* Labor On Dems Who Block Health Reform: We'll 'Take Them Out'..

** Google welcomes chance to export services to Iran, Cuba ..
A senior Google executive welcomed a US decision to relax restrictions on exporting internet communications services to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.

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Melancon Camp Files Ethics Complaint Against Vitter Campaign

The contentious Senate race between Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) and Sen. David Vitter (R) spilled into the Senate on Tuesday, when a Melancon aide filed an ethics complaint over the Republican Senator’s fundraising materials.

Roll Call/ March 10, 2010

Hoyer Rejects Massa Allegations as ‘Absurd’

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) strongly rejected claims by former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) that Democratic leaders forced him from office over his opposition to their health care reform effort.

Roll Call/ March 10, 2010

Hoyer pushes back at March 18 White House healthcare deadline 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday pushed back against the White House’s deadline for completing healthcare legislation.

“None of us has mentioned the 18th other than Mr. Gibbs,” Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday at his weekly meeting with reporters, referring to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Going further, Hoyer refused to commit to House passage of either healthcare or the 2010 budget prior to the Easter recess, which is scheduled to begin on Saturday, March 27.

“Our objective is to pass both before the Easter break,” Hoyer said. “Is that going to be difficult? Yes. Is it a deadline? No.

“If we can, we can. If we can’t, we can’t,” Hoyer said. “We will continue to pursue both items.”

Last week Gibbs said President Barack Obama wanted to see healthcare legislation reconciled and passed by both the House and Senate before March 18, the day the president is scheduled to begin an overseas trip.

But this represents a tough lift for House leaders, who must win over members who dislike the Senate bill, including centrists who think it does not go far enough in limiting public funds for abortion services.

The Hill/ March 09, 2010

Google welcomes chance to export services to Iran, Cuba ..

 A senior Google executive welcomed a US decision to relax restrictions on exporting internet communications services to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.

Bob Boorstin, Google's director of policy communications, said the Web search company would now be able to offer some of its other products in those countries, such as the mapping satellite software Google Earth, photo management program Picasa and internet chat client Google Talk.

"This is a great accomplishment," Boorstin told a human rights meeting in Geneva. "We are hopeful this will help people like yourselves in this room and activists all over the world take a small step down what is certainly a long road ahead."

The US Treasury Department said the change to existing trade sanctions was intended to help people "exercise their most basic rights" with the help of instant messaging service and email.

Google itself has come under fire recently in countries where it operates.

Last month, an Italian court held three Google executives criminally responsible for violating the country's privacy laws for allowing a video of an autistic teenager being bullied to be posted online.

In January, Google threatened to leave China over attempts to snoop on Chinese dissidents' Gmail accounts from inside the country. China's government denies any involvement.

Boorstin described the Italian court's decision as a form of "Internet censorship" that would "encourage repressive regimes."

"From now on, you're criminally responsible for anything that appears on your website," he said. "That's certainly going to have a chilling effect on what people are willing to put up."

On China, Boorstin said Google was already offering a "a censored search engine" through the Google.cn domain to avoid meeting Chinese requirements for storing sensitive data about its users on servers in the country.

"If and when we pull out of China and turn off Google.cn, I'm afraid that we will be taking away from the Chinese populace a tool that they have come to value," he said.

Boorstin encouraged human rights activists also to rely on platforms other than the internet for transmitting information. 

Agencies/AP/ March 10, 2010