15 House seats most likely to change parties

Differing Views on Sotomayor

"I found her very partisan." - Perrotta

"If she had a liberal agenda, she never showed it as a trial judge." - Ruhnke

Parties and campaign finance reform

Committee chairs and Dem members

Presidential approval tracker

The Ultimate Insider

NPV

Earmark is now an official word

Card Check Dropped

Congressional Democrats

News Cycles

Vince Lombardi Politics

New Haven Firemen on Supreme Court Ruling

A sentence for Obama?

Where in the world is Hillary Clinton?

D.C. train smashes into another; 6 dead

Really sad, same rail line that Woodley is on. Worst train fatality in DC since 1982.

The power of the cow lobby

Poisoned Waters: Frontline Documentary

The entire documentary is very interesting, as it focuses on the Chesapeake Bay watershed and how degraded it has become in the last few decades. The fifth portion of the documentary, about 40 minutes in or so, focuses on DC water quality. Enjoy!

The Bailout State

A new golden age for lobbying?

DC Summer Intern Blog

just in case anyone is still checking this ... I had to put it up.

A blog about DC interns spotted doing embarrassing things all throughout the city:

http://dcinterns.blogspot.com/

The Puffington Host

Government You Tube Channel

Climate industrial complex

Role reversal on climate change legislation

Obama as Spock?

The future of health care?

New Yorker piece on John Roberts

Toobin is not the biggest fan of the Chief Justice.

Is a coup possible?

Kempism

Indiana Governor on Cap and Trade

Will Gitmo close on schedule?

Supreme Court Nomination Within a Week?

Posts seem to be in a dry spell following everyone's departure from Washington... tragic!

Anyway, in the spirit of interesting political news, it seems Obama will be picking a new Supreme Court nominee as early as next week. I suspect he's in a hurry to define his judicial legacy--unsurprising, given that the court has moved rightward in recent years, and the left is undoubtedly anxious for a nominee catering to their values.

Obama and the Clinton legacy

RIP Chuck Daly

Chuck Daly brought two NBA titles to Detroit with a tough defensive style and won gold with the Dream Team. The Hall of Fame coach leaves behind an influential legacy. He was renowned for his ability to create harmony out of diverse personalities at all levels of the game, whether they were Ivy Leaguers at Pennsylvania, Dream Teamers Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, or Pistons as dissimilar as Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars. This morning, Chuck passed away. 

Space won’t enter Ohio Senate race

Republicans missed a major chance at getting a seat in the House with Zach Space's decision to stay out of the Senate race in Ohio. I think Space probably would have eliminated Jennifer Brunner's chances, which would have left him as a formidable opponent to Lee Fisher. Because Space is not running for the Senate, he is almost assured his spot in the House again even though his district is Republican in nature. I think it is a waste for Republicans to be going after Space now because he is just too well-liked in his district to lose in 2010. The only way I could see him losing is if some scandal emerges causing him to withdraw and that will leave Republicans with one less target to go after in the upcoming election. The Senate race is most likely going to be given to Fisher now and that means Republicans will be down another seat in their effort to keep the filibuster prevalent. Fisher has amassed a huge war chest and his opponent Rob Portman still is struggling in the polls despite his great experience and service to the country. Portman will have to step up now that Democrats will not be fighting against themselves during the primary, and this is something I think he will struggle to accomplish.

Obama team retains Bush polar bear policy

With this decision by President Obama, it is clear that he believes cap and trade policies will be put in place by the end of the year. I think it is very important to protect our endangered wildlife especially in places like Alaska where the ice continues to melt away leaving less room for animals to roam. I agree that the Endangered Species Act was not the right way to attack the problem because that should be intended for things we definitely can control through our own actions in terms of hunting or poaching. The issue of global warming is something that is way too complex for the Endangered Species Act to be covering and President Obama must believe that there are alternatives to the problem. I think it will be very difficult for anything major to get done on the cap and trade issue in the near future simply because there are too many parties involved that will need to be given concessions. This is an issue that not all Democrats can rally upon, which takes away any potential filibuster prevention tactics they could have used. This notion will make it easy for Republicans to attack the issue and keep public support for the measure down.

White House aide resigns over N.Y. flyover

We finally have some closure on the incident that left New York City scrambling for cover. I think it is appropriate that the man who authorized the flyover the Statue of Liberty gave up his position. The picture cost way too much and could have been done through photoshop if it was that necessary. As for the other part of the mission, I can accept that practicing approaches and landings were included because the President needs to be in the best hands possible whenever he is in flight. However, when we fail to communicate properly with the department of defense and the air force when coordinating these operations then we have a definite problem. For Louis Caldera to not even consider notifying the White House or local officials in New York, he proved he was unfit to handle his job properly. Since we live in a culture of heightened national security, everything that can potentially cause damage should be evaluated by the proper authorities and if he felt he had the overriding authority to put the plan into action, then he does not understand what it means to be a government official. I am glad that he has decided to step down because he proved to me that he wasn't right for the job.

Souter’s Career

Roland Fryer, Education, Inner-City Kids

Here is a follow up to the discussion that Katie started on the blog a while back. It seems that a program Roland Fryer instated actually worked very well! Since Brooks didn't talk about the program in which you pay for student success, I'm guessing that's not the program he was talking about.