SENATE ETHICS... KINDA-- AND IRAQI SEAT BELT LAWS

Barbara Boxer chairs the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, which is a pathetic joke. David "Diapers" Vitter? Nothing, although he publicly admitted breaking the law. Ted Stevens? Nothing, although the FBI and several other agencies have been searching his home in conjunction to a widespread corruption conspiracy that has tainted most of the Alaska GOP (including his son  Ben). Pete Domenici? Nothing, even though he used his position as a senator to threaten a U.S. Attorney and attempted to force him to take on a punitive political role and, failing that, conspired with Heather Wilson, Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove and others to fire the upright Justice Department official. Larry Craig? Next to nothing, although he actually pleaded guilty to a crime. The Senate certainly takes care of its own; and really well. Remember all those senators who were taking bribes from Jack Abramoff? Well Abramoff is in prison. Not one senator has even been admonished.

That isn't to say Boxer doesn't do anything regarding ethics. In fact, right now she's trying to figure out how to go after Alaska's arch-criminal Don Young on ethics charges. No, I don't mean arch-criminal, Senator Ted Stevens; I mean Congressman Don Young. She's promises to figure out a way of making this constitutional-- she'll fail-- since the House takes care of its own ethical lapses (or doesn't) and the Senate... well the Senate is supposed to watch it's own 100 miscreants.

Now, this isn't about Boxer's Select Committee on Ethics. You see, that Committee has nothing whatsoever to do so they gave her another job as well, chairing the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She's the one taking care of Global Warming for us. Except right now she's working on putting together some kind of amendment to a highway corrections bill that is meant to spur an investigation into one of Congress' most notorious crooks, Young who stealthily modified an earmark in the 2005 highway bill when he was chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a time that caused Rolling Stone to dub him America's third worst member of Congress and the King of Pork.

Boxer claims she working on his with the Committe's unlikely vice chairman, Global Warming denied and general all around loon, James Inhofe. If ever there was an odd couple... but I guess Inhofe is just happy to see her busy with something that doesn't move forward any kind of climate change agenda.
And along the same lines, Iraq's police force is cracking down on seat belt scofflaws; about time. I wonder if McCain, Lieberman and Miss Lindsey will claim credit for this.

“The citizens are learning the laws step by step,” said General Mraweh, sitting in his office in the Karada neighborhood. “We have applied all the laws concerning traffic, so it’s time for the seat belt law to be practiced.”

Some might say that there are more pressing issues, like the car bombs that can turn a morning commute into a nightmare of blood and body parts, the daily killings and kidnappings, the political and sectarian infighting.

Or that enforcing the seat belt law might not do enough in a city where traffic rarely moves above a crawl, checkpoints are ubiquitous, roads are often blocked and it is not uncommon to see a vehicle charging down a street in the wrong direction or swerving across lanes.

UPDATE: BOXER WANTS DON YOUNG ARRESTED AND THROWN IN PRISON-- GOOD FIRST STEP, BUT WHAT ABOUT AT LEAST CENSURE OR EVEN ADMONISHMENT FOR VITTER?

This morning's CongressDaily reports that Barbara Boxer sparred With Oklahoma reactionary loon Tom Coburn on the Senate floor over the infamous secret Coconut Road earmark. Yesterday she demanded "jail time for those responsible for the 'very devious' changing of the disputed Coconut Road earmark." You go, girl! She and the OK nutcase "sparred on the Senate floor for about a half-hour over whether Congress or the Justice Department should investigate how an earmark in the 2005 surface transportation reauthorization bill was modified after the House and Senate voted final passage and before President Bush signed it."

In competing amendments to a bill making corrections to the 2005 reauthorization measure, Boxer is seeking a Justice Department probe and Coburn wants to set up a bicameral congressional committee to investigate before potentially handing over findings to law enforcement agencies.

Boxer said a Justice probe would ensure tougher action and avoid the partisan spectacle that could come with a high-profile probe.

[Referring to Don Young, she said that] "At the end of the day, we want to put people in jail; that's what we're talking about," she said of the "evil doers" who modified the earmark. "I don't want political theater; I want justice done. ... When justice is done and somebody goes to jail ... that sends the best possible message."

The earmark in question was changed from providing $10 million to improving Interstate 75 in Ft. Myers, Fla., to specifically going to build an interchange at Coconut Road. Public watchdog groups charge that Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, then chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, changed the earmark at the behest of a campaign contributor who was tied to the project.

A vote in the Senate is expected today. And even as crooked and partisan a GOP hack as Roy Blunt agrees-- now that it's all out in the open-- that Young has to be investigated, knowing full well that an investigation of Young will lead directly to prison.

WILL DODD SAVE THE REPUBLIC-- AND WHO WILL HELP?

Jane's got all the details at Firedoglake, but what it comes down to is that Chris Dodd is ready to filibuster Bush's FISA legislation today. Harry Reid is nervous and there's no telling what he will do. He's been conspiring with the Bush Regime on this and he's rumored to be warning other Democrats not to back Dodd. Dodd can't do it alone. It will be interesting to see if Feingold and Kennedy are the only Democrats with the balls to join him. Barbara Boxer, who is probably sorry she ever campaigned for Joe Lieberman and against Ned Lamont in Connecticut-- and who will face the re-election of her life in 3 years-- should take this opportunity to show which side she's on.

Glenn Greenwald is covering this too and he says that none of the senators running for president-- Clinton, Obama (and Biden)-- are backing Dodd, which means, in effect, they all back retroactive immunity for lawless telecom corporations and spying on Americans, making them, in my mind, unfit candidates for the Democratic nomination. Like I said yesterday, it looks like there is no real alternative left for progressives but to vote for John Edwards for president.


UPDATE: ONLY TEN SENATORS STOOD WITH THE PEOPLE AND THE CONSTITUTION

The other 90 seantors are unworthy of high public office. These are the ones-- the only ones-- who voted against spying on Americans and against retroactive immunity for Bush's cronies:

Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Dodd (D-CT)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Wyden (D-OR)

Fury from the grassroots forced Reid to pull the bill... for now. Here's his statement:

"The Senate is committed to improving our nation's intelligence laws to fight terrorism while protecting Americans' civil liberties. We need to take the time necessary to debate a bill that does just that, rather than rushing one through the legislative process. While we had hoped to complete the FISA bill this week, it is clear that is not possible. With more than a dozen amendments to this complex and controversial bill, this legislation deserves time for thorough discussion on the floor.

"We will consider this bill when we return in January. In the meantime, I again encourage the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to make available to all Senators the relevant documents on retroactive immunity, so that each may reach an informed decision on how to proceed on this provision. I oppose retroactive immunity, but believe every Senator must have access to the information to make this important decision."

It's probably just a little coincidence but the bribes (that the Congress has legalized) paid by the giant telecoms went in great part to Bush and the presidential candidates who didn't back Dodd-- in order of bribe-taking: McCain, Clinton and Obama. But, like I said, I'm sure that's just a coincidence and that these three corrupt senators were willing to sell out the American people just because they believe in destroying the Consititution, not because they were being paid to do it.