Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
This is crossposted at Congress Matters, where we will be checking in all weekend.
All the Hill news that fit to blog is over the fold...
The death toll in Haiti is in the tens of thousands and relief teams are having a hard time just getting to the earthquake victims on day four of the aftermath.
The buildings that sustained the most damage seemed to be those that help the needy -- schools, hospitals, churches. Port-au-Prince's Sacred Heart Church, one of the city's oldest and most vital, was destroyed, with many bodies trapped inside. Pastor Hans Alexander said he heard cries from those trapped in the rubble Wednesday and Thursday. But by Friday, all was silent.
"We don't even know how many have died here," Alexander said. "Twenty? Thirty? Many more."
Overall, between 50,000 and 100,000 people may have died in the earthquake, according to Jon K. Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization.
And Haitians say there is not even a functioning government to keep order and help with the recovery.
"It's the families of the victims -- it's not the government," said Sima, 32, whose cousin Louis Larosilière had founded the college. "For us, the government doesn't exist at all."
The White House has links for making donations and finding loved ones who might be in country. The text message giving has already raised $10 million. The good people of Daily Kos are also raising money and have some excellent suggestions for donations.
In Congress, Senator Richard Lugar, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, has called upon the administration to suspend deportations of Haitians living in the United States illegally.
He said the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security should grant temporary protective status for 18 months to Haitian immigrants so they can work and send money to help their country recover from the earthquake without having to fear being arrested or deported.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made the same request two days ago.
However, some folks have hearts made of stone. One of those people is Rep. Steve King of Iowa who thinks we should send all of those folks back to help with relief efforts. No, really.
“This sounds to me like open borders advocates exercising the Rahm Emanuel axiom: ‘Never let a crisis go to waste,’” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said in an e-mail message to ABCNews. “Illegal immigrants from Haiti have no reason to fear deportation but if they are deported, Haiti is in great need of relief workers and many of them could be a big help to their fellow Haitians.”
Another one of those people is Joshua S. Treviño.
RT @jstrevino Haiti: the best thing the int'l community can do is tend the wounded, bury the dead, and then LEAVE. That includes all UN and charity.
Let's meet Mr. Treviño. He is the spokesman for Chuck DeVore, who is challenging Carly Fiorina for the GOP nomination for Senator from California. He is also a former Bush Administration speech writer and co-founder of Red State. In one memorable Tweet, he declared:
Trevino wrote on Twitter, "Dear Border Patrol: my red hair and pale skin IS my passport, bureaucrats."
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You've probably already heard, but we should have a health care compromise this weekend.
Hoyer said that on the heels of several days of marathon negotiations to hammer out a final healthcare bill, Democrats hope to announce a final agreement within the next 72 hours.
"I think we're getting very close," Hoyer said during an appearance on CNBC. "I would certainly hope that within the next 24, 48, 72 hours, we have a general agreement between the Senate and the House."
Heh. It only took a year. And the GOP wanted to "slow down."
On a side note, The Big Dog sez Congressional Democrats need get this thing passed.
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The new Senator from Massachusetts will likely make or break the healthcare vote. The polling numbers there have admittedly been all over the map. (For all anyone knows, Alf might win this thing.) The one fact that we can't argue with is that Democrat Martha Coakley's campaign has been something less than stellar. To wit:
So in response to the accusation that her campaign is flailing because she hasn't done enough campaign events, she asserts that she's above going to Fenway Park and pressing the flesh with voters? Wow.
It's bad enough she thinks she's above shaking hands with the little people, but defiantly asserting she doesn't need to go to Fenway Park? That's hallowed ground as far as Massachusetts voters are concerned. And does she even know it's not baseball season? It was probably much warmer when Brown was out shaking hands than it is now.
Apparently in response to that "oh shit" moment and a few others, President Obama has agreed to go to Massachusetts to campaign for Coakley.
The Boston Globe is also helpful enough to outline the pros and cons of the visit:
The potential upsides are obvious; Obama won Massachusetts with 62 percent of the vote in 2008, and the glamour and media saturation of a presidential visit, especially at a large rally, would add a jolt of excitement to a campaign that has been seen as lackluster.
But there are risks. If Obama visits Massachusetts and Coakley loses, it would signal that Obama’s ability to motivate rank-and-file Democrats has slipped. It would buoy Republican efforts to take back the House and Senate this fall. And it could fuel criticism that he made a political trip while pressing issues awaited in Washington.
And a side note: Scott Brown really doesn't want the President in town.
Dear Massachusetts: Get out and vote on Tuesday. I know. I know. But this is important for getting the health care reform passed. Besides your alternative is a dewd who "Held Tea Party Fundraiser Before Professing To Be Unfamiliar With Tea Party" and happens to be a conservative republican who posed nude for Cosmo in college. CAUTION. LINKS TO CRINGE WORTHY PHOTO.
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As long as we are talking about politicians and sex, John Ensign looks to be in good shape for his 2012 reelection bid.
PPP communications director Tom Jensen is a bit more blunt, noting the similarities between Ensign's political success in Nevada and Sen. David Vitter's in Louisiana: "Cheating on your wife is a deal breaker for Republican voters- but only if you're a Democrat."
Well at least someone is willing to articulate what we all know.
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The Pentagon seems to be getting serious on repealing DADT, but like everything in government, it's not happening tomorrow:
A one-page memorandum drafted by staff members as a discussion point for the meeting said that the chiefs could adopt the view that “now is not the time” because of the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the military would be better off delaying the start of the repeal process until 2011.
The same memorandum, according to a military official who has seen it, also said that “every indicator of opinion over the past 16 years shows movement toward nondiscrimination based on orientation” and that “in time the law will change.”
And if anyone is looking for a good primary challenge, here's what House Armed Services Committee Chair Ike Skelton had to say:
"I am personally not for changing the law," he said during a C-SPAN "Newsmakers" interview that will air Sunday.
Because the military is engaged in two major conflicts, Afghanistan and Iraq, changing the law would create "disruption" that can cause some "serious problems," Skelton said during the interview.
He said the full House Armed Services Committee won't hold a hearing on the repeal of the law. Rather, the Personnel subcommittee will hold the hearing at some point this year.
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Some of your elected officials seem to be so hellbent on destroying the planet that they are willing to try anything to stop EPA from addressing global warming.
Four GOP lawmakers say EPA’s recent “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gas emissions threaten human health — a finding that’s a precursor to regulation — violates the Data Quality Act (DQA).
The lawmakers — Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Sen. David Vitter (La.), Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (Wis.) — made the allegation in a Thursday letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
The DQA is a very brief statute that was buried in a 2000 appropriations bill. It says federal agencies must ensure the integrity of data they disseminate and allows outside parties to submit petitions for corrections.
They base their argument on the infamous "climategate" emails. One of the problems is that the e-mails don't say what they think they say.
The odd part is that James Inhofe wasn't among those members. He does claim to be the planet's number one enemy and took issue with a decision by Rolling Stone to rank him seventh.
In a cover story on global warming titled "You Idiots!" Rolling Stone named U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe as one of the "planet's worst enemies.''
The Oklahoma Republican took issue.
"My first response was I should have been No. 1, not No. 7," said Inhofe, perhaps the most vocal global-warming skeptic in Congress. "I am serious about that. I have spent now literally years on this thing, and it has been a long, involved thing.''
Meanwhile, Lisa Murkowski is looking for other ways to stop EPA from doing its job, but her efforts could backfire.
That’s not to say that oil and gas companies and their lobbyists are keen on federal regulators forcing emissions reductions with a Clean Air Act cudgel. But there’s a potential parliamentary problem with Murkowski using debt ceiling legislation, which the Senate is expected to take up next week.
Democrats could then offer what’s known as a second degree amendment that could actually strengthen EPA’s hand.
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Why is the government inefficient? Crappy computers.
A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.
This startling admission came Thursday from Peter Orszag, who manages the federal bureaucracy for President Barack Obama.
I'm sure they're not all working on C-64s, but still...
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Finally, in The Most Important News of the Day™ Former Senator Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum wants to be president.
"I have no great burning desire to be president, but I have a burning desire to have a different president of the United States," said Santorum, who lost his re-election bid in 2006 after two terms in the Senate.
Dare we dream of a Santorum/Palin ticket in 2012?
With that, I wish you a good weekend and I will warn against Googling "spreading santorum."