President Obama’s pick for the next U.S. ambassador to Moscow is a trusted adviser who helped engineer the “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations three years ago, while also frequently chiding Kremlin leaders for backsliding on democratic reforms.

An administration official confirmed on Sunday that Michael A. McFaul will be nominated for the key diplomatic post, replacing John Beyrle, who has held the job since July 2008.

Republicans might have found a way to constrain the power of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: make it an agency without a leader.

The increasingly bitter fight over whether Elizabeth Warren should head the new agency might have the happy side effect, from the GOP’s perspective, of limiting what the bureau can do.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will on July 21 officially become the nation's newest government agency — and the only one with the singular aim of looking out for the best interests of consumers. The agency is controversial, and at the center of it all is the woman whom President Obama asked to set it up: Elizabeth Warren.

Warren, a Harvard professor, is a longtime crusader against unfair lending practices. She's widely credited with coming up with the idea of a government agency designed to protect consumers. Even her many detractors acknowledge she is an articulate advocate.

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)

 U.S. Senator

http://whitehouse.senate.gov/

Obama, in Europe, signs Patriot Act extension

Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)

U.S. Representative

And by the way: Hochul's victory wasn't just about Medicare. Her most effective ad argued that Ryan was cutting Medicare while promoting tax cuts for the wealthy. "The plan Jane Corwin supports would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans," the announcer intoned. "The budget would overwhelmingly benefit the rich. Kathy Hochul says cut the deficit but do it the right way: Protect Medicare and no more tax breaks for multimillionaires." -E.J. Dionne

Senate rejects Ryan budget

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/163307-senate-votes-down-ryan-budget-medicare-

France's Lagarde bids for top IMF top job

If successful, the 55-year-old, blunt-talking Frenchwoman with deep roots in the United States would become the first female managing director of the IMF, filling a role vacated by her countryman Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Strauss-Kahn resigned last week in the face of sexual assault charges filed against him by a New York City maid.

This week is National Police Week, an annual week of commemoration for the nation’s police officers that began in 1962 when President John F. Kennedy signed “a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day.”
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However, West’s gracious words for the nation’s police forces do not reflect his votes in Congress. West was a supporter of the GOP continuing resolution and budget plans, which cut $600 million to the long-standing Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which channels federal dollars to local police forces across the country. If the cuts had passed into law, the GOP would have been "essentially killing the program."

Yet if one looks behind the curtain — at the foundations, non-profits, Political Action Committees (PAC) — into the workings of the voucher movement, it’s apparent why it has gained strength in recent years. A tight-knit group of right-wing millionaires and billionaires, bankers, industrialists, lobby shops, and hardcore ideologues has been plotting this war on public education, quietly setting up front group after front group to promote the idea that the only way to save public education is to destroy it — disguising their movement with the innocent-sounding moniker of “school choice.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, rocked by controversy in recent years, has adopted a series of reforms of its management and governance to increase transparency and improve the quality of its hugely influential climate change reports.

Rahm Emanuel was sworn in Monday as Chicago’s first new mayor in more than two decades, a historic power shift for a city where the retiring Richard M. Daley was the only leader a whole generation had ever known.
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Vice President Joe Biden attended, as did Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser who worked with Emanuel at the White House. A big chunk of Illinois’ congressional delegation was also present.

The Executive Office of the President was created in 1939 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to assist the president, whose job had become unmanageable after the implementation of the New Deal. 

Environmental groups have warned on drilling there. They say that the reserve provide critical habitat for the peregrine falcon, two caribou herds, moose, rough-legged hawks, gray wolves and other wildlife.

This week President Obama met with Democrats, on wednesday, and Republicans, on thursday, to discuss the budget. May 12 2011

Retired three-star Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez will file paperworkon Wednesday to run as a Democrat for the Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

President Obama discusses Immigration Reform in El Paso, Texas. (2011)

Congressional candidate Kathy Hochul accepts a pair of boxing gloves from Max Richtman of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, Monday, May 9, 2011.

Rep. Schakowsky votes against the Republican Budget for FY2012

http://schakowsky.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2925:rep-schakowsky-votes-against-the-republican-budget-for-fy2012&catid=22:2011-press-releases

Chris Gregoire (D)

Governor of Washington

Barbara A. Mikulski is a senator from Maryland. A Democrat, she won her fifth term in November 2010, and in January 2011 became the longest-serving woman in Senate history.

Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

U.S. Senator

Patty Murray (D-Wash.)

U.S. Senator

Chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

http://www.dscc.org/

Kaine, Allen tied in 2012 Senate matchup, Post poll shows

Laura Bush

Former First Lady

http://www.amazon.com/Spoken-Heart-Laura-Bush/dp/1439155216/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304816057&sr=1-1#_

Re: Olympia Snowe

She disappointed environmental activists last month by voting for an amendment sponsored by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) barring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking action to address greenhouse gas emissions.

Joe Barton

Charles Rangel