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Cool Citizen Journalism: User "Artificial Intelligence" Digs into Obama's Money Train

SourceWatch/Congresspedia user Artificial Intelligence has been doing a lot of fantastic work on the wiki lately, particularly on the 2008 presidential election. She recently picked up on a common practice in politics - the easiest way for politicians to show gratitude and allegiance to each other is for the big dogs to kick some campaign contributions down to the folks on the lower rungs. The fundraising juggernaut that is Obama 2008 has apparently had a lot of gratitude to show lately. She says:

A recent analysis conducted by PoliticalMoneyLine of 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's November 15, 2007, FEC filing revealed that Obama "has been the most aggressive of presidential candidates in using his leadership PAC to help the campaigns of state and local candidates, and not coincidentally, the funds spent that way have gone to Democrats in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. More than one-third of his leadership PAC money is being used this way."

Campaign reports show that in January 2007, when Obama launched his presidential campaign, Hopefund [Obama's PAC] fundraising all but stopped. Since June 2007 Obama has handed out more than $180,000. Additionally, FEC filings for late 2006 through October 2007 show that several recipients of Obama's Hopefund campaign contributions had also endorsed him within months of receiving funds.

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (Nov. 23–30, 2007)

Following a breakdown in negotiations over presidential appointees, the spectacle that is the pro forma session of Congress, as described in the Washington Post, continues this week:

Two days before Thanksgiving the Senate had a 22-second session, a fleeting moment in the life of an occasionally droning body but plenty of time for majority Democrats to keep President Bush from making "recess" appointments.

Senators have been taking turns standing sentry duty this week — just to prevent Bush from circumventing the confirmation process by immediately installing people in federal posts while the chamber is in recess. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who carried out that less than glamorous task Tuesday, is a relative newcomer, a low-ranking freshman and a senator who lives just minutes from the Capitol; he wielded his gavel before an empty chamber Tuesday, devoid of senators and even the young pages who serve as messengers.

"I'd much rather be doing this than allow the president to skirt the confirmation process in the Senate," Webb said in a statement. "This is an exercise in protecting the Constitution and our constitutional process."

The pro forma session takes advantage of Constitutional rules requiring the consent of one chamber if the other will adjourn for more than three days. If the Senate were to adjourn, the president could name people to several positions within the executive branch, as well as naming judges to the federal bench. The appointees could then serve through the remainder of Bush's term in office.

So, what to expect when Congress resumes its normal schedule on Dec. 3?

A Victory for Ehren Watada -- and for Freedom of the Press

Ehren WatadaArmy First Lieutenant Ehren Watada saw his case move one step closer to resolution earlier this month when a federal court issued a preliminary injunction against a second court martial. The Army's prosecution of the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq has been in legal limbo since a February court martial ended abruptly when the military judge threw out a stipulation agreement and declared a mistrial.

A Preview of "Stop-Loss": A Film by Kimberly Peirce

Stop-Loss movieOn Wednesday, November 14, 2007, Hollywood came to Madison, Wisconsin. Paramount Pictures sponsored a free pre-release screening of "Stop-Loss," which is due to hit theaters nationwide on March 28, 2008. (It will be released in the U.K. on April 18, 2008.) Writer and director Kimberly Peirce, best known for directing "Boys Don't Cry," was in attendance and took part in an extended questions and answer session after the screening.

Amgen Website Invites Testimonials, Posts Off-Label Claims By Patients

This screenshot from the "Protect Cancer Patients" website shows what it looked like before "The Cancer Letter" exposed its solicitation and publication of patient testimonials without proper scientific evidence to support them. The company has subsequently removed the testimonials.To mobilize elderly Americans in an effort to overturn the new Medicare coverage policy for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs, which boost red blood cell production), Amgen Inc. appears to have borrowed a strategy from the purveyors of alternative medicine.

The company launched a "Protect Cancer Patients" website, where visitors were invited to submit testimonials about the healing powers of ESAs. Also, they could contact members of Congress, or review the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coverage decision and the House and Senate resolutions to vacate it.

Though the Internet designation ".org" suggests that the site is operated by an advocacy group, the "privacy policy" section notes that "this site is owned and operated by Amgen Inc." and can be used for communications with the company.

On the home page, the site is described as "online headquarters of a national campaign to protect cancer patients on Medicare from a decision denying them ... coverage for needed medicines."

"Amgen's mission is to serve patients, which is why we openly support the Protect Cancer Patients website," Kelley Davenport, an Amgen spokesman, said in an email. "The site educates cancer patients on Medicare and their caregivers about a Medicare policy that impacts cancer patients, so that their voices and concerns are heard by government policymakers.

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (Nov. 10–16, 2007)

Bills, bills bills: The big order of business for Congress this week is to continue passing the federal budget for the 2008 fiscal year (which started on Oct. 30), including funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The big farm bill and legislation aimed at the mortgage crisis are also on the front burner.

Last week Congress sent the first two 2008 appropriation bills, on domestic and defense spending, to President Bush (twelve must eventually be passed). Congressional Democratic leaders abandoned plans several weeks ago to attach $50 billion in "bridge" funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (about 1/4 of the $196 billion Bush requested for 2008) to the Defense appropriation bill. They now plan to offer the same $50 billion in the Senate this week with language being tied to the money that would require the draw-down of combat forces within 2 weeks of passage, with a complete withdrawal complete by Dec. 15, 2008. If Republicans block that bill, Democratic leaders have vowed to make Bush pay for the wars out of the regular budget until they are allowed to pass such language.

On the domestic side, the $151 billion budget for the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services was vetoed, so Democrats will be working their Republican colleagues this week looking for enough votes to override. The House will be the battleground, since the roll-call there was several votes shy of a veto-proof majority.

The $51 billion Transportation-HUD spending bill faces a similar fate: Bush has promised to veto it as well. Debate is expected to continue this week on the nine other remaining measures.

Partisan differences over amendments offered on the 2007 farm bill will likely keep the measure off the Senate calendar again this week. Work on a new energy bill might relieve some of the pressure on the farm bill, since Sen. Energy Committee ranking member Pete Domenici wants to include alternate fuels language in whichever bill moves forward.

Finally, with the stock market still feeling the effects of the housing credit crisis, lawmakers are working on a bill to place new regulations on lenders. The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007 would require lenders to prove borrowers could repay adjustable-rate mortgages, and increase the oversight responsibility of federal banking regulators.

Have something to say about these bills? Each Congresspedia profile on members of Congress has phone numbers to their DC and Washington offices. Find your senator or representative and speak out.

Click through the jump to a full listing of this week's committee schedules.

Congresspedia Review: Last Week in Congress (Nov. 2–9, 2007)

This week saw two big battles between Congress and President Bush, over the nominated attorney general and a vetoed bill, with wins for each. The House approved a defense spending bill with 1/4 of the money Bush has requested for Iraq and Afghanistan for the year, with the rest to come after another vote, and a bill barring employers from discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation.

Guest Post: Is This the Best We Can Do For Global Warming?

This is a guest post by Donny Shaw, who runs OpenCongress. A joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation, OpenCongress lets you research, track, and understand legislation in Congress.

(That's not a rhetorical question.)

As expected, the Senate has chosen to move forward with the the most lenient global warming bill among the several it had to choose from. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner's (R-VA) cap-and-trade bill, the America's Climate Security Act of 2007 was marked up favorably by the Private Solutions to Global Warming Subcommittee by a vote of 4-3. It will now move to the full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for a vote before going to the Senate floor.

The bill would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by about 63 percent below present levels by 2050 through setting limits on the emissions that manufacturers and utilities can release. It would also establish a carbon-trade market to encourage polluters to clean up their operation in the name of profit, but it contains loopholes that would give away many of the carbon credits instead of selling them at auction, thus severely weakening the incentives for reducing pollution. Another bill that has been competing for traction with Lieberman-Warner calls for mandatory reduction of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, closer to what many consider to be the scientific consensus as to what needs to be done to avoid the worst effects of global warming. And that bill would sell the carbon credit rather than give them away.

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