The U.S. computer server market is expected to grow from 2.8 million units in 2005 to 4.9 million units by 2009, no doubt resulting in increased energy demand followed by soaring energy costs as companies deploy greater numbers of servers, consuming more power, and in the process emitting more heat that needs to be dissipated.

That's why I introduced HR 5646, directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify the potential energy and cost savings to the federal government and private business of energy efficient servers. The legislation was approved the same week Google Inc, the Internet search engine giant, announced plans to hire 1,000 workers in their new office based in my home state of Michigan.

As more everyday services move to the internet, studies are showing that more efficient servers could save up to 80 percent in electricity and cooling costs, and at the same time help protect our communities from the construction of new power plants and new transmission wires. By cooling off our computer servers, we would be cooling off the hot demand on our energy resources.

Hizbullah and Hamas are terrorist organizations with national sponsors and the international community needs to recognize these thugs and killers for what they really are: bloody-thirsty zealots opposed to peace, opposed to negotiation and opposed to settlement. If the world is serious about peace in the Middle East, then Tehran and Damascus need to be held accountable for feeding, fostering, and occasionally unleashing, these rabid, blood-spattered killers. The money, weapons and political support Hizbullah and Hamas receive from Iran and Syria are not uncontrollable or natural phenomena and the international community must demand that they stop.

I label the kidnapping, acts of "unambiguous aggression and a malicious terrorist provocation." Hizbullah and Hamas function as terrorist proxies for Syria and Iran, and the Israeli soldiers would not have been taken hostage without close coordination and approval by Damascus and Tehran.

In light of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last year, and withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, this unprovoked aggression against Israel is completely unjustified and totally unacceptable. It's more than past time for Lebanon to be freed from foreign interference so that it can meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559. The Lebanese have to become capable of policing their own borders and disarming all the militias, especially Hizbullah. Lebanon should be run by the Lebanese and not a pack of vicious religious fanatics in the service of Syria's despot or Iran's mullahs.

These cross-border attacks on Israel should result in tough international sanctions on Syria and Iran, and the UN Security Council should immediately pursue this option. In the mean time, I have complete confidence in Israel's leaders and Israel's armed forces. They are more than up to the task of protecting the country. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself from this aggression and the Israeli Defense Forces has shown it knows how to do this.

Incredibly, the Bush Administration has apparently decided to threaten poor countries, particularly those in our own hemisphere, with debilitating trade restrictions unless they support the US negotiating position in World Trade Organization talks.

During testimony at a Ways and Means Committee hearing, the USTR was silent on whether the Congress should extend, as it has in the past, two trade programs for poor countries that expire at year's end: the Andean Trade Promotion Act (ATPA) and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). ATPA extends duty-free treatment to imports from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

In silence, the Administration shouted a threat to tilt global trade policy off axis, with harsh ramifications for poor nations struggling to stand on their own. This is not a carrot and stick approach. It is all stick, when a carrot and a conscience would serve us and the world better.

While the Bush Administration has reached free trade agreements with Peru and Colombia, it's not likely either of the agreements can be implemented before ATPA's expiration. Expiration of this program would mean that tariffs on products from the Andean region would immediately climb and close the American market to many legal Andean products, making illicit agricultural production, specifically cocaine, the only viable option in some cases.

GSP provides duty-free treatment to a majority of products from developing nations. Expiration of this program would affect the world's poorest countries and also increase the cost of products imported by American businesses and passed on to American consumers.

A year ago, the world joined together in advance of the G-8 Summit in Scotland to pressure world leaders to make global poverty history. Today, on the eve of another G-8 Summit, the Bush Administration suggests that we will punish poor countries if they don't kowtow to the US trade position within the WTO. What a way to show global leadership.

It's very clear that that we're living within the McCain-Feingold finance
reform.  A level playing field is something that Democrats and Republicans
support.

Open and transparent investment policies contribute toward greater economic growth through foreign investments. And, in this post-9/11 world, we must remain vigilant against any national security threat.  The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has a good record of serving both purposes, and this legislation reforming CFIUS will make it even more effective.  I appreciate the support of the Committee for my amendment.  This amendment makes the Secretary of Commerce the chair of CFIUS, as Congress originally intended  (currently, the CFIUS chair is the Secretary of the Treasury).  With Commerce in the chair, CFIUS will be better able to review impending foreign investments, better report its findings to Congress, and better maintain the U.S. market as the most vibrant and open in the world.

Last month, Representative Mike Castle (R-DE) and I formally requested a meeting with President Bush to discuss our Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810). This bill would expand current federal embryonic stem cell research policy and create an ethical framework for conducting this research, which could hold the cure to such diseases as Alzheimer's and diabetes. Unfortunately the President sent us a letter denying our request yesterday.

And while it's regrettable that President Bush will not grant us the common courtesy of a meeting, it's just insulting that he sent his head political advisor to my hometown with a veto threat. Earlier this week, Karl Rove met with the Denver Post editorial board and announced that President Bush will veto H.R. 810 if it passes th U.S. Senate. This research is far too important to let Rove turn into a wedge issue like flag burning or gay marriage.

I would still welcome the chance to sit down with the President and talk to him about the mistake of making his first veto a bill which would help 100 million Americans and their families. This issue should be above politics and certainly above Karl Rove's cynical electoral strategy.

Earlier this week, the Bush Administration released updated deficit estimates for 2006, proving once again that Republican budget policies are out of touch with the economic realities facing hard-working Americans. President Bush and his Rubber Stamp Republican Congress have heaped mountains of debt onto the backs of our children and grandchildren, racking up a $296 billion budget deficit - the fourth largest deficit in history.

I'm confused as to why this sad piece of news sent the President and his friends in Congress to the streets, airwaves, and this blog to gloat. I guess when you have so little going right, you grab onto whatever you can. Furthermore, this is the third year in a row that the Administration's initial estimates were wildly inflated - the perfect setup to claim victory later in the year when the deficit "magically" shrinks.

Republicans are basically patting themselves on the back for deficits that they created. Their reckless tax breaks for million dollar estates and billion dollar corporations have been burying our children and grandchildren in debt for the past six years. Democrats don't find that cause for celebration.

They can spin the numbers however they want. But stagnant wages, low job creation, growing health care costs, and sky high gas prices do not make for a strong economy by any measure.

If you create low enough expectations, you might not do as badly as predicted.  It is just so indicative of how low they made these expectations that they can make themselves happy by doing badly instead of extremely badly.

They're crowing about what is the fourth largest deficit in American history.  By next year the interest rate on the debt will be growing at the fastest rate of any federal budget.  They're really grasping if they say this is something to crow about, and I think that the majority that produced this will eat crow.