Short answer: lots.

Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Labor, George W. Bush's longest-serving cabinet member, and wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Under Elaine’s 'leadership,' the Department of Labor has turned into an agency that screws America's workers and enables corporate giveaways.

That's why today workers' rights advocacy group American Rights at Work launches a new campaign against Elaine Chao at www.ShameOnElaine.org.

Let's take a look at some of her more egregious failures.

Across the country, small towns, gated communities, sprawling suburbs, and inner cities are feeling the consequences of unsustainable business practices. Soaring rates of foreclosures, plant closings, layoffs, bankruptcies, and numerous food recalls, expose how our corporations desperately need to reform their irresponsible business practices.

There are encouraging signs that consumers, corporations, and communities are ready to make a change. A growing number of Americans support companies that operate with integrity and connect with their values. As companies become conscious of the growing economic, social, and environmental ramifications of their business practices, more executives are making different choices about how they operate.

The collapse of the Genwal mine in Utah was an easily prevented tragedy.  From the first hours after yesterday's cave-in, Robert Murray, the owner of the mine, has been out in front, speaking to the press and throwing maps of the mine tunnels against the wall to show their exact plan to find the miners, as Murray puts, it "dead or alive."

Unfortunately, the outspoken Murray hasn't been such a fan of mine safety in the past.  Buried in the CNN article is this revealing reality:

Cross-posted on MichaelWhitney.net

I am in room 404, surrounded by fervent Edwards supporters waiting for their candidate to come in.  There's a small stage in the back of the room with three rows of seats, and the rest of the chairs are centered on a small circle, in which I presume Edwards will be speaking.

The room is buzzing with energy - though I'm already suprised at the demographics of the room.  Even among Kos attendees, this is a definitely older crowd who are supporting Edwards.  I think this helps explain why Edwards comes out on top among polls on the site.  It's also informative of the makeup of Edwards' online support in general: the relatively younger crowd is supporting Obama on Facebook, but the older crowd of online activists are supporting candidates like Edwards on blogs.

I've snagged a seat in the back corner - not just because I'm a wallflower, but also to charge my near-dead laptop.  And as an added bonus, I'm right next to the door through which I think Edwards will walk.  It's 2:56 CST; the session should begin in just a few minutes.

The UK Independent piles on the CT-Sen media coverage, examining the quintessential depiction of what's wrong with Lieberman in the Senate: The Kiss.

Only they have the best analogy I've seen so far:   Lieberman's 'Judas kiss' could seal his primary fate.

In today's intense Democratic politics in Connecticut, "The Kiss" does not refer to great works of art. Speak of "The Kiss" and you conjure up an embrace immediately after the President's State of the Union address in January 2005. The embrace was between George Bush and the state's junior senator, Joe Lieberman. A better name for it would be the kiss of Judas - or the kiss of death.

 

More on Judas, including his denial the kiss ever happened, and some dKos-love from our friends in the UK, below the fold.

You are immediately swept up in the chaos.  Smoke is in the air, the camera shakes uncontrollably, aimed at nothing as it was displaced from the rat-a-tat-tat of the huge machine gun mounted on the humvee in Fallujah.

The soldiers shout to one another, and you, in your plush movie seat with a 60-oz coke, feel like you're with them.  Insurgents fire and the US soldiers fire back.  

It is pure hell.

This weekend I went to see The War Tapes. You have to see this movie.  More about it below...

For whatever reason, CNN.com is giving front-page promotion to James Dobson's gay-hating commentary.  That's a separate issue, I guess, about his legitimacy and CNN's desire to promote it.

Anyway, he rails against gays, gays getting married, people who want them to get married people who don't want to amned the constitution to stop them from getting married, and Senators who don't vote for such amendments.  Pretty standard stuff from someone like Dobson, using lots of pretty facts & figures.

But then here's the juicy part:

So where does the issue go from here? Time will tell. It took William Wilberforce more than 30 years to bring about an end to Britain's slave trade in the 1800s. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of a protracted victory.

ABC News' Political Unit somehow dug up Rahm Emmanuel's hopefully-rough copy of the 2006 Legislative Agenda, modeled after the Contract With America, that the Dems promise to enact in their first week of power should they take back the house.

The problem is that, in my opinion, it's rather lackluster given everything going on in the world now.  And it's missing a 6th plank.

The agenda and some analysis/commentary after the jump.

Update/Clarification: This is not supposed to be their whole agenda. It's qualified as what they want to accomplish in the first week. That being said, it's a.) a pretty ambitious week and b.) a misnomer to call this "6 in '06" on the Dems part...but no one's saying that's final either.

First Ted Kennedy, then a 1-year old baby: our super-effective Terror Watch List hasn't exactly been great at snagging terrorists.  But it's hit a new low: last night, the leader of Ireland's Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, was detained and searched at Reagan National Aiport because his name appeared on the terror watch list:

Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party in Northern Ireland, was detained at a Washington airport after attending a St. Patrick's Day event at the White House, according to a congressman.

More below...

This just strikes me as silly that the Pentagon and Congress refuse to lift formal restrictions on women serving in combat, and yet women are forced every day to risk their lives in face-to-face combat with the Iraqi rebels:

A 23-year-old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard has become the first female soldier to receive the Silver Star -- the nation's third-highest medal for valor -- since World War II.

More below.

Don't have a source on this since it just occured to me as I was reading through some articles on the Nuclear Option.

Frist and Reid can strike an agreement on 5 judicial nominees; Rove and Dobson get Owen through, and a couple others.  We celebrate for preserving the filibuster and not getting all the nominees through.

But now that there's apparently already a short list for the inevitable Supreme Court vacancies, who can honestly believe that they won't try to kill the filibuster again if we threaten one on the SC nominees?

AP Headline:  Kerry: Draft Likely to Return Under Bush

The actual quote in the AP article?

Answering a question about the draft that had been posed at a forum with voters, Kerry said: "If George Bush were to be re-elected, given the way he has gone about this war and given his avoidance of responsibility in North Korea and Iran and other places, is it possible? I can't tell you."

Since when does "I can't tell you" turn into "Yes, that is likely"?

Signs are pointing to the draft, but the article's right, Rumsfeld has said it wouldn't, and besides, it requires approval of a newly elected Congress scared for their seats -- and there's no way that they'd ever do it. The draft is a scary thing, and I wouldn't rule it out under a Bush presidency because you never know (as we've learned), but Kerry didn't say what the AP says he said.  

To have this sort of thing attributed to Kerry can be perceived as scaremongering.  It's best to correct the AP and get them to right headlines that stick with the facts.

If anyone can find the reporter, Mary Dalprymple's email address, put it in the comments so we can get her (or her headline writer) in line.

UPDATE: That was really fast. As dcg pointed out in the comments, the headline's already changed to "may" return. False alarm, folks. Put away the pitchforks and torches for another article.

The Nation's Blog hits on the recent trends of workers' rights in America being rolled back, especially since the Bush Administration came to power.  Now, three of Bush's appointees -- a majority of the National Labor Relations Board -- will likely make a decision that's going to make it much harder for unions to organize workers without employers and unionbusters indimidating and harassing workers:

This is quite interesting and unexpected -- what a great way to make Bush waste some more money in red country.

Republican Rep. Jack Quinn (NY-27  [upstate, Buffalo]) announced a few weeks ago that he's giving up his seat to spend more time with his family.  Quinn was elected to this seat in '94, succeeding Dole's future VP candidate Jack Kemp.  This seat has been in the hands of the GOP forever, but it shouldn't be.  Now the Dems have a chance in NYS Assemblyman Brian Higgins, who announced yesterday that he's going to run for the seat.  No GOP'ers have announced to succeed Quinn, and all the other Dems have baclked out

Higgins, who is in his early 40s was an city council member in Buffalo before he went on to be an Assemblyman, a seat he has held for a couple years now.  Higgins' big issue is economic development and reurbanization.  This will play especially well, considering the situation in Buffalo and the fact that in the region (slightly less so in this particular district) gives the Dems a 2:1 advantage in registered Dems.

Buffalo is Union Central, with over 25 unions with active and voting memberships.  They have supported Quinn in the past, but will likely feel pressured to go to the Dem this year.  The city is ravaged by unemployment, outsourcing, and economic stagnation.  Buffalonians will respond to someone they can trust to bring back jobs.

Higgins has an excellent chance in November, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see this seat swing Blue.