Hearings this week. (Big week)

[TayTay]

There is a hearing related to the issue of Climate Change and Global Warming on Tuesday that should be interesting. This week is an Environmental Awareness week and there should be a lot of activities going on to bring these issues to the Congress' attention.

[TayTay]

1. Commerce: 7/20/07, 2:30 pm. Energy Innovation

This is a meeting of the Science, Technology and Innovation Subcommittee. (Chaired by Sen. Kerry.)

Energy Innovation

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
02:30 PM

SR - 253

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=1832

Witnesses

Opening Remarks

Panel 1
Mr. Bill Prindle
Acting Executive Director
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Mr. Michael Eckhart
President
American Council on Renewable Energy

Dr. Jim Katzer
Visiting Scholar
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

Dr. K.R. Sridhar
Chief Executive Officer
Bloom Energy

Dr. Francis R. Preli, Jr.
Vice President of Engineering
UTC Power, LLC

Oh wow, solutions. How to make things better! How to get to where we begin to solve the problems instead of sitting around and pretending that the problems don't exist. I love this! (We are the 'can-do' people.)

[TayTay]

8. Live webcast here

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.ByMonth

[TayTay]

2. Finance, 3/20/07, 10 AM Competitive Education

Realizing a Competitive Education:
Identifying Needs, Partnerships and Resources

March 20, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Member Statements:
Max Baucus, MT
Charles Grassley, IA

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing032007.htm

Witness Statements:

Governor Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education, Washington, DC

Jane Karas, President, Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, MT

William Green, Chief Executive Officer, Accenture, Boston, MA

Greg Taylor, Vice President for Programs, Youth and Education, Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI

Patty Myers, Teacher, Lewis and Clark Elementary, Great Falls, MT

Steven L. Paine, State Superintendent, West Virginia Department of Education, East Charleston, WV

OMG, someone realized that American students have to compete globally and wants to, gulp, help them do it. OMG, you mean we really can't just outsource our way out of this? Wow! A real hearing to solve another real problem. Democrats rock.

[TayTay]

7. Excellent questioning

Oh, yeah, we need that discussion. (I could write a book, so could my husband.)

Education is in trouble, in part because we fund them with property tax, which is unfair. Teachers and leadership at the individual schools make a big difference.

NCLB would mean a deal, we would raise the standards et al, and in exchange the remedial effort for the individual child would be there. (Personal attention to each kid.)

Truancy, where is the tracking effort? We don't pay for it. (No personnel to enforce or seek out kids.) No funding. Bad facilities, etc, (Oooh, We have bad facilities for kids, bad follow-up and then we ask these kids to be excited about their education? Oooh, nice, thanks Senator.)

Slap-down on how the funding doesn't work, the salaries don't work and the emphasis is all wrong. Teachers should make more. We are cutting after-school, head-start, medicaid, early childhood ed, etc.

Tax-Holiday for people who go and teach in troubled schools. (No taxes paid at all.) We are $60 billion behind on NCLB. We are going to talk here, but we are behind in all these things.

Bravo Senator. (Said by a woman married to a school committee guy.) Bravo, bravo, bravo!

[TayTay]

3. Finance, 3/22/07 Health & Social Care for Native Americans

Keeping America’s Promise:
Health Care and Child Welfare Services for Native Americans

March 22, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing032207.htm

Member Statements:
Max Baucus, MT
Charles Grassley, IA

Witness Statements:

Catchy Title! Wow, you know, somebody should use that as the name of a PAC or something. Wow!

[TayTay]

4. CLOSED Gulf Strategy update, 3/21/07 SFRC 5:00 pm (!!)

Gulf Security Dialogue

BRIEFING
CLOSED BRIEFING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Time: 5:00 PM
Place: S-407 The Capitol
Presiding: Senator Kerry


Briefers:
+The Honorable R. Nicholas Burns
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Department of State

+The Honorable Eric Edelman
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Department of Defense

+One or more Senior Military Officers may also make
Presentations.

Wow, and I thought my schedule sort of sucked sometimes. 5:00 pm? Anyway, it's closed and should be just tons and tons of fun.

"So is Iraq still in civil war and experiencing dozens of deaths of civilians everyday? Oh and do we still have no real plan to bring in real diplomacy and actually stabilize the region so our troops can come home?"
"Yuh, pretty much."
"About what I thought. Good thing I didn't have them hold dinner for me. See yuhz."

[TayTay]

9. POSTPONED. Hmmmm, really interesting

Read me:
Boston Globe: US Wants to sell Arms to ME Anti-Iran Countries

The current arms sale proposals grew out of a diplomatic effort launched last May called the "Gulf Security Dialogue," in which US officials sought to suggest ways to bolster the defenses of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman.

Not every country opted to buy a new weapons system, Mull said. Some asked for other kinds of assistance, such as improving port security and protecting key energy installations.

The talks produced a flurry of high-level meetings, including a recent delegation to Washington led by the crown prince of Bahrain. In May, Mull and his counterpart at the Defense Department, Mary Beth Long, will travel to Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia to continue the security talks.

In recent weeks, State and Defense Department officials have begun visiting Capitol Hill to seek support for the arms sales. Congress has the power to block them. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, hopes to schedule classified briefings soon with members of the Senate and House International Relations committees.

Somebody not buying this 'Arm the whole friggin world and let God sort it out' thing that the Bushies want to do now?

Gee, they haven't given it up all together:

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee - Hearing
Washington Daybook, Sec. U.S. Senate Committee Meetings - Advance (03-20-2007)

http://banking.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=252

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee

TIME: 9 a.m.

EVENT: Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee full committee hearing on "Potential Threats from Iran: Assessing the Effectiveness of Current U.S. Sanctions on Iran."

WITNESS(ES): Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns;
Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey;
and Acting Undersecretary of Commerce Mark Foulon of the Bureau of Industry and Security, testify

DATE: March 21, 2007

LOCATION: 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building

CONTACT: 202-224-7391 http://banking.senate.gov

[whometense]

10. Isn't this Dodd's committee?

Is it considered friendlier than Foreign Relations?

Read the tea leaves, please, for us mere dabblers. ;-)

[TayTay]

11. After the hearing

This is really fascinating. (Ah, substantial hearing on Iraq, touching on all diplomacy angles and it's in Banking??????)

[TayTay]

5. 3/22 SFRC Nomination for US-Saudi Ambassador, 10:30 AM

Nomination

HEARING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Time: 10:30 AM
Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Kerry


Nominee:
+Ford M. Fraker
To be Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Oy!

[wisteria]

6. Thanks for all the info Tay Tay! n/t

[TayTay]

12. Going on now

http://foreign.senate.gov/

Hey, this nominee is from Massachusetts. Wicked awesome!

[Mass]

13. A Bush nominee qualified for the job??? Something is wrong.

(He speaks Arabic).

[TayTay]

14. Talking about the revelations in the Hersh

article in the 3/5/07 New Yorker ARticle about the money from the US finding it's way into Al Qaeda hands through Saudi groups.

[rox63]

15. Well, at least that's better than "Foxy" n/t