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'Getting to yes' diminished energy bill | csmonitor.com: "The energy bill emerging this week in Congress is a classic example of the politics of the possible. "

Bradley, Bass oppose energy billBreaking with their party, at least two of New Hampshire’s representatives in Washington said they oppose legislation to hamstring the state’s multimillion dollar lawsuit over the gasoline additive MTBE.

A Hummerdinger of a Tax Loophole? (washingtonpost.com): "'Thanks to the Bush administration's recent economic stimulus package, small businesses and the self-employed are eligible to deduct the entire purchase cost of new equipment up to $100,000 the year of the purchase.'"

Most tax breaks in GOP energy bill would go to oil, gas, coal industries: "Two-thirds of the $23 billion in tax breaks in the Republican-drafted energy bill would go to the oil, gas and coal industries. Democrats slammed the legislation as 'a hodgepodge of subsidies for the well-connected.' "

The dubious link between Iraq and al Qaeda=The Hill.com= To great fanfare last week The Weekly Standard published “Case Closed,” an article that claimed to provide definitive proof of collaboration between Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

California Insider - Fun while it lastedArduin gave a pretty good explanation of the problem facing her new boss: $25 billion in debt and a $14 billion annual structural gap between spending and revenues. She said that Schwarzenegger’s bond proposal, which he wants to keep at $15 billion or less, is, in her view, a repackaging of a piece of that current debt, not a taking on of new obligations. She continued the administration strategy of trying to blur the effect of the car tax cut on the numbers. She characterized the $3.6 billion obligation to local governments this year to make up for the loss in car tax revenue as part of Schwarzenegger’s inherited problem because, in the administration’s opinion, the tax was raised illegally and had to be rescinded. Arduin didn't endear herself to the members when, at one point, she slipped and referred to the state as Florida,”where she worked as budget chief for Jeb Bush until coming into Schwarzenegger's employ.

sacbee.com -- Business -- Workers' comp cuts aired: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled an ambitious proposal Tuesday aimed at slashing $11.3 billion in costs from the troubled workers' compensation system."

AlterNet: Personal Voices: Revolution or Regression?: "Historically, the most truly revolutionary social reforms are derived from a combination of upper-class benevolence, lower-class radical agitation, and a healthy dose of middle-class pragmatism. We should stop arguing and start planning. Our kids deserve better choices than what we were offered. "

Pravda.RU Collective Security Treaty nations to help Afghanistan: "The participants in the current Bishkek session of the foreign ministers' council of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (ODKB), including Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, have adopted a statement on co-ordinating joint assistance measures stabilising the situation in Afghanistan. "