The Vent is reporting that Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta and Treasury Secretary John Snow are expected to be departing as well. The Vent thinks that Connecticut Senator Lieberman will go to the cabinet with this opportunity to mend the rift between the two parties.
I just don't see Joe Lieberman moving from the Senate. We need him there. Another loss would just be devastating for the Democratic Party. I supported Joe Lieberman in 2004 with all my heart and soul. I don't like it when he or anybody else in the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) is attacked as being Republican-lite or as a Democrat in Name Only.
I ran into an interesting blog after looking at a Daily Kos blog entry over the weekend. It's called Basie! and it's written by Jonathan Singer. He writes on Kos as well. I've included a link to one of the things that he's written on there. Here's his blog entry on the subject of Bayh in 2008. Basie reports on Evan Bayh in 2008 on Daily Kos.
I watched my Kentucky Wildcats fall to the University of North Carolina today. I'm sure retiring North Carolina Senator John Reid Edwards is happy. This is where it's freaky, I know someone with a similar name and they have the same initials.
West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd is in the news again. The Los Angeles Times reports that in a recent federal spending bill, he inserted a mandate to teach the United States Constitution in every school and in every grade for part of a day.
The provision would apply to all schools, elementary through college, that receive federal aid. Education groups worry that the provision could be the opening wedge in a campaign by Washington to influence what schools teach.
Byrd carries a copy of the Constitution in his breast pocket — over his heart — and often waves it on the Senate floor. He lamented in a recent speech that even some of his colleagues in Congress didn't know fully what it said. "An informed public is our best defense against tyranny," he said.
The provision he inserted in the spending bill, which is expected to clear Congress next week, would require schools that receive federal funding to teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17 — a day that Byrd has sought, in separate legislation, to declare a national holiday to mark the anniversary of the document's signing in 1787. The provision also would require federal agency heads to include information about the Constitution in every new federal employee's orientation.
I am Jewish and despite his former membership in one of the most evil organizations out there, I've grown to respect the Senator for the things he has said in recent years. This I can agree with. I took AP Government during my senior year. The day he retires from the Senate will be a sad day. As long as the Democrats own the Governor's mansion in West Virginia, we should be good with that seat until a special election.
KYGOP on politics1 buys into the Tom Delay crap that separation of religion and state is a myth from the looks of the 23-year old's latest rant in which I quote right here:
If I were governor of KY, I would place a ten commandments mmonument in the state capital just to spite the courts and the ACLU. Then when they ruled against it, I
would balk at the ruling and laugh in their faces. If they levied fines, I would order the state treasurer not to pay. If they sent troops to remove it, I would use the state police and KY National Guard to defend the capitol, not to mention the thousands of Kentuckians that would bring their hunting rifles to Frankfort to defend their religion. That seems to be the only way to deal with modern liberals.
I believe in the separation of religion and state. Even as a religious Jew, I would not older the Ten Commandments to be placed on public governmental property. I'm a religious Jew. You won't find me campaigning on Shabbas. You won't see me mixing meet and dairy. More importantly, you will never find me eating pork.
I don't see any wedge issue in the teaching of the Constitution. Everyone should know it. I have had my share of studies of the Constitution whether in a social studies class or in the figuring of when I plan to make my first run for public office.
The cost of implementing Byrd's provision has yet to be calculated, but an aide to the senator asked, "How much cost is there in bringing kids into the auditorium and having a presentation on the Constitution?"
Byrd said on the Senate floor in September that few Americans took note of the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.
"The flag is a potent symbol of our nation, but this Constitution which I hold in my hand is the soul of the nation," he said. "Practically everything you do is made possible by or is guaranteed or is protected by this Constitution. It is the prism through which each act of our government should be examined and judged."
Why would there be an increase in the cost of running a school to teach the Constitution?
In other news, I missed this yesterday. In a survey given to the British citizens, nearly half of them were unaware of the tragedies that took place at Auschwitz and the name of the camp.
The survey found that 45 percent of those surveyed had not heard of Auschwitz. Historians estimate that anywhere from one million to three million people, about 90 percent of them Jews, were killed there.
Among women and people younger than 35, 60 percent had never heard of Auschwitz, despite the recent popularity of films such as "Schindler's List," "Life is Beautiful" and "The Pianist," which depict the atrocities of the Holocaust.
"The name Auschwitz is quite rightly a byword for horror, but the problem with thinking about horror is that we naturally turn away from it," Rees said.
The BBC surveyed 4,000 people aged 16 and over.
Reuters is reporting that CNBC has cancelled McEnroe. The tennis player's show has ocassionally recieved bad ratings. Time will only tell before they cancel the Dennis Miller show.
Marty, thanks for the best wishes. I had a restful Shabbas, a few things aside.
Interesting entry over at Kos on Eliot Spitzer. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is a DLC member running for Governor of New York State in 2006. While I don't know if I would immediately support him in 2008 for the White House should he decide to run, I certainly think he'd make a fantastic VP to draw the liberal voters to the ticket with Evan Bayh as President in 2008. Like Kentucky's Jonathan Miller and Illinois' Barack Obama, this guy is going far. Either he, Jonathan, or me will be the first Jewish president in the United States but I don't know if Jonathan will run for President or Governor--at least not yet.
Here's a testimonial to the KY Democrat from The Vent's author:
The Kentucky Democrat - Very In Depth, Opinionated and picking up recognition by the state party leaders.
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