Dick Durbin planning to introduce legislation for public financing of elections: 

Although the details of the legislation are still being pounded out, David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action Fund said that Durbin's bill would probably be modeled on the Arizona and Maine laws "which are working very well." In Maine, candidates who participate in the program have to begin by demonstrating community support by "collecting a minimum number of $5 checks or money orders payable to the Maine Clean Election Fund (qualifying contributions). After a candidate begins to receive MCEA funds from the State, he or she cannot accept private contributions," according to the Maine Ethics Commission. 

This is one of those moves that progressives have been calling for since they discovered common sense.  There is perhaps no better first step in cleaning up our failed electoral system.  Consequently, there is probably no bill that has less of a chance of passing.  Nevertheless, Durbin is the highest ranking Senator to ever bring the issue to the fore, so who knows?

The first 100 hours of Democratic governance continues with a bid by Leahy to staunch the “culture of corruption” fostered by six years of Republican rule: 

Many Democratic Senators joined [Sen. Patrick]Leahy in reintroducing a bill creating criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world.  

The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 builds on earlier efforts by Leahy, who is also a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, to crack down on this type of rampant fraud and abuse.  It is similar to legislation Leahy introduced in 2003, that was subsequently passed by the Senate as part of an appropriations bill but later torpedoed by the White House and the House Republican leadership, which stripped out the Leahy provision.  

Meanwhile, in a country recently conquered and occupied by an imperial Republican Party: 

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days. 

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

Kill.  Rape.  Plunder.  Spend.   

If only Blair had pushed his nose in a few centimeters further: 

Millions of Britons who visit the United States are to have their fingerprints stored on the FBI database alongside those of criminals, in a move that has outraged civil rights groups. 

The Observer has established that under new plans to combat terrorism, the US government will demand that visitors have all 10 fingers scanned when they enter the country. The information will be shared with intelligence agencies, including the FBI, with no restrictions on their international use.

…

Britons already have their credit card details and email accounts inspected by the American authorities following a deal between the EU and the Department of Homeland Security. Now passengers face having all their credit card transactions traced when using one to book a flight. And travellers giving an email address to an airline will be open to having all messages they send and receive from that address scrutinised. 

Crikey!

Oh, and BTW, looks like the entire process is pretty well useless at catching actual terrorists: 

A recent report by the civil liberties group Statewatch highlighted a Japanese study that tested 15 biometric systems and found 11 of them failed to detect 'false' fingerprints were being used in the form of a latex strip covering a person's fingers. 

But hey, why not further bankrupt our grandchildren, bankrupt our morality, and overload law enforcement with useless clutter – there’s a war going on!