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6/4/2011 Overlooking Oversight
In late May, Congress extended three enhanced surveillance powers that were granted to the government after the 9/11 attacks — two in the Patriot Act and one from a related intelligence law. In doing so, lawmakers neatly managed to avoid any lapse in those powers. They failed miserably in their duty to carefully re-examine the provisions, trim back excesses, and add safeguards to protect civil liberties. In other words, they ignored the whole point of requiring that the provisions be periodically reviewed. One of the renewed provisions permits a roving wiretap on terrorism suspects who switch phone numbers or providers. While this is a useful tool, the lax rules for specifying who is the subject of the wiretap could invite abuse. Another provision permits the government to examine library, bookstore and business records without having to show that the material is related to a terrorism investigation. (New York Times)
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posted: 6/16/11                   0       7
#1 



5/7/2011 Nuclear Agency Is Criticized as Too Close to Its Industry
In the fall of 2007, workers at the Byron nuclear power plant in Illinois were using a wire brush to clean a badly corroded steel pipe — one in a series that circulate cooling water to essential emergency equipment — when something unexpected happened: the brush poked through. The resulting leak caused a 12-day shutdown of the two reactors for repairs. The plant’s owner, the Exelon Corporation, had long known that corrosion was thinning most of these pipes. But rather than fix them, it repeatedly lowered the minimum thickness it deemed safe. By the time the pipe broke, Exelon had declared that pipe walls just three-hundredths of an inch thick — less than one-tenth the original minimum thickness — would be good enough. Though no radioactive material was released, safety experts say that if enough pipes had ruptured during a reactor accident, the result could easily have been a nuclear catastrophe at a plant just 100 miles west of Chicago. Exelon’s risky decisions occurred under the noses of on-site inspectors from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. No documented inspection of the pipes was made by anyone from the N.R.C. for at least the eight years preceding the leak, and the agency also failed to notice that Exelon kept lowering the acceptable standard, according to a subsequent investigation by the commission’s inspector general. (New York Times)
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posted: 5/9/11                   0       6
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5/2/2011 Osama Bin Laden Pronounced Dead…For the Ninth Time
When Obama pronounced Osama Bin Laden dead in a televised announcement heard round the world last night, he was at least the ninth major head of state or high-ranking government official to have done so. Given Bin Laden’s documented kidney problems and consequent need for dialysis, government officials, heads of state and counterterrorism experts have repeatedly opined that Osama Bin Laden has in fact been dead for some time. These assertions are based on Bin Laden’s failing health in late 2001 and visible signs of his deteriorating condition, as well as actual reports of his death from the same time frame. In July of 2001, Osama Bin Laden was flown to the American Hospital in Dubai for kidney treatment. According to French intelligence sources, he was there met by the local CIA attache. When the agent bragged about his encounter to friends later, he was promptly recalled to Washington. On the eve of September 11, Osama Bin Laden was staying in a Pakistani military hospital under the watchful eye of Pakistan’s ISI, the Pakistani equivalent of the CIA with deep ties to the American intelligence community. (Corbett Report)
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posted: 5/9/11                   0       6
#3 



1/31/2011 Egypt's Web blockade raises concerns about 'kill switch' for Internet
The news of Egypt's crackdown on Web access is raising new concerns over a comprehensive cybersecurity bill that critics claim gives the president a "kill switch" for the Internet. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) recently indicated they plan to re-introduce their bipartisan legislation, which passed the Senate Homeland Security Committee last year only to get mired in a standoff with Senate Commerce Committee members over which panel should have oversight of civilian cybersecurity. Civil rights advocates such as the ACLU also raised concerns about the bill, which they claim gives the president the ability to shut down the Web in the event of a catastrophic cyber-attack. Specifically, observers are concerned the new version of the bill will reportedly not allow for judicial review when the administration shuts down a network under attack.

Collins has bristled at that characterization, pointing out that the White House has indicated they already have the authority to shut down portions of the private-sector Web in the event of a national security emergency under a little-used provision of the Communications Act passed one month after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. A Senate aide also pointed out that the infrastructure of the U.S.-based Web is designed in such a fashion that no single "kill switch" to take down the entire network exists. Instead, a fiber-optic backbone connects servers in several geographically diverse locations to ensure continuity even in the event of an attack. (The Hill)
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posted: 1/31/11                   0       5
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9/23/2010 Cybersecurity bill would give president emergency powers: Proposed cybersecurity legislation, a combination of existing bills circulating on Capitol Hill, would give the president power to declare an emergency if there is an imminent cyber threat to the nation’s critical infrastructure.
The draft bill would give the president the power to shut down industries or impose measures to combat the cybersecurity threat, according to Reuters, which obtained a copy of the draft. The emergency declaration would last 30 days, unless the president renews it, but it could not last more than 90 days without congressional action. (Infosecurity)
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posted: 10/4/10                   0       5
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9/21/2010 EXCLUSIVE-Cyber bill would give U.S. emergency powers
* Tech companies skeptical of costs, requirements * Senate majority leader pushing cybersecurity proposal * Cybersecurity expert says bill is "pretty vanilla stuff"

Proposed cybersecurity legislation circulating on Capitol Hill would give the president the power to declare an emergency in the case of big online attacks and force some businesses to beef up their cyber defenses and submit to scrutiny. The draft bill, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, allows the president to declare an emergency if there is an imminent threat to the U.S. electrical grid or other critical infrastructure such as the water supply or financial network because of a cyber attack. Industries, companies or portions of companies could be temporarily shut down, or be required to take other steps to address threats. The emergency declaration would last for 30 days, unless the president renews it. It cannot last more than 90 days without action from Congress. The draft is a combination of two cybersecurity bills which were merged into one at the urging of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "It (the draft bill) is something that we hope to be able to pass before the end of the year, if we can," Reid spokeswoman Regan Lachapelle told Reuters. (Reuters)
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posted: 10/4/10                   0       3
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9/12/2010 Cybersecurity bill on list for passage this year
Capitol Hill staffers have made progress stitching together cybersecurity proposals into a huge bill, aides said, with Senate leadership putting it on their short list for passage this year. But stiff industry opposition and partisan tensions still make it unlikely comprehensive legislation will pass in 2010. The legislation would require companies who sell the government USD 80 billion in hardware and software each year to bake in a certain level of security -- a potentially expensive prospect. Senate Majority Harry Reid has put the measure on his list of top-priority bills to get through the Senate this year, the sources said. The bill is a priority because leaps in technology have increased industrial productivity, but also left businesses and the US government vulnerable to foreign spies, such as the 2008 breach of US military computers using a single compromised thumb drive and identity thieves who have stolen untold numbers of consumer credit card numbers. (Reuters)
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posted: 9/27/10                   0       4
#7 



5/16/2010 Flood of outside money hits the primaries
$9.6 million from independent groups spent on Arkansas race

The flood of money comes under campaign laws that bar coordination with the candidates and sometimes allow donors to hide their identity. Outsiders can be left guessing about the true political objective, and already, one organization has produced an ad that's drawn accusations of racism. According to campaign professionals in both parties, these independent efforts can achieve their stated purpose — or actually hinder the candidate they are designed to help. (Associated Press)
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posted: 5/29/10                   0       15
#8 
keywords: American Future Fund, Americans For Job Security, Arkansas, Bill Halter, Blanche Lincoln, Bob Bennett, Campaign Finance Reform, Carl Forti, Des Moines, Harry Reid, Iowa, Iran, Jon Youngdahl, Kentucky, Nevada, Nuclear Weapons, Rand Paul, Service Employees International Union, Sharron Angle, Tea Party, US Congress, United States, Utah Add New Keyword To Link



5/11/2010 White House aims to use Deepwater disaster to win votes for US climate bill
US Senators prepare to roll out legislation after oil spill 'tragedy heightens interest in energy and wanting a different plan' (London Guardian)
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posted: 6/4/10                   0       11
#9 



2/9/2010 Climate-change legislation buried under record snowfall in capital
The documents, which were hacked from a university computer server, prompted accusations that researchers may have edited the presentation of data to overstate the threat of warming. (The Hill)
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posted: 2/18/10                   0       11
#10 



12/28/2009 Financial Industry Invests Heavily in Key Lawmakers
(Originally published Nov. 16, 2009; Updated with third quarter Senate data Dec. 28, 2009) As Congress considers legislation to reregulate the financial services industry in response to the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, the industry is focusing campaign contributions on the congressional leadership and members of the committees crafting reform legislation. Between November 2008 (when the current election cycle began) and Sept. 30, 2009, the financial industry – including banks, investment firms, insurance companies and real estate companies – has given $48.3 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress and their leadership political action committees, according to data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org).

Between November 2008...and Sept. 30, 2009, the financial industry...has given $48.3 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress and their leadership political action committees... ...The 94 members of the two finance committees have received $16.9 million overall. The top 10 committee recipients include the Democratic chairmen: Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.); and the ranking Republicans on the committees: Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.) and Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.). (Public Citizen)
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posted: 8/1/11                   0       1
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12/21/2009 Uranium Is So Last Century -- Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
The thick hardbound volume was sitting on a shelf in a colleague’s office when Kirk Sorensen spotted it. A rookie NASA engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Sorensen was researching nuclear-powered propulsion, and the book’s title — Fluid Fuel Reactors — jumped out at him. He picked it up and thumbed through it. Hours later, he was still reading, enchanted by the ideas but struggling with the arcane writing. “I took it home that night, but I didn’t understand all the nuclear terminology,” Sorensen says. He pored over it in the coming months, ultimately deciding that he held in his hands the key to the world’s energy future. Published in 1958 under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission as part of its Atoms for Peace program, Fluid Fuel Reactors is a book only an engineer could love: a dense, 978-page account of research conducted at Oak Ridge National Lab, most of it under former director Alvin Weinberg. What caught Sorensen’s eye was the description of Weinberg’s experiments producing nuclear power with an element called thorium. At the time, in 2000, Sorensen was just 25, engaged to be married and thrilled to be employed at his first serious job as a real aerospace engineer. A devout Mormon with a linebacker’s build and a marine’s crew cut, Sorensen made an unlikely iconoclast. But the book inspired him to pursue an intense study of nuclear energy over the next few years, during which he became convinced that thorium could solve the nuclear power industry’s most intractable problems. After it has been used as fuel for power plants, the element leaves behind minuscule amounts of waste. And that waste needs to be stored for only a few hundred years, not a few hundred thousand like other nuclear byproducts. Because it’s so plentiful in nature, it’s virtually inexhaustible. It’s also one of only a few substances that acts as a thermal breeder, in theory creating enough new fuel as it breaks down to sustain a high-temperature chain reaction indefinitely. And it would be virtually impossible for the byproducts of a thorium reactor to be used by terrorists or anyone else to make nuclear weapons. (Wired)
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posted: 1/15/12                   0       0
#12 
keywords: Alabama, Alternative Energy, Alvin Weinberg, Atomic Energy Commission, Barack Obama, Beijing, Carbon Dioxide, Chernobyl, China, Climate Change, Dubai, Energy From Thorium, Exelon, Harry Reid, Huntsville, Hyman Rickover, India, James Hansen, John Rowe, Kirk Sorensen, Kurchatov Institute, Los Alamos, Marshall Space Flight Center, Mormons, Moscow, National Aeronautics And Space Administration, Nuclear Power Plants, Oak Ridge National Lab, Orrin Hatch, Pu-239, Russia, Steven Chu, Terrorists, Thorium, Thorium Power, U-235, U-238, US Department Of Energy, US Energy Information Administration, United States, University Of Tennessee, Uranium, Virginia Add New Keyword To Link



8/18/2009 Climate Bill ‘Out of Control,’ Former Senator Says
Cap-and-trade legislation to limit U.S. carbon dioxide emissions has “gotten out of control” and needs to be scaled back in Congress, said former Democratic Senator Timothy Wirth (Bloomberg)
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posted: 8/27/09                   0       13
#13 



6/27/2009 Boehner: Climate bill a 'pile of s--t'
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday (The Hill)
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posted: 6/29/09                   2       14
#14 



6/27/2009 Obama implores Senate to pass climate bill
"We cannot be afraid of the future. And we must not be prisoners of the past. Don't believe the misinformation out there that suggests there is somehow a contradiction between investing in clean energy and economic growth." (Associated Press)
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posted: 6/29/09                   2       15
#15 



6/7/2009 The Economy Is Still at the Brink
Obama, "It's safe to say we have stepped back from the brink, that there is some calm that didn’t exist before" (New York Times)
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posted: 6/7/09                   7       24
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5/27/2009 Obama Touts Clean Energy at Nellis AFB (Military.com)
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posted: 5/31/09                   6       21
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5/22/2009 Supermax Prisons in U.S. Already Hold Terrorists (Washington Post)
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posted: 5/26/09                   2       32
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4/29/2009 Dick Durbin: Banks "Frankly Own The Place"
"And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place," (Huffington Post)
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posted: 6/4/09                   1       19
#19 



4/20/2009 Obama proposes US loan $100 billion to International Monetary Fund
The president made the request in several letters to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders Monday, pointing out that the fund didn’t require an extra financial outlay from the U.S. (The Raw Story)
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posted: 6/4/09                   2       20
#20 



3/1/2009 Sean Hannity & Dick Morris: Conspiracy Theorists were Right! (FOX)
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posted: 6/17/09      
 5       22
#21 



2/11/2009 Big Science Role Is Seen in Global Warming Cure
"supports putting a price on carbon emissions to begin to address climate change" (New York Times)
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posted: 6/29/09                   1       13
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2/9/2009 Harry Reid says paying income tax in America is Voluntary
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posted: 5/7/09      
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11/16/2008 Inhofe: Cancel the 'blank check'
He criticizes Henry Paulson for changing the $700 billion bailout plan (Tulsa World)
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posted: 7/21/09                   0       8
#24 



11/11/2008 Rahm Emanuel: Barack Obama's Sarah Palin?
Jubilation was heard in Tel Aviv as Haaretz, the Israeli daily, boasted November 6th: "Obama kick-starts transition, picks Israeli Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff." Best known for his fundraising prowess among wealthy Jewish Democrats, the naming of Emanuel as the first presidential appointment echoes Sarah Palin's famous one-liner, "I love Israel." That claim was voiced in her vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden who is featured on a YouTube video famously proclaiming, "I am a Zionist." In sharp contrast to Obama's claim that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, Emanuel claims he would do it again today. As chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he directed party funds to pro-invasion candidates and recruited candidates to oppose anti-war Democrats. Known in Washington as an outspoken pro-Israel hardliner, he joins Speaker Nancy Pelosi in bringing to the Middle East peace process a record of support for Tel Aviv's targeted assassinations of Palestinian political leaders. ("Pelosi supports Israel's attacks on Hamas group," San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 2003). (Huffington Post)
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posted: 4/1/11                   0       1
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10/3/2008 Baran: Pandering Democrats, beware
He, along with Sen. McCain, became national cheerleaders for the Paulson bailout plan, which may well be passed in the House of Representatives today. Rather than allowing for a major public debate on the best way to move forward in this genuine crisis, Sen. Obama opted to use his bully pulpit to scold Democrats who did not want to line up hehind a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. In a bizarre move, he even questioned their patriotism — saying that those in the House who voted against the bill were “refusing to do what’s right for our country.” (Yale Daily News)
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posted: 6/4/10                   0       4
#26 



9/23/2008 NO To The Paulson-Bernanke Derivatives Scam Bailout
Bail Out the American People, Not Wall Street! An Economic Recovery Strategy for Protectionists, Dirigists, Mercantilists, and Populists (Webster G. Tarpley)
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posted: 6/18/09                   5       22
#27 



7/9/2008 MSM Yawn at Stunning 9 Percent Approval Rating for Congress
If Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican majority had faced a 9 percent approval rating at any point in the 1996 presidential election year, the media would have not let anyone forget it. (News Busters)
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posted: 5/26/09                   4       25
#28 



6/7/2008 Preparing the Battlefield
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources (The New Yorker)
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posted: 6/24/09                   2       16
#29 



4/23/2007 Securing the Promise of the Western Hemisphere [Rush Transcript; Federal News Service]
ANN M. FUDGE: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on a Monday morning. I would again just like to welcome you to today's Council on Foreign Relations meeting. It's part of the C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics and is cosponsored with the council's corporate program and the Maurice Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. Before we begin, please remember to turn off your cell phones and other wireless devices. I would like to remind the audience today that this meeting is on the record. And what I would like to do is very briefly introduce our speaker this morning, Secretary Gutierrez. He will be talking about Latin America, which has been a topic that has been of interest to many of the council members. So without any further delay, I will bring Carlos up and begin the program, so we will have much time for question and answers. (Council on Foreign Relations)
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posted: 11/7/10                   0       0
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