SPECIAL REPORT: How environmentalists do it when Congress fails them

Towey's Hypocritical Hooey: Bush 'Faith Czar' Complains About Politicization Of White House Faith-Based Office
Under James Towey, the White House faith-based office was used to promote Republican Candidates in tight House and Senate races. James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush, had an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal recently carping because President Barack Obama has used his administrations faith-based offices to let Americans know about the New Health-care law. Towey says if he had politicized his...

Obama hails departing Rahm Emanuel, the #$&@)* tough guy who chokes up anyway (SFW)
Rahm Emanuel, the savyy, rough-talking top aide to President Obama , left his White House job today to return to what every Windy City pol regards as the Big Leagues, the nation's No. 3 city where he'll seek to become head of the long-dominant Democratic machine that he once served as a go-fer. He must register his candidacy by Nov. 22. Obama gave his longtime political friend a send-off full of bounteous praise (see full text and video below), and what sounded like a mayoral...

Swing Women Voters & The Midterms
As we hurtle toward the Midterms, campaign-watchers are beginning to speculate whether women hold the key to the next House majority. Recent press stories, current Public polling, and our own recent work, suggest swing women voters engage with politics differently than we might think. The political language we speak in Washington is simply not spoken by the voters who ultimately tip the scale in close races. My firm, Momentum Analysis, along with Neil Newhouse and Alex Bratty of the...

Sen. Thune sees third party if GOP strays
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said a Third Party similar to the Tea Party could emerge as early as 2012. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said a Third Party could emerge as early as 2012 if Republicans stray from their principles. Thune, a potential Presidential Candidate in 2012, predicted that if Republicans win majorities in Congress but don't follow through on their promises, it could cause a Third Party built in the shape of the Tea Party movement to take off. "I will say this: If we do not govern...

62 Mpg for New Cars? It's the US Target for 2025
Friday, October 01, 2010 By Ken Thomas, Associated Press In this May 21, 2010 file photo, the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolls off the assembly line at the Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. New models and Labor Day promotions didn't do much to fire Americans' appetites for new cars in September. Still, auto executives expect a modest recovery for the remainder of the year. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, file) Washington (AP) - Cars and trucks averaging 62 miles per...

CT-Sen: Linda McMahon's horrible, no good 24 hours
Yesterday, Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon puts her foot in her mouth over the Minimum Wage. Lawrence O'Donnell explains: Today, CQ Politics catches her misleading her supporters about her lobbying efforts on behalf of her wresting enterprise. In a Senate contest already marked by allegations of dishonesty, video footage surfaced in Connecticut this week in which surging GOP hopeful Linda McMahon incorrectly described her connection to Congressional Lobbyists. At a meeting of Tea...

Choked-up Emanuel leaves White House
An emotional Rahm Emanuel said goodbye Friday to the White House in what President Obama described as the least suspenseful announcement in history. Emanuels departure was rumored from the moment Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced his Retirement, and the news of a White House announcement that he would leave immediately to run for Daleys old job leaked out early this week. But that didnt prevent the White House from giving Emanuel a grand send-off from the East Room, where most of...

Obama policy on courts and climate change dismays environmentalists
Washington Environmentalists say they are surprised and disappointed that the Obama Administration is urging the Supreme Court to kill a major Global Warming Lawsuit that seeks new limits on carbon Pollution from coal-fired Power Plants.</p><p> At issue is a deep dispute over how best to fight Climate Change: through new government rules only or through Lawsuits against Polluters.</p><p> Though the Administration seeks new limits on carbon Pollution from Congress or...

Republican-Haters For The GOP
Tom Jensen identifies the key electoral bloc: Republicans in Congress are incredibly unpopular. And many of the party's Senate nominees across the country are too. Yet the party is still headed for a big Election year. The reason? About 20% of the country is unhappy with both sides- and they're leaning strongly toward the GOP. Our last National Poll found that 19% of voters both disapproved of Barack Obama's job performance and disapproved of the Republicans in Congress. Those folks are...

HOW ADOPTING the "NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE INITIATIVE" CAN STEAL an ELECTION 'BY HOOK' and 'BY CROOK"
UPDATE 09.29.10: Since I first posted this article on my blog over the summer, Washington, D.C. adopted the National Popular Vote. https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/states.php?s=DC 2010 jbjd Two (2) years ago, even before the DNC Services Corporation held their August 2008 Presidential Nominating Convention, I began posting this warning throughout the blogosphere for the benefit of my fellow citizens who were raising concerns as to whether Barack Obama, Presidential Nominee wannabe...

Business Interests Quietly Push for Tax Change
By John D. McKinnon Business interests once again are quietly talking up the idea of temporarily lowering the U.S. Tax barrier that keeps multinationals overseas profits parked offshore. The proposal would temporarily lower the Tax on overseas earnings brought back to the U.S. The idea is to encourage multinationals to bring home or repatriate hundreds of Billions of dollars that they now choose to leave parked overseas, often in offshore Tax havens. Under an earlier version of the idea,...

"How environmentalists do it when Congress fails them"
Hint: it involves an increasingly powerful unelected portion of government that the left consistently seeks to expand. Hint the second: it rhymes with “mederal poorocrisy”. Any guesses?

DeMint targets Senate colleagues
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is planning to wage a Television campaign against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and other Democratic colleagues. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a Political action Committee that DeMint helms, has produced an anti-Reid Television ad and will raise money to launch it in Nevada. The Senate Conservatives Funds first target, however, is Sen. Michael Bennet, the freshman Democrat from Colorado who is running against Ken Buck, a favorite of Tea Party...

What Are Superdelegates?
With a close Democratic race for the presidential nominee, the role of delegates and super delegates could become increasingly more important leading up to the Democratic National Convention in August. Former Democratic Strategist David Sirota and political legal analyst Stanley Brand explain why superdelegates are important. Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. MICHEL MARTIN, host:...

New Federal Sex-Ed Funding Ends Decade of Abstinence-Only
Friday, October 01, 2010 By Kelli Kennedy, Associated Press Shayna Knowles teaches a Sex-ed class at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Lake Worth, Fla., on Sept. 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) Miami (AP) - For the first time in more than a decade, the Federal Government is funding Sex Education programs that aren't based solely on Abstinence. But they're not just about handing out Condoms, either. Beginning this School year, a five-year, $375 million Grant is being divided among 28...

Federal Court Rejects Atheist Lawsuit Challenging National Motto and Pledge of Allegiance Displays at Capitol Visitor Center
Freedom From Religion Foundation says it won't give up effort to remove carvings. Friday, October 01, 2010 By Pete Winn The U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Congress) (CNSNews.com) - A Federal Court Judge in Madison, Wis., has dismissed a lawsuitchallenging the constitutionality of engravings of the National Motto -- In God We Trust -- and the Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. U.S. District Judge William M. Conley ruled...

MoveOn: 'Feingold's In Trouble'
MoveOn is now raising money for Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), a longtime progressive champion. And they're really taking the hard sell -- with a dire warning that he's in serious danger. The TPM Poll Average gives Republican businessman Ron Johnson a lead of 52.2%-43.6%. Polling has suggested that this is in large part due to a severe enthusiasm gap , with Dem voters less likely to turn out in this blue-leaning Swing State. MoveOn has a new Fundraising email, out, entitled "Russ Feingold's in...

With Hillary, Obama avoided an LBJ mistake
Scoff all you like at Gallup's new Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton head-to-head Poll, in which the president leads his Secretary of State among Democrats, 52 to 37 percent. Big Deal. The numbers aren't bad for Hillary, but her political army is completely demobilized, if not folded into the Obama corps. Of course, it's easy to think this now. But imagine if she had stayed in the Senate? One doesn't have to wonder too hard: there's a close enough comparison in Lyndon Johnson and Robert...

Glenn Hurowitz: Environmentalists Need a New President
I confess that when I initially heard of it, I thought Bill McKibben’s drive to return solar panels to the White House was essentially a waste of time: of all the things to ask the president, it seemed like the smallest, most insignificant, and easiest. It certainly wouldn’t solve the Climate crisis. And it would allow President Obama to cloak himself in a symbolic green action that let him cover a rapidly worsening Environmental record. I realize now that the very simplicity of...

Environmentalists Size Up Climate Change Legislation’s Odds Against a More Conservative Congress
Protesters advocate for Climate Change Legislation in front of the Capitol. (Flickr/UOPowerShift09) This year, Congress passed the most ambitious agenda in recent memory, overhauling how the nation regulates banks and financial products and dramatically reforming the Health-care system. President Obama had hoped to add comprehensive Energy Legislation — with a cap-and-trade program — to that list, but the Senate failed to move even a slimmed-down version of the Bill this...

Good-bye gas guzzlers?
The Obama Administration today announced the start of the long process of setting new Fuel Efficiency standards for the model years 2017-25. It signaled that it's looking at a range of an average fleet mileage of 47 mph to 62 mph by 2025. Environmental groups are pushing for the 60 mpg range. That would "dramatically enhance Americas National Security by reducing our dependence on oil and combating Climate Change," said a statement by Operation Free, a Veterans group...

Democrats hope organizing will counter voters' apathy
Reporting from Las Vegas and San Francisco — On a recent Saturday, Ken Adams and Ronald Ramsey went door-to-door in Las Vegas, canvassing for Harry Reid . They carried a map of Democratic households and a set of poll-tested talking points, including the senator's achievements ("$540 million for a brand new VA Hospital") and jabs at Republican rival Sharron Angle, who spoke of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs (on Public Radio in May, if anyone asked). A woman in pajamas...

Congressional Republicans: Lead, follow, or just get out of the way!
The past two years in Congress have seen what seems to be an unprecedented effort by Congressional Republicans to obstruct any and all progress that might be accomplished by President Obama and the Democrats in Congress, as well as to simply grind government to a halt, at least in the US Senate. They seem to be taking their cue from Republican ringleader Rush Limbaugh when he stated unequivocally on his radio program that he wants Obama to fail shortly after his inauguration. Although...

Ariz. prison escapees, alleged accomplice indicted on capital murder, carjacking charges
Albuquerque, N.M. — A federal Grand Jury has indicted two Arizona Prison escapees and a woman who allegedly helped them escape on Capital Murder and Carjacking charges in the New Mexico deaths of an Oklahoma couple. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said Thursday that John Charles McCluskey, 45, Tracy Allen Province, 42, and Casslyn Mae Welch, 44, could face the death penalty if convicted. The three are accused in the Murders of Gary and Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., whose remains were...

Well deserved kudos for the Recovery Act
WELL DESERVED KUDOS FOR THE Recovery Act.... There's a certain awkwardness that comes with defending last year's Stimulus, and not just because polls tend to find it unpopular. On the one hand, we see entirely legitimate criticisms from the left about the need for the Recovery Act to have been much bigger. On the right, we see complaints that the Stimulus was a bad idea because ... well, whatever it is Conservatives are unhappy about now. But the White House's defense of the Economic...