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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (764076)	8/3/2007 7:08:20 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

google it. Turn on Fox news. stop being in the dark.

To: pompsander who wrote (764076)	8/3/2007 7:12:47 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

WASHINGTON — The House nearly grinded to a halt Friday as Republicans and Democrats continued to feud over a screwball vote from Thursday and the electronic voting system went down later in the day. Lawmakers had planned on cramming several votes into the day as they neared their month-long summer recess, scheduled to start at close of business Friday. But Thursday night's disputed vote rubbed nerves raw and pushed negotiations over how to proceed into the afternoon. Thursday night, House Republicans had offered a so-called motion to recommit on the agriculture appropriations bill, which would have stalled the bill on the House floor and sent it back to committee. Republicans said the changes to the bill under their motion, if approved, would have prevented illegal immigrants from benefiting from new provisions in the agriculture bill. As that vote was coming to a close, Rep. Michael McNulty, D-N.Y. — who at the time was in charge of the floor — gaveled the vote closed at a dead heat, 214-214, a vote that would signify that the effort to stall the bill failed. But the electronic board in the House at that moment showed Republicans with the higher ground at 215-213. This prompted the shouting and boos. Republicans, already rankled by longer-than-expected preliminary votes leading up to a final vote on the agriculture bill, started shouting "Nay! Nay! Nay!" (Story continues below) Advertise Here Advertisements Related * Stories o House OKs Plan to Allow Prescription Drug Imports o House Approves Mandatory Time at Home Between Troop Deployments to Iraq o House Votes to Reverse Supreme Court Pay Discrimination Case o House to Vote on Lobbying Reform Bill Moments later, the board showed that Democrats had the upper hand, with 216 votes to the Republicans' 212. In protest of the last-minute shifts, Republicans marched off the House floor. In an attempt to appease Republicans, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland quickly offered a motion that would allow a revote on the matter, but the attendance for that motion was decidedly fewer: 216 yeas, 12 nays and 55 voting only "present." On the final vote, the agriculture bill passed on a 237-18 vote, with 13 voting "present." Nerves were still raw Friday morning, but in mano-a-mano deal-making between two top House lawmakers, the two sides of the aisle appeared to reach a truce. On the House floor, members gathered to try to sort out what happened and to mend fences. Hoyer offered a resolution to hand the matter over to the House ethics panel and offered a personal apology to his Republican counterparts over the blow-up. "The minority was understandably angry," he said. House Minority Leader John Boehner avoided harsh criticism but said the ethics panel resolution would be unfair because of the majority control by Democrats — adding that it would be like putting the matter "in a black hole." McNulty apologized for calling the vote prematurely. "I just want to express regret to all the members in the House, and especially the minority, of any role that I may have had in that confusion," McNulty said. After talking it over, Hoyer and Boehner agreed to not press any further with either of their resolutions and move on. Boehner urged his colleagues to take the approach that, "What happened last night, happened last night." Later in the day, Boehner was less willing to give. In a statement he issue with Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, they said a meeting they had Friday with Hoyer didn't fix the problem: Democrats still refused to reverse the vote. "The right course of action is for the Democratic leadership to respect the will of the House and the American people by allowing the actual vote to stand," Boehner and Blunt said. And with the exception of two votes — on providing money for the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis, and amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — they said "the House should not proceed with work on any other business until last night's vote to deny taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants is restored." But as the House was set to take up a preliminary vote on FISA, sometime around 3 p.m., the House electronic vote tallying system failed. It was up by 4 p.m., but not long after, the administration sent its notice that the version of the bill being considered — being pushed by Democrats — wasn't unacceptable. FOX News' Jim Mills, Lee Ross and Molly Hooper contributed to this report. * See Next Story in Politics * E-MAIL STORY * RESPOND TO EDITOR * PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION Fox News Video Top Video Wiretapping Fight Republicans walk out on House vote Latest Fox News Headlines Politics * Miller Time: Dennis on Dodd * O’Reilly: Dodd defends Daily Kos * Lawmakers battle over updating FISA * Latest on attorney firing investigation ADVERTISEMENT RCP POLL AVERAGES Republican Presidential Nomination RCP Average Giuliani 27.5% Thompson 18.3% McCain 15.5% Romney 10.2% Giuliani +9.2% Poll Details Democratic Presidential Nomination RCP Average Clinton 40.5% Obama 24.2% Edwards 10.8% Richardson 3.3% Clinton +16.3% Poll Details President Bush Job Approval RCP Average Approve 32.5% Disapprove 62.0% Spread -29.5% Poll Details Congressional Job Approval RCP Average Approve 28.8% Disapprove 63.8% Spread -35% Poll Details * Most Read * Top Emailed * Top Videos * Arkansas Couple Has 17th Child, Still Want More * Minnesota Collapsed Bridge Death Toll Rises to 5, 8 Still Missing * Missing Minister's Wife Returns to Alabama From New York * Original Van Gogh Found; 70-Year-Old Misattribution Uncovered * Pop Tarts: Heidi Klum’s Bust-Boosting 'Secret' * Man Pulls 12-Year-Old's Head From Cougar's Jaws * Lawyers, Fathers Seek to Ban Self-Proclaimed Pedophile From Community * Medical Examiner: Not Sure How Jessie Davis Died * Pakistan Criticizes Obama on Comments * Telemundo Newscaster Mirthala Salinas Suspended for Two Months Over Affair With L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa * Newspaper Editor Reportedly Threatened Before Ambush, Fatal Shooting * Armored Car Company Loses 32,000 Quarters on Wisconsin Roads * Study: Cheap Cervical Cancer Test Could Save Millions of Lives * California Weekly Newspaper Editor Shot to Death in Oakland * Federal Court Rules FBI Raid on Rep. William Jefferson's Office Unconstitutional * Wisconsin Teen Guilty in Principal's Death * List of Toys Being Recalled * Report: All Mexican Charges May Have Been Dropped Against Bounty Hunter Duane 'Dog' Chapman * Study: Cheap Cervical Cancer Test Could Save Millions of Lives * Junk Science: How Now Brown Cloud? * Hollywood Minister Guilty of Dealing Pot in Church * Arkansas Couple Has 17th Child, Still Want More * Study: Coffee May Prevent Liver Cancer * Manchester United Recruits 9-Year-Old Standout After Watching Him on YouTube * Man Pulls 12-Year-Old's Head From Cougar's Jaws * Infant Dies After Mom Forgets to Drop Him Off at Day Care, Leaves Him in Car * Collapse Caught on Tape * Still Missing * 'Factor' Shootout * Horrific Scene * Reason to Celebrate? * Miller Time * Live Site Stream * Image Is Everything * Little Survivors * Disaster Eyewitness ADVERTISEMENT Click here to find out more! * U.S. * World * Politics * Business * Health * Science * Tech * Entertainment AP Wires * House Approve Bridge Money * Bush, Democrats Deadlock on Surveillance * Sunday News Shows Lineup * Everglades Decision Criticized * Actions in Congress Moving Toward Recess * Lawmaker Wants Yahoo Probe * Court Sides With Congressman on FBI Raid * Top Marine Sees Gear-Provision Flaws * Bush Seeks Discussion of Climate Change * Consumer Agency Given Leeway to Act * News Archive

To: pompsander who wrote (764076)	8/3/2007 7:27:46 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The return of "Matt Sanchez" to the headlines. LOL! Opinion The Weekly Standard's Strange Sources The Nation Fri Aug 3, 1:46 PM ET news.yahoo.com The Nation -- The war in Iraq has sparked a parallel war between two of Washington's most prominent partisan political publications, The New Republic and the Weekly Standard. The war has been akin to the ongoing seige of Baghdad's Green Zone, with the Standard playing the role of Iraqi insurgents, lobbing mortars over the Green Zone gates while TNR rushes to shore up its defenses. The war began on July 13, when The New Republic published a "Baghdad Diary" by "Scott Thomas," an Army private writing under a pseudonym about U.S. atrocities in Iraq. Thomas described his participation in the mockery of a female soldier disfigured by an IED, claimed he witnessed troops intentionally running over dogs in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and alleged that another soldier played with the skulls of dead Iraqi children. In attempt to challenge the wild notion that atrocities could occur amidst a violent occupation, the neoconservative Weekly Standard's Matthew Goldfarb published an article declaring that TNR's Baghdad Diary was "looking more like fiction." Goldfarb's piece relied on a series of letters supposedly sent to him by active-duty soldiers that raised questions about the veracity of TNR's story. As a result of intensifying attacks from the Standard and right-wing blogs -- attacks amplified by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz -- Thomas was forced to reveal his identity: Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp. According to Foer, the Army punished Beauchamp by revoking his cellphone and email privileges. Right-wing bloggers subsequently seized on TRN editor-in-chief Franklin Foer's disclosure that Beauchamp is engaged to TNR reporter and researcher Elspeth Reeve. Beauchamp has placed his career in extreme jeopardy and subjected his private life to the scrutiny of right-wing trolls, all to confirm his published account of U.S. atrocities in Iraq. TNR for its part has just completed a review of Beauchamp's diary and found only one minor error. Now it is up to Goldfarb and his allies to back up their incendiary charges. Who are the Standard's sources? Are they reliable? And if they are, why did the Standard omit key details about their backgrounds? Among all the active duty soldiers used by Goldfarb to undermine Beauchamp, only one is cited by name: Matt Sanchez, a corporal in the Marine reserves. "Frankly, I don't believe ANY of this story," Sanchez proclaimed in the Standard about Beauchamp's diary. Who is Sanchez? According to Goldfarb, he is simply a soldier "who stands behind his work." But Sanchez is more than a mere man in uniform. As I reported for Media Matters today, Sanchez is also a conservative pro-war activist whose bio includes a stint as the gay porn actor Rod Majors, (star of such filmic classics as "Beat Off Frenzy") and an illustrious part-time job as a male prostitute -- facts he has acknowledged "leaving ... off my curriculum vitae." More importantly, Sanchez has been under investigation by the Marine Corps for fraud. According to an April 1 Marine Corps Times article, Sanchez was informed in a March 22 email from Reserve Col. Charles Jones, a staff judge advocate, that he was under investigation for lying "'to various people, including but not limited to, representatives of the New York City United War Veterans Council [UWVC] and U-Haul Corporation' about deploying to Iraq at the commandant's request." The email added: "'Specifically, you wrongfully solicited funds to support your purported deployment to Iraq' by coordinating a $300 payment from the UWVC and $12,000 from U-Haul." There is no excuse for Goldfarb's omission of these facts about Sanchez. They were easily accessible through a simple Google search of Sanchez's name, and have been the talk of the blogosphere for some time. I wrote extensively about Sanchez for the Huffington Post in March and appeared on a segment of Countdown with Keith Olbermann to discuss his strange double life. Sanchez has also been profiled by Radar and by numerous bloggers. He even penned a long auto-apologia for Salon.com about his path from porn to the conservative movement. Couldn't Goldfarb find a better on-the-record source? Apparently not. The efforts of Sanchez and right-wing bloggers to take Beauchamp down were allegedly supported by a TNR staffer with a bizarre background. I just received a letter from a source close to TNR. The source wrote: One reason Beauchamp had to go public was that conservative bloggers were tracking him down. And the reason they were was that a temp who was working as assistant for our publisher was leaking like crazy to right-wing websites. Not that he knew much, but he was hanging around, he went to a going away party for Ryan [Lizza] at frank's [Frank Foer] house, eavesdropping and then posting on right-wing websites. That's how they found out about Scott being married to Ellie [Elspeth Reeve]. Anyway, the guy's name is Robert McGee. His online pseudonym: Throbert McGee. Not real hard to track down (especially when he's posting that he works at TNR.) After a little Googling, I found that "Throbert McGee" (seen here embracing his "longtime sidekick Juan") once kept a "blinkin' blog" where he posted about "Faggot fixer-upper wallpaper" and linked to the overtly racist right-wing blog, "Little Green Footballs." On the forum of another conservative blog, Throbert commented favorably about Matt Sanchez's "11" Monster Cock." Throbert also used this forum as his platform to attack Beauchamp and leak information to conservative bloggers about Beauchamp's private life. I hear there are darker postings by Throbert lurking in the blogosphere, but I will leave it to his right-wing mouthpieces to explain those. And I will wait for the Weekly Standard's Goldfarb to come clean about Sanchez and the rest of the unnamed "active duty soldiers and various experts" he used as sources. So far, the silence is deafening.