This is a big deal:

Harry Reid just spoke on the Senate floor, revealing that he'll allow a vote this week on the Feingold-Reid amendment, which would cut off funding for the war by March 31, 2008.

This is a big deal for war opponents -- it's the first vote in the Senate on a measure of this kind. "This is a vote that folks have been clamoring for for some time now," enthuses a staffer who works for a Senator favoring the approach.

The staffer added that while the measure faces an uphill struggle, a vote on it will move the parameters of the debate and force Senators into a straight up-or-down vote on the war -- just as last week's House vote on Dem Rep. James McGovern's proposal to end the war did.

Any and all supporters of ending the Iraq Debacle by the only means possible, by NOT funding it after a date certain, MUST urge a Yes vote for Reid Feingold. This is the framework that can end the war.

Lost in the shuffle of allegations of misogyny, the very dangerous and wrongheaded movement to eliminate pseudonymity in the blogs continues apace. Today it is Tom Grubisch in the Washingotn Post:

. . . [I]n late 2005, turned off by the venom of anonymous posters, Joseloff instituted a policy requiring anyone who wanted to comment to use his or her real name. . . .

[O]ne concern common to all sites is whistle-blowers: What about someone who wants to expose an injustice or unfairness, whether it's a civil servant pinpointing malfeasance in government or, perhaps, a waiter complaining about lousy tipping at a local restaurant? How can they be protected from retaliation?

Online pioneer Vin Crosbie suggests that sites -- whether personal blogs, community sites or major news providers -- should be flexible enough to grant pseudonyms to users who want to blow a whistle. This would require sites to make decisions on a case-by-case basis. How often would such intervention be required? Not enough to require most sites to hire extra staff.

Here is some vitriol, this is so unrealistic as to be laughably stupid. Decide on pseudonymity on a case by case basis? And how pray tell, do you plan to handle that disclosure to your audience? Or will you not tell them about who is pseudonymous and who is not? What about the site's transparency? Are readers to assume that all site operators are just good honest people? This is the proposal of a person who simply does not understand the way blogging works.

Paul Krugman tell some hard truths about trade policy and income inequality in the United States and the world. Some bloggers like David Sirota and the folks at MYDD are closely aligned with labor unions and have a fairly narrow way of looking at the issues - international labor standards, the right to organize, etc. From the US perspective, I think Krugman states an essential truth:

Realistically, however, labor standards won’t do all that much for American workers. No matter how free third-world workers are to organize, they’re still going to be paid very little, and trade will continue to place pressure on U.S. wages.

So what’s the answer? I don’t think there is one, as long as the discussion is restricted to trade policy: all-out protectionism isn’t acceptable, and labor standards in trade agreements will help only a little.

By all means, let’s have strong labor standards in our pending trade agreements, and let’s approach proposals for new agreements with an appropriate degree of skepticism. But if Democrats really want to help American workers, they’ll have to do it with a pro-labor policy that relies on better tools than trade policy. Universal health care, paid for by taxing the economy’s winners, would be a good place to start.

Tax policy and health care policy can do more for our country's workers than trade policy. That is not the labor union mindset, but it should be the Democratic mindset.

Episode 83 is tonight: "Kennedy and Heidi."

This week, an asbestos-disposal impasse raises tensions between Jersey and New York. Meanwhile, Tony has a revelation while Paulie gets upstaged.

What's Mothers' Day without pictures of the kids who made us mothers? Here are some of my favorites of the TL kid, in chronological order, taken in Denver, Florence, Italy and New York City.

As for where is he today, he's in New York City studying for his law school finals. He graduates in a few weeks, and is looking for a job as a public defender or criminal defense attorney.

And now I'm off to visit my mother. I'll be back with a Sopranos' Open Thread this evening.

The trial of so-called enemy combatant Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, starts Monday with opening arguments. (Jury selection was completed last week.)

Here's a profile of the Judge, Marcia Cooke. CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen writes that the Judge has a daunting task before her as sparks will be flying in the courtroom.

The LA Times reports on how the case has changed in the last five years since Padilla's capture as someone involved in a dirty bomb plot. Those allegations will not come up in the trial, because if they did, the defense could then raise issues related to his confinement in the South Carolina military brig where he was held for three and one half years in solitary confinement without access to counsel.

More...

The Washington Post investigates Rudy and Giuliani Partners financial wheelings and dealings from the get-go. An interesting read.

It left me wondering, why is Rudy really running for President? Aside from his arrogance and sense of self-importance, I think the answer is because he can afford to.

An al-Qaida group has claimed the capture of three U.S. soldiers.

Four other American soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed in the pre-dawn attack on their patrol Saturday. The U.S. said 4,000 troops were searching for the three missing soldiers.

In a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, the Islamic State in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack in Mahmoudiya on Saturday and said it held an unspecified number of U.S. soldiers. The group offered no proof to back up its claim.

"Mother's Day was originally designated as a day to inspire people to work for peace. It was conceived after wars at home and abroad by American abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe."  RediscoverMothersDay.org.

Besides initiating the tradition of Mother's Day, Howe is best known as the author of the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". As a pacifist during the Civil War, she witnessed the devastating effects of the conflict through her work with widows and orphans. In 1870 she wrote the "Mother's Day Proclamation," a call to women to oppose war and to convene to promote peace and be the architects of their family's -- and their own -- political futures. She presented it at international peace conferences in London and Paris , where she lamented the atrocities of not only the American Civil War, but also the Franco-Prussian War.

Howe envisioned the first "Mother's Day" as a time for women to gather, grieve and determine a peaceful solution to war.

Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation" reads:

Tommy Thompson's rescinded endorsement of an employer's ability to discriminate against gay employees has a new spin:

Tommy Thompson cited a dead hearing aid and an urgent need to use the bathroom in explaining on Saturday why he said at a GOP presidential debate that an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker.

Memo to political debaters: visit the facilities before the debate starts so that you can give undivided attention to the questions you can't hear.

Within the next few weeks, Congress is expected to vote on a bill that would require your consent before spyware and adware programs are installed on your computer.

Meant to protect Internet users from unknowing transmission of their personal information via spyware programs, the Spy Act bans the most commonly known techniques used by malware and adware brokers, such as the use of keystroke-logging programs or installation of software without gaining approval via a clearly stated EULA (end user licensing agreement). The bill further establishes requirements for legitimate distributors of spyware-like programs to gain end user consent and build their applications such that they can be easily identified and removed from computers. ...

The bill specifically requires that consumers receive a "clear and conspicuous notice" prior to the installation of any tracking program and includes provisions to bar unfair or deceptive behavior such as computer hijacking, phishing, and the display of any browser ads that can't be closed.

If you value your privacy or your right to control the contents of your own computer, let your representative know you support this bill.

It's good to see a headline recognizing this reality:

Civilian Deaths Undermine Allies’ War on Taliban

From the story:

What angers Afghans are not just the bombings, but also the raids of homes, the shootings of civilians in the streets and at checkpoints, and the failure to address those issues over the five years of war. Afghan patience is wearing dangerously thin, officials warn.