Senator Sanders

NSA is ‘Out of Control’ President Obama is poised to order the National Security Agency to stop eavesdropping on the leaders of American allies, administration and congressional officials said on Monday. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the spy agency “out of control” during a Monday interview with National Public Radio’s John Hockenberry. “How are we going to have the kind of cooperation that we need when there is massive mistrust of the United States for this type of spying?” Sanders asked in response to reports that the agency targeted the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and eavesdropped on other world leaders. LINK, AUDIO

Dark Money Sen. Ted Cruz is blocking Senate consideration of President Obama's choice to head the Federal Communications Commission until the nominee promises that the broadcast industry regulator won’t require more funding disclosures for political TV ads. "Ultimately, what they are about is creating a campaign finance system where billionaires can spend unlimited sums of money on campaigns and candidates, electing the people they want. That is not, in my view, a democracy. That is called oligarchy," Sen. Sanders told MSNBC's Ed Schultz on Monday. Raw Story and Politicususa blogged about the interview. VIDEO, LINK, LINK

Older Americans The Older Americans Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation that you probably never heard of or at least know very little about.  You know Meals on Wheels?  The OAA funds it, and also essential services for seniors like job training, caregiver support, transportation, preventive health services, and protection from abuse and financial exploitation. This Wednesday, Sen. Sanders will offer a 5-year reauthorization of the legislation to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. If the legislation is to pass the Senate and the House, it will need strong bipartisan support from the Committee, Greg Kaufmann blogged for The Nation. LINK

House Votes for VA Claims Backlog Commission Over Veterans Affairs Department objections, the House passed a bill Monday night creating a commission to evaluate new ways of reducing the backlog of veterans benefits claims, including new claims awaiting an initial decision and those where a veteran has appealed the decision. The fate of the bill is unclear. Sen. Sanders, who chairs the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, remains unconvinced a new task force is needed to look at a long-studied problem with slow claims processing, but he might support some of the provisions of the bill, Army Times reported. LINK

Budget Conference It is immoral and bad economics for the United States to impose more austerity when the nation is suffering, Sen. Sanders argued in a column posted by The Huffington Post, Daily Kos and Green Mountain Daily. "The time is now for the wealthy and multi-national corporations who are doing phenomenally well to help us rebuild America and lower our deficit." LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK

Don’t Cut Social Security President Obama proposed to cut Social Security in his 2014 budget, but “Senate Democratic leaders appointed Sanders to the conference committee, perhaps signaling their desire to hold the line against entitlement changes,” Congressional Quarterly said. The Huffington Post said Sanders has spoken out against Obama's offer to cut Social Security benefits as part of a compromise. LINK, LINK

Tax Changes Needed Citing Sen. Sanders’ assertion that “one out of four major corporations pays zero in federal income taxes,” Juan Williams wrote in a column for The Hill that Republicans refuse to put anything that looks like a tax increase in the deal even if it is in the form of closing tax loopholes for the richest corporations. LINK

Make Bernie Proud Democrats need to mobilize groups of human beings to knock on doors if they want to beat conservative candidates backed by the Koch brothers and other wealthy interests, Wisconsin activist Ed Garvey wrote for The Capital Times. “We need a platform that Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders would be proud of. We need to expose the nonsense that corporations are people, that money is speech.” LINK

Leadership PACs  The Burlington Free Press examined leadership political action committees for Vermont's congressional delegation. In the wake of a "60 Minutes" report on political candidates exploiting PAC funds, the Free Press wrote: "A look at the three members’ leadership PACs shows no clear indication that they’ve used them to pay for their own thinly veiledvacations or to support family members, as 60 Minutes showed some had." LINK

Republican Schism Moderates within the Vermont Republican Party are asserting themselves, with the choice of a new party chairman next month testing their power to affect the direction of the party.  Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, believes that the national party has strayed too far to the right and has endorsed David Sunderland, the former House member from Rutland. John MacGovern, a former state legislator in Masssachusetts, ran against Sen. Sanders last year, mounting a strong conservative critique that shared the aversion to taxes and big government identified with the national party, according to a Rutland Herald editorial. LINK

World

Spain Addresses U.S. Spying Scandal The Spanish government summoned the U.S. ambassador, James Costos, on Monday to address allegations that the National Security Agency collected data on millions of telephone calls in Spain, The New York Times reported.  Following this meeting, Costos issued a statement acknowledging Spain's concerns about intrusive U.S. surveillance programs and said, "Ultimately, the United States needs to balance the important role that these programs play in protecting our national security and protecting the security of our allies with legitimate privacy concerns." LINK

Syrian Rebels Present Ultimatum A Syrian opposition group fighting to overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad said Monday that peace talks organized by the Obama administration will not happen unless the focus of the talks shifts to ending Assad's rule and trying him for war crimes, USA Today reported. LINK

News Corp. Hacking Trial Opens in Britain The Los Angeles Times reported that jury selection began Monday in the phone hacking trial of two former top editors of Rupert Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World tabloid and six other people, all accused in a scandal that reached into the top echelons of Britain's government and journalism establishment.  LINK

Tentative Progress in Iran-U.N. Talks Promising “new approaches” meant to end nearly two years of deadlock in negotiations over a proposed U.N. investigation of Iran's nuclear program have a senior Iranian negotiator optimistic about the chances of progress. According to The Washington Post, the meeting on Monday seemed "very useful and constructive" as Iran seeks relief from crippling economic sanctions in return for concessions on its nuclear program. LINK

Signs of Crisis in Iraq In Iraq, deaths tolls soared to the highest levels since 2008, The Washington Post reported. Nearly two years after the U.S. troop withdrawal, Iraq is in the midst of a deepening security crisis as an al-Qaeda affiliate wages a relentless campaign of attacks. LINK

National

NSA Spying Prompts Legislation Lawmakers today are expected to introduce the first comprehensive NSA legislation since the agency’s phone records program was disclosed in June. The proposal, from a bipartisan coalition in the House and the Senate, would effectively halt “bulk” records collection under the USA Patriot Act. Another group of lawmakers is preparing legislation that would preserve the program while strengthening privacy protections. NSA Director Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. — who are set to testify before Congress today — have defended the phone records program as a vital counterterrorism tool, The Washington Post reported. LINK

House to Vote on Financial Regulation Rollback The House is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would undercut new financial regulations and hand Wall Street a victory. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House, even after lawmakers learned that Citigroup lobbyists helped write one of the bills, which would exempt a wide array of derivatives trading from new regulation. The bills are part of a broader campaign in the House, among Republicans and business-friendly Democrats, to roll back elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive regulatory overhaul since the Depression, The New York Times reported. LINK

Voting Rights According to the Advancement Project, a leading voting rights organization litigating several challenges to state-level voter suppression laws, over one in 10 registered voters lack the identification necessary to vote in Texas under a voter ID law that went into effect after the Supreme Court gutted a key prong of the Voting Rights Act, Think Progress reported on Monday. LINK

Texas Abortion Law Struck Down New abortion restrictions passed by the Texas Legislature are unconstitutional and will not take effect as scheduled on Tuesday, a federal judge has ruled according to CBS News. Beginning Oct. 29, the law would've required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges within 30 miles of the clinic, that they follow strict instructions for pill-induced medical abortions, and only perform abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy if health of the mother is in danger or the fetus is not viable. LINK

Senate to Vote on Gay Anti-Discrimination Bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Monday that the chamber would vote on the Employee Non-Discrimination Act ahead of the Thanksgiving break, The Washington Post reported. "This work period, the Senate will consider the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would provide basic protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity," Reid said in a speech on the Senate floor. LINK

Vermont

Burlington Council Stops Bid to Block F-35s After a long and heated public forum Monday, the Burlington City Council soundly defeated two resolutions that would have opposed the possible basing of F-35 fighter jets at Burlington International Airport, the Burlington Free Press reported. LINK 

Renewable Energy Vermont Hosts Session Renewable Energy Vermont is hosting a two-day session to discuss clean energy goals, The Associated Press reported. Vermont could create thousands of new jobs if the state invested a portion of money subsidizing fossil fuels in expanding locally produced biomass heating supplies, one expert said at the conference. LINK