Wampum

S.970 will end nuclear cooperation with the successor-in-fissiles to the Soviet Union.

Only a handful of us wrote out against the mistranslation of Mahmud Ahmadinejad's recital of Imam (or Ayatollah if you prefer) Khomeini's oft-quoted call for Israel-as-we-regret-it to be transformed into something less horrible. Only two members of the House, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich voted with scholarship, on the phrasing, its original context, its representation on many Qud's Day anniversaries since its original utterance, and the political capabilities and incapabilities of the 6th President of the Islamic Republic. The rest voted against scholarship. Juan's got a longish piece up today here, and I've written about it in the past here and here and here and here and here and ...

Mark Spittle had this down to an art.

Turning to the politics, the DSCC has been burning money in the Portland media market on Gordon Smith's Iraq votes, so why are they handing him a drip torch and permission to set fires Iran and Russia?

'08 cycle Democratic competitor co-sponsors: Clinton, Dodd, and Obama
'08 cycle Democratic competitor non-sponsors: Biden

Also not co-sponsoring are Byrd, Feinstein, Kennedy, Murry, Whitehouse and Saunders (I).

There's a question for Suzie, who's credentialed as media for Thursday night's PBS sponsored Presidential Debate -- under what conditions, if any, is former Senator John Edwards willing to end nuclear cooperation with Russia. I'm interested in Bill Richardson's response also, though I'm sure I know what his is. Color me curious and yellow, but even Joe Biden's response is potentially interesting.