Odds and Ends

Too much news; it gives me a headache. Here's some you may have missed...

Breaking news: U.S. airstrike targets al-Qaida in Somalia.

That sound you hear is the sound of a thousand right-wingers shrieking. From the AP: "Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. She spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending."

Furthermore, it notes that "A budget rule, known as the pay-as-you-go rule, that was approved by the Democratic-run House on Friday requires that tax cuts have corresponding cuts in government spending or tax increases elsewhere to pay for them."

One Daily Kos writer asks the new Congress: Fix the deficit, yes, but fix the country, too.

Here's some interesting news out of California that positively goes against political conventions: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed extending health coverage to nearly all of California's 6.5 million uninsured residents, promising to spread the cost among businesses, individuals, hospitals, insurers and the government." Expect the universal health care issue to get bigger going into 2008.

Meanwhile, on ABC, George Stephanopoulos reported that Speaker Pelosi "is considering setting up a special committee in the House to deal with climate change and global warming." It's a start.

Sen. Obama has an editorial discussing his proposals to stop congressional corruption.

Democrats also ran on implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations that had been ignored by the previous congress. Tomorrow they will introduce legislation to do just that. Salon's Tim Grieve has all the details.

Finally, Al Gore remains the big, unanswered question in the 2008 Democratic primary field.