President Boxer

I was honored to be interviewed as part of Poets United "Life of a Poet" series. So if you'd like to know some of my deep, dark secrets, here it is. :)

Wow, it's been a long time! Nothing about Sen. Boxer today, but I've just posted three political haiku at my Notables blog. Here's one of them:

ABC movie
Shifts Nine-one-one blame through lies,
To steal votes from Dems.

For more of my political verse and song parodies, please stop by my Notables blog.

I think the esteemed FireDogLake may have spent too much time in Vegas and crapped out on this one. To call Sen. Boxer clueless because she wouldn't break the rules of The Club is naive. It is difficult to crap on a Senator one day and then ask for their support on some issue the next. I agree that Lieberman's stance that someone's superstitions should allow them to deny medical treatment is abominable. However, Jane, please give Barb a break - Senators treated Zell Miller as a sentient being even if they didn't want to duel him. It is the duty of the people of Connecticut to upbraid Joe; Barb has to work with him.

An underappreciated friend to the troops, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, wrote the legislation that established a Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health. First order of business for the panel, when it convenes next month, will be to examine one of the Pentagon's typically farsighted and humane solutions to the problem of inadequate manpower:

Besides bringing antibiotics and painkillers, military personnel nationwide are heading back to Iraq with a cache of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications.

The psychotropic drugs are a bow to a little-discussed truth fraught with implications: Mentally ill service mem-bers are being returned to combat.

The redeployments are legal, and the service members are often eager to go. But veterans groups, lawmakers and mental-health professionals fear that the practice lacks adequate civilian oversight. They also worry that such redeployments are becoming more frequent as multiple combat tours become the norm and traumatized service members are retained out of loyalty or wartime pressures to maintain troop numbers . . . .

“We've also heard reports that doctors are being encouraged not to identify mental-health illness in our troops. I am asking for a lot of answers,” Boxer said during a March 8 telephone interview. “If people are suffering from mental-health problems, they should not be sent on the battlefield” . . . .

“I have not seen anything that says this is a good thing to use these drugs in high-stress situations. But if you are going to be going (into combat) anyway, you are better off on the meds,” said [Dr. Frank] Ochberg, a former consultant to the Secret Service and the National Security Council. “I would hope that those with major depression would not be sent.”

The AP recently reported that roughly a third of Iraq veterans receive mental health care within a year of returning home. Over 26,000 of them have been diagnosed with a mental problem.

For Iraqis, of course, it's much, much worse.

(Cross-posted at King of Zembla.)

Via the very dependable renegade:

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has become the third U.S. senator to back a move to censure President Bush over the warrantless wiretapping program.

Barbara Boxer via Atrios on Bush's Impeachable Offenses.

Barbara Boxer will appear at the Central Library (i.e., the main branch) of the Free Library of Philadelphia at noon on Thursday, December 8, discussing her new, and first, novel, A Time to Run. The FLP’s web site reports of the event:

Written with a true insider’s perspective, A Time to Run is the first novel from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, one of the most admired and respected figures in politics today. A Time to Run tells an exciting tale of friendship and betrayal, idealism and pragmatism, in-fighting and public spin. The Democratic senator for California since 1993, Boxer was re-elected to her third term in 2004, receiving the third highest number of votes in the nation, after the two presidential candidates.

The Central Library is located at 19th and Vine Streets in Center City Philadelphia. For more information, call (215) 567-4341.

Unfortunately, I cannot attend, but I am hoping to find a fellow Philadelphian who might be able to do so and report back to us on the session.

Hairstyles and Nails

Chiefly Musing Home Tips

Health Talk and You

(Author's note: Obviously, today's move by Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats deserves documenting on this blog, which documents Democratic fight and strength. Cross-posted at SRWU)

Rule 21 of the Senate says:

... on a motion made and seconded, to close the doors of the Senate to discuss any business which may, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the presiding officer shall direct the galleys to be cleared and, during the discussion of such motion, the doors shall remain closed.  When the Senate meets in a closed session, any applicable provisions of these rules, including the confidentiality of information, shall apply to any information and to the conduct of any debate transacted.

CNN's Bill Schneider just said this:

The way [the Democrats in the Senate] are doing it is what's particularly controversial, and why it provoked such an angry reaction on the part of the majority leader.  This was used early in the days of the Republic, but is rarely used, this closed session, in modern times, primarily to discuss national security.  Well, that's exactly why, Senator Reid said, a closed session is appropriate because he wants discuss the national security implications of the Libby indictment.

This is a spectacular move by Reid and the Senate Democrats.  It's behind closed doors so, while it is certainly grandstanding, it's shrouded nature protects the Democrats against charges of trying to attack the White House publicly, and yet it achieves exactly that.  So, when questions like, "Senator Reid, what do you say to the Republicans who charge that this is a publicity stunt meant to capitalize on the indictment of Scooter Libby?", Reid can simply answer, "I requested a closed door session in the Senate to avoid trivializing the very serious matters that our country is currently facing by making them fodder for PR spin.  But, since you've brought up the indictment of Scooter Libby..."

The Libby indictment's initial news cycle lasted through the weekend and, Monday, President Bush changed the subject to the nomination of Judge Alito.  Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats just held the news cycle on Alito to barely 24 hours, and changed the subject back to Libby, and it presents an opportunity to broaden the narrative.  As Reid said, today:

This past weekend, we witnessed the indictment of the I. Lewis Libby,
the Vice President’s Chief of Staff and a senior Advisor to President
Bush. Libby is the first sitting White House staffer to be indicted in
135 years. This indictment raises very serious charges. It asserts this
Administration engaged in actions that both harmed our national
security and are morally repugnant.

Perhaps more important than all of this, in the short term, is that Reid has just signaled to a Democratic base which is concerned that its leaders are afraid to use the filibuster to oppose Judge Alito's nomination that they are ready to fight on all fronts of their agenda.

This was a bold and powerful move.

If you'd like to sign a petition urging Senator Boxer to run for President in 2008, here it is.

Bush's nickname for Barbara Boxer is Ali, according to this
Bush nickname resource.
(A rare instance of semi-cleverness on Bush's part)

Finally, a Democrat comes out in support of Cindy Sheehan. Is this leadership from Sen. Clinton or Sen. Biden or Sen. Lieberman or Sen. Kerry or Sen. Edwards? No! It is from Sen. Boxer, of course.

I posted this on my blog but I happen to know that Sen. Boxer and her staff check this blog now and then so I thought I would pass on a good question that Sen. Boxer or one of her colleagues should ask. I don't know how many of you are chess players but this question is a "fork" move. Roberts is going to lose something no matter how he answers it. That is why the question must be asked. The question won't stop his confirmation but will make him think about his place in history and how he is viewed in the history of the Supreme Court. Now for the question:

Judge Roberts, if someone, like a Vice President, is party to an upcoming case on the Supreme Court's calendar invites you to go duck hunting, what will you do?

NY Times: “Democrats Adopt O’Connor as Model for Bush Court Pick,” by Adam Nagourney, July 7, 2005.

When I saw this headline on nytimes.com, I hoped that somehow it might not be true. But it is. Read it and weep, or vomit.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and fifteen of her fellow Democrats deserve special commendation for having signed a letter this week calling upon President Sesame Street to fire Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the increasingly controversial and unabashedly right-wing chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

According to the New York Times, the signatories in addition to Sen. Boxer are: Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Jon Corzine (N.J.), Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.), Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.).

I know. Only sixteen. It’s a start.

If your senator or senators aren’t on the list, why not just pick up the phone? Call the Capitol switchboard toll-free at (800) 839-5276.

[Note: This item was published previously, in slightly different form, at The Rittenhouse Review.]

Boxer, Woosley, and Pelosi are my kinda' Gals. They're putting the pressure on, or finding the breaker point (for those surfing inclined) for a timetable on Iraq withdrawal according to this article

San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the House's minority Democrats, raised the stakes on the debate over the war in Iraq on Tuesday by introducing a resolution that if enacted would set the stage for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

Pelosi's proposal, which she offered as an amendment to the $428 billion military appropriations bill, would direct that within 30 days of the legislation's adoption, President Bush "report on a strategy for success in Iraq.'' The House is expected to take up the bill Thursday.

The report required by Pelosi's proposal would cover the capabilities of Iraqi military forces, their numbers, how prepared they are to take over from Americans, how many U.S. forces would have to stay in Iraq to help them, and what political progress is being made in the country.

"This lays the groundwork for bringing our troops home and doing it in a realistic way about what the consequences are for bringing those troops home, '' Pelosi said in an interview Tuesday.

On the Senate side, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Tuesday night that she will co-sponsor a similar resolution in the Senate introduced by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

The House has already voted down resolutions offered by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and others that would direct Bush to start planning the withdrawal of the approximately 140,000 U.S. forces in Iraq. But Pelosi's proposal represents an intermediate step and by virtue of her leadership role raises the issue's profile in Washington.

Her proposal comes as new polls show the American public voicing increased dissatisfaction with the course of the two-year-old war in Iraq, which has claimed at least 1,706 American military lives. The latest Gallup poll found that 59 percent of those surveyed said some or all U.S. forces should be withdrawn. That's a 10-point increase from a February poll.

"From the start, I've thought this war was a grotesque mistake,'' said Pelosi, who voted against the autumn 2002 resolution authorizing Bush to launch military operations against Saddam Hussein's regime. "The question now is about the execution of the war. It's hard for anyone to argue that the war meets the standard of a strategy for success.''

Democrats won't know until today if the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee will allow Pelosi's amendment to reach the floor. But even if the proposal is barred, Pelosi plans to force a vote on it as part of the floor debate on the rules for handling the defense spending bill.

"It's time for the House to go on record about this,'' she said.

Boxer said she doesn't believe White House assurances of progress in Iraq. "It is time that the administration is forced to step up to the plate with a plan for Iraq. It is time that we know what our mission is and how we will accomplish it,'' Boxer said.

The White House and the Pentagon continue to resist any proposal that could lead to spelling out a timetable for withdrawal.

Of course the folks at The White House and the Pentagon are against it. They find any policy with the word 'plan' to be an anathema....