Think Progress

CIVIL LIBERTIES -- BUSH THREATENS TO VETO TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF FISA LEGISLATION: This afternoon, the Senate will vote on whether to cut off debate on reauthorizing the current form of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who is working against the motion because conservatives have blocked all efforts to offer amendments, has sought "a brief extension of current law so that existing intelligence collection authorities are not allowed to expire while we complete work on this important bill." But on Saturday, the White House told Democratic congressional leaders that President Bush "would veto a 30-day extension," claiming that Congress needs "the heat of the current law lapsing to get this done." Reid responded forcefully to Bush's threat, saying that opposition to "a short extension" was "shamefully irresponsible" and "simply posturing in advance of Monday's State of the Union address." "If there is any problem" with intelligence collection activities if the law expires, "the blame will clearly and unequivocally fall where it belongs: on President Bush and his allies in Congress," said Reid. Bush fearmongered about FISA in his weekly radio address this weekend, stating that "we cannot afford to wait until after an attack to put the pieces together."

ADMINISTRATION -- WHITE HOUSE CONSIDERS INDUSTRY SHILL FOR CONSUMER SAFETY POST: On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the White House was considering Gail Charnley to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Charnley appears to be cut from the same cloth as her anti-regulation predecessors, who have severely weakened the commission. She was a consultant for the tobacco industry, and in 2006, she "wrote an op-ed article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch opposing tougher restrictions on power-plant emissions...on behalf of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices," a coal-industry front group. As The Pump Handle notes, "for the last two years, Dr. Charnley has been traveling around the country on behalf of the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED), a coal industry group fighting for looser environmental controls." Charnley did not disclose her relationship with CEED when she wrote a March 2006 paper on the risk of mercury emissions from coal power plants. In that report, she dismissed mercury as "a global problem," concluding that "limiting US power plant emissions alone will have little impact." She also wrote a study that "states there is little evidence that environmental exposures play a significant role in childhood disease and government agencies do not know which environmental exposures actually pose risks to children," suggesting government regulation was ineffective and pointless.

CONGRESS -- PERINO BASELESSLY CLAIMS 2007 WAS YEAR OF 'DO-NOTHING CONGRESS': During the White House press briefing on Friday, a reporter asked spokeswoman Dana Perino if the reason President Bush's final State of the Union will not be addressing Social Security or immigration is because such bold proposals would be "politically not possible." Saying the President had shown "very bold leadership" in the past, Perino argued that Bush is avoiding "big ideas" because "it is unrealistic to expect" Congress to take them on this year. Placing blame solely on the legislative branch, Perino continued, "Remember, 2007 was labeled the 'do-nothing Congress.' Hopefully in 2008, there are some things that we can get done." Despite Perino's rhetoric, a recent New York Times op-ed by Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Thomas Mann showed that "the 110th Congress does deserve some praise" because "in 2007, the level of energy and activity on Capitol Hill picked up markedly." Mann also stated that last year's Congress outperformed the Newt Gingrich "Contract for America" Congress in 1995, the closest historical analogue.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a crowd of supporters on Sunday, "It's a tough war we're in. It's not going to be over right away. There's going to be other wars." 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will make a historic trip to Iraq sometime before March 19 -- the first such visit ever by an Iranian leader. "Iraqi officials said Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has close relations with Iran's ruling clergy, invited Ahmadinejad to visit."

The former CEO of Countrywide Financial, Angelo Mozilo, is giving up $37.5 million of severance pay "in the face of pressure from politicians who have berated him for continuing to collect large sums from the mortgage lender even as millions of Americans face the threat of foreclosure."

"Automakers and their allies have stepped up lobbying to convince states that a proposal by California to cut tailpipe emissions sharply to fight global warming could further depress the struggling U.S. industry." The Bush administration recently blocked the initiative, but California and 15 other states are suing the EPA to have the ruling overturned. 

Today, the Washington Post is launching The Root, "an online magazine primarily for a black audience, with news and commentary on politics and culture, and tools for readers to research their family histories." The magazine will be edited by Harvard University professor and writer Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Haaretz finds that "the annual global report on anti-Semitism...presented to the cabinet Sunday morning points to a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany, Australia, the United States and Ukraine together with an overall decrease in Western Europe."

Reflecting "growing recognition that the United States risks further setbacks, if not deepening conflict or even defeat, in Afghanistan," the Bush administration is seeking to "re-energize its terrorism-fighting war efforts" in the country while also "refocusing on Pakistan, where a regenerating al-Qaida is posing fresh threats."

Private security contractors operating in Iraq are recruiting heavily from the needy in Latin America. For Latin American recruits, the pay is the major lure. "It's a hard-to-match deal for ex-soldiers and cops with little education. Some returnees even describe the postings nostalgically as a kind of dream job."

And finally: Watch out for the State of the Union (SOTU) squatters. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), a regular squatter, will be arriving at the House chamber more than five hours before tonight's SOTU address in order to score an aisle seat "so her constituents, friends and family can see her whisper into the president's ear before he addresses the nation." Ros-Lehtinen plans to bring a "mountain of paperwork" to pass the time waiting. Other famous squatters include Reps. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) and Michelle Bachmann (R-MN).