"Clearly, the Republican Party is the party of common sense. After all, if you give a few hundred dollars a month to the poorest of the working poor, it's only fair that you also give several million dollars to the richest of the idle rich."--Kevin Drumm
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A field representative for Gov. Ernie Fletcher said in a memo to him in May 2004 that the replacement of Democrats in state civil service jobs was progressing, according to documents filed by prosecutors yesterday.
"Constituents are ready to fill vacant merit positions and replace Democrats in both merit and non-merit positions," according to the report to Fletcher that Attorney General Greg Stumbo filed yesterday in Franklin District Court.
Unable to agree on major lobbying and ethics legislation, Senate and House leaders have made plans to adopt vastly scaled-back versions of the measures as part of their rules so that lawmakers can claim that they responded to recent congressional scandals.
Congress promised fast action on lobbying reforms in January, but the two chambers cannot agree over a number of provisions, including one in the House bill that would rein in independent organizations that have spent millions of dollars, mostly on behalf of Democrats, to sway federal elections. House Republicans are insisting that the groups, nicknamed 527s, be curtailed, but Democratic senators and a handful of Senate Republicans have vowed to oppose the change as part of the lobbying bill.
--story
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 — less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.
Copas now carries the discharge papers, which mention his awards and citations, so he can document his military service for prospective employers. But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal.
He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.
--source
| RACE AR-GOV | POLL Rasmussen | DATE July 27 | RESULTS Beebe (D) 47%, Huchinson (R) 40% |
| CT-GOV | Rasmussen | July 27 | Rell (R) 56%, Malloy (D) 31% |
| CT-GOV | Rasmussen | July 27 | Rell (R) 54%, DeStefano (D)32% |
| VA-05 | Survey USA | July 27 | Goode (R) 59%, Weed (D) 35% |
| MI-GOV | EPIC-MRA | July 27 | Granholm 47%, DeVos 44% |
| VA-SEN | Zogby (tel.) | July 27 | Allen 47%, Webb 37% |
| VA-SEN | Zogby (int.) | July 27 | Allen 52%, Webb 41% |
| Congress | NPR | July 27 | Incumbents 29%, Challengers 46% |
| Congress | NYT/CBS | July 26 | Democrats 45%, GOP 35% |
| Congress | WSJ/NBC | July 26 | Democrats 48%, GOP 38% |
| Congress | NYT/CBS | July 26 | Approve 28%, Disapprove 58% |
| Bush | NYT/CBS | July 26 | Approve 36%, Disapprove 55% |
| MI-SEN | Str. Vision (R) | July 26 | Stabenow 53%, Butler 33% |
| MI-SEN | Str. Vision (R) | July 26 | Stabenow 52%, Bouchard 36% |
| MI-SEN | Str. Vision (R) | July 26 | Bouchard 43%, Butler 37% |
| MI-GOV | Str. Vision (R) | July 26 | DeVos 48%, Granholm 44% |
| Nation | WSJ/ABC | July 26 | Right direction 27%, Wrong track 60% |
| Congress | WSJ/ABC | July 26 | Approve 25%, Disapprove 60% |
| Bush | WSJ/ABC | July 26 | Approve 39%, Disapprove 56% |
| NV-GOV | HRA (D) | July 26 | GOP Prim: Gibbons 36%, Beers 28%, Hunt 14% |
| NV-GOV | HRA (D) | July 26 | Dem Primary: Titus 42%, Gibson 29% |
| Bush | ARG | July 26 | Approve 35%, Disapprove 59% |
| FL-SEN | Miami Herald | July 26 | Nelson (D) 57%, Harris (R) 29% |
| FL-GOV | Quinnipiac | July 26 | Dem Primary: Davis 47%, Smith 19% |
| FL-GOV | Quinnipiac | July 26 | GOP Primary: Crist 55%, Gallagher 32% |
| KY-04 | SurveyUSA | July 25 | Lucas (D) 50%, Davis (R) 41% |
| AZ-SEN | Rocky Mountain | July 25 | Kyl (R) 45%, Pederson (D) 27% |
"Many left-wing bloggers are struggling to survive financially and would love to begin earning salaries as political operatives. "--source
--sourceLebanon is investigating reports from doctors that Israel has used weapons in its 15-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon that have caused wounds they have never seen before.
"We are sending off samples tomorrow, but we have no confirmation yet that illegal weapons have been used," Health Minister Mohammed Khalife said.
The Israeli army said it had used only conventional weapons and ammunition in attacks aimed at Hizbollah guerrillas and nothing contravening international law.
Blackened bodies have been showing up at hospitals in southern Lebanon two weeks into the war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas that has seen at least 418 people, mostly civilians, killed in Lebanon and at least 42 Israelis.
Since DHS was created in 2003, there have been "significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement" on contracts worth a total of $34 billion.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — For nearly a year now, the ubiquitous FEMA trailer has sheltered tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. But there is growing concern that even as it staved off the elements, it was exposing its inhabitants to a toxic gas that could pose both immediate and long-term health risks.
The gas is formaldehyde, the airborne form of a chemical used in a wide variety of products, including composite wood and plywood panels in the thousands of travel trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency purchased after Katrina to house hurricane victims. It also is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
--MSNBC
... flags an in-house poll of Americans showing most respondents blaming Hezbollah for the fighting, but half also said Israel's response has "gone too far." Two-thirds said the White House doesn't have a clear Mideast policy.--source
BEIRUT, July 24 -- On an unannounced trip to ravaged Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice outlined a plan Monday to deploy an international force, possibly led by NATO, in a buffer zone just inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days, after which it would expand its mission to help the Lebanese army regain control of the south, Lebanese and U.S. officials said.
--sourceGeorge W. Bush did not invent the document known as the presidential signing statement; he inherited it. Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and even James Monroe, in 1830, authored the statements, which spell out the president's sometimes controversial interpretation of the very law he's signing. But no president has used signing statements quite like Bush. Although the president has not issued more statements in total than any other president, he has challenged more than 750 laws in more than 100 signing statements.
And he has used them to, in effect, challenge parts of laws, and challenge them more aggressively, than any president before him. Bush's liberal use of those statements first attracted attention in December 2005, when he signed a torture ban—but then added a statement reserving the right not to enforce the ban, alongside his signature. Since then, Congress has held a hearing to investigate Bush's use of the statements, a bipartisan advocacy group has condemned their use, and Democratic Rep. Barney Frank has introduced a bill that would allow Congress to override content in them that contradicts signed legislation.Now, U.S. News has learned, an American Bar Association task force is set to suggest even stronger action. In a report to be released Monday, the task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of the signing statements. Some task force members want to simply give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.
Republican lawmakers losing positive tone on course of war
story HERE
