Early News ... With A Touch Of Snark

BOEHNER DELAYS DEBT VOTE UNTIL TODAY - MAYBE…

* Speaker meets with House Republican conference at 10 am - the corralling will continue - last night it was pizza, today it might be lassos - the vote delay was a stinging setback for the speaker (speaking of DeLay - would he have hammered this through?)

* A House aide says they were somewhere between five and 20 votes short - the South Carolina delegation was “a problem”, led by Sen Jim DeMint (who crossed over from the Senate), they prayed in the chapel for 45 minutes, then met Boehner, Cantor and Whip McCarthy - still “no”

* The horse trading doesn’t involve ear marks, promises of bridges and hospital wings - just pizza - new House rules

** Decision was not to have a midnight vote, but to sleep on it, thinking people will switch today

*** Boehner may think nothing else can get though the House before  August 2nd; there’s not much time for the Senate to come up with an alternative so they’ll be forced to go for this

*** Reid’s determined not to blink - who’s the better poker player?

* Oh Oh - don’t forget, Obama has vowed to veto the bill if it forces another vote to raise the debt ceiling in six months (which it does) - will he blink?

** Who’s the most lizard-like? (Reptiles don’t blink much)

** Dems have a plan! The second vote on raising the debt ceiling would not depend on Congress passing a broader deficit reduction package - but will House Republicans/tea partiers compromise (see cats above)

* Everyone’s staying in session this weekend, needless to say

* Progressive caucus is pushing the 14th Amendment heavily, has a resolution and everything…

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

* Groups that represent banks and brokerage houses did NOT sign on to a letter from 114 business assns and the US Chamber of Commerce that seems to endorse the measure sponsored by Boehner - though it acknowledges it’s less than perfect

* “Not everyone agrees on the substance of the bill, but we agree on the process of moving things forward” - lobbyist

* Financial Services Forum, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association have sent letters urging Obama and Congress to settle the debt ceiling issue - but not backing specific policies

*** Lest you start cheering them on (stop editorializing - ed) they’ve spent their time trying to maim and kill the Dodd Frank financial reform bill - they thought Congress had more sense than to let things get this far (Harvard business school apparently doesn’t teach common sense - stop it now - ed)

IN ON THE ACT - FUNFEST 2012
* Michele Bachmann (who was the only House Republican to miss Thursday afternoon’s vote to proceed to the debt ceiling vote as she was giving a speech) says the country won’t default even without a deal, and she’s not voting to raise the debt ceiling

* (She also wouldn’t answer questions about whether she supports gay reparative therapy)

* Sarah Palin (or someone) took to Facebook and in veiled language threatened House Republicans on behalf of the  “little folk” (a bit patronizing) in “proverbial politico flyover country” (patronizing again); cutting through the veils, “if you don’t vote against the bill, you’ll get a contested primary or a moose’s head on your pillow, and I’ll shoot the moose”


LIBYA - REBELS’ TOP MILITARY COMMANDER KILLED - TRIBAL CONFLICT FEARED

* Rebels’ top military commander was killed Thursday, members of his tribe reacted with gunfire and angry threats.

* The outburst stirred fears a tribal feud could divide the forces struggling to topple Qaddafi

* Gen Abdul Fattah Younes was controversial, a former officer, minister of the interior and friend of Qaddafi - some said he was still loyal

* Western nations fear rebels’ democratic goals could give way to a tribal civil war over Libya’s oil resources

* Qaddafi’s often warned of the possibility; rebel leaders have argued that their cause transcends age old tribal traditions

* This is a very murky story - a whodunnit - he was taken for questioning - it’s unknown who killed him and two other officers

* Could be an internal military coup, could be rogue officers, could be Qaddafi’s people

* This is bad for the rebels, and very unclear how it will play out, atmosphere in the rebels’ ranks one of suspicion and confusion


AIRLINES RIPOFF? KEEPING LOST FAA TAXES?

* Democratic transportation leaders in the Senate are challenging US airlines (12 of them) to prove they are not  pocketing revenue that would have gone to the FAA if the agency had not been partially shut down last week

* Sens Jay Rockefeller (D) WV and Maria Cantwell (D) Wash say the largest airlines in the country should reveal their recent ticket profits to prove they’re not keeping the $30 million A DAY that’s normally collected under the FAA authorization bill FROM YOU AND ME

* Normally the funds would go into the federal Aviation Trust Fund; but it hasn’t gone in there for almost a week because the last appropriations bill expired at midnight last Friday; the following day about 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed

* House and Senate are gridlocked (ho hum, that is SO last week)

* The money comes from our tickets - AND - um - totally coincidentally, nearly half the airlines raised fares by 7.5% the day after the federal taxes expired…

* Transportation Ray LaHood says “consumers today should be paying less for a ticket without the relevant federal taxes being collected”

* Rep Mary Bono Mack (R) CA says it “raises the ugly issue of profiteering” (they charge for blankets - ed!!)


BUSH - 9/11 REACTION - “SENSE OF CALM”

* George W. Bush tells in an interview with National Geographic Channel TV why he had a blank face when told a second passenger jet had hit New York’s World Trace Center

* He was visiting a Florida classroom,, reading “My Pet Goat”; he says his first reaction was anger, then he thought of the children and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children

* He saw reporters at the back of the room getting the news on their cellphones and “it was like watching a silent movie”; he realized a lot of people beyond the classroom would be watching his reaction

* “So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm.”

* “I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm”


FEDS TO JUSTIFY WITHHOLDING BIN LADEN PHOTOS

* Pentagon and CIA have agreed to explain by 26 September their legal basis for not disclosing photos and video of the US raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden

* Justice Dept and Judicial Watch, which filed FOIA requests for the imagery, proposed a schedule to resolve a lawsuit

* President Obama said releasing the pics could incite further violence or serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists

* DoJ says says this doesn’t mean they’re going to release the photos and video by 26 Sept, they’ll just file a brief by then

* So don’t order a T shirt


NEW MURDOCH PHONE HACKING HORROR

* Scotland Yard has told Sarah Payne, whose 8 year old daughter was abducted and murdered by a repeat sex
  offender in 2000, they have evidence she was a target of phone hacking by the News of the World

* Her cause had been championed by the NoW and Rebekah Brooks, the editor (recently resigned and arrested)

* Police found evidence in private investigator’s (jailed) notes related to a phone given to Payne by Brooks to help her stay in touch with her supporters

* Last night Brooks insisted the phone was not a personal gift, but was provided by NoW, and the allegations are “abhorrent” and “particularly upsetting” because Payne was “a dear friend”

* The “dear friend” is “in bits about it”, “absolutely devastated by this news”, and hasn’t decided whether to sue

* The Parliamentary committee is deciding today whether to call more witnesses (I think they will) into the scandal and alleged coverup

* BSkyB just reported pre tax profits of one billion pounds sterling in the year to June, an increase of 16%, and James Murdoch held onto his role as chairman Thursday after a board vote - (remember, four people who were in meetings w/ him or who have direct knowledge say he lied to the Parliamentary committee, and the board knew this when it voted)