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Mullen calls on Senate to pass START treaty
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appealed to the Senate on Monday to quickly pass a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, saying it was "vital to National Security." This Story Mullen calls on Senate to pass START Treaty Obama lobbies GOP senators to back arms pact Letter from Adm. Mullen to Sen. Kerry (pdf) Right Turn: Why START is stuck View All Items in This Story View Only Top Items in This Story The letter from Adm. Mike Mullen could increase pressure on wavering Republ...

John McCain & Lindsey Graham: The Mean Girls of the US Senate
I have a theory about human social evolution: life doesn't progress much after High School. This week, I can thank John McCain and Lindsey Graham for providing empirical data that supports this hypothesis. Here's how government should work: lawmakers ponder the great issues of the day in serious manner and then decide, according to their own beliefs and values, which policies are best for their constituents and the public. But in the past few days, we've seen government-by-hissy-fit, with Sens....

Joint Chiefs chair calls on Senate to pass START treaty in Tuesday vote
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., tells reporters Monday at the U.S. Capitol that he will vote to approve the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia. (Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appealed to the Senate on Monday to quickly pass a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, saying it was "vital to National Security." The letter from Adm. Mike Mullen could increase pressure on wavering Republican senators, who, if they voted no, would be in th...

Nuclear treaty appears on track
WASHINGTON — The Senate moved closer Monday to approving a new arms-control treaty with Russia over the opposition of Republican leaders as lawmakers worked on a side deal to assure skeptics that the pact would not inhibit U.S. missile-defense plans. A GOP senator announced he would vote for the treaty, and two others said they were leaning toward it after a closed-door session on classified aspects of the pact. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also produced an amendment that could reassure fe...

LEAD: N. Korea to let IAEA check uranium enrichment at nuke facility+
BEIJING, Dec. 21 (AP) - (Kyodo)—(EDS: ADDING INFO) North Korea is ready to allow International Atomic Energy Agency personnel back into its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon to ensure it is not processing highly Enriched Uranium for Nuclear Weapons, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday after a six-day private mission to the county aimed at defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. "The specifics are that they will allow IAEA personnel to go to Yongbyon to ensure that they are not ...

Brown joins Kerry to back treaty
WASHINGTON — Senator John F. Kerry, laboring to achieve a Foreign Policy victory that would be a highlight of his career, gained crucial support yesterday for a nuclear Arms Control treaty with Russia from his Republican counterpart, Senator Scott Brown. Brown’s backing gave Kerry additional momentum heading into a possible vote today. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry is President Obama’s man in charge of trying to lock down the two-thirds support o...

President Obama Pushing for Passage of START Treaty by Years End
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 By Fred Lucas President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., right, after signing the $858 billion tax deal into law in a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Washington (CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama has been working the phones to try to secure Senate ratification of a nuclear missile redu...

A Troubled New START
Posted by Rich Trzupek on Dec 21st, 2010 and filed under FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. A vote to end Senate debate on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is slated to take place today. If this vote passes, a second vote to ratify the treaty could take place later in the day or possibly Wednesday. The Russian government has made it painfully clear to the United ...

White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs, December 20, 2010
MR. GIBBS: Mr. Feller. Q Thanks, Robert. A few questions on START. Can you give us your updated sense of where we stand? Does the White House feel that it has -- still has the votes? MR. GIBBS: The White House believes that before Congress leaves town, that the Senate will ratify the New START Treaty. Q So are you confident ultimately you’ll have the votes or right now is it still in play? MR. GIBBS: Look, obviously, the President and the Vice President continue to communicate with senator...

The Plum Line: Time for the GOP to get serious on START
Senate Republicans need to stop playing politics with the New START Treaty and ratify it. Without the treaty, America will lose the ability to monitor Russia's Nuclear Arsenal and will pointlessly antagonize a country in a position to aid the U.S. effort in Afghanistan and to help frustrate Iran's nuclear ambitions. Whether or not the treaty gets ratified ultimately depends on how many Republicans in the Senate are willing to go along with killing New START for the sole purpose of making the p...

Los Angeles Times slams 'unacceptable level of bias' at Fox News
© Los Angeles Times The second largest newspaper in the US devoted text on Friday to admonishing the partisan Fox News network for bias in its hard news programs. After a series of leaked memos revealed that one Fox News boss tried to "slant" the news, The Los Angeles Times suggested that the conservative network should stop calling itself an objective news source. As December began, liberal Watchdog group Media Matters released an e-mail showing that FOX News' Washington managing edito...

Russia warns U.S. not to change nuclear pact
MOSCOW — Russia warned U.S. lawmakers on Monday that any changes to the strategic nuclear arms limitation treaty signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in April could kill the pact. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's warning, in an interview with the Interfax news agency, came with the White House pressing for a ratification vote on the New START Treaty this week before the Senate breaks for Christmas. Some U.S. Republicans want to make changes in the treaty, which they ...

New START Daily Wrap: Weekend Edition
President Obama sent letters to Senators Reid and McConnell about the U.S. Missile Defense plans.  President Obama reiterated, "Regardless of Russia's actions in this regard, as long as I am President, and as long as Congress provides the necessary funding, the United States will continue to develop and deploy the effective missile defenses to protect the United State, our deployed forces, and our allies and partners." Killer amendment, killed.  Senators voted 59 to 37...

New START Treaty: The Obama Administration is dancing to Moscows tune
When Hillary Clinton famously announced Washington’s new “reset” policy towards Russia, she really meant to say “kowtow”. Because whenever Moscow makes a demand the Obama Administration obediently follows. The Russians hated the Bush Administration’s plans for Third Site missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic, and the Obama team dutifully dropped them last year in what can only be described as an appalling surrender to a major strategic adversary. Now with th

Russia: Arms treaty with US can't be changed (AP)
Moscow – Russia has warned the U.S. that no changes can be made to a proposed nuclear Arms Control treaty, which President Barack Obama wants ratified before the end of the year. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday the draft New START Treaty, which was painstakingly negotiated for months, is not subject to alterations. He was speaking to Russian news agency Interfax. Lavrov said as it stands the treaty which would limit the former Cold War foes' nuclear arsenals and still needs pa...

Senate support builds for pact on arms control with Russia
WASHINGTON -- The Senate moved closer Monday to approving a new Arms Control treaty with Russia over the opposition of Republican leaders as lawmakers worked on a side deal to assure skeptics that the arms pact would not inhibit U.S. plans to build Missile Defense systems. A Republican senator announced that he would vote for the treaty and two others said they were leaning toward it after a closed-door session on classified aspects of the pact. At the same time, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., prod...

Backers seek Republican votes
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama tried to sway reluctant Republican senators on Monday to back a new Arms Control treaty with Russia as GOP aversion to giving a politically damaged president another victory intruded on his National Security agenda. The White House and senior Democrats expressed confidence that they had the votes for the accord that was signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April. The two countries negotiated the New START pact to cap Nuclear Weapons and ...

Russia: Arms treaty with US can't be changed
Moscow – Russia has warned the U.S. that no changes can be made to a proposed nuclear Arms Control treaty, which President Barack Obama wants ratified before the end of the year. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday the draft New START Treaty, which was painstakingly negotiated for months, is not subject to alterations. He was speaking to Russian news agency Interfax. Lavrov said as it stands the treaty which would limit the former Cold War foes' nuclear arsenals and still needs pa...

Fear vs. Reason in the Arms Control Debate
Robert Wright on culture, politics and world affairs. Tags: Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, START Treaty There are six living secretaries of state from Republican administrations, and every one of them — from Henry Kissinger through Condoleezza Rice — endorses the New Start Arms Control treaty with START Treaty Up for Cliffhanger Vote in Senate Tuesday
With the clock running out on the lame-duck session of Congress, the Senate expects to begin voting Tuesday on ratification of the Strategic Arms Nuclear Reduction Treaty, the the arms-reduction pact signed in Prague by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April. Proponents of the bill will need 60 votes to end debate on the measure on Tuesday, followed by a two-thirds majority, likely 67 votes, to ratify the treaty later in the week. The issue has become an increasingly cont...

Obama Set For Most Important Victory Yet
We have six minutes until the world ends in nuclear fire.  That according to the Doomsday Clock, the symbolic clock cooked up by Atomic Scientists to convey the point of how close we stand to someone pushing the red button.  The simple truth is that as long as their are Nuclear Weapons, the law of probability says that inevitably a disaster will happen and the chances of a doomsday scenario are frighteningly high. But in a short time, we may be able to add a few more minutes to that cl...

The outrage of having to enact bills
As the death rattle of the 111th Congress approaches its rheumy end, we admit that there are some actions our lawmakers have taken that do not displease us. (Why we are talking like Queen Victoria, we do not know.) We are happy that a tax deal that enriched everybody from the ultra-deserving Middle Class to the scoundrel rich also will continue benefits to the unemployed. We are pleased with the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” making it possible for gays and Lesbians to...

Quiet deal allows some of Obama's judge nominees to get through Senate
WASHINGTON — After a months-long Blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama's noncontroversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others, according to officials familiar with the deal. Among the four is Goodwin Liu, a Law School dean seen as a potential future Supreme Court pick, whose current nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court...

Partisan bickering over START
The public debate over the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty took on an increasingly partisan cast Monday as Democrats accused Republicans of trying to scuttle the treaty to deny President Barack Obama the ability to claim another victory in the lame-duck session and GOP senators charged the White House with trying to jam the treaty through for much the same reason. There were signs that some Republicans who have been publicly critical of the treaty might be quietly nearing a deal to support th...

Senate Support Building for Russia Nuke Pact
Like this Story? Share it: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA), Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) talk to reporters after a closed session about the New START Treaty in the Old Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol Dec. 20, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images) The Senate resumes their debate on the START treaty after a history-making weekend in which lawmakers re...