Tag: US Senate

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Climate Change And The U.S. Senate

Fascinating (and frightening) animation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):

Decades ago, the majority of the Arctic’s winter ice pack was made up of thick, perennial ice. Today, very old ice is extremely rare.

This animation tracks the relative amount of ice of different ages from 1987 through early November 2014.

Video produced by the Climate.gov team, based on data provided by Mark Tschudi.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 98-1 to acknowledge that climate change is “real.” However, an amendment saying that climate change is due to human activity was voted down 59-40.

Go watch the video below and think on whether all this ice is melting “just because.”

(h/t JMG)

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California: Sen. Barbara Boxer Will Not Seek Re-Election In 2016

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has announced, via video “interview” with her grandson, that she will not seek re-election in 2016.

As NBC notes, this sets several big name Democrats in motion for the open Senate seat:

High-profile California Democrats like Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Attorney General Kamala Harris and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have had to bide their time with Sens. Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, as well as Gov. Jerry Brown, occupying the top three statewide offices.

So now’s their chance.

And if you include current Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, there are as many as four well-known Democrats who might have their eyes on Boxer’s seat, potentially setting up a titantic and expensive race to succeed her. There’s also the possibility that a Silicon Valley entrepreneur or Hollywood star (remember Arnold Schwarzenegger) is interested in running.

Worth noting: California has a top-two primary system – regardless of party – so it’s possible that two Democrats clash in the 2016 general election. Or one Democrat and one Republican. Or even two Republicans (though that’s very, very unlikely in this blue state).

“I am never going to retire,” Boxer says in the video. “The work is too important. But I will not be running for the Senate in 2016.”

“I want to come home. I want to come home to the state I love so much, California.”

See Boxer’s announcement below:

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Even Pat Robertson Thinks Sen. Ted Cruz Pulled A Bone-Headed Move

Well, hell must have frozen over because for once Pat Robertson is speaking with clarity about the shenanigans Sen. Ted Cruz pulled this past weekend regarding the Senate passing the CRomnibus bill to keep the government running.

Normally a bill has to “ripen” for several hours giving Senators a chance to read and digest what they are going to be voting on. But that waiting period can be waived if all 100 Senators agree. This would have allowed a faster vote on the already approved House bill. But Ted Cruz threw a wrench in the works voting against waiving the period because he wanted to have a vote on the Senate floor denouncing President Obama’s executive order on immigration.

This opened a procedural door that allowed outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats the chance to pass over 20 nominations from the President that the Republicans have blocked for months.

One of those nominations that finally got passed after a year and a half hold was Vivek Murthy, a Harvard and Yale-educated doctor, whose nomination for Surgeon General had been on blocked based in great part by opposition from the gun lobby. Thanks to Cruz, he was approved by Senators 51 to 43 to confirm.

Christmas came early for the Dems thanks to the rookie move by Sen. Cruz.

And even Pat Robertson can see it.

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Sen. Jeff Merkley To Introduce Comprehensive Federal LGBT Protections Bill

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) today announced plans to introduce a comprehensive federal LGBT rights bill that will cover employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations.

MetroWeekly reports:

Merkley said that while the Senate’s passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in November of last year by a 64-32 vote after the bill failed by one vote in 1996 was a “tremendous victory,” if discrimination is wrong in employment, it also must be wrong in areas such as housing, public accommodations and financial transactions.

“Such an act would be a major advance for opportunity and equality for the LGBT community and would be a major stride toward a more just society,” said Merkley, who has been the lead sponsor of ENDA in the Senate since assuming that role from Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2009.

Merkley made the announcement during the unveiling of a new report by the Center for American Progress addressing the need for comprehensive LGBT nondiscrimination protections.

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US Senate Report Details CIA Interrogation Program

A report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee detailing interrogation techniques and the detention of suspects by the CIA has been released this morning. The report, which took five years to compile, examines whether the methods of interrogation were more brutal than previously described:

Detainees were deprived of sleep for as long as a week, and were sometimes told that they would be killed while in American custody. With the approval of the C.I.A.’s medical staff, some C.I.A. prisoners were subjected to medically unnecessary “rectal feeding” or “rectal hydration” — a technique that the C.I.A.’s chief of interrogations described as a way to exert “total control over the detainee.” C.I.A. medical staff members described the waterboarding of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, as a “series of near drownings.”

The Senate report eventually concludes that the detention and interrogation techniques used on dozens of prisoners often did not result in providing the government “unique” intelligence information that the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies could not get from other means.

The full report is over 6,000 pages, but only the 524 page summary has been released to the public.

The summary also includes a rebuttal by Republican members of the committee which states the reasoning behind the report is to smear the Bush White House and the C.I.A.

Read the full article at the New York Times.

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Louisiana: Bill Cassidy Trumps Sen. Mary Landrieu In Final Election of 2014

It was a foregone conclusion, but with Bill Cassidy’s official win over 3-term Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, the official gain for Republicans in the US Senate is brought to a total of nine.

This gives Republicans a 4 seat majority.

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President Obama To Nominate Loretta Lynch For US Attorney General

On Saturday, President Obama will nominate Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch for US Attorney General, replacing outgoing AG Eric Holder.

From Reuters:

President Barack Obama will nominate Brooklyn federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to replace the retiring Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general and if confirmed, she would become the first black woman to serve in the post, the White House said on Friday.

The 55-year-old North Carolina native and Harvard-trained lawyer has deep experience in both civil rights and corporate fraud cases.

Lynch is known for a low-key personality and stirred little controversy during two tenures as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Her nomination requires Senate confirmation. The Senate twice previously has voted to confirm her to federal prosecutor jobs, the last time in 2010.

Bolding is mine.

This should be an easy confirmation in that the Senate has already confirmed her twice before.

Or will the now GOP controlled Senate decide to get unnecessarily political with this confirmation?

We shall see…

Two of Ms. Lynch’s cases to note:

• Lynch first gained attention for her work prosecuting members of the New York City Police Department for the 1997 beating and sexual assault of a Haitian immigrant with a broom handle. The case became a national symbol of police brutality.

• Lynch has led the prosecution of Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican congressman from Staten Island, for alleged tax fraud. Even under indictment, Grimm was reelected to the House this week.

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Nate Silver: GOP Has 68.5% Chance Of Taking US Senate

Wonder statistician Nate Silver says Republican chances of taking over the Senate are now 68.5% – the highest they’ve been all year.

Silver’s predictions on the top ten US Senate races:

1. Montana (99.8 percent chance of a GOP win)

2. South Dakota (99 percent)

3. West Virginia (98 percent)

4. Arkansas (90 percent chance)

5. Louisiana (77 percent chance)

6. Colorado (75 percent chance)

7. Iowa (67 percent chance)

8. Alaska (67 percent chance)

9. North Carolina (32 percent chance)

10. New Hampshire (17 percent chance)