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#1 The Courage Campaign is taking on California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman with a new web-based attack ad. Whitman has been dominating the airwaves and radiowaves out here with her "Welfare State" ads.
The ad features a series of people standing in front of various institutions - courts, hospitals, libraries and public beaches - holding signs that say "CLOSED." The last sign is a "closed" sign being held by a seriously ill woman. After a fade to black the screen reads: "California's future...brought to you by Meg Whitman and the California Republican Party."
"All we're doing is telling people what the Republican Party is telling people. We're just making sure they hear it," said Rick Jacobs, founder and chair of the Courage Campaign.
I can't find the ad on the internet yet, but will put it up in a new post when I see it on youtube.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans "should stop crying" about the possible use of the parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill.
Reid said reconciliation had been used 21 times since 1981, mostly by Republicans when they were in control of the Senate for the passage of items like the Bush tax cuts...
Under reconciliation, Democrats would need a simple majority in the Senate to pass legislation, as opposed to the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
Sounds like Harry isn't going to give up his seat without a fight.
One morning, Uncle Sam woke up and his military had been privatized. There had been no national debate. No congressional action. No sweeping White House order. It just happened.
Today, the Pentagon employs more than 217,000 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, doing the kind of work that enlisted military personnel would have performed in the past, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
Now, there's a move in Congress to change that. On Tuesday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced the Stop Outsourcing Security Act, which would make it the military's responsibility to use its own personnel to train troops and police, guard convoys, repair weapons, run military prisons and do military intelligence activity.
There are strategic reasons to move away from a reliance on contractors, says Schakowsky, a senior member of the intelligence committee. They damage the U.S. reputation with reckless behavior, are overly costly and hurt the morale of troops, who see private guards earning much more money than they do.
Good, it's disgusting that we hire 200,000 mercenaries to do the job that our armed forces should be doing!!
This is the third edition of my weekly roundup of the best blogs and videos.
#1 Today starts with a very passionate discussion on the Young Turks about Obama and his connections to Goldman Sachs
I don't agree with everything that is said, but I am a little cynical. Though Barack has cheered me up this week by signaling a demand for a public healthcare option, and I appreciated his middle East speech.
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky released a polling memo by Lake Research Partners showing that she is the strongest of three Democratic candidates. The other two candidates tested were current embattled Senator Roland Burris and Alexi Giannoulias - FOO (Friend of Obama).
I think that Giannoulias would be the favorite over Schakowsky Burris and his low favorable ratings. However, I do think that Schakowsky would be a formidable opponent as she could certainly raise a lot of money and would likely be endorsed by Emily's List and other women's groups.
I know of Schakowsky from working in Illinois during the 2002 campaign. Her husband Bob Creamer owns the Strategic Consulting Group. While a very talented and proficient community organizer and campaign consultant, Creamer did serve prison time for tax fraud and bank fraud as a result of guilty pleas in 2005.
Creamer, 58, a prominent Chicago political consultant, was accused of swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public interest group in the 1990s.
Creamer told reporters Wednesday there was "no doubt that my actions a decade ago were very foolish and placed myself, my family, the organization and many of those who worked with me at considerable risk."
He offered a "sincere apology to anyone who has been affected by my conduct."
The indictment alleged Creamer caused a series of insufficiently funded checks and wire transfers to be drawn on accounts he controlled as executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund. According to the indictment, he allegedly then used the inflated balances to pay the group's expenses and own salary.
Creamer pleaded guilty to one count each of bank fraud and failure to collect withholding tax. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped several other counts
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