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BREAKING: House Dems file lawsuit against illegal
legislation

post from AMERICAblog on 27 April 2006 04:09:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

Developing story coming from the top House Democrats. They are filing a lawsuit against Bush and his administration to prevent implementation of the "Budget Deficit Act of 2005." That's the legislation which Bush signed even though the House and Senate passed different versions (basically because the Republican illegally changed the legislation).

This is pretty big news. The lead plaintiff is John Conyers, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He is joined by 10 other ranking members of the other House Committees: Dingell, Rangel, Miller, Oberstar, Frank, Peterson, Thompson, Stark, Brown and Slaughter.

They are seeking to enjoin the budget act because the constitutional process -- you know, from "How a Bill becomes a Law" -- wasn't followed. For all those strict constructionists, here's the actual language:

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States:

The House and Senate passed different versions. What's more, they knew they passed different versions and instead of re-voting, they just fudged it. Bush, Hastert and Frist decided to overrule established constitutional law, just like they do in so many other areas.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Americablog?m=8618

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Is Woody Out

post from Firedoglake on 27 April 2006 03:53:00 PM. © Firedoglake

(In response to last night’s post on the Page Six gossip that Bob Woodward may be retiring from the Washington Post, Paul Lukasiak wrote this comment and I thought it deserved much wider exposure — JH)There are excellent reasons why the Post[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/27/is-woody-out/

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Right-Wing Bloggers Give ThinkProgress Advice
About Tony Snow

post from Think Progress on 27 April 2006 03:34:00 PM. © Think Progress

According to right-wing bloggers, publishing our compilation of Tony Snow’s harsh criticism of President Bush was a huge mistake. A superior strategy would have been to “be silent” or “praise Snow for being a good guy.” Here’s the National Review’s Jonah Goldberg:

I don’t think many people have realized how the left blew it in its response to his appointment. The Center for American Progress and others immediately dug up every negative thing Snow ever said about Bush. This was precisely the stuff they should have downplayed. Instead, by doing this, they established Tony’s credibility and integrity… If [they] had been smart, they would have just let the whole thing go as ho-hum and praised Snow for being a good guy.

Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff seconds that emotion:

On the one hand, the Bush-haters at John Podesta’s think tank couldn’t resist digging up every negative comment Snow has ever made about the Bush administration. Not only did this help establish Snow’s credibility and integrity, as Goldberg notes, but it also signaled to the conservative base that this is a good and meaningful selection…. Once in a while, it doesn’t hurt to be silent or non-committal.

It’s facinating that, according to Goldberg and Mirengoff, the way to establish “credibility and integrity” is to call President Bush “an embarassment” and “impotent.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/27/advice-to-thinkprogress/

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Hoo Boy

post from Ezra Klein on 27 April 2006 03:34:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

This is the sort of high quality political commentary you can only find in The National Review: Rest assured that I am not going to write about insurance per se. That requires a natural ear for droning that I...[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/hoo_boy.html

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Pat Roberts still playing his games

post from Crooks and Liars on 27 April 2006 03:33:13 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Pat Roberts still playing his games

Greg Sargent:

"Senator Pat Roberts is so determined to delay a real probe into the Bush administration's prewar deceptions that he's breaking the promises he makes in his own press releases...read on"

I've heard from sources close to this that Dick Cheney is pulling Pat Roberts strings. No surprise there. Now why would Dick Cheney not want Roberts to release the information? Any thought?

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/27.html#a8067

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Guy who created "Gannon Panel" tells City Paper
his goal for the Gannon panel was to discuss GannonGate

post from AMERICAblog on 27 April 2006 03:16:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

Well, now I'm really confused.

I got criticized by a Philadelphia gay group for asking why GannonGate was not going to be included as one of the main topics of discussion at the Equality Forum blogging panel next week in Philly - a panel that Republican former male prostitute Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert), top lesbian political blogger Pam Spaulding, and I were to sit on, but have since pulled our participation after the Equality Forum refused to make GannonGate even one of the topics on the agenda.

Mike LaMonaca, the Equality Forum program director, released a rather bitter press release yesterday criticizing me for allegedly attempting to "control the panel" when Pam Spaulding and I both noted that GannonGate really had to be one of the topics on the agenda. (According to the person moderating the panel, GannonGate was NOT going to be one of the main agenda items, period. Which is even more odd since the head of the Equality Forum emailed me 3 days ago saying he agreed with me, GannonGate should be one of the agenda items.)

Now we find out that LaMonaca apparently intended all along that GannonGate be discussed at the panel. From LaMonaca's interview, it sounds like GannonGate was the only issue that interested him at all from the panel, or at least it was the one most on his mind. And LaMonaca is the guy CREATED the panel in the first place. Bizarrely, he's also the guy who publicly criticized me yesterday for trying to edge the panel back to what he apparently intended it to be.

Then why did LaMonaca yesterday criticize me for proposing the same thing he advocated in this week's Philly City Paper - discussing GannonGate as one of the panel topics? Not to mention, this is now clear evidence that the direction of this panel very much changed from where it was only a week or so ago when this article was completed. Why was that? Did Gannon put his foot down? Did a board member or a donor or a Republican in the senior ranks of the Equality Forum flip out? Did the moderator in her ivory tower (she teaches at the Annenberg School) refuse to address that icky sex issue? Growing numbers of questions, and fewer and fewer answers from the Equality Forum on just what the heck is going on here.

LaMonaca had this to say to the City Paper in their current edition:?

City Paper: Are you surprised this came together?

Mike LaMonaca: I'm pleased it came together. ... I know I'm curious to hear Jeff Gannon's side of the story and his thoughts about what transpired.

Obviously not curious enough.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/Americablog?m=8617

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Go Ron

post from Eschaton on 27 April 2006 03:15:00 PM. © Eschaton

Wyden filibusters on CSPAN2.

Domenici is currently screeching like the WATB he is.

Read The Full Article:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_04_23_atrios_archive.html#114616542047031000

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Mid-Day Open Thread

This morning NDN has launched a national media campaign to counter GOP efforts to derail immigration reform and the smear campaign of the RNC against Harry Reid and Democrats.
The Republican focus on anti-immigration efforts might have something to do with the emboldening of white supremacists and other far-right extremists to take violent action. The ADL notes a growing number of violent assaults against immigrants.
New Jersey really, really hates Bush. How much?

New Jersey voters disapprove of Cheney by 63%-27%. As the poll director notes, New Jersey may be the only state where Bush does even worse than his face-shooting friend. He's got an embarrassingly low 69%-26% disapproval rating. Even 34% of Republicans and 78% of independents disapprove.
Over at The Next Hurrah, DemFromCT has been doing more of his excellent poll dissecting, looking at Bush's sinking approval ratings among Republicans, lack of enthusiasm in the GOP, and speculating on what might happen in November. It's a good read.
Another alumni note, over at Swords Crossed Armando takes on Andrew Sullivan's labored and mistaken reading of the recently released Iraq government reports and Saddam's role in planning terrorist attacks in the West.
Andrew Young (UCC minister, former mayor of Atlanta, former Ambassador to the UN) has decided to become a spokesman for Wal-Mart. Young's colleagues aren't taking this lightly. They've sent him a letter laying out their opposition and calling him to give up his role. Chuck Currie has more.