After hours and hours of debate, the Senate voted down Senator Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) amendment to reverse the EPA's finding that greenhouse gasses harm the environment, 53-47. This amendment was also known as the "Big Oil Bailout" because if it had passed, greenhouse gasses would no longer have been considered a pollutant and we could blithely skip down the garden path burning oil, polluting more wetlands with spilled oil, and killing more animals.

It was enormously frustrating to me (but not surprising) to see six Democrats vote with Republicans. For the record, Senators Bayh, Lincoln, Rockefeller, Nelson (Neb), Pryor and Landrieu all voted for the amendment.

One of the more remarkable moments in the debate leading up to the vote was Senator Lindsey Graham, who twists like a pretzel in his efforts not to deny the science while still supporting ending the EPA's authority to make this finding and enforce it.

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James O'Keefe went on Sean Hannity's Fox News show last night and was sticking to his story: He and his gang of "phone repairmen" were just there to try to get to the bottom of Landrieu's claim that her phone lines were jammed.

But when Hannity asked him to describe the arrest and the facts of the case in detail, he clammed up, saying it was the subject of a federal investigation? Well, yeah, but if that's a problem, why go on a national news show in the first place?

Most of all, he not only refused to corroborate Andrew Bretibart's claims that he was held without access to an attorney, but he contradicted Brietbart's conspiracy theory that the DOJ was out to get him by saying: "I have no complaints about how the U.S. attorney is handling this."

These guys need to get their stories straight, dontcha think?

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It's really pretty funny watching Andrew Breitbart throw conniptions claiming that his little dirty trickster, James O'Keefe, was actually set up by the Department of Justice.

Breitbart said he though the U.S. attorney's effort was part of a payback scheme against O'Keefe, who posed as a pimp and prostitute with another citizen journalist to enter ACORN offices around the country and get advice on how to apply for federal housing grants for a brothel.

"It's tied to the Justice Department. And we've been very aggressive in asking (Attorney General) Eric Holder to investigate what's seen on these ACORN tapes and he's ignored it," Breitbart said of the media ploy.

Apparently they were lured into donning phone-repairman disguises and attempting to infiltrate the phone system at a federal building. By, um, Sen. Landrieu! That's the ticket! They did the whole "jammed phone lines" thing just to sucker in poor O'Keefe. Uh-huh. Poor guys.

Recently the Senate passed Sen. Barbara Mikulski's Women's Health Amendment, which requires health insurance companies to provide free mammograms and other preventive health services for women. Sounds good, doesn't it? Women's health needs have traditionally been underserved by the insurance system. But, ironically, the Senate's excise tax will force many women to pay indirectly for these "free" services.

Here's how: For one thing, the cost of the services mandated in the Mikulski Amendment will cause even more health plans to exceed the cost cap for the excise tax. And it's expected that 20% of plans will already be over the limit when the tax takes effect. In practical terms, any added costs for new services provided by these plans (like those mammograms) will be taxable. So, in one very real sense, the Senate plans to tax some of this preventive care for women - at a staggering 40% of cost.

The Mikulski Amendment looks like a step forward, but many women will pay for these services indirectly - in the form of higher premiums or increased out-of-pocket costs. One hand giveth and the other taketh away. And speaking of irony ...

Guess who voted for the Mikulski amendment? Some Senators who haven't even committed themselves to voting for the final bill, including Lieberman, Landrieu, and Snowe (who even cosponsored the amendment. Here's an idea: They can make sure these women's services really remain "free" by supporting the Sanders-Franken-Brown Amendment, which would replace the excise tax with a tax on the extremely wealthy (the way the house does it.)

That would remove the irony in the Senate's actions and replace it with fairness.

As I was pleased to note last night in an update, pressure from the Netroots was instrumental in getting Sens. McCaskill (D-MO) and Specter (D-PA) to come out against the Thune Amendment, an assault on federalism, personal security and the proposition that Dems might actually stand up for something.

The vote is at noon. Keep your calls coming, as we are on the cusp of wining this one and saving countless lives, not to mention shutting down a key element of the right-wing machine in DC: The NRA.

Here are your numbers once again:

Those whose minds need to be changed

Bayh (D IN) 202-224-5623

Bennet (D CO) (202) 224-5852

Collins (R ME) (202) 224-2523

Conrad (D ND) (202) 224-2043

Feingold (D WI) 202/224-5323

Hagan (D NC) 202-224-6342

Landrieu (D LA) (202)224-5824

Lincoln (D AR) (202) 224-4843

McCain (R- AZ) (202) 224-2235

Pryor (D-AR) (202) 224-2353

Reid (D – NV) 202-224-3542

Snowe (R – ME) (202) 224-5344

Udall (D – NM) 202-224-6621

Udall (D – CO) 202-224-5941

Voinovich (R- OH) (202) 224-3353

Warner (D – VA) 202-224-2023

Webb (D –VA) 202-224-4024

Those we must hold:

Kohl (D – WI) (202) 224-5653

Klobuchar (D – MN) 202-224-3244

Nelson (D - FL) 202-224-5274

UPDATE: (Nicole) The Thune Amendment, which needed 60 votes to pass, went down 58-39) Thanks to all who called. Nice to see we can beat the NRA.

Full disclosure: I have been hired to work with Mayors Against Illegal Guns on this effort, and couldn't be happier or more passionate about it.

Cooper started the interview this way:

Cooper: "Does the federal government bear any responsibility for what is happening, should they apologize for what is happening now?"

Landrieu put on a happy face and thanked all the wonderful politicians for showing their support. I mean WTF? Everyone is worried about their own asses and doing little if anything for the people on the ground.

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Think Progress has the transcripts.

Jeralyn: "He laced into Sen. Mary Landrieu saying people who have witnessed the devastation don't want to hear politicans congratulating other politicians for how they've responded. He was yelling, basically, "Don't you get it yet?" He mentioned seeing a woman's body on the ground being eaten by rats. Landrieu told Anderson she understood what he was saying and then thanked the President again ."

All Spin Zone: Cooper Rocks: "Cooper has been down in the middle of the devastation on the Gulf Coast since the beginning of the week. Today, he apparently hit his breaking point...read on"

Wonkette: Cooper's 360 Roundhouse: Do not get the pretty boys mad: Mary Landrieu goes on about how great Bill Frist is. Anderson Cooper responds that it's hard to take politicians thanking each other when rats are gnawing dead bodies in the streets...read on
Tags-katrina

New Orleans Left to the Dead and Dying

Check out this article for the AP.: ...No one knows how many were killed by Hurricane Katrina's floods and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among the ruined city, crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways. And the dying goes on — at the convention center and an airport triage center, where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck...read on

John has a statement from LA Senator Mary Landrieu bashing President Bush and his photo-op tour.

Sen. Landrieu was on This Week and brought George on a helicopter tour of her the damage...

Landrieu: "If one person criticises them or says one more thing including the President of the US, he will be hearing from me. One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely punch him, literally"

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She burst into tears as she looked at a single crane working to help repair the levees...

Landrieu..."The President could have funded it, he cut it out of the budget. Is that the most pitiful sight you have ever seen in your life?-One little crane."
Tags-katrina

The Green Lantern

Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, rotting corpses in the streets of Fallujah, what does it all mean for America? Subversity sums it all up in our featured article:

"The image of Paris, and her surreal reality closely mirrors another Republican ideal. The news, or lack of. The image of the world portrayed in the media is designed for Paris Hilton's reality. One where the events portrayed, and the actors involved, are sometimes real, sometimes government propaganda, and mostly used as a device to keep us baffled by the bullshit. The image of today, as portrayed on TV, is no less surreal that the Paris Hilton show."

Read More.

Tags: Fallujah, media, America, war, Paris Hilton

Editor's Notes & Rants: ThomasMc.com 

Democrats who voted with the RepubliCons Wednesday to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by allowing oil exploitation: Akaka (HI), Inouye (HI), Landrieu (LA). Not an Irishman among 'em.

China tests 'D-Day invasion' of Taiwan.

After the US State Dept. accused China of mistreating prisoners, China shot back pointing out that the US is doing far worse. Today, the White House has decided to relabel such abuses by China as "positive steps"Fallujah, media, America, war, Paris Hilton