Obama renews call to cut 'big oil' subsidies. NEW: The White House spokesman calls the Senate vote "unfortunate" Senate Republicans block a Democratic bill to end oil company tax breaksPresident Obama says redirect the oil subsidies to clean energy developmentDemocrats and Republicans both see a political advantage in debating the issue Washington (CNN) -- Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic measure championed by President Barack Obama to end tax breaks for the major oil companies. The procedural vote of 51-47, which failed to reach the needed threshold of 60 in favor, killed the measure, which was given little chance of eventually winning approval in the Republican-controlled House. Four Democrats opposed the bill while one Republican supported it. Obama and Democrats had pushed it in an attempt to gain political advantage as rising gas prices continue to hurt and anger American voters in an election year.
After the vote, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney labeled the result "unfortunate. " FedEx CEO on oil prices. After Massacre, Army Tried to Delete Accused Shooter From the Internet | Danger Room. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, right, at an exercise in Fort Irwin, Calif. on Aug. 23, 2011. This photo and others like it were removed from the Army's image distribution website. Photo: DVIDS The military waited six days before releasing the name of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians earlier this month. That’s according to several Pentagon officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to McClatchy newspapers about the subject.
The sergeant’s wife, Karilyn Bales, and their two young children were also moved onto Lewis-McChord, reportedly for their protection. “Protecting a military family has to be a priority,” a Pentagon official told McClatchy. Try as they might, the military couldn’t completely scrub Bales from the web. But as McClatchy points out, the military didn’t hesitate to release the name of Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. The ex-FBI informant with a change of heart: 'There is no real hunt. It's fixed' | World news. Craig Monteilh says he did not balk when his FBI handlers gave him the OK to have sex with the Muslim women his undercover operation was targeting.
Nor, at the time, did he shy away from recording their pillow talk. "They said, if it would enhance the intelligence, go ahead and have sex. So I did," Monteilh told the Guardian as he described his year as a confidential FBI informant sent on a secret mission to infiltrate southern Californian mosques. It is an astonishing admission that goes to the heart of the intelligence surveillance of Muslim communities in America in the years after 9/11. While police and FBI leaders have insisted they are acting to defend America from a terrorist attack, civil liberties groups have insisted they have repeatedly gone too far and treated an entire religious group as suspicious. Monteilh was involved in one of the most controversial tactics: the use of "confidential informants" in so-called entrapment cases. Monteilh does not look like a spy.
Public Corruption Provisions to the STOCK Act Withering on the Vine. March 21, 2012 By Jeremy Miller Late yesterday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture to take up and pass the feckless House-version of the STOCK Act without any amendments. Taking up the House-version means critical anti-corruption provisions included in the previously passed Senate version won’t see the light of day for the foreseeable future. Moreover, caving to the House Republican leadership, which wants credit for passing legislation – as long as the legislation doesn’t actually do too much – is bad politics as well as policy. CREW strongly supports the Senate version, which among other things contained bipartisan Leahy-Cornyn amendment that gives law enforcement officials important tools to detect and prosecute public corruption.
Further, the House Judiciary Committee – the most contentious committee in Congress – had unanimously passed nearly identical legislation late last year. Insider Trading Ban for Lawmakers Clears Congress - NYTimes.com.