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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....

I had to parse Senator Carl Levin’s response to my email. After I got over the comedy of the whole thing, I realized that he knows very little about my beautiful State of Michigan. So, here is my email again, and his response again, and I answered most of his statements with what I see as reality. Dear Senator,

Being a good citizen, interested in the future progress of my current circumstances, I found it necessary to email my congressmen. I typed a little letter and sent it to every congressman and Senator that represents me in the State of Michigan. I also sent it to the few congressmen who allow comments from people in the state they do not represent. I received four emails back immediately thanking me for my comments. The following is my original email. Dear Senator, I appreciate the time and interest you have shown to run for office and win your election. I would...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said Sunday he would not object to firing executives of U.S. automakers that get proposed federal bailout money. The Democrat said in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" program that senior management at General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) and Chrysler Corp. should consider resigning their posts if it means their respective firms can get federal assistance. Congressional lawmakers are considering $25 billion in emergency loans for the struggling car makers. The Senate reportedly will take up a bailout proposal Monday. "If it was the difference...

LANSING - A gallon of gas costs more than twice what it did six years ago, the last time incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin was up for re-election. The average statewide cost for regular unleaded gasoline was $3.27 per gallon as of Friday, according to AAA Michigan. The price topped $4 at times this summer, very different from the $1.55 per gallon Michigan motorists were paying in October 2002. Energy prices are among the top concerns for Michigan voters headed to the polls Nov. 4. The price and availability of energy, along with the nation's emerging energy policy, could...

Hoogendyk for US Senate FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Danae Brack Campaign Manager 517-444-1181    Hoogendyk: Levin is on the Side of Big GovernmentUS Senate Candidate Calls for Action in Favor of the MarketMichigan - October 3, 2008 - US Senate Candidate Jack Hoogendyk expressed his strong disagreement with Senator Carl Levin's vote in favor of the bailout package. Two days ago, Michigan's US senators split on the bill: Senator Stabenow voted against it, whereas Senator Levin voted for it.   "I applaud Senator Stabenow's 'no' vote," Hoogendyk said, "but it does not come as a surprise that, once again, Senator Carl Levin has chosen...

Levin, Stabenow seek lighthouse grant program Posted: Sep 28, 2008 07:29 AM Updated: Sep 28, 2008 07:39 AM DETROIT (AP) -- Michigan's senators want to create a federal program to help pay for the preservation of historic lighthouses. U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow have introduced a bill to let states and nonprofit organizations apply for competitive grants to restore and maintain lighthouses. The two Democrats say the pilot program would distribute $20 million a year for three years. Funds would be distributed based on the percentage of historic lighthouses in each state. Michigan has more lighthouses than any...

However, when it comes to regulating financial institutions and corporate misconduct, Mr. McCain's record is more in keeping with his current rhetoric. In the aftermath of the Enron collapse and other accounting scandals, he was a leader, with Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), in pushing to require that companies treat stock options granted to employees as expenses on their balance sheets. "I have long opposed unnecessary regulation of business activity, mindful that the heavy hand of government can discourage innovation," he wrote in a July 2002 op-ed in the New York Times. "But in the current climate only a restoration...

Sen. Carl Levin, a 30-year Senate veteran and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said a McCain win would continue polices that grant tax cuts to the rich and big oil companies, keep tens of million of Americans without health care insurance, and spend billions of dollars monthly on a war in Iraq. "What Republicans are offering us is warmed over soup that made us sick the first time we tasted it," said Levin, who is heavily favored for reelection in November over state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo.

Federal regulators should consider revoking the US banking license of the giant Swiss Bank UBS because of its role in helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars in taxes, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) told ABC News today. "I don't think that any bank that goes to the extent that UBS has gone through to avoid doing what their agreements with the United States require them to do, should be allowed to continue to do business unless they clean up their act," Levin said. UBS's role in arranging "undeclared" accounts for an estimated 19,000 US citizens was one focus of a...

The Talk Shows Sunday, July 13th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Tribute to Tony Snow with guests including Vice President Dick Cheney and commentator Rush Limbaugh.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Carly Fiorina, adviser to John McCain; Sen. Claire Mccaskill, D-Mo.; Republican strategist Mike Murphy; Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor; Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind. THIS WEEK (ABC): Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Govs. Mark...

(CBS) A "fixed finish line" is in place for the determination of the Democratic Party nominee, says Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who feels it is unlikely Sen. Hillary Clinton will remain in the race all the way to the convention. "Until she decides that she can't win at the convention and makes a decision, it's going to stay open," Levin said on CBS's Face The Nation. "However, I think it's more than likely that within a week or two that Senator [Barack] Obama will have enough votes to claim that he's going to be the nominee." However, with yesterday's ruling...

Carl Levin has served in the United States Senate for 30 years and the first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of his re-election bid suggest he’s likely to keep his job. Levin leads Republican state legislator Jack Hoogendyk by a 54% to 37% margin. Levin has won each of his last three re-election bids with 58% to 60% of the vote. He has not faced a serious election threat since 1984.

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Renewed Attack on Privacy of Gun Buyers   Friday, May 02, 2008   This week, anti-gun U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) registration legislation that would invade the privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.Cosponsored by like-minded Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Carl Levin (D-MI), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Charles Schumer (D-NY), S. 2935 would, among other things, require the FBI to retain records of cleared firearm transactions for at least 180 days.  Current law requires...

They say they support the troops, but the words and actions of certain members of Congress seem to belie that idea.Read entire article

Petraeus and Crocker Meet the Real Enemy By Michael Reagan FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/11/2008 There must have been times when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker thought they were back in embattled Sadr City when they faced Democrats on Capitol Hill this week -- no Iraqi insurgents or al Sadr militiamen could have been more hostile. No wonder. The goals of the Democrats and both al Qaeda and al Sadr insurgents are the same: the defeat of the United States in the war in Iraq. From the opening statement by Sen. Carl Levin -- a vitriolic tirade against the war...

On the heels of the testimony of Gen. Petraeus to Congress this week Senator Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have written a editorial in the Wall Street Journal that is a must read: Al Qaeda in Iraq has been swept from its former strongholds in Anbar province and Baghdad. The liberation of these areas was made possible by the surge, which empowered Iraqi Muslims to reject the Islamist extremists who had previously terrorized them into submission. Any time Muslims take up arms against Osama bin Laden, his agents and sympathizers, the world is a safer place. In recent months, the...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Democrats signaled on Friday that they don't see much hope in ending the Iraq war this year so long as President Bush insists U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers. But party leaders wrote to Bush on Friday anyhow, telling him it's not too late to change course and pleading with him not to leave the war for the next president to handle. "We are deeply concerned that you and the congressional Republican leadership are intent on staying the current course throughout your administration and then handing the Iraq war off to future presidents," the Democrats...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senior Democratic senators challenged a new intelligence report's assessment of President Bush's "surge" strategy Friday, saying the troop increase in Iraq has failed to achieve its strategic goals. The classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which was distributed to key lawmakers this week, sets the stage for the latest public progress report on Iraq that will be delivered Tuesday and Wednesday to congressional committees by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad. "In my judgment, it's too rosy, but there are parts of it that...

Anne Flaherty, AP's one-woman anti-war dynamo, strikes again!:http://news.google.com/news?hl=enhs=5HJ&um=1&tab=wn&q=%22anne+flaherty%22+levin&btnG=Search+News

This morning I checked my emails and newsfeeds like I do every morning. Right away one story jumped out at me. I had thought that the Democrats’ Congress had given up with their faux resolutions against the Iraq War, given up on trying to cut funding for the troops (always a half-hearted effort on their part at best), and generally given up on actually trying to end the war with a politically-driven premature evacuation. According to The Hill, “Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is working with a key appropriator on a strategy to halve the White House’s...

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is working with a key appropriator on a strategy to halve the White House’s war-funding request to pressure President Bush into changing course in Iraq. Levin said Wednesday that giving Bush a six-month installment plan on the nearly $200 billion fiscal 2008 war-funding request would serve a dual purpose: It would intensify pressure on the president to change course after next June, while avoiding “sending a negative message to the troops,” because war funding would continue until next may or June, when the president would have to request a second funding bill....

Next year's U.S. Senate race is looking like it could be a rematch between longtime Democratic incumbent Carl Levin and Republican Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski. Raczkowski spoke briefly Saturday at a Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference luncheon, the usual biennial kickoff for the following year's elections. He didn't commit while he was on the island to running, but says he has set up an exploratory committee and is considering challenging Levin a second time. Another Republican, state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk of Kalamazoo, told The Associated Press by telephone Sunday that he's also considering the race. He said he has received encouragement from...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's beleaguered prime minister accused his American critics on Sunday of underestimating how hard it is to rebuild his country and failing to appreciate his government's achievements "such as stopping the civil and sectarian war." Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said told reporters that some of the criticism from Washington sends "signals to terrorists luring them into thinking that the security situation in the country is not good." He offered no specific examples. He also said U.S. critics may not know "the size of the destruction that Iraq passed through" and do not appreciate "the big role of the...

BAGHDAD (AP) - There are some stern words from Iraq's prime minister today for two prominent U.S. Democrats. Nouri al-Maliki says Senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin, quote, need to "come to their senses." Both have called for his ouster, saying al-Maliki's government has failed to meet basic goals for unifying and securing Iraq. Clinton is running for president. Levin heads the Senate Armed Services Committee. Al-Maliki is fighting to hold his government together. And he used a news conference in Baghdad today to blast his critics, mentioning Clinton and Levin in particular. He said they are examples of American...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's beleaguered prime minister on Sunday lashed out at American critics who have called for his ouster, saying Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Carl Levin need to "come to their senses." Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were most strident. "There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and...

Al-Maliki Tells Off Clinton, Levin Iraqi Prime Minister Says U.S. Dems Should 'Come To Their Senses' POSTED: 9:37 am EDT August 26, 2007 BAGHDAD -- There are some stern words from Iraq's prime minister Sunday for two prominent U.S. Democrats. Nouri al-Maliki said Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin need to "come to their senses." Both have called for his ouster, saying al-Maliki's government has failed to meet basic goals for unifying and securing Iraq. Clinton is running for president. Levin heads the Senate Armed Services Committee. Al-Maliki is fighting to hold his government together. And he used a news...

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan (right), chats with Lt. Col. Dean Dunham, deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, during a visit to the Al Madain Joint Security Station in the Zafaraniyah section of eastern Baghdad Aug. 18. Levin, along with Virginia Sen. John Warner, visited leaders of the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment and the 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Division to get a first-hand account of how the surge is progressing. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. W. Wayne Marlow, 2nd IBCT, 2nd Inf. Div. Public Affairs) Sen. John Warner of Virginia...

After months of surreality, the Iraq debate has quite abruptly acquired a relationship to reality. Following the Democratic victory last November, panicked Republican senators began rifling the thesaurus to find exactly the right phrase to express exactly the right nuance to establish exactly the right distance from the president's Iraq policy, while Murtha Democrats searched for exactly the right legislative ruse to force a retreat from Iraq without appearing to do so. In the last month, however, as a consensus has emerged about realities on the ground in Iraq, a reasoned debate has begun. A number of fair-minded observers, both...