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The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday that he would "love" to see controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh dropped from the Armed Forces Network. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) called Limbaugh's show "offensive" and told CNN he has been "delighted" to see advertisers drop the program in the wake of outrage over Limbaugh calling a Georgetown University law student a "slut" and a "prostitute." Sandra Fluke, the student, had testified for House Democrats in favor of the White House's contraception coverage mandate. Several Democrats, along with many liberal groups, have called for Limbaugh's sponsors to leave him...

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin has scheduled a March 20 hearing of his Senate Armed Services Committee to scrutinize Air Force plans to cut Air National Guard troops across the nation, including a one-third reduction of military personnel at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. An Air Force report concludes that eliminating Selfridge’s 24 A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft while adding four KC135 air refueling tankers would cost the Harrison Township base 720 jobs. But the Michigan National Guard said errors in the Air Force count puts the true number at 561, compared to an overall troop force at Selfridge of 1,586. In a...

Reid’s floor maneuvers leave some Senate Democrats frustratedBy Alexander Bolton - 02/07/12 05:15 AM ET Some Democrats are grumbling over how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has run the floor this year. The frustration is felt mostly among junior lawmakers, who want more of a role in decision-making and have yet to resign themselves to the traditional pace of the Senate, where seniority rules and lawmakers often have to wait years to have significant influence. They say Reid’s style leaves them feeling out of the loop. Colleagues have second-guessed Reid’s decision to greenlight a deal with Republicans on the...

Unless the bastards come after me again, this is my last column on a national disgrace. So let me be absolutely clear about who the bastards are: The New York Times, Senator Carl Levin and their 40 Democratic allies in the House of Representatives. The disgrace in question: The Times’s April 2008 “exposé” alleging conflicts of interest and wrongdoing by the retired military analysts often featured on television newscasts before and during the Iraq War. I was one of those analysts. In fact, I wrote a first-person history of the Pentagon briefing program in a 2006 book, Warheads. After the...

While nearly all Americans head to family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself. Senators need to hear from you, on whether you think your front yard is part of a “battlefield” and...

Under the ‘worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial’ provision of S.1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is set to be up for a vote on the Senate floor this week, the legislation will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who supports the bill. The bill was drafted in SECRET by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), before being passed in a closed-door committee meeting without any kind of hearing. The language appears in sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA...

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) just dropped a couple of very alarming tales during a hearing about counterfeit parts making their way into brand new U.S. military weapons. Earlier this year, Boeing and the Navy found that the ice detection system on a brand new P-8 Poseidon was defective. The ice detection system is a critical piece of hardware designed to prevent tragedies by alerting pilots to the presence of ice on an aircraft’s control surfaces. Where did this defective part come from? China. A whole batch of a key piece of the ice detection hardware that...

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is intervening with a Pentagon investigator to influence the final wording of a report that exonerates George W. Bush-era officials who gave war briefings to retired military TV and radio commentators. Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, has tried for three years to convince federal investigators that the briefing program violated government rules and that some of the retired officers turned analysts received preferential treatment for Pentagon contracts. Two previous government probes found no misconduct, and the Pentagon inspector general now has wrapped up a third investigation. A source close to the third...

US Oks $196.5M for high-speed Chicago-Detroit railAP – 25 mins ago KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved $196.5 million for part of a high-speed Amtrak passenger rail link between Chicago and Detroit, Michigan U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow said Wednesday. The funds now being obligated cover work from Kalamazoo in western Michigan to Dearborn in suburban Detroit, the Democratic lawmakers said. The grant to the Michigan Department of Transportation will cover track and signal improvements.

Carl Levin Rips Donald Trump to Shreds

Goldman Sachs has a lot of friends in high places, including many former Goldman execs. But the company has also made a few enemies along the way to becoming arguably the most powerful firm on Wall Street, including the Chairman and Ranking Republican on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled the Congress," Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said yesterday as he and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK.) released a two-year study on the financial crisis and its cause. Generally speaking, Sen. Levin has accused Goldman of selling clients mortgage-backed securities (MBS)...

Stabenow is squirming under the heat of this EPA vote so much that she is working on her own amendment. Her amendment seeks to delay EPA regulation of CO2 for two years. Interestingly enough, that is exactly the amount of time needed to campaign for her next term. Right now, there are three Democrat amendments that are serving as cover amendments for the McConnell/Manchin bipartisan amendment. Rockefeller, Baucus, and now Stabenow each want to obfuscate and implement Cap and Trade. The Detroit Free Press reports, "U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow is proposing a two-year delay in the enforcement of new greenhouse...

Levin pie-chucker chargedBy Bridget Johnson - 12/31/10 04:47 PM ET An anti-war demonstrator who hurled a pie at the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in August was charged Thursday in the attack. Ahlam Mohsen, 23, of Coldwater, Mich., faces a count of assault for hitting Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in the face with an apple pie, and another count of assault on a federal officer. Her friend Max Kantar of Big Rapids, Mich., was also charged with the same counts. According to the Associated Press, U.S. Attorney Don Davis in Grand Rapids says elected leaders should be able...

_resident Obama's $858 billion tax package won a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate Monday evening, setting it up for a contentious debate in the House. In a 83-15 vote, the Senate quashed a filibuster by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Va.). Fifteen lawmakers voted against it, including five Republicans: Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), John Ensign (Nev.) and George Voinovich (Ohio). Nine Democrats and one independent voted against the bill: Sens. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Russ Feingold (Wis.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Pat Leahy (Vt.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Mark...

Next week will be crucial for gay rights advocates and congressional supporters of repealing the “Don't ask, don't tell” law. Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are working to garner support for a standalone bill to repeal the Clinton-era ban on openly gay people serving in the military. Lieberman and Collins formally introduced that bill on Friday. The Senate this week dealt a severe blow to repeal when it fell short of the 60 votes necessary to start considering the defense authorization bill, which contains the repeal provision. At this point the standalone repeal bill is a last-ditch...

John Engler, largely based on superior name recognition, is the top choice of Michigan Republicans to take on Debbie Stabenow in 2012. Among the more likely roster of potential GOP contenders Pete Hoekstra is the leader by a good margin with only Mike Cox also hitting double digits. 31% of Republican voters say Engler would be their first choice, followed by 24% for Hoekstra, and 12% for Cox. Rounding out the Republicans polled is Terri Lynn Land at 7%, Candice Miller at 5%, Mike Rogers at 4%, Thad McCotter at 3%, and Tim Leuliette at 0%. If Leuliette, who has...

The call by Democratic senators Chuck Schumer and Carl Levin for AIPAC to back passage of the stalled START treaty with Russia speaks volumes about the growing desperation of both the White House and its Senate allies. The administration is reportedly going all-out to push Jewish groups to lobby for the treaty, but it is unlikely that AIPAC will succumb to the pressure. The group has been scrupulous about sticking to its agenda of working only on behalf of Israel-related issues, a policy that keeps it strictly neutral on arms control measures like START.

Sen. Levin hit with pie, woman arrested By Michael O'Brien - 08/16/10 01:58 PM ET A Michigan State student was arrested Monday after allegedly throwing a pie in the face of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). According to multiple reports, police arrested 23-year-old student Ahlam Mohsen on assault and battery charges after she reportedly threw a pie in the senator's face during a question-and-answer session at a deli in Big Rapids, Mich. Mohsen told a local ABC affiliate her action was to protest Levin and other Democrats' support for Israel. "Carl Levin is one of the most respected senators in Congress,"...

Big Rapids, Mich. (AP) - A woman identified as an anti-war protester hit U.S. Sen. Carl Levin in the face with an apple pie during the Armed Services Committee chairman's meeting with constituents in northern Michigan, authorities said Monday. The senator took a question near the end of the Monday morning meeting in Big Rapids from a man who said he was a student, Levin's office said in a news release. The man read a long statement, then a woman came up and hit Levin with a pie. Big Rapids police arrested Ahlam M. Mohsen, 22, of Coldwater on a...

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- A woman identified as an anti-war protester hit U.S. Sen. Carl Levin in the face with an apple pie during the Armed Services Committee chairman's meeting with constituents in northern Michigan, authorities said Monday....

Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) is the latest public figure to have a close encounter with a rogue element of the pie-throwing faction. Sen. Levin's face received its own serving of down-home fresh-baked goodness as he answered questions in a morning meeting at a deli with Mecosta County, MI Democrats. A young man identified as Max Kantar had just taken Levin to task regarding foreign policy and Levin's views on the defense of Israel when witnesses say 22-year-old Ahlam Mohsen of Coldwater, MI assaulted the senator. Levin, who is 76, seemed to take it in stride, joking that it had happened...

Sen. Levin hit with pie, woman arrested By Michael O'Brien - 08/16/10 01:58 PM ET A Michigan State student was arrested Monday after allegedly throwing a pie in the face of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). According to multiple reports, police arrested 23-year-old student Ahlam Mohsen on assault and battery charges after she reportedly threw a pie in the senator's face during a question-and-answer session at a deli in Big Rapids, Mich. Mohsen told a local ABC affiliate her action was to protest Levin and other Democrats' support for Israel. "People tend to blame the war on Republicans, but we wanted...

The 1,200 National Guard who are headed to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona won't be on the front lines but will be helping out in vital support roles, President Obama said Thursday. Speaking at an East Room press conference in the White House, the president said the Guard will primarily assist with intelligence, but troops will not not nabbing illegal immigrants and smugglers as they cross into the southwestern state. "What we find is, is that National Guards persons can help on intelligence, dealing with both drug and human trafficking along the borders. They can relieve border guards so that...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews compares Senators quoting Goldman Sach's "s-word" language to "what the priests do when they check out the porn movies.

No surprise coming from the party that sold T-Shirts of Joe Biden dropping the F-bomb, Carl Levin at a Senate hearing with Goldmans Sachs uses the same curse word over and over even though the hearing is being held live on C-SPAN, (Video)

Top Democratic allies of President Barack Obama called Thursday for quick Senate ratification of a US-Russia treaty committing the former Cold War foes to major nuclear arms cuts. "This is too important to delay," said Democratic Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tasked with taking up the pact before a full vote by the entire chamber. Kerry said he would work with the panel's top Republican, Richard Lugar, after the Obama administration submits the full treaty "in early May" to hold hearings and "see that this historic treaty is ratified this year." Obama has called on...

The White House has asked the top Senate Democrat on military affairs to postpone announcing a hearing that would explore repealing the controversial law that bans openly gay people from serving in the military. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was expected to have Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen testify before his committee on recent calls to end the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The hearing was expected at the end of January. Sources tell The Hill that even though it has not been...

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee said Friday. The U.S. government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric. They were passed along to two Joint Terrorism Task Force cells led by the FBI, but a senior defense official said no one at the Defense Department knew about the messages until after the shootings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss...

There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee said Friday. SNIP The Pentagon wrote regulations on "dissident and protest activities" in response to soldier participation in skinhead and other racially motivated hate groups. The current rules were written in 1996 and last updated in 2003. The rules prohibit membership or participation in "organizations that espouse supremacist causes," seek to discriminate based on race, religion or other factors or advocate force or violence. Commanders...

Saying the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is in "serious jeopardy," the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee says more troops are needed to combat an increasingly potent Taliban. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's views on the issue are more closely aligned with those of key Republicans than members of her own party, including Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee. He wants to hold off on new troops pending revision of U.S. strategy for Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. mission in Afghanistan is in "serious jeopardy" and needs more troops to turn the tide against an increasingly potent Taliban insurgency, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday, putting her at odds with an influential Democratic colleague on military matters Sen. Dianne Feinstein's views are more closely aligned with those of key Republicans than members of her own party. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee, urged a more methodical approach that begins with crafting a new, comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan. "I'm saying at this time, don't send more combat troops," said...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2009 AT 5:59 AM Streaming at 12:30: PERAB Meeting on Tax Reform Posted by Austan Goolsbee Today, the tax subgroup of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) will hold a meeting to gather ideas on tax reform. It will be the first of several such meetings. The meeting will center on tax simplification and will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live. I wanted to take the opportunity to explain why we assembled this subgroup, what areas the PERAB tax reform subgroup will focus on...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee responded Sunday to recent criticism from former White House hopeful Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the committee. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, has lately suggested that the proper course for the United States to pursue in Afghanistan is to beef up the country’s own army and police forces before planning on sending in any additional American troops.

The single most damning story about President Obama so far is one we know courtesy of his national security adviser, Jim Jones. Visiting the newly installed military commanders in Afghanistan in late June, Jones told General Stanley McChrystal that if he requested more troops any time soon, Obama would have a "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (i.e., "What the f--") moment. Jones then, in an interview, made the claim--denied by everyone else involved--that military leaders had agreed that when the president earlier sent 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, "there would be a year from the time the decision was made before they would...

WASHINGTON — The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces. The comments by the senator, Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, illustrate the growing skepticism President Obama is facing in his own party as the White House decides whether to commit more deeply to a war that has begun losing public support, even as American commanders acknowledge that the situation on the ground has deteriorated....

WASHINGTON – Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin says the U.S. has "lost the initiative" in the war against insurgents in Afghanistan. In a speech to the Senate Friday, Levin says he wants heightened training of Afghan armed forces before committing more American troops. Levin, D-Mich., urged the Obama administration to expand Afghan forces to 240,000 troops and Afghan police to 160,000 officers by 2013.

An opponent of the surge in Iraq, Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich) is now calling for one in Afghanistan. According to Bloomberg.com, Levin has stated in letters and face-to-face meetings with National Security Advisor Jim Jones that, “Any further postponement” of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper U.S. efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year. In a May 19 letter, Levin was among 16 other Senators who “urged a doubling of Afghan forces” and cautioned against “taking an incremental approach” that “does not reflect the realities on the ground. Is this is the same...

The most remarkable thing happened in Washington this past Tuesday. Congress scrapped the F-22 stealth fighter jet, killing off a 30-year-old Pentagon hardware program that employs 25,000 people in 46 states. It was a dogfight almost to the end over $1.75 billion and the need to remake military readiness. Threats and promises, blunt talk and grand gestures -- all were deployed to support an appeal to common sense and for urgent change, according to principals involved. The White House coordinated the ultimately successful vote-wrangling, and its specific tactics may show up again in another epic battle now unfolding: getting Congress...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Carl Levin on Wednesday temporarily withdrew a bid to kill $1.75 billion in funding for the F-22 fighter jet in a massive defense bill, but he vowed to bring it up again. ... President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the annual defense bill if it includes the money to acquire seven F-22 aircraft, made by Lockheed-Martin. The overall measure includes $550.4 billion for military operations and $130 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for fiscal 2010 which begins October 1. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to cut back many of the military's...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says former Vice President Dick Cheney is lying when he claims that classified CIA memos show that enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding worked.

Democrats: CIA is out to get us By: Manu Raju May 12, 2009 06:28 PM EST Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself. “I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters [of the CIA] that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was briefed on interrogation techniques five times between 2006 and 2007. Illinois Sen....

If President Obama wanted to refrain from releasing these photos in order to protect the military forces he commands or promote the security of Americans — his two highest obligations as president — he could do so by simply issuing an executive order. The applicable statute expressly allows for it, just as it provides for Congress — now in the firm control of the president and his party — to withhold the photos from disclosure. Instead, Obama and congressional Democrats are choosing to release the photos. They are making that choice fully aware that it will cost lives. It is...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate defense committee chairman says Pentagon budget will include large, painful cuts. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said Tuesday that major program cuts will not be pushed off until the 2011 budget, but will be included when Defense Secretary Robert Gates sends his spending plan to the president later this month.

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department would be forced to change its acquisition process under legislation introduced on Tuesday by top senators determined to crack down on the runaway costs and costly schedule delays dogging many Pentagon weapons programs. Senators Carl Levin, the Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, and John McCain, a former presidential candidate and the top Republican on the committee, said the bill aimed to achieve more reasonable cost and schedule estimates before programs started. It also would ensure technologies were more developed before production began and would crack down on the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cost overruns on big-ticket Pentagon projects have left the U.S. military facing a budgetary "train wreck" at a time of growing budget deficits, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday. McCain and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the cost of 95 major weapons systems -- ships, aircraft and armored vehicles -- have ballooned by a total of 30 percent in recent years, to about $1.3 trillion. The senators announced an effort, including legislation, to rein in that spending and tighten Defense Department oversight. With U.S. troops fighting two wars overseas...

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said Friday he believes the time is ripe for the U.S. to pursue a fresh partnership with Russia aimed at deterring Iranian missiles. The Michigan Democrat said he has spoken with President Barack Obama's advisers, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a private conversation, and that he believes they are open to the idea. Levin said pushing for the cooperative effort would be among his top priorities this year on the committee, which helps to oversee the Pentagon's $600 billion-plus annual budget. ''There is potential here for a...

Sen. Carl Levin, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said Friday he believes the time is ripe for the U.S. to pursue a fresh partnership with Russia aimed at deterring Iranian missiles. The Michigan Democrat said he has spoken with President Barack Obama's advisers, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a private conversation, and that he believes they are open to the idea. Levin said pushing for the cooperative effort would be among his top priorities this year on the committee, which helps to oversee the Pentagon's $600 billion-plus annual budget. "There is potential here for a real...

Sen. John McCain (?-Ariz.), joining with liberal Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), issued a report last week on the abuse of terrorist detainees. The report accuses former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Defense Department General Counsel Jim Haynes, and David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, of causing the torture of terrorist detainees. But the report is a clumsy calumny, contradicting the factual conclusions of earlier, far more credible investigations. Predictably, it was enough for the New York Times to call for the appointment of a prosecutor to consider criminal charges against Rumsfeld and the others....