Today's Washington Post has this editorial, "Ethical Progress" which commends the efforts in the Senate on the ethics and lobbying form bill so far. Yet, this piece notes that important amendments and provisions would strengthen the legislation.

Within minutes of our blog below on the earmark disclosure debate in the Senate, word issues that Majority Leader Harry Reid will support the DeMint amendment in most particulars and move as early as next Tuesday to a cloture vote on S. 1, with a vote on the bill expected later in the week. Per a CQ article ($$) and a call with a senior Reid staffer, the new compromise amendment will:

• require disclosure of earmarks on the internet 48 hours before a floor vote
• define specific projects within federal agencies as earmarks

Senate consideration of >S. 1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 (discussed >here), veered off course of plans carefully plotted by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) yesterday, when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced an amendment that would greatly expand the scope of earmarks covered under S. 1. DeMint says that S. 1 would not require the disclosure of about 95 percent of all actual earmarks. Yesterday, the Senate rejected a motion to table (i.e., to kill) the DeMint amendment by a 51-46 vote.

Ever wonder where all these climate change denialist groups came from? It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to guess they were funded by the oil and gas industry, but it did take the Union of Concerned Scientists to string together the facts, and the evidence is pretty damning. A new http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html ">report from the Union of Concerned Scientists documents how the gas industry, and particularly ExxonMobil, has dumped millions of dollars into Astroturf organizations that seek to foster doubt about