Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a measure to establish a federal ban on phthalates in children’s toys on Thursday. The bill is modeled after California’s landmark ban on phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals that added to common plastic products to make them soft and pliable and they can be found in a variety of children’s toys and childcare products that are frequently put in a child’s mouth, such as teethers, rubber ducks, and soft bath books. They are also found in a number...

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There was more political posturing on the Iran issue today, as 30 senators sent a letter to the White House “warning President Bush not to take offensive military action against Iran without the consent of Congress.” Noticeably absent from the list of signatories is presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL. According to its authors, the letter was designed to clarify the ambiguity of the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Obama has been critical of...

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Pamela’s already noted that John Kerry is opposing him. Now it’s time for the principled stance everyone has been babbling about for other Democrats to take in the year since they regained power and torpedo the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for AG. Now. “In a letter to the 10 Democrats on the committee, Mr. Mukasey refused to say whether he considered waterboarding (a method of extracting information by making a prisoner believe he is about to be drowned)...

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We are seeing the results of a field candidates being forced into an attack posture to merely get some ‘ink.’ Is it a comment on the ability of other candidates to get the spotlight in a difficult campaign or is it a cleaned up version of the ‘Politics of Personal Destruction’? The concerted hour long attack on Senator Clinton was a demeaning moment for her opponents, not for the questioning of a fellow candidate, but because it was so...

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As Andrew Sullivan notes, ”the NYT argues today that Michael Mukasey cannot condemn waterboarding as torture before he becomes AG because that would risk war crime prosecutions against many military and CIA personnel and those who authorized them, i.e. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al.”   Democrats are begining to line up in opposition against Mukasey. Senator John Kerry announced today that he will oppose the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General of the United States: Sphere: Related Content

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Markos, the creator of Daily Kos and the most influential blog owner, announced a new ‘policy’ that dramatically changes fundraising at Daily Kos. He and others are frustrated by the amount of mail received after making a campaign contribution. Here’s Marko’s demand: “So here’s what I’m going to do — starting in December, I will NOT FUNDRAISE for any candidate who does not pledge to stop direct mail to people who contribute via ActBlue.” It’s true that contributors, small...

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Wired is reporting on the Ron Paul SPAM story that I noted here the other day. The SPAM has been “laundered through a botnet,” which is ”a standard spammer practice,” and ”a decidedly illegal one.”  Gary Warner, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s director of research in computer forensics, says, “”This is clearly a criminal act in support of a campaign, which has been committed with or without their knowledge.” Ron Paul spokesman Jesse Benton says the campaign has no knowledge...

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I wasn’t sure I would make it, today! I’m just getting over my annual post-trick-or-treat sugar rush, I am finally up and at ‘em on this frosty Thursday morning. I am proud to say that I finally got the candy to trick-or-treaters ratio “just right”, this year. We started with a large tote box full and ended up with half a punchbowl full, by evenings end (I usually have to make a candy run in the middle of the...

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