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In the News Blog Posts
A new effort to empower the people
As posted on Daily Kos
Mon January 26, 2009
Our
founding fathers did a remarkable job in drafting the United
States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Their work was
so superb that in the 217 years since the ratification of
the Bill of Rights, the Constitution has only been amended
17 times, and one of those amendments struck down an earlier
amendment (prohibition). But every so often, a situation arises
that so clearly exposes a flaw in our constitutional structure
that it requires a constitutional remedy.
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A Great Start to Restoring
the Rule of Law
As posted on Huffington Post
Thu January 22, 2009
Just
hours after his historic inauguration, President Obama has
made history again, by signing executive orders that undo,
with the stroke of a pen, some of the Bush Administration's
worst mistakes. President Obama is off to a great
start on restoring the rule of law, and he's giving the
country the fresh start we desperately need after the last
eight years.
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Time's up for Robert
Mugabe
As posted on Huffington Post
Tue December 9, 2008
Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and I don't always agree on the
issues, but when it comes to her take on crisis in Zimbabwe,
I couldn't agree more. Last week, Secretary Rice was right
to call the June 27th election in Zimbabwe, as well as the
power-sharing negotiations to this point, what they are --
a sham. European Union leaders, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga among others have echoed
this message. And with Zimbabwe facing a severe humanitarian
crisis, it's time now for all leaders in the region as well
as throughout the international community to join that call
and stand up to Robert Mugabe.
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Progressivism and the
Rule of Law
As posted on Daily Kos
Sat December 6, 2008
Yesterday,
I had the chance to sit down with Bill Moyers and discuss
some of the challenges we face at this pivotal moment for
our country, after one of the most remarkable elections in
American history. Barack Obama’s election is a chance
for renewal after eight years of the Bush Administration;
now that we’re no longer circling the wagons against
attacks on our core progressive principles, we can work to
advance those principles in this new era. I invite you to
take a look at our conversation, which touched on how progressives
are defined by their history of fighting for the middle class,
a clean and open government and a government that looks out
for all members of society without getting in the way.
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Core of McCain-Feingold
Untouched
As posted on Huffington Post
Thu June 26, 2008
Today's
Supreme Court decision on the millionaire's amendment left
the core of the McCain-Feingold law intact, and that's good
news for everyone who cares about stamping out corruption
in government. The most important part of McCain-Feingold
has always been the ban on soft money, a ban the Supreme Court
upheld in 2003. That ban did one very simple, very important
thing: It ended unlimited contributions to the national parties
and prohibited federal officials and candidates from raising
those contributions for federal or state parties.
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By Damaging Our Partnerships,
We Damage Our Security
As posted on Huffington Post
Wed March 19, 2008
As the war in Iraq enters
its sixth year, official US casualty figures approach 4,000
dead and nearly 30,000 wounded. These figures exclude the
many who have less visible but no less damaging injuries to
mental health; those whose injuries resulted from accidents
while they served in a war zone; and the scores of thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi civilians who have
died and been wounded since this misguided war was launched.
These are the most meaningful - and the saddest - costs of
this war.
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The Warnings are There,
Will the President Listen?
As posted on Huffington Post
Wed February 20, 2008
Today, as Americans analyze
the election results from my home state, I'd like to share
with you the concerns I've been hearing from Wisconsinites
at my town hall meetings. Again and again, I hear the same,
often anguished question: When will we get our brave troops
out of Iraq? The war is a top concern for Wisconsinites, and
so many Americans around the country.
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It's Not Just About Immunity
As posted on Daily Kos
Thu January 17, 2008
When the Senate reconvenes
next week, legislation to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA) will be among the first issues we address. I am
as determined as ever to use all procedural tools at my disposal,
including a filibuster, to try to stop the FISA legislation
if it doesn’t protect the privacy of law abiding Americans
or if it includes immunity for telecom companies.
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Temporary Success in
the Senate
As posted on Talking Points Memo
Tue December 18, 2007
Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid decided last night to pull the deeply flawed Intelligence
Committee FISA bill from the floor. He announced that we would
return to the bill in January. Senator Chris Dodd did a great
job controlling the floor for much of yesterday, insisting
on full debate of the motion to proceed after cloture was
invoked. We made it clear that we will do everything we can
to stop this bad bill from being jammed through.
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The FISA Debate Begins
As posted on Talking Points Memo
Mon December 17, 2007
It's now up to the Senate
to stand up for the rule of law and against the misinformation
and fear tactics that the administration always rolls out
on the surveillance issue. That means Democrats will have
to finally stand up to the administration on national security
issues. Strong votes in favor of our efforts to improve the
bill, even if they don’t succeed, will strengthen our
hand as a final bill is negotiated with the House, which passed
a much better bill than S. 2248 last month.
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What's at Stake in Pakistan
As posted on Huffington Post
Tue November 13, 2007
The news coming out of Pakistan
reminds us of what's at stake in our relationship with that
nation -- which possesses nuclear weapons and serves as a
base camp for al Qaeda -- and how our Iraq-centric policies
are undermining our national security interests in the region.
As the administration struggles to respond to General Pervez
Musharraf's imposition of martial law, it's important for
us to step back and reassess our national security priorities
in the region.
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Vote on Iraq Again and Again
As posted on Huffington Post
Tue October 3, 2007
Congress's job right now should
be to bring our troops home safely, and we can't turn away
from this issue just because it's tough going. The only way
we will ever get our troops out is by putting constant pressure
on supporters of this disastrous war. Let's make them vote
again and again, so that they have to go back home and explain
why they keep voting to keep our troops in Iraq. When they
feel the heat for their vote, that's when they will change
their vote, and that's how we will bring our troops home.
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Lessons not Learned
As posted on Huffington Post
Mon August 6, 2007
Six years ago, in the aftermath
of 9/11, Congress rammed through the USA PATRIOT Act with
little consideration of what that bill actually contained.
Five years ago, Congress authorized a reckless and ill-advised
war in Iraq. One year ago, Congress passed the deeply flawed
Military Commissions Act. And late last week, a Democratic
Congress passed legislation that dramatically expands the
government's ability to conduct warrantless wiretapping, which
could affect innocent Americans. It is clear that many congressional
Democrats have not learned from those earlier mistakes, two
of which happened when Democrats controlled the Senate. Once
again, Congress has buckled to pressure and intimidation by
the administration.
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Demanding Accountability
As posted on Daily Kos
Sun July 22, 2007
So, as I announced a little
while ago on Meet the Press, I plan to introduce two censure
resolutions in the Senate in the coming weeks. These will
be broad resolutions, one of which will address the war in
Iraq, including the administration's efforts to mislead the
nation into, and during, the war, mismanagement of the war,
and its attempts to justify this Iraq mistake by distorting
the situation on the ground in Iraq. The other condemns the
administration's abuse of the rule of law. Because, of all
this administration's outrageous misconduct, those are truly
the worst of the worst.
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The Question of
Impeachment
As posted on Daily Kos
Mon July 16, 2007
Last week I came here to discuss how I
plan to tighten my legislation to end the open-ended military
mission in Iraq so the Administration would not be able to
exploit it and keep tens of thousands of troops, if not more,
stuck in the middle of an Iraqi civil war. I appreciated all
of the responses and of course I noticed that many of you
advocated for the impeachment of the President as well as
the Vice President and the Attorney General. I’ve been
hearing some of those same comments in Wisconsin.
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Getting out means
getting out
As posted on Daily Kos
Fri July 13, 2007
With Senate Democrats increasingly united,
it looks as if for the first time, a majority of the Senate
will support binding legislation with a firm end date for
our open-ended military presence in Iraq, something I first
called for, with support and input from so many of you, back
in August of 2005.
This would be a watershed moment but we all agree that it
has taken far too long to get here. The binding language in
Levin-Reed makes this amendment significant and I will support
it. But there are aspects of the amendment that are cause
for concern – in particular, the exception for "providing
logistical support" to Iraqi troops could give the administration
too much wiggle room to "repackage" its failed military
mission instead of redeploying our troops.
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Fixing America's
Broken Image Abroad
As posted on The Hill Blog
Thu May 24, 2007
Over the past several years, poor decision-making
by this administration has led to an alarming increase in
negative opinions of the United States. People-to-people engagement
is one of the United States’ most effective public diplomacy
tools and, today more than ever, we need to be investing in
every opportunity to improve the perception of the U.S. overseas.
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A Collapse for Democrats
As posted on Daily Kos
Tue May 22, 2007
This situation is a collapse for Democrats.
We had a strong start, pushed back against the President's
failed policy and held our ground that the supplemental should
include binding language to end the war. But now, as
Congress gets ready to send the President a bill that does
nothing to get our troops out of Iraq, we are just folding
our cards.
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After the Veto
As posted on Huffington Post
Wed May 2, 2007
The ink on the President's veto is barely
dry, and already, a lot of Washington insiders -- including
some Democrats -- are saying Congress should just give in
to the President. Never mind how hard people have pushed to
bring Congress to this point, when we are finally standing
up to the President's disastrous Iraq policy -- they want
to give up on the binding language in the bill requiring the
President to begin redeploying troops from Iraq. But that's
just letting the President have his way all over again. That's
the kind of thinking that got us into this war in the first
place, and it's not going to cut it anymore.
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A hold by any other
name is still a hold
As posted on Daily Kos
Mon Apr 23, 2007
Last week, Sen. Feinstein and I went to
the Senate floor to try to get unanimous consent to pass the
Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, S. 223. The bill had
been reported by the Rules Committee on a voice vote nearly
three weeks earlier and has 35 bipartisan cosponsors. No one
expressed opposition to it at either the March 14th Rules
Committee hearing on the bill or in the Rules Committee markup
when the bill was voted out of committee. We went to the floor
because while Sen. Reid had determined that no Democratic
Senator objected to passing the bill, the Republican leadership
was not as forthcoming. As everyone now knows, Sen. Alexander
objected "on behalf of a Republican Senator" to
our request for unanimous consent to take up and pass the
bill.
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Ratcheting Up the
Pressure
As posted on Daily Kos
Thu Apr 5, 2007
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did
a great job getting the supplemental spending bill through
the Senate last week. We were able to pass a bill with tough,
binding language that forces the President to begin redeploying
our troops from Iraq in 120 days. But our work is far from
over – we have got to keep pushing to end the terrible
mistake in Iraq. That next step has got to be Congress using
its power of the purse to end the war.
I was extremely pleased to announce the
Feingold/Reid bill this week, which many of you may already
know something about. When the Senate reconvenes next week,
we will introduce legislation that uses Congress’s constitutional
spending power to force the President to safely redeploy troops
from Iraq by March 31, 2008, with some narrow exceptions.
By agreeing to cosponsor this measure, and by saying that
he will work to make sure this bill gets a vote before the
end of May, Harry Reid has again shown his strong commitment
to pushing for an end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq.
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Warner/Levin Resolution
a Mistake
As posted on Daily Kos
Thu Feb 1, 2007
When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
took up the Biden-Hagel resolution opposing the President’s
troop escalation proposal last week, I supported it as a first
step toward ending our involvement in this war. That resolution
didn’t go nearly far enough – it was nonbinding
and just focused on the escalation – but putting the
Senate on record against the "surge" was a small
step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, the new Warner-Levin resolution
that many Democrats are pushing is flawed and unacceptable.
It rejects the surge, but it also misunderstands the situation
in Iraq and endorses the President’s underlying approach.
It’s basically a back-door authorization of the President’s
misguided policies, and passing it would be a big mistake.
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Time to Use the
Power of the Purse
As posted on Daily Kos
Thu Jan 11, 2007
Last night, as the President told the
American people that he wants to send more troops to Iraq,
his Iraq policy hit rock bottom. The American people are demanding
an end to the war, and it has to end for the sake of our national
security. But the President just wants to dig us into a deeper
hole, by sending more of our brave men and women into Baghdad
and Anbar Province.
This war has got to stop, and Congress
has the power stop it: the power of the purse. And I’m
not just talking about blocking the troop surge here. Using
the power of the purse just to stop the troop surge may be
better than doing nothing, but if we don’t go beyond
that, we will be accepting the status quo. We have to do more.
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Responding to the
Call for Change
As posted on Huffington Post
Fri Jan 5, 2007
On November 7th, 2006, Americans sent
thirty-one new Democrats to the House and eight new Democrats
(and a very progressive Independent) to the Senate with two
clear mandates – fix our broken Iraq policy and clean
up the way Congress does business. Our message to the voters
should be just as clear: a Democratic Congress will demand
immediate change in Iraq and pass tough ethics reform.
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A Washington Inside
Job
As posted on Huffington Post
Fri Dec 8, 2006
When the Iraq Study Group's report was
unveiled this week, it was like the opening of a blockbuster
movie, with reporters counting down the minutes until it was
released. But now that all the hoopla has subsided, all we
are left with is a Washington inside job: a report written
by Washington insiders, for Washington insiders, who share
the same mindset that led us into the misguided war in Iraq.
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A Way Out of Iraq
As posted on Tom Paine
Thu Nov 16, 2006
On Election Day, the American people weighed
in at the ballot box: They want to get our troops out of Iraq.
Voters rejected the president’s failed Iraq policy,
putting Democrats in charge of Congress and responsible for
setting a new direction for Iraq, and, most importantly, for
our national security.
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The Most Outrageous
Scandal? Bush's Iraq Policy
As posted on The Huffington Post
Thu Oct 5, 2006
With so much attention focused on the
Foley scandal, there's another story that hasn't received
enough notice: escalating violence in Iraq has resulted in
the reported deaths of 24 U.S. soldiers since Saturday, and
the Pentagon just reported that IED attacks in Iraq are at
an all-time high.
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Helping People Make
it Home Again, a Year after Katrina
As posted on The Huffington Post
Mon Aug 28, 2006
With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
coming up tomorrow, as so many Americans remember the horrifying
images of the disaster, the people of New Orleans and the
Gulf Coast will be dealing with reality they face today -
that in a lot of neighborhoods it looks like a hurricane hit
a week ago, not a year ago.
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Universal Health
Care Within Reach
As posted on TomPaine.com
Wed Aug 2, 2006
When it comes to health care, people’s
frustration with Congress is high, and it’s justified.
While Congress has been wasting its time by trying to ban
marriage equality and flag burning, health care reform has
been completely sidelined. Meanwhile, families are going into
bankruptcy to pay their health care bills, businesses are
sinking under the weight of enormous health care costs, and
millions of Americans are going without care—and in
some cases dying—because they are uninsured. Congress
may see waiting as an option, but the American people certainly
don’t.
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The Administration's
Defense for Illegal Wiretapping is Just Plain Gone
As posted on Daily Kos and Booman Tribune
Tue Jul 18, 2006
With the Administration doing so much
to weaken our system of checks and balances, a lot of Americans
were heartened to see the third branch of government - the
judiciary - stand up to the Administration with the decision
in the Hamdan case a few weeks ago. The Supreme Court made
it crystal clear that all detainees have basic rights under
U.S. and international law, and that the Administration has
to scrap its plan to try some detainees held at Guantanamo
Bay in military commissions that lacked basic safeguards of
fairness.
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Our Duty to the
People of the Gulf Coast
As posted on The Huffington Post
Wed Jul 12, 2006
After Banda Aceh in Indonesia was devastated
by a horrific tsunami in 2004, the people there faced the
challenge of rebuilding and restarting their lives. That is
the same challenge that people on the Gulf Coast are facing
today. I visited Banda Aceh earlier this year on a trip to
Indonesia, and earlier this week I visited some of the neighborhoods
ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
I was struck by what the people in Banda
Aceh and New Orleans had in common, both because of what they
went through, and because of the incredible resilience they
have shown in the wake of those tragedies. But I was just
as struck by how those places differed - especially how, in
many ways, New Orleans seemed worse off than Banda Aceh did
a year after the disaster.
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Blocking the Back-Door
Pay Raise
As posted on Daily Kos
Tue Jun 27, 2006
Something I didn't get a chance to mention
on Meet the Press on Sunday is the back door pay raise for
members of Congress. It may not be the biggest issue facing
us as a nation, but it's something that's always bugged me,
and it may come up in the Senate soon. This issue is symbolic
to me of how out of touch and insulated some elected officials
in Washington are from the problems that regular Americans
face.
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A Shameful Political
Ploy
As posted on Daily Kos
Tue Jun 6, 2006
The federal marriage amendment, which
would write discrimination into the Constitution, is an obvious
attempt to change the subject from topics that the Congress
should be addressing to a hot button social issue intended
to appeal to certain factions. On Wednesday, Senate Majority
Leader Frist plans to hold a vote on this mean-spirited proposal.
It has no chance of receiving the two-thirds majority required
for constitutional amendments. The only thing bringing it
up now will accomplish is to push Congress further away from
the issues it should be addressing and engage the Senate of
the United States in a shameful political ploy.
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Censuring the President
As posted on Daily Kos
Mon Mar 13, 2006
Like all Americans, I woke up on the morning
of September 11th, 2001 as though it was simply another day.
The horrific events that unfolded made it anything but, and
our lives were changed forever. In the days after 9/11, I
was proud to stand with the President in strong support of
the authorization to use force against those who attacked
us. During those days our President showed great leadership.
Politics were put aside, the country pulled together and for
a brief time we were united.
In the four-plus years since, everything
changed. The President exploited the climate of anxiety, misusing
the trust he was given in the wake of the attacks on 9/11
to, among other things, grab intrusive powers in the Patriot
Act, and take us into a war in Iraq that has been a diversion
from the critical fight against terrorism.
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Pre-1776 Mentality
As posted on Daily Kos
Tue Feb 2, 2006
I've seen some strange things in my life,
but I cannot describe the feeling I had, sitting on the House
floor during Tuesday's State of the Union speech, listening
to the President assert that his executive power is, basically,
absolute, and watching several members of Congress stand up
and cheer him on. It was surreal and disrespectful to our
system of government and to the oath that as elected officials
we have all sworn to uphold. Cheering? Clapping? Applause?
All for violating the law?
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Iraq: Looking Back,
Looking Forward
As posted on Daily Kos
Mon Nov 14, 2005
On Veteran's Day, the President gave yet
another speech trying to defend his Iraq policy. He uttered
over 5800 words, but not once did he provide the American
people any timeframe for our military mission in Iraq or any
sense that he has a plan for bringing that mission to a successful
end. Instead, he used the same platitudes and empty rhetoric
that the American people have already made clear they don't
buy. Rather than putting his efforts into a major media spin
operation, the President should concentrate on getting our
Iraq policy straight, and putting our nation's national security
on track.
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