Reporting from Sacramento -- The state budget deal negotiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders would reduce the population of California prisons by nearly 27,000 inmates in the current fiscal year.

That would be done with a combination of new measures, including allowing some inmates to finish their sentences on home detention, creating new incentives for completion of rehabilitation programs and scaling back parole supervision for the least serious offenders.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-california-budget22-2009jul22,0,1856950.story

• Senate Strips F-22 Money From Defense Bill

The vote was 58-40.

Here is the roll call:

YEAs ---58
Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bayh (D-IN) Bennet (D-CO) Bond (R-MO) Brown (D-OH) Burris (D-IL) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Coburn (R-OK) Conrad (D-ND) Corker (R-TN) DeMint (R-SC) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Feingold (D-WI) Franken (D-MN)	Gillibrand (D-NY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Johnson (D-SD) Kaufman (D-DE) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ)	Merkley (D-OR) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Shelby (R-AL) Specter (D-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Udall (D-CO) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---40
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Bennett (R-UT) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Chambliss (R-GA) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME)	Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) Dodd (D-CT) Feinstein (D-CA) Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Inouye (D-HI) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Lieberman (ID-CT) Martinez (R-FL) McConnell (R-KY)	Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shaheen (D-NH) Snowe (R-ME) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Udall (D-NM) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

Not Voting - 2
Kennedy (D-MA)	Mikulski (D-MD)

Just How Dominant is Fox News?

We've been writing a lot about the summer of lost viewers. Whether it's the evening newscasts, new news-o-tainment shows, even Oprah. Even some cable news channels are seeing viewers slip away, but one continues to dominate.

Take last night.

• In primetime (8-11pmET) Fox News beat CNN, MSNBC, HLN and CNBC combined in Total Viewers.

• In primetime (8-11pmET) Fox News, beat CNN, MSNBC and HLN combined in A25-54 viewers.

• In primetime, FNC's demo viewers (meaning those between the ages of 25 and 54) beat MSNBC's Total Viewers (meaning anyone older than two) (707 vs. 685). HLN too (707 vs. 563).

Abortion rights group endorses Sotomayor for court

WASHINGTON – The abortion rights group NARAL ProChoice America says it's endorsing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

NARAL says Sotomayor's (SUHN'-ya soh-toh-my-YOR') testimony during her confirmation hearings shows President Barack Obama's first high court choice is a stronger supporter of privacy rights than either Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito, the previous two nominees. And the group notes that Sotomayor also said several times that privacy rights include a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_go_su_co/us_sotomayor_abortion_1

Key House Panel Cancels Health Care Session, as Moderate Democrats Voice Concerns

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is stacked with fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, who have voiced serious concerns about the details of the House package. 

A key House committee on Tuesday indefinitely postponed voting on health care reform legislation, after Democratic leaders were unable to line up enough votes from moderate members of their own party. 

The House Energy and Commerce Committee canceled the session as it faced serious concerns about the legislation from fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, who hold a large number of seats on the panel. The Energy and Commerce Committee is the only House panel with jurisdiction over health care that has not completed writing its version of the reform bill.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/21/key-house-panel-cancels-health-care-session-blue-dogs-voice-concerns/

The Senate will delay the vote on confirming Sotomayor the the Supreme Court until July 28th.

July 21, 1861

The First Battle of Bull Run

In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=5195

July 21, 1925

Monkey Trial ends

In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" ends with John Thomas Scopes being convicted of teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law. Scopes was ordered to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5196

2004 - White House officials were briefed on the September 11 commission's final report. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government." The report was released to the public the next day.

Germany's Spies Refuted the 2007 NIE Report

'Work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003'

By BRUNO SCHIRRA | FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE.

President Obama has committed to trying diplomacy to stop the Iranian bomb. Time, though, is on the mullahs' side, not least because so much of it was wasted after the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate made the improbable case that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. This assessment not only contradicted previous U.S. intelligence consensus but -- as recent court documents show -- also the conclusions of a key U.S. ally with excellent sources in Iran -- Germany.

The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, has amassed evidence of a sophisticated Iranian nuclear weapons program that continued beyond 2003. This usually classified information comes courtesy of Germany's highest state-security court. In a 30-page legal opinion on March 26 and a May 27 press release in a case about possible illegal trading with Iran, a special national security panel of the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe cites from a May 2008 BND report, saying the agency "showed comprehensively" that "development work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124803669414063037.html

Obama and the CPUSA

Randall Hoven
I encourage you to read the latest words from Sam Webb, National Chair of the Communist Party USA.  As is the wont of communists, Mr. Webb is rather long-winded; I provide only a few interesting excerpts.  All emphases added by me.

"Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.

"In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.

"We can visualize passing tough regulatory reforms on the financial industry, which brought the economy to ruin.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/obama_and_the_cpusa.html

Study: 83 Mln Would Lose Private Health Coverage Under House Dem Plan

By Philip Klein on 7.20.09 @ 12:16PM

Democrats and President Obama have denied that the creation of a new government-run health care plan would be a Trojan Horse for single-payer health care, but a new report by the Lewin Group (comissioned by the Heritage Foundation) finds that the House Democrats' health care bill would shift more 83.4 million Americans from private health care coverage to the government plan. To put that in perspective, that would mean that nearly half (48.4 percent) would lose their private health coverage. In all, the government plan would have 103.4 million members once implemented, according to the Lewin analysis. President Obama has repeated the mantra that anybody who likes their health insurance plan can keep it, but in reality about 63 percent of covered Americans get their health care through their employers, and if employers decide to drop their current health plans in favor of the government plan, workers won't have any choice but to sign up.

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/07/20/study-83-mln-would-lose-privat

Obama Delays Mid-Session Budget Review to Mid-August (Update1)

By Roger Runningen

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is delaying by about a month the annual mid-year White House review of economic and deficit forecasts, amid wrangling with Congress over the cost of his health-care and energy agendas.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_grx5EJ.58o

FOX Sticks With 'Dance' Over Obama Newser

Late word from FOX broadcasting:

FOX will not be airing the Presidential News Conference on Wednesday, July 22 at 8:00 PM (ET). FOX's sister networks, Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network will air the press conference in its entirety. FOX will be alerting viewers with an on-screen graphic at the top of the 8:00 PM (ET) hour that the press conference is available on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network.

Kirk Enters Illinois Senate Race