"Republican Sen. Susan Collins said "We should not be doing this. She said "This is exactly why the American public holds Congress in such low esteem"

Dems Attempt to Strip Rove’s Sec. Clearance

A group of Democratic senators lead by Minority Leader Harry Reid put forth an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill that would have denied security clearances to any federal official who has revealed the identity of an undercover CIA operative. The amendment read "No federal employee who discloses or has disclosed classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be entitled to hold a security clearance for access to such information."

Republicans opposed the amendment, and countered with one of their own that attacked the number 2 Democrat Senator Dick Durbin for his attack on the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo where he compared it to a concentration camp and a Soviet Gulag. The amendment said "any federal officeholder that makes a statement based on a FBI agent's comments which is used as propaganda by terrorist organizations thereby putting our servicemen and women at risk, shall not be permitted access to such information or to hold a security clearance for access to such information." The Democrats' amendment went down on a 53-44 party-line vote, while the Republicans' amendment lost 64-33, with about 20 Republicans joining the Democrats in voting against it. Republican Sen. Susan Collins said "We should not be doing this. She said "This is exactly why the American public holds Congress in such low esteem right now.''

Bush Says No to NAACP for 5th Year

President Bush has once again refused to address the national convention of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization, the NAACP which was held this week in Milwaukee. Instead, Bush sent the chair of the Republican national Committee, Ken Mehlman who apologized to the group for the so-called southern strategy of the GOP, appealing to white southern racists to win elections. Instead of attending the NAACP conference, Bush addressed the Indiana Black Expo, which presented him with a lifetime achievement award. It marked the fifth consecutive year Bush has turned down an NAACP invitation to speak, making him the first sitting president since Warren Harding to not address the group. President Bush's father was booed when he addressed the group as Vice President in 1986 but still addressed the NAACP when he was elected president.

BBC Head Calls FOX News ‘Beneath Contempt’

The Head of BBC TV News Roger Mosey is striking back at the FOX News Network after so-called terrorism expert Steve Emerson said on the O'Reilly Factor after the London bombings that "the BBC almost operates as a foreign registered agent of Hezbollah and some of the other jihadist groups". Mosey points out that on the Fox website, there was an opinion piece called "How Jane Fonda and the BBC put you in danger". In his statement, the BBC's Mosey writes "I am writing this in a building which was bombed by Irish terrorists. My colleagues and I are living in a city recovering from the wounds inflicted last week. If I may leave our customary impartiality aside for a moment, the comments made on Fox News are beneath contempt." Again, those the words of the head of BBC TV News Roger Mosey.

SOURCE - http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/15/1340201