Committee Hearings. Hey, Tay Tay.

[globalvillage]

Hey Tay Tay, I think there's some good stuff coming up this week. Aren't you going to post it for us?

[TayTay]

1. Awhhh, GV, you do love me.

Bolton Alert: Those with weak stomachs are hereby notified, there is a Bolton alert for Tuesday at 9:30 AM in SFRC. Also, Sen. George Allen will be there to ask dumb questions.
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http://foreign.senate.gov/index.html Live Web Feed.

BRIEFING / HEARING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

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Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Lugar

Briefer:
The Honorable Paul A. Volcker
Chairman
Independent Inquiry Committee into the United
Nations Oil-for-Food Programme
New York, NY
Witness:
The Honorable John R. Bolton
Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations
Department of State
New York, NY

[TayTay]

2. Condiliar Rice Tesilies in front of SFRC on Wed at 10:00 am

Dear Lordin heaven. Condi testilies in front of SFRC. Yup, Allen is still there. I'm gonna need Maalox after this one.
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http://foreign.senate.gov/index.html for live video web feed:
Iraq in U.S. Foreign Policy
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HEARING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

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Time: 10:00 AM
Place: 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Lugar

Witness:
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Department of State
Washington, DC

[TayTay]

3. Commerce Committee Hearing

Remember, the new budget being considered this week freezes all money for Homeland Security and such. And Yup, George Allen is on this committee. (No day is complete without a dumb question from Allen. Sigh!) Oh, and my daughter is taking Amtrak home this weekend. this hearing should make me feel nice and safe about that one.
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Web broadcast here: http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1608

Domestic Passenger and Freight Rail Security
Full Committee Hearing
Thursday, October 20 2005 - 10:00 AM - Dirksen 562

Webcast: Click here to view a live webcast of this hearing.
Description: The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold a Full Committee hearing on domestic passenger and freight rail security on Thursday, October 20, 2005, at 10 a.m. in Room 562 of the Dirksen building. At this hearing, the Committee will hear testimony concerning the passenger and freight rail security provisions of S. 1052, the Transportation Security Improvement Act, which is pending consideration by the Committee. The hearing also will examine public and private sector actions taken since September 11, 2001, and the attacks on rail systems overseas, to enhance the security of passenger and freight rail transportation. Witnesses are:

Panel 1:

The Honorable Edmund Hawley
Assistant Secretary, Transportation Security Administration

Joseph H. Boardman
Administrator, Federal Rail Administration

Ms. Cathleen A. Berrick
Director, Homeland Security and Justice, U.S. General Accounting Office

Panel 2:

Mr. Edward Hamberger
President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of American Railroads

William Crosbie
Senior Vice President, Operations, Amtrak

Mr. Edward Wytkind
President, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO

[globalvillage]

4. Thank you, darlin'.

You know, I could look them up myself, but I just love your commentary. Can't watch the game without the pre-game show.
I watched (no sound) the Bolton deal today. No Kerry, much disappointment.
So glad to see him and other Dems on LIHEAP. It's going to be a tough winter for so many. Heartbreaking.

[TayTay]

5. Oh, I think Kerry will show tomorrow.

This is serious. This is a 'State of the State' for our occupation of Iraq. I can't imagine that Kerry (and Boxer and Biden and all the rest) won't show for this one. It's too good. I hope they don't do any heavy commenting and get right to pressing Condi on the lying. This should be good.

I'lll give my esteemed Junior Senator a pass for today. I wanted to see him give Bolton a hard time, but he was busy trying to get the funds so that poor people won't freeze to death. (I feel so petty and low right now.) Ahm, gee, okay, go do good works. We can give Bolton a hard time from a distance. (And Sen. Boxer was great.)

[TayTay]

6. Whoops, highly unlikely to see Kerry tomorrow.

Just heard he and Uncle Ted are coming home to see to the flood situation in Taunton. (Well, that is also their job.)

Sens. Boxer and Biden et al will just have to take up the slack. Condi is lucky that Kerry won't be there. I am sorry that he won't as I am very, very interested n anything Kerry has to say about Iraq. But there are lots of people in Taunton who need some re-assurance and to know that somebody cares. (* probably won't even free up emergency funds. Sigh! He hates us.)

(Maybe they'll be in Taunton early and fly back to DC later on, but I don't think Kerry will make this comm hearing. And there are important votes tomorrow afternoon, so there ya go.)

[Mass]

7. Damned Kerry - no spine - he planned the dam problem just to avoid

Rice :sarcasm:

[TayTay]

8. Well, on the news this morning they said

that Sens. Kennedy and Kerry and Cong. Barney Frank would be at the Taunton site at 7:30 am. There would be a press conference that they would attend and then, presumably, they would fly back to DC. If I am not mistaken I believe that both have rather pressing business on the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Bill. (Teddy K. had an amendment to raise the minumum wage.)

7:30, then a Press conference. End that at around 9:00. Then maybe catcha flight out of Providence. He just might make it sometime after 11:00 am. (Or not.)

[Mass]

9. This morning on TV, Taunton's mayor was talking about meetings

until 11 am. I am not sure if that included Senators or just local people and MEMA. I guess we'll see.

Do you know when the Kennedy amendment will be voted (BTW, Kerry is among the 9 co-sponsors).

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquerytr/z?d109:SP02063:@@@P

Sen Biden, Joseph R., Jr. - 10/18/2005
Sen Boxer, Barbara - 10/17/2005
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham - 10/18/2005
Sen Corzine, Jon S. - 10/18/2005
Sen Dayton, Mark - 10/17/2005
Sen Feingold, Russell D. - 10/17/2005
Sen Harkin, Tom - 10/17/2005
Sen Kerry, John F. - 10/18/2005
Sen Stabenow, Debbie - 10/17/2005

He is also among the 3 co-sponsors of a Feingold Bill to help people from Louisiana to be able to vote in Louisiana even if they are displaced in another state.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d109:31:./temp/~bssIWQo:@@@P

S.1867
Title: A bill to extend to individuals evacuated from their residences as a result of Hurricane Katrina the right to use the absentee balloting and registration procedures available to military and overseas voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Feingold, Russell D. (introduced 10/7/2005) Cosponsors (2)
Related Bills: H.R.3734
Latest Major Action: 10/7/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration. COSPONSORS(2), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)


Sen Kerry, John F. - 10/17/2005
Sen Landrieu, Mary L. - 10/18/2005

[Mass]

10. Press conference finished - Kerry spoke with competency

and was asked questions by the reporters. You could see Mittens quite unhappy about this fact (though he had his turn to speak just before).

[whometense]

13. Well, whatever

makes Mittens unhappy (pout :() is good news for all the rest of us!!

[JI7]

14. did you read the article of Mittens using funds for a comedy writer

and some other stuff. it was posted in LBN about a day or 2 ago.

[whometense]

15. Yeah, that was a

front page story in the Boston Globe this week - I forget which day.

The import was that it was slimy but legal. He's not even really governor here anymore. No one pays any attention to a word he says, and he doesn't really do anything worth commenting on. He's largely irrelevant in MA right now. It's 100% clear he's running for president, and that he has no interest in us anymore (that is, if he ever did to begin with.) He has the stench of a carpetbagger.

Interestingly, his designated successor, Lt Gov Kerry "Barbi" Healey, stepped in it this week when her husband turned out to have benefitted from some government largesse he wasn't really qualified for, being (ahem) not e-x-a-c-t-l-y low income...

So MA repugs - batting zero.

[karynnj]

16. Won't his slowness to respond to the flooding in MA

hurt him in a Presidential run as it mirrors Bush's similar lateness in reponding to (the far more serious) Katrina. Katrina, more than anything else has ripped off Bush's teflon.

[TayTay]

17. It's too early for that.

He may have some boomerang effet from rushing to get before the camera to help Katrina refugess and bring them to MA, despite the cost and the idea that it might have been better to give money to on-the-ground efforts in the Gulf area. (It might have been better to leave the people who came to MA in the South, and give them money. It was expensive to bring these nice people to MA and house them. What peurpose did it serve, other than to get Mittens on TV.) Mittens was asked why he had compassion for the NOLA evacuees, but not for the poor of Massachusetts. No good answer, of course.

[TayTay]

11. All that and Kaine in VA runs away from him.

Wouldn't show up when Kerry went to Northern VA to campaign for locals. Sigh!

I have no idea. I took the NECN report that I saw this morning (on 5) said that the Cong. delegation would inspect the area, hold a press conf. and then skedaddle. They would, of course, leave key people behind to manage anything the locals want from them.

I don't know what else they can do besides stuff sandbags. I would leave staff behind and go back to DC. (What else can they do? If Taunton wants help, don't they have to work the phones in DC?)

[JI7]

12. Kerry and Landrieu seem to work a lot together