LP's blog

If I could be a Superhero,
I'd be Immigration Dude
I'd send all the foreigners back to their homes
For eating up all of our food
For taking our welfare and best jobs to boot
Like landscaping, dishwashing, picking our fruit
I'd pass lots of laws to get rid of their brood
Because I would be Immigration Dude.
-Stephen Lynch "Superhero"  Read More »

Public Citizen put out a "Congress Watch" where they see who is most in the pants pockets of lobbyists. Actually, it looks at just about every aspect of lobbying, from which lobbyists give the most to which party received the most lobbyist donations.

The report finds, in the case of donations to a party, Republicans receive 56.6 percent of the funds given out by lobbyists (nearly $58.5 million), to 43.4 percent given to Democrats ($44.7 million).  Read More »

William Jefferson (D-La) was caught, on tape, accepting a $100,000 bribe. In a search of his house, the FBI found $90,000 in his freezer (isn't that where you keep your bribe money?).

Expect Republicans to point this out as proof as Democrats being involved in the Culture of Corruption. In other words, the Republicans will use the, "Hey, all of Congress is corrupt" defense.  Read More »

Here's a dilemma that reporters may soon have to face.

If they get a hot tip that the United States government is doing something illegal, but the information is classified, should they be allowed to print it?

Alberto Gonzales, shading his speech with "maybes" and other such limitators clearly thinks not.

"There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Mr. Gonzales said on the ABC News program "This Week."

Translation: If you twist the wording and meaning of the laws enough, you can prosecute reporters. Possibly.  Read More »

I wrote a little about this on my last post, but I thought the issue deserved its own blog post. President Bush recently signed into law a law that, among other things, would triple the amount of taxes on teenagers.

Under the new law, teenagers age 14 to 17 with investment income will now be taxed at the same rate as their parents, not at their own rates. Long-term capital gains and dividends that had been taxed at 5 percent will now be taxed at 15 percent. Interest that had been taxed at 10 percent will now be taxed at as much as 35 percent.

But there is some genuine hilarity in the article where the Bush administration, caught in an obvious lie, had to hurriedly backtrack

In response to a question about the tax increase on teenagers in the new legislation, the White House issued a statement Friday that made no reference to the tax increase, but recounted the tax cuts the administration has sponsored and stated that President Bush had "reduced taxes on all people who pay income taxes."  Read More »

Seperate stories in the Washington Post looked at Bush's declining support among conservatives and Latinos.

It's more than just Bush, though. Republicans as a whole should be looking at the Latino numbers with trepidation. After all, Latinos are the largest minority and a key swing demographic in national politics.

A survey of 800 registered Hispanic voters conducted May 11-15 by the nonpartisan Latino Coalition showed that Democrats were viewed as better able to handle immigration issues than Republicans, by nearly 3 to 1: 50 percent to 17 percent. Pitting the Democrats against Bush on immigration issues produced a 2 to 1 Democratic advantage, 45 percent to 22 percent.

The numbers for Bush with Conservatives isn't much better. Wit his crazy spending and lies catching up to him, they're starting to jump from the Bush bandwagon.

Sixty-five months into Bush's presidency, conservatives feel betrayed. After the "Bridge to Nowhere" transportation bill, the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination and the Dubai Ports World deal, the immigration crisis was the tipping point for us. Indeed, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found last week that Republican disapproval of Bush's presidency had increased from 16 percent to 30 percent in one month. It is largely the defection of conservatives that is driving the president's poll numbers to new lows.

Two different seperate tipping points for two different groups instrumental to Bush's election. But wait, there's more.  Read More »

Down in New Orleans, controversial Mayor Ray Nagin was reelected mayor of the Chocolate City Big Easy in a close election.

From the Washington Post:

Nagin won 52.3 percent of the votes, or 59,460, to Landrieu's 47.7 percent, or 54,131.

That pesky issue of race also reared its head.

Nagin won by gaining the support of about 80 percent of black voters and about 20 percent of white voters, according to election analyst Greg Rigamer.

So in the huge issue of helping rebuild New Orleans, Ray Nagin is the man.  Read More »

In some ways, it's a great time to be a journalist. In other ways, it is a tough time to be a journalist.

ABC's chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross knows firsthand about one of the tough things about being a journalist today. You see, Brian Ross recently learned that he has been spied on by the government. He isn't a suspected terrorist, but a journalist.  Read More »