BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

from (major HAT TIP!) DEADENDERS: When you don’t listen to 75% of your state you know somethings fishy. Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, announced to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas. “We’re there,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to outline the deal. Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with him on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. Nelson also secured other favors for his home state. Under the new abortion provisions, states can opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion in insurance exchanges the bill would set up to serve individuals who don’t have employer coverage. Plus, enrollees in plans that do cover abortion procedures would pay for the coverage with separate checks – one for abortion, one for rest of health-care service...

The bill passed by 61-36. We need to get a roll call to see which of our nation’s 36 senators voted against fair pay for women and to find out what their rationale was. They have a lot of explaining to do to their non-burqa wearing female constituents. Some of you ladies out there should expect to see a raise as your employers rush to head off any potential lawsuits. But there’s more to paycheck disparities than just discrimination: The Senate debate on Thursday reflected society’s debate. Civil and womens’ rights advocates hailed the new Ledbetter legislation, but others said it will leave companies vulnerable to potentially crippling lawsuits even though discrimination is only a small factor in the so-called “gender gap” between male and female earners. A 2007 report by the American Association of University Women found that when experience, training, education and other factors are weighed, discrimination accounts for only 5 percent of the earnings differential between male and fe...

US Senate Declares Torture "Peachy," Confirms Mukasey as "Grand Inquisitor" by Bob Higgins Waterboarding is now as "American" as "Mom" and "apple pie" The "distinguished jurist" told them in open hearings and in written communications that he could not call waterboarding "torture," and reportedly, pravately expressed his fear that doing so might open the gates for some executive department and military officials to lawsuits or criminal prosecution. Notice here that what is important to this "distinguished jurist" is not the fact that the laws of the United States regarding the use of torture may have been violated by highly placed government officials, or that subordinates were directed to violate the law, but that those officials must somehow be shielded from civil or criminal sanction. No matter that the practice known as waterboarding has been around far longer than any of the doddering graybeards in the...

Michael B. Mukasey and the Sanctification of Depravity It looked like the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey was on the ropes because he refused to condemn the use of waterboarding. This brought a small ripple of outrage from the senate judicial committee and the nomination seemed DOA. That was until the democrats rode to the rescue by caving. All of a sudden, sen. Chuck Schumer (d. NY) and sen. Diane Feinstein (d. Calif.) announced they would support him, thus assuring his confirmation by the committee. Their reason is telling: It seems Mukasey promised them that if congress passed a law banning harsh interrogation methods, he would enforce it. Mind you, we are talking about a law that would include signing statements, interpretations, rulings, parsing and convoluted definitions of just what constitutes harsh interrogation methods. And this assumes that congress would pass such a law, which will they never will because banning harsh interrogation methods would make the democrats app...

ALBERTO GONZALES' DOG ATE IT! Most mornings, after I pull myself out of bed, with just a few hours sleep and before the sun comes up, make lunches, get my kids ready and to their separate buses (do not get me started about the NYC school busing disaster) I run to get some coffee and come home to check my RSS reader. I am a news junkie. I have been for a long time. Yes, I know. I am a just a "wild woman"!! Hahahaha. This morning as I was cleaning up the constant chaos in my living room I put on C-SPAN. No, I have never watched the talk shows much and I have always hated soap operas. Ick. So much for suburban housewife-ry! But lo' and behold, there were the hearings starring Alberto Gonzales. More riveting television has to wait for the Sopranos final season! Yes, C-SPAN folks. Like I said, I am just a "wild woman." I couldn't tear myself away. I laughed, I cried, I screamed "YOU LIAR" at the top of my lungs! Baruch Hashem the neighbors ...