All Congress-watching eyes are expected to turn today to the Senate Judiciary Committee, as they begin their consideration of the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. And the Committee, aware of the intense interest, will be live streaming video of the hearing, which they’re wisely making available in blog-embeddable format. So that’s exciting in itself. They know where the interest lies.

Backlash against the F-22 backlash [ The DEW Line ] – The Senate is set to debate the FY 2010 National Defense Authorization Act starting at 11:00 A.M. Royalty reform: the American people deserve their fair share [ Politico ] White House Eyes Bailout Funds to Aid Small Firms [ The Washington Post ] Mortgage Fraud Reports Rise, But Some Fraud May Still Be Undetected [ PaperTrail ] Rocky road to insourcing contract support [ Federal Times ] Will Obama Clean Up Government Secrecy Labeling?

July 13th, 2009 Fred Barbash:   Fred Barbash: This debate–on the American Clean Energy and Security Act-is part of a special POLITICO section called “Energy Test: Cap and Trade.” The billl, also known as Waxman-Markey, passed the House on June 26 and is now in the Senate. For an excellent overview see Jeanne Cummings’ “The energy bill’s ticking timebomb.” Arguing in support of the bill is Mindy S.

PREFACE It is a thought provoking and a deep-sea dimensional analysis. Hence, it is bound the boggle the mind of the person who asked the question, and who ventures to answer it !! This should have been analysed and answered in the 17th or 18th century. Then the whole world should have functioned in an entirely different politico-social infrastructure !! I feel it is worth to have this in the archive of this 21st century bibliographic collections, to help many developing & under developed nations (which are “still” having a strong faith in the “ancient” Communism), to formulate an appropriate strategy to “Accelerate the pace of their socio-economic development”.

guardian.co.uk No 10 hits back over AfghanistanBBC NewsDowning Street has denied claims that British troops who are serving in Afghanistan are under-equipped. Tory leader David Cameron attacked the “scandal” of helicopter shortages, but Gordon Brown’s spokesman said their capability had almost doubled.

by Brad PeckThe Politico today is running a special section examining the Waxman-Markey bill, check out all of the articles are here, and this video. I do want to call special attention to the Politico Arena debate which features posts by Mindy Lubber, from Ceres, and Bill Kovacs, from the U.S. Chamber; with rebuttals from each and each. Charles Calomiris, Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia also weighed in; a bit of what he had to say: The Waxman-Markey bill is a terrible idea.

Posts about Politico as of July 13, 2009 – thedailyparr.com 07/13/2009 Fenty, Barry, Weymouth—All in Weekend in Review – washingtoncitypaper.com 07/13/2009 First, the retrocast: At last, a little bit of authentic summer weather for the region, though not quite as hot and humid as we’ve been trained to expect. Good old weather beat writer Martin Weil at the Washington Post is reporting that July thus far has been five degrees cooler than normal . We’ve already nailed this story, however— right here .

Recently, an article on the Virginia Politics blog was written reporting that Creigh Deed’s son (who is 20) was  charged with alcohol possession. Now, much fuss has been made by Democratic blogs. Even Bob Brink mentioned it. Yes, I agree a 20 year old possessing alcohol is not the biggest deal in the world, but there is a bigger issue here. Democrats are mad because they are receiving negative press from the  media. Here’s what I have to say: Its about time! Democrats and Liberals are such hypocrites.

UK Renewable Energy Strategy: 4X More Wind Power (London Times) UK ministers have put wind power at the heart of a renewable energy strategy, to be released this week, that will outline how Britain will meet its target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions 34 percent by 2020. Senate GOP’s Anti-Climate Plan: Fearmongering About Food (Wonk Room) Senate Republicans have a new strategy for attacking climate action: They intend to claim clean energy reform will make food prices skyrocket, basing the claim on a report from the Exxon-fund Heritage Foundation.

Politico —- Judge Sonia Sotomayor still speaks with her elderly mom, who’s retired in Florida, “every day.” She’s a “doting” aunt to three of her brother’s children and an “attentive godmother to five more.” And did you know she was a “fearless and effective prosecutor” and anti-child-pornography crusader widely credited “with saving baseball”? These biographical gems come from the official, 200-plus-page White House playbook distributed to Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats tasked with defending President Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominee during this week’s confirmation hearings.