While we've all been busy watching the "oil spill live cam", a similar uncontrolled discharge has been taking place in Washington, DC
In this case, however, it's lobbyists that are spilling all over the landscape as the House and Senate attempt to merge their two visions of financial reform.
They're trying desperately to influence the outcome of the conference in which House and Senate negotiators have been engaged; this to craft the exact language of the reconciled legislation.
There's an additional element of drama hovering over the events as eight House members, including one of the most vocal of the Republican negotiators, face ethics questions related to this very bill.
The best part: if you're enough of a political geek, you can actually watch the events unfold, unedited and unfiltered, from the comfort of your very own computer.
So far, it's been amazing political theater, and if you follow along I'll tell you how you can get in on the fun, too.
Those who are regular visitors to this space know that I post stories across the country, and to do that I have to follow stories from a number of states.
Because I post at Kentucky's Hillbilly Report, I've been paying particular attention to the Rand Paul campaign, and the news from the Bluegrass State (via "The Rush Limbaugh Show") is that Paul's planning to write his own balanced budget proposal for the Federal Government.
But there's a catch.
He doesn't plan on doing it until after the election.
Well, now, why in the world would a guy who's running for office based on his really good ideas want to hold back the best one?
That's not a bad question, and if we make the effort we can probably figure out the most likely answers.
I have been feeling overwhelmed and bummed out over the past month or so, between my job, my debate team travels and the news on health care reform.
Just when I think it can't get any worse, it does. Let me be clear, I am a realists. I knew Obama was not the second coming of FDR, I knew he was a centrists, compromiser with delusions of bipartisanship. In fairness I underestimated the bipartisan part.
So, when the line out of the White House came down as make the deals, get it done, I was not totally surprised. Health care reform is and always was a high stakes gamble that had to be done first and had to succeed, however success finally is defined. That means even if we must take a quarter of a loaf and call it a feast, we have to do it.
Here is what I mean. The Democrats have spend so much time and effort on this issue that failure is NOT an option if they wish to keep the Republican maniacs from taking over the asylum. If you think Republicans are obstructionist now, wait till they send health care reform down in flames and they use this defeat to gain traction in the mid terms.
But wait , you say, the public wants health care reform, surely they will be punished if they end up killing it!
So suggests both the Quoram Report, the Star Telegram and a Lone Star project poll:
Dual challenge?Word has it that a couple of local Democrats are considering challenging Republican state Sen. Kim Brimer for the District 10 Senate seat next year.
Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairman Art Brender, busy gearing up a slate of local candidates for next year's elections, said he is considering making that bid himself.
"I'm looking at it real hard just in light of the changing demographics in that Senate district," said Brender, a Fort Worth lawyer.
And speculation is swirling that Fort Worth City Councilwoman Wendy Davis may be debating the same thing. She declined to comment.
Brimer's district covers about half of Tarrant County, including Fort Worth, Benbrook, Mansfield and part of Arlington. Brimer won the seat in 2002 with 59 percent of the vote.
Democratic Senate candidate Mikal Watts came to Victoria today. He invited Dems to a fairly genteel rally in the Oak Room, which is the nicest restaurant in town. After a short meet-and-greet in which there seemed to be three cameras focusing on any given conversation (Watts explained later that they're trying to generate footage for their website), about 20 of us sat down at white-clothed tables for lunch. The food was good, too. (Unusual, since our beloved Victoria is not exactly the culinary capital of Texas.) Anyway, it was an odd contrast immediately, because our meetings with candidates tend to be in more down-home places, with us inflicting hotdogs or fajitas on them, instead of having them serve roast beef to us on fine china plates.
Watts started out by saying that he was not going to give his long stump speech, and then apparently he pretty much did. He talked about being a generational Democrat and told a story about preparing union flyers during childhood. He talked about the hardships of stopping work for 18 months (while mentioning that he can afford to do so) and being away for his family during the coming campaign. He talked about the war (which he is against, but not really ready to pull out of), health care reform (in favor of), and John Cornyn (very much against). I understand that he's still polishing this speech, but he's got to do better, because it was much like a combination of a dull opening argument and a lecture by one of your more boring history professors. No fire was lit in the audience, although a polite friendliness was.
If you read SB 792, the bill that the legislature passed and Rick Perry signed into law, you will look in vain for any moratorium on the Trans-Texas Corridor. There is none. The bill does not impose any moratorium. It does not slow down in any conceivable way the planned rip-off of Texas farms and homes through the largest forcible eminent domain project ever conceived.
AUSTIN - Sen. Mario Gallegos, who received a liver transplant earlier this year, will go to Houston for a surgical procedure and may not return to Austin for the rest of the legislative session, Gallegos' spokesman said.
Against his doctor's wishes, Gallegos has been in Austin for the last couple of weeks. The Democrat from Houston has missed most of the session.
His absence leaves an opening for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to bring up a bill to require voters to prove their identity, which brought the Senate to a standstill this week. Without all 11 Democratic senators on the floor, Republicans have the minimum votes needed to start debate.
(Many thanks to Faith for doing this legislative roundup. - promoted by boadicea)
Action Alerts for May 14-15 for the Texas House and Senate include:
GOOD BILL THAT NEEDS TO BE APPROVED BY BOTH HOUSES:
ACTION ALERT CSSB 439 by Deuell attempts to correct legislation which allows medical providors to withdraw patients from life support over the objection of their families and prior to decisions by ethics or medical review committees. The bill was placed on the Senate Intent Calendar on May 10th. It needs to be passed and go to the house. This is a life and death matter which could impact any Texan if left unaddressed.
BACKGROUND ON THE BILL: Author's Intent:
Currently, if a physician refuses to honor an advance directive or treatment decision, the physician's decision must be reviewed by an ethics or medical committee, during which time life-sustaining treatment is required to be provided to the patient. Some hospitals are withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from patients before they can be transferred to an alternative facility, often resulting in their death.
C.S.S.B. 439 requires life-sustaining treatment to continue to be provided to the patient until the patient's transfer to another facility is complete and the facility from which the patient is being transferred is required to provide a list of facilities, maintained by the Department of State Health Services, that have volunteered their readiness to accept transfers. The bill ensures the rights of patients and their families in deciding to accept or reject life-sustaining treatment, seeks to improve the doctor-patient relationship, allows doctors to refuse to continue a treatment that conflicts with their personal code of ethics, strengthens the power and legitimacy of advanced directives, and promotes the public's trust in hospitals.
Here's the Headline of the day: "Leahy: Bush Aides Lying About Lost E-Mails"
Finally! Someone in office finally said the L-word. I apologize to fans of that other L-word (Showtime's "The L-word"), but the L-word I'm talking about is "LIAR" and this show may be just as good drama. We've heard people call these guys "misleading" and "egregious" and a whole bunch of stupid legal terms to cover people's, um, liabilities, when your Grandpa probably taught you as a child what these guys are: A Bunch of Goddamn LIARS!!!
In actuality, it is the press, not the man behind this story, Senator Leahy, which is using the L-word, but if you read Leahy's blunt comments, there's no mistake the press got it right:
"[The Bush Administration says] they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy shouted from the Senate floor, "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there; they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."
Hell yeah! And as an IT guy, I can tell you that he's absolutely right. Once a system has your email or data and it passes through multiple servers, you have lost containment and probably couldn't destroy the data if you wanted to. [Aside: another danger of Big Brother datamining the personal & financial data of ordinary Americans]To put it bluntly (or is that Leahy-ly?): Emails are like that damn liquid Terminator. They just won't die!
I say put them on the stand and make them lie under oath. Then when the email trails turn up, you can attach perjury on to their list of charges. The Senate Judiciary Committee has given the Leahy approval to issue subpenas and I hope he uses them!
Sometimes it's really hard to like politicians. If they aren't starting a war for nothing (Iraq) or molesting male pages (Mark Foley), they spend so much of their time worrying about liabilities that they don't do or say anything. Some of it I can understand given how many interest groups they have to juggle, but ultimately the people elected a politician to serve for the people and to do some good. Liabilities are for lawyers not for public servants, which is all that politicians are supposed to be.
And when Bush vetos the bill and it's sent back to Congress, Democrats will have to find enough Republicans who are willing to put the lives of our soliders, who have been stranded in the desert by this Administration, over their own political ambitions and greed.
Conservatives will have to ask if they trust this administration after four years to safeguard our troops and know what the heck they are doing. Will these good men and women put their nation first or their Party? Will Republicans be loyal "Bushies" or will they be loyal Americans? It will be a test of wills and character.
But in doing the right thing, Democrats and more and more Republicans sent Bush a message: even you, George Bush, are accountable for your actions.
PLEASE call, e-mail, visit, members of the Texas Senate Transportation Commmittee and House and Senate members and DEMAND that Senate Bill 1267 and identical House Bill 2772 BE MOVED OUT OF COMMITTEE to be debated and voted on by the full Senate and House members.
Senator John Corona, Chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security has been quoted in the Austin American Stateman as saying that he will not move the bill out of his committee. I phoned his office this morning asking for clarification on that matter and they have not gotten back to me. A staffer for another Senator told me that he had been told that Coronoa does not intend to move the bill out of committee.
How else do you explain why he and his fellow Bushbots continue to "vote unanimously to send unarmored, untrained, unrested (and even, Salon and the Hartford Courant tell us, wounded and mentally unstable) troops to Iraq."? link
Asked to insist that the President only deploy "surge" troops who have been certified as ready, rested, trained and armoured, Cornyn says NO.
And this is NOT his first vote against the interest of veterans and our troops. His record is one unbroken series of such votes. He is such a total Bushbot toddy, he won't even break ranks to help veterans. Such blind and uninformed votes as his 2005 vote against Increased Funding for Humvee Armor For Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are simply more proof of what kind of dangerously useless empty suit Cornyn is.
MSNBC is currently reporting that Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) has suffered a stroke.
There is no word, currently, on the Senator's condition. [...]
If Johnson were to pass away, or be forced to retire, the US Constitution delegates the task of appointing a replacement to South Dakota lawmakers, who in turn, often turn that task over to the Governor. The Governor of that state, Mike Rounds, is a Republican, and both houses of the state legislature are dominated by Republicans.
I'm sure I speak on behalf of everyone here at TexasKAOS when I say that we wish the Senator a speedy recovery.
And while my first thoughts were of the Senator's family and everything they must be dealing with right now, I can't help but look at the political angle of this story. Yes, I know it's cynical, but it is what it is. The entire country needs the good Senator to pull through. I think we all know the implications of losing the Senate majority, and it's not pretty.
Georgia10 had such a great set of links on DKos on how you can help with this election, I just plagarized it. Sue me!
* It's not too late to help out with local campaigns. Head on over to DoMoreThanVote.org for contact information. * If you have a camera, sign up to Video the Vote. If any voter suppression or election irregularity occurs, let's make sure we have it documented. * Contact your local party to help out on election day. Are you a lawyer or a law student? Join the DNC's National Lawyers Council. Here's to hoping we won't need an army of lawyers after Tuesday. * Remind your friends and family to vote! Send them a free GOTV e-card. * Find your polling place. * National Hotlines:
George Bush continues his "I'm a tough decider act". Bush got in front of cameras and once again hid behind children his lack of political courage and morality.
At news conference, George Bush explained to the world why he vetoed Stem Cell Bill passed by an overwhelming number (but not veto proof) majority of the Senate.
In vetoing this bill, George Bush imposed on Americans and much of the world the will of a small, religiously extreme minority. And of course his own - The Choosen One.
In doing so, Bush has denied medical care and hope to millions suffering from Parkinson, Alzheimers, cancers and dozens of illnesses and injuries. These illnesses and injuries cause pain and suffering and ultimately death and tear the lives of patients and their families who have to endure this struggle.
And Bush did all this while using children to shield his cowardice & narrow-mindedness.
It was George Bush that crossed a moral boundary. And since he had some pictures for us, I'd like to show you some pictures also.
In the first debate between DINO and soon to be Independent candidate Joe Lieberman and a real Democrat Ned Lamont, a very agressive, fighting Lieberman came out to battle the man who wants to replace him in the Democratic primary.
Early analysis is still coming in but it doesn't appear very good for Lieberman.
Update We are ONE VOTE AWAY from killing this bill in committee. Yes, that means even Kaybee needs a call. Details over at Firedog Lake.
Just got this information via email:
What Stevens is really banking on is getting 15 votes so that when it goes to the full Senate it has more oomph behind it. BUT - it may not go to a full Senate vote for months. There are lots of other pressing things on the docket, and as we know, the Congress takes more time off from work than they put in anymore, so it's a guessing game when it goes to the floor. What Stevens may try to do is -with 15 votes in hand - add it to the omnibus appropriations bill coming up soon. He will try and get it in through an end-run. It may work.
