Maine: Susan Collins

Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted last week to give Washington D.C. a representative in the U.S. House.

Snowe and Collins were two of only six Republicans to support the measure. The New York Times reports that a similar bill is certain to pass the House and that President Barack Obama has indicated he will sign it.

However, the measure will end up in court as part of a Constitutional battle over whether DC can be granted a representative even though it is not a state.

The Senate version also gave Utah another seat, which would increase the size of the House from 435 to 437.

Did Snowe and Collins do the right thing?

WASHINGTON — During a speech in which Republican senators often remained seated while Democrats applauded, Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe stood up when President Obama referred to the passage of a $787 billion stimulus package. They and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., were the only GOP senators to vote for the bill when it passed the Senate.

After the president’s speech Tuesday night, Snowe released a statement lauding Obama’s “aggressive and ambitious agenda,” saying bipartisan cooperation will prove even more important now given the challenges facing the nation.

Snowe singled out Obama’s plan to reform the American health care system, the details of which the president said he would outline as soon as next week, as a good idea to address a “mounting crisis” affecting more than 47 million uninsured Americans.

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Cross-posted at Maine Owl

New York Times now interested in war "graft" and "bribes" as military heads (slowly) begin to roll

It's been over five years since I began covering how a major objective of the U.S. occupation has been to steal Iraq's money and also that of the U.S. taxpayer. In fact, the "privatization" (theft) program for Iraq was the topic of my second-ever blog post.

Indeed the occupation was set up for theft through legal immunity. This allowed, during 2003 and 2004, $20 billion of Iraqi oil revenue, including billions left in the coffers by Saddam Hussein, to be flat out misappropriated and disappeared after the U.