By GottaLaff
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) claims the White House "offered him a federal job in an effort to dissuade him from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) in the state's Democratic primary."
Said Sestak: "I'm not going to say who or how and what was offered. I don't feel it's appropriate to go beyond what I said."
The White House denied the story.
By GottaLaff
The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine.
In its ostensible attempt to create a nondiscriminatory application process, the Department of Justice is inviting candidates with "mental retardation" to pursue attorney posts.Cheese and crackers, talk about inclusive! What will the R-word police say about that? Will they demand that future Civil Rights Divisoners take literacy tests?A DOJ job listing at its official Web site reveals that its Civil Rights Division is seeking 10 "experienced" trial attorneys for its Voting Section in Washington, D.C. and is encouraging "qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply."
The targeted disabilities it mentions include "mental retardation" and "mental illness," among others such as blindness and deafness.
And who is this David and Ty we speak of?"Recruiting mentally retarded lawyers to litigate civil rights cases for the DOJ may take the expression 'good enough for government work' too far," wrote Above The Law's David Lat.
Former DOJ lawyer Ty Clevenger jested, "Having worked there, I think CRD has plenty of mentally retarded lawyers already. Mostly in supervisory positions."
Messaging, messaging, messaging. G-damn the D's are stupid.
Washington(CNN) - Although the overall stimulus bill is unpopular, most of its basic provisions are favored by a large majority of Americans, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday morning indicates that 80 percent of the public favors government spending on roads and bridges, and 83 percent approves of aid to unemployed workers. Seven in 10 support the idea of spending some of that stimulus money on tax cuts, and 62 percent think it's a good idea to increase spending on mass transit projects.
Then why is the stimulus bill so unpopular?
"Because, as we have seen throughout the week, there is much skepticism that the bill is wasteful, full of politically-motivated projects, and has benefitted fat cats at the expense of ordinary Americans," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The positive aspects of the stimulus bill, such as infrastructure improvements and tax cuts, seem to have taken a back seat to those negatives."
Well let's get it going already. I am convinced, though not as much as Duncan, that high speed rail would be hugely popular.
(CBS/AP) A day after delivering a State of the Union address aimed at showing recession-weary Americans he understands their struggles, President Obama intends to award $8 billion in stimulus funds to develop high-speed rail corridors and sell the program as a jobs creator.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden plan to announce grants for 13 major corridors during a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla., Thursday, the president's first public appearance following his speech to the nation. It's an attempt by the White House to show that getting Americans back to work is the president's top priority and that he has a plan for how to do it.
The president's visit to the region means Florida's proposal for a high-speed line connecting Orlando and Tampa is likely to receive funding. California's proposal for an 800-mile-long rail line from Sacramento to San Diego and a nine-state proposal in the Midwest are also considered strong contenders.
The $8 billion in funding for high-speed trains and other passenger rail projects is part of the $787 billion recovery act. Besides the 13 corridors receiving grants, a White House official said several smaller awards will be made for improvements to existing rail lines. Overall, 31 states will receive funds.
Way to be "Fair and Balanced".
From a White House release via Ben-
- Enable 1,129 Health Centers in 50 States and 8 Territories to Provide Expanded Service to Approximately 300,000 Patients – Department of Health and Human ServicesThat's just a start, more here.
- Begin Work on 107 National Parks – Department of the Interior
- Begin Work on Rehabilitation and Improvement Projects at 98 Airports and Over 1,500 Highway Locations throughout the Country – Department of Transportation
- Fund 135,000 Education Jobs Including Teachers, Principals and Support Staff – Department of Education
- Begin Improvements at 90 Veterans Medical Centers across 38 States – Department of Veterans Affairs
- Hire or Keep on the Job Approximately 5,000 Law Enforcement Officers – Department of Justice
"No justifiable reason". Jeebus, this reminds me of someone buying a house and in the time before the turnover the previous owner goes thru and removes all the light fixtures, the switch plates, piping and anything else it can to make it harder for the new owner to move in. Bush is making this the most difficult transition every, nevermind the lip service to a "smooth" one. Via TP-
Yesterday, President Bush issued an executive order “that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security.” 900 of the employees affected were already represented by collective bargaining units. Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that employees “had their collective bargaining rights stripped away for no justifiable reason.”
I think their headline misreads the story, the "jobs program" is for us and it sounds like a damned good idea.
By GottaLaff
The Bush administration is shifting dozens of key deputies into senior civil service posts, the Washington Post reports.
"The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called 'burrowing' by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs..."
"The practice of placing political appointees into permanent civil service posts before an administration ends is not new. In its last 12 months, the Clinton administration approved 47 such moves, including seven at the senior executive level. Federal employees with civil service status receive job protections that make it very difficult for managers to remove them."
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