In recent days, federal employees working at a number of agencies have received an invitation to bring freedom, democracy and free enterprise to Iraq by volunteering to leave their oh-so-dull and safe jobs as feds and spend up to a year working in Iraq through a special State Department program (but at their own agency's expense). Yee Hah!! Interested employees were encouraged to check out these great jobs on the State Dept website, so I decided to check out the "Frequently Asked Questions and Details" portion of the special "Iraq Jobs" link. I particularly liked the answer to "hey, can we arm ourselves?" Check 'em out with me below -
According to an email I got today from a Progressive group, Harry Reid met with progressive lobbyists earlier this week and said he had 44 votes from Dems against Alito, but eight of those Senators would vote for cloture and against a filibuster. Reid would not name the "Alito 8" who are blocking a Democratic filibuster - so we need to identify them and tell them not to betray the Democrats who funded them and voted for them.
We know Landrieu is one of them. Let's ID and target the other seven.
The most likely suspects are the "Red State" Democrats:
Tom Carper (DE) Kent Conrad (ND) Byron Dorgan (ND) Tim Johnson (SD) Blanche Lincoln (AR) Mark Pryor (AR)
Also call these "Blue State" and pro-choice Republicans:
Lincoln Chafee (RI) Susan Collins (ME) Lisa Murkowsky (AK) Bob Smith (OR) Olympia Snowe (ME) Ted Stevens (AK).
Who can get an answer from these Dems as to whether they belong to the Alito 8?
Yesterday, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge threw the equivalent of a grenade into both the Maryland governor's race and this year's General Assembly when she ruled that a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutionally discriminatory. The ruling explodes onto the scene just was what was already going to be a highly contentious General Assembly legislative session gets under full steam. More info after the jump
I don't have time to source this diary, but all those kids who lost their houses are about to lose the little education they had access to (albeit New Orleans had one of the worst school systems in the nation). The last figures I saw were that approximately 130,000 school age children have been displaced by Katrina, and the vast majority of them are in Texas. Most of those kids have now started enrolling in Texas schools, because federal law forces school systems to enroll homeless children. Kay Bailey Hutchison has now introduced legislation to WAIVE that provision of federal law, so that Texas schools DO NOT have to take the Katrina kids. So where are these kids going to be schooled you ask? I'll tell you after the jump.
Anyone in the DC area - there will be a protest in front of the White House (Lafeyette Park side) tonight at 5:00 p.m. to demand Bush's resignation. The rally is being organized by ANSWER. They have a list of demands, not all of which I agree with (why single out aid from Cuba, of all places?), but if you can make it, please do.
3:34 P.M. - (AP) The evacuation of Superdome refugees was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt hotel. They were move to the head of the line to be evacuated -- much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome for days.
The 700 had been trapped in the Hyatt just like the others, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome.
Despite that advice, the top levels of the MD Dems are still asleep at the wheel. That's my conclusion after attending the "Maryland Democratic Party 2006 Campaign Kick-Off Rally" tonight, with Howard Dean headlining. Look below the fold for what happened.
OK, just kidding about the landed part, but the rest is true. Today's Washington Post carries an article I've been expecting ever since the election. Despite its budget busting consequences, the House is expected to vote today to permanently repeal the estate tax, thereby ensuring that the heirs to the Mars, Gallo, and Campbell's soup fortunes will inherit billions free of tax. (I don't include Bill Gates because he isn't leaving his fortune to his kids - he understands the effects of unlimited money on the next generation's morals). Thinking this wonky tax policy area is boring? You won't when you consider what the social and fiscal fallout will be from this. Read on.
Apparently Bill Frist is happy to jump on the bandwagon of the "Culture of Life" when it involves one dying (white) woman, but runs like hell from Christians when it comes to applying the "Culture of Life" to things like . . . money. As reported in the April Washington Window, the newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington (sorry they don't have link up with the April issue yet), in March three Episcopal Bishops, an Evangelical Lutheran Bishop, a leader of the Presbyterian Church, a leader of the United Methodist Church and others went to Capitol Hill to talk about Christian values, and here's what happened . . .
Well, we've been waiting to see what Rove would come up with to kick Gannon off the radar screen, and nothing has worked so far. Now everyone is digging to find Gannon's patron. So now there is this in the Sunday Times - allegedly "secret" tapes by party hack Doug Weams where GWB just happens to appear to admit smoking pot. The tapes released are just a few of the ones he claims to have, and most of the stuff is actually favorable to GWB overall. Strangely, a lot of the quotes involve his unwillingness to "kick" homosexuals at the behest of the evangelicals and Dobson. Ain't that a coincidence given the whole angle on Gannon right now?
Per the Washington Post today, here MD Republican Gov. Erlich's right-hand hit man, Joseph Steffen, has been tied to a purge of mid-level MD civil service employees with Democratic leanings or ties. Agencies where firings occurred shortly after Steffen and his statue of the grim reaper arrived include the MD Environmental Service, the Dept of Natural Resources and Public Service Commission. More below. Also, kudos to whoever went onto the freeper website as MD4BUSH and smoked Steffen out, as explained here
