Who would have thunk it? Republicans are calling on colleagues to give us an up or down vote. We will start with former majority leader, Senator Bill Frist...
These filibusters... injure the administration of justice and our nation's political culture... As Senate majority leader... I sought to address Democrats' grievances while holding true to the core principle of an up-or-down vote. So far, my colleagues have rejected all efforts at compromise, and continue to insist on a new, 60-vote standard.
[Health care reform has been] held up by a filibuster and cannot get a fair up-or-down vote. This unfair tactic is breaking years of Senate tradition...When a filibuster is instituted it takes a three-fifths vote to put a stop to it. The Framers of the Constitution were pretty clear when they required more than a majority to act. For example, they required a two-thirds vote to amend the Constitution. They required a two-thirds vote to convict and remove from office an impeached President or Federal official... The Framers also required a two-thirds vote to approve a treaty. Now, if the Framers meant that a super-majority vote was required [to pass health care reform] then they would have clearly stated so.
Oh wait, those are quotes from 2005, when Republicans were in power and trying to put more conservative, activist judges on the Supreme Court. Ooops. My bad.
The AP is reporting that a community in Pheonix is asking their Church to stop feeding the homeless. I shit you not.
Residents say the homeless create blight and pose a danger to them, pointing to the case of a homeless felon caught with child pornography in the neighborhood. A complaint prompted city officials to order the year-old breakfast halted, saying it violated zoning laws.
snip
"We're glad in the city that they're trying to help out," says Patrick Ravenstein, the city's area manager for neighborhood preservation. "However, the type of help they're giving can only be conducted in a certain zoning district."
snip
Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the Nashville-based First Amendment Center, said such spats have become quite common across the country since Congress passed the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in 2000.
The law gives religious groups a high level of protection in zoning cases and forces cities to show there's a compelling reason, such as public safety, to restrict them.
So years of providing food for the homeless and one person's disgusting actions will be used as "proof" that there is a legitimate public safety concern having poor people bussed into the community.
There is another question raised here, and that is the right to assemble. While receiving food from the church, homeless folks also get a plate-full of sermons. I would imagine the Church has a very legitimate argument that it directly restricts their right to assemble and practice religion.
UPDATE: We are currently planning our efforts to cover the Breitbartocalypse as the destruction happens, equipped with in-the-field reporters and our very own Senior Breitbartocalypseologist. Check back at 10:45pm EST on Monday, March 15th, just 15 minutes before it is expected to hit, for our first round of coverage.
If you do not know what I am talking about, take a gander at this, then take a minute to pick yourself up off the floor after a good laugh:
You have to hand to the folks of conservativeland. We progressives have hope, the conservative movement has pipe dreams.
Oh yeah, we are talking grassroots communications. There has been an explosion recently in the availability of free and low cost tools to do almost anything online.
Our panelists today are Jason Lefkowitz, Shireen Mitchell, and Ben Kallos. They will cover everything from simple blog platforms to domain and hosting services. If your group/campaign/company has not explored the free tools available to them, do it now. Some will work for you, and some will not. But the internet is one of the only places where you do not get what you pay for. You can spend tons of money online for the most useless technology in the world while spending nothing for some of the most innovative and creative technology.
On Saturday, we were excited to join Yvette Lewis and Grow the Hope at the Millenium Bible Fellowship Church for an event on economic empowerment. Last time we joined them, it was quite a powerful event, so we came with high expectations. As usual, Yvette did not disappoint. We will have plenty of coverage of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the various workshops to help folks with resume writing and basic financial counseling. Today though, we are just releasing our interview with Michelle Singletary and her speech.
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Mrs. Singletary gave an impassioned speech about individual fiscal responsibility, stuffed with plenty of comedy and personal stories. And there was plenty of tough love to go around. In this economy, it is more important than ever to hear the truth about money, regardless of how hard it may be to hear.
We got a chance to chat with her for a few minutes after the event and got a little advice for folks that are thinking about trying the Financial Fast she details in her book, The Power to Prosper: 21 Days to Financial Freedom. We send a big thanks to Mrs. Singletary for sparing some time for us:
(I'll be getting a copy of her book and trying out the financial fast, I'll share with you all some of results of that along the way)
I do love math sometimes, although I worked real hard to pass BC Calc in high school so that I would specifically be able to avoid taking any math classes in college. You just cannot argue with numbers, as hard as Karl Rove may try.
Well, today my good friend, Jeremy Koulish of The Carrots And Sticks Project, emailed me the charts below, put out by the House Budget Committee. They detail the economic progress that has been made under the leadership of President Obama. Consider OFA's recovery chart just a preview, here is the full story of our economy:
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