the independent agency tasked [...]

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Good news:
At a press conference this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the hawkish amendment on Iran being offered by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is now being revised prior to a Senate vote on the matter:
REID: There are efforts being made before we vote on them to modify [...]

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How nice that there are still so many Republicans who do what they’re told:
A broad House majority gave final approval last night to a $35 billion expansion of the popular children’s health insurance program, with members from both parties brushing aside a stern veto threat from President Bush to vote their support, 265 to 159.
The [...]

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Water supplies are an ongoing crisis in many parts of the world, and just think what we could do to help if we weren’t off starting wars for oil:
As world attention focuses on the Darfur region of Sudan, Somalia is quietly disintegrating into Africa’s worst humanitarian emergency, experts say.
Last week, United Nations emergency coordinator John [...]

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And doing a splendid job, I must say:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 — The Interior Department’s program to collect billions of dollars annually from oil and gas companies that drill on federal lands is troubled by mismanagement, ethical lapses and fears of retaliation against whistle-blowers, the department’s chief independent investigator has concluded.
The report, a result of a [...]

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Tentative agreement in GM strike.

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Bubble Boy at the U.N.:
UNITED NATIONS — President Bush implored the United Nations on Tuesday to recommit itself to restoring human decency by liberating oppressed people and ending famine and disease.
Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, the president called for renewed efforts to enforce the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a striking point [...]

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Bonnie Raitt with another song I like to cover:

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From Tim Carpenter, Progressive Democrats of America:
In the last week, the peace movement has been dealt a few blows, and now it’s our turn to strike back. As early as today, the Kyl-Lieberman amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Authorization will go to the floor. If passed, a war with Iran could be right around [...]

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Too scary for the Republics.

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I thought this was pretty interesting:
The roots of the healthcare system’s current problems lie in World War II, when Congress sought to keep inflation in check by freezing workers’ wages. At the same time, however, lawmakers allowed companies to be as generous as they pleased with benefits.
As a result, employers competed for relatively scarce labor [...]

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Run, Newt, run!
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will begin next week to seek financial commitments from donors for a presidential-nomination bid, the Georgia Republican told The Washington Times yesterday.
If he can get pledges for $30 million over the next three weeks, he will join the Republican presidential-nomination race — a prospect he had been downplaying [...]

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Still in the downward spiral:
NEW YORK - The decline in U.S. home prices accelerated nationwide in July, posting the steepest drop in 16 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.
Home prices have fallen by more every month since the beginning of the year.
An index of 10 U.S. cities fell 4.5 percent in [...]

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Bob Herbert on the GOP’s use of racial issues:
I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week. But what I’d really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington.
Enough is [...]

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Does anyone really believe anything written by David Brooks? He’s such a waste of bandwidth.

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UPDATE: The final vote is today. Please call your congress critters!
The General explains it all with this handy chart:

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