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links for 2009-05-22

  • Gov. Sarah Palin is coming to Auburn June 6.

    The Alaskan governor and former Republican vice presidential candidate will travel to Auburn for what the city organizers call Founders Day, which this year will celebrate 50 years of Alaskan statehood.

    Auburn's Meghan Stapleton, Palin's former press secretary who continues to work for her as a spokesman in nongovernment matters, confirmed the visit with Auburn officials in recent days.

    Alaska and Auburn are linked through William H. Seward, who lived much of his adult life in Auburn and was secretary of state under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Seward negotiated the deal with Russia in which the U.S. bought Alaska on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million.

    Stapleton's father, Auburn lawyer T. David Stapleton, sits on the board of the Seward House in Auburn, and wrote the invitation on behalf of the city and the Seward House.

    It's not clear where else in New York Palin might visit.

    (tags: sarah_palin)
  • Centrism has emerged as a dominant factor in public opinion as the Obama era begins. The political values and core attitudes that the Pew Research Center has monitored since 1987 show little overall ideological movement. Republicans and Democrats are even more divided than in the past, while the growing political middle is steadfastly mixed in its beliefs about government, the free market and other values that underlie views on contemporary issues and policies. Nor are there indications of a continuation of the partisan realignment that began in the Bush years. Both political parties have lost adherents since the election and an increasing number of Americans identify as independents.
  • The nation's top geography whiz breezed through questions about mountain ranges, rivers and world capitals Wednesday, but he was stumped when National Geographic Bee host Alex Trebek asked him to name one of his weaknesses.

    "Um …" said Eric Yang, 13, pausing. The Texas teen had just revealed to the "Jeopardy!" host how he crafts his own chess strategies and plays the piano.

    "That's OK," Trebek replied. "You remind me of a former president, but we won't get into that."

  • CREW learned today that the Obama administration is opposing our request that the Supreme Court reconsider the dismissal of the lawsuit, Wilson v. Libby, et al. In that case, the district court had dismissed the claims of Joe and Valerie Wilson against former Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Richard Armitage for their gross violations of the Wilsons’ constitutional rights.

    Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. It is surprising that the first time the Obama administration has been required to take a public position on this matter, the administration is so closely aligning itself with the Bush administration’s views.

  • President Barack Obama sees his secretary of defense just about every day, but he still flubbed Robert Gates' name on Thursday.

    Gates was in the crowd for Obama's national security speech. Pointing him out, the president said "William Gates" was on hand. Perhaps Obama was thinking of Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire.

  • President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said.
    (tags: barack_obama)
  • President Obama is so "distracted by his vice president's indiscipline" that he has been forced to rebuke privately Vice President Joe Biden, according to a new book by Newsweek journalist Richard Wolffe, who interviewed Obama a dozen times.

    "He can't keep his mouth shut," Wolffe quotes a "senior Obama aide" as saying of the gaffe-prone Biden in "Renegade: The Making of a President," set for release June 2.

    As evidence, Wolffe reports that during the presidential transition period, Biden insulted Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest friends and confidantes. Jarrett had been considered Obama's top choice to fill his vacated Senate seat in Illinois, but took herself out of the running just hours after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly told a wiretapped conference call he would not heed any Obama recommendation without a payoff.

  • The FBI and NYPD busted a four-man homegrown terror cell Wednesday night that was plotting to blow up two Bronx synagogues while simultaneously shooting a plane out of the sky, sources told the Daily News.

    The idea was to create a "fireball that would make the country gasp," one law enforcement said.

    Little did they know the plastic explosives packed into their car bombs and the plane-downing Stinger missile in their backseat were all phony – supplied by undercover agents posing as Pakistani militants linked to Al Qaeda.

    (tags: FBI terrorism)
  • Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation.

    So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation
    Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation
    time a requirement under federal law.

    The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week.
    ++++++
    Hell, why not require a month off like they do in Europe?

    But, who is going to pay for this?

One Comment

  • Ling

    I think maybe Alan Grayson needs a vacation – a long, extended vacation, where he can think about the pros and cons of the issue before introducing a bill. People are losing jobs, businesses and states are going bankrupt, the federal deficit and debt is getting out of control, and the guy wants more vacations?