After voting against H.R. 3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement:

"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday challenged Russians to open up their political system, embrace diversity and scorn Cold War-era thinking.

In Moscow and Kazan, the capital of Russia's religiously and ethnically diverse republic of Tatarstan, Clinton underscored to audiences at elite universities the Obama administration's desire to "reset" relations with Russia.

"We have people in our government and you have people in your government who are still living in the past," she told a crowd of about 2,000 students at Moscow State University. "They do not believe the United States and Russia can cooperate to this extent."

"They do not trust each other and we have to prove them wrong," she said.

Though she seemed to cast blame equally, Clinton took particular aim at Russian suspicions toward improved ties and the influence of U.S. policies and Western values.

"The more open that Russia can become, the more Russia will contribute," she said. "The more active and dynamic the political system you have, the more ... ideas will go into the mix and out of it will come even better answers to the problems that we all face."

The comments came a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov objected to the Obama administration's strategy of publicly threatening Iran with more sanctions to get it to come clean about its suspect nuclear program.

At a news conference with Clinton on Tuesday, Lavrov said that while more sanctions might eventually be needed, talking about them or other penalties now is "counterproductive." The U.S. believes Iran will respond only if confronted by a unified position.

Although Clinton and top aides maintained that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had assured them Russia would support sanctions if Iran did not comply, Lavrov's comment exposed a rift in tactics between the two countries that could be exploited by Iran.

She glossed over Iran in her Wednesday comments but aides said they remained surprised by Lavrov's remark, which came as the U.S. tries to rally international opinion in favor of sanctions against Iran if needed. Lavrov is closely associated with Russia's old guard.

Instead, standing in front of a monumental Soviet mosaic topped by a red hammer and sickle at Moscow State's main auditorium, Clinton made an appeal for a new U.S.-Russian partnership that would extend from the political to the personal.

"I choose partnership and I choose to put aside being a child of the Cold War," she intoned. "I choose to move beyond the rhetoric and the propaganda that came from my government and yours. I choose a different future and that's a choice every one of us can make every single day."

Clinton is the first secretary of state ever to visit Kazan, which bills itself as Russia's third capital, and Tatarstan, an oil-rich moderate Muslim-majority republic that is often hailed as a model of multicultural tolerance.

There, she visited a mosque and nearby Orthodox cathedral, before speaking to students at Kazan State University, where Lenin once studied. She urged them to carry on the republic's tradition of ethnic and religious inclusion and equality.

Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) accused the Republican Party of playing "racial politics" with the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor, even declaring that the leaders of the GOP had called her a "bigot" and the "head of the KKK."

Ex-comedian vows to take new job seriously; gives Dems 60 votes

Democrat Al Franken's lead in Minnesota's long-disputed Senate race increased to 312 votes Tuesday, making it mathematically impossible for Republican Norm Coleman to be declared the winner.

Many thanks to the Seattle PI for an excellent editorial and for its lone voice coverage of the State Senate's undermining of the people's initiative and voice by diluting I-937. Editorials such as this will surely earn the online edition of the PI its own niche' in its transition.

Indeed, those Democrats voting 'yea' on ESSB 5840 are climate change "posers" and deserve a 'nay' vote at the ballot box when their name comes up for re-election. This legislation is an insult to the voters who overwhelmingly passed I-937 to address climate change.

We now count on House members to respect the people's vote to build a clean energy economy with their majority passage of I-937 in 2006. We now count on the House to reject the Senate's misguided bill, which is clearly influenced by the same special interests that fought I-937. The Senate bill benefits special interests and will cut the voter-endorsed renewables standard up to 75% in 2020. In so doing, it will discourage renewable-energy investments. Those investments, already underway as a result of I-937 are providing desperately needed clean energy jobs, farm income and local tax revenue throughout Washington. The bill grandfathers in old outdated resources, including small hydro that do nothing to create jobs or to reduce emissions. This bill threatens our state's economic recovery and is in conflict with the green energy economy outlined by President Obama. It is, as the PI editorial board right said—an insult to the people, and a dramatic dilution of the majority voter passed directives in I-937.

Readers should know that this legislation was originally sponsored by: Senators Marr, Honeyford, Rockefeller, Holmquist, Hatfield, Parlette, Ranker, Morton, Sheldon, Jarrett, Delvin and Hewitt.

Voting 'yea' were: Senators Berkey, Brown, Delvin, Eide, Franklin, Hargrove, Hatfield, Haugen, Hewitt, Hobbs, Jacobsen, Jarrett, Kastama, Kauffman, Kilmer, King, Marr, McDermott, Murray, Prentice, Ranker, Regala, Rockefeller, Schoesler, Sheldon, Shin, and Tom.

Voting 'nay' were: Senators Becker, Benton, Brandland, Carrell, Fairley, Fraser, Holmquist, Honeyford, Keiser, Kline, Kohl-Welles, McAuliffe, McCaslin, Morton, Oemig, Pflug, Pridemore, Roach, Stevens, Swecker, and Zarelli

It should be noted that three senators who voted 'nay" on the substitute were original sponsors of the bill, so they deserve no applause. They are: Honeyford, Holmquist, and Morton. Parlette, also an original sponsor was excused. Remember these four senators along with those voting 'yea" the next time they request campaign contributions and when they appear on the ballot. In particular, the 'turn-coat' Democrat posers should be held accountable.

I-937 was passed by a clear majority vote and the state senate undermines the people with this bill.

It is time for those committed to clean energy, to addressing climate change, and to creating jobs in synch with the President's outlined green and alternative energy economy to ensure that their state representatives reject this bill when it comes before the House.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy! As ye sow, so shall ye reap, karmic debt, law of 3, eye for an eye, three-fold law, what goes around comes around, take your pick--seems the tables have been turned on Stefan Sharkansky who is now on the receiving end. He argues for his family, yet Sharkansky has never exercised journalistic ethics or shown a modicum of concern for others whose families and lives have been irrevocably harmed by his reckless public attacks.

Gregg's disrespectful departure, together with the Catapiller executive countering the President regarding his earlier estimate of job restoral based on the stimulus package, point to desperate need for better communication and staff work in the Obama Administration. In any case, good riddance to Gregg. Now President Obama can appoint a Commerce Secretary who will embrace his policies and the real needs of the American people..

When Wikileaks gets its hands on all the findings from the Congressional Research Service, which provides secret research documents to Congress (secret so that reports are outside public scrutiny and therefor free of partisan politics). Within those CRS findings are reports which indicate that both government spending is a more effective stimulus than tax cuts, and that tax cuts to lower income individuals is more effective than middle and upper class tax cuts.

President Barack Obama is singing the praises of newly passed legislation making it easier for workers to sue for discrimination on the job.

At a White House bill-signing ceremony, he said the measure upholds the principle that "we are all created equal" and that each person deserves an equal opportunity.

The measure is known as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. And it is named for a woman who said she didn't become aware of a pay discrepancy until she neared the end of her career at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant.

Ledbetter was present for the ceremony. The law effectively overturns a Supreme Court decision that had strictly limited workers' ability to file such suits.

The incoming Obama administration should launch a criminal investigation of Bush administration officials to see whether they broke the law in the name of national security, a House Democratic report said Tuesday. President-elect Barack Obama has been more cautious on the issue and has not endorsed such a recommendation.

Along with the criminal probe, the report called for a Sept. 11-style commission with subpoena power, to gather facts and make recommendations on preventing misuse of power, according to the report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee.

The report covers Bush administration policies that Democrats have protested for some time. Among them: interrogation of foreign detainees, warrantless wiretaps, retribution against critics, manipulation of intelligence and political dismissals of U.S. attorneys.

The White House was asked for comment on the report Tuesday, but did not immediately respond.

However, in an interview this month with The Associated Press, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "I can't speak for everybody in the administration, but my view would be that the people who carried out that program — intelligence surveillance program, the enhanced interrogation program, with respect to al Qaeda captives — in fact were authorized to do what they did ... ."

Cheney said legal opinions supported the officials.

"And I believe they followed those legal opinions and I don't have any reason to believe that they did anything wrong or inappropriate," the vice president said.

Obama said last week in a television interview, "We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions and so forth. And obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards."

Obama said intelligence officials were "extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering."

Obama said he has not made a final decision about a Sept. 11-type commission.

The criminal probe may need a special prosecutor named by the attorney general, the report said.

An alternative would be expansion of an existing investigation into the CIA's alleged destruction of a tape or tapes showing harsh interrogation methods against a prisoner.

The criminal investigation would include issues apart from national security, such as whether laws were violated in the politically inspired firing of U.S. attorneys.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said his staff has met with the Obama transition officials on the report. The president-elect's transition team has not endorsed it.

The congressionally appointed commission should have subpoena power, the report said. It suggested the new president order "full cooperation by all present and past federal employees with requests for information."

Conyers already has introduced legislation to form the commission.

Great opportunity to access the award-winning "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation" invites viewers to consider whether these laws are working for us or against us.

-- What does marijuana law enforcement cost us in tax dollars?
-- How effective is prohibition at controlling marijuana use and availability?
-- What are the social consequences of marijuana prohibition?
-- Are the consequences of marijuana arrests and convictions fair? Are the laws applied fairly to all Americans?
-- How did we end up with these laws in the first place?
-- Is marijuana prohibition doing more harm than good?

This is sponsored by the ACLU and features well-known travel writer and television host Rick Steves. The video begins a long-overdue public discussion about marijuana and marijuana prohibition.

Korten applies his "...knowledge of how culture and institutional structures shape human behavior to a search for ways by which we humans can do a better job of supporting one another in achieving the higher order potentials of our nature."