National Journal Online


Thursday's Starting Lineup Good Thursday morning. It's May 20, the day committees file their monthly money reports. Be sure to follow @FECtweets on Twitter to get the latest money numbers and our observations about each party's financial health. Here's today's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who matter in politics today: Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 7:50am
The Burqa Ban And The Erosion Of Human Rights ABOUT THE GUEST COLUMNIST Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., is the chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. French President Nicolas Sarkozy 's promotion of a ban on burqas seems to be exacerba Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 12:00am
Dem Challenges Administration On School Turnarounds Union leaders and a House Democrat pushed back this morning against the administration's proposals for turning around chronically underperforming schools. A newly released plan from Rep. Judy Chu of California criticizes the four models for improving the nation's worst schools pushed by the ad Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 12:00am
Pelosi Criticizes GOP For Blocking Competes Bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized Republicans Wednesday for blocking passage of legislation that would reauthorize research and development programs, boost science, math and technology education, and other programs aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness. For the second time, Democratic efforts to gain passage of a bill reauthorizing the America COMPETES Act failed after they were unable to muster the two-thirds vote needed to pass the bill on the House floor under the suspension of the rules. Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 5:39pm
Watchdog: Poor Security Leaves VA Systems Open To Attack An internal agency watchdog said the Veterans Affairs Department runs unsecure Web application servers, uses weak or default passwords to protect its hardware and software, and does not comprehensively monitor connections between its systems and the Internet, Nextgov.com reported. These conditions leave department systems vulnerable to penetration or attack, said VA Assistant Inspector General Belinda Finn in testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Wednesday. Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 4:30pm
Labor Willing To Spend More For Halter The AFL-CIO wants credit for helping LG Bill Halter (D) force Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) into a runoff election, and they've pledged to keep spending to support Halter's cause in advance of the June 8 rematch. "We are certainly ready and able to spend whatever we need to spend on behalf of Halter," said AFL-CIO Pol. Dir. Karen Ackerman. "We will spend the next 3 weeks ... continuing the campaign to turn out voters." Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 4:21pm
Bill Targets Data-Pass Marketing Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced legislation Wednesday that would bar companies from automatically passing a consumer's credit or debit card information to an online partner in an effort to crack down on a practice known as data-pass marketing. Rockefeller also released a second report on the data-pass marketing tactics used by some firms to misleadingly get consumers to sign up for discount membership clubs and other services as part of other online transactions with respected online retail sites. Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 4:06pm
Halter's Rural Performance Stopped Lincoln The battle for the AR Dem nomination won't be decided for another 3 weeks. According to the latest update on the Arkansas Democrat Gazette web page, with 99% of the precincts reporting, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) won 45% to LG Bill Halter's (D) 43%. The AR Sec/State's office, which has fewer votes reported, gives Lincoln 44.4% and Halter 42.6%. In either case, since neither candidate won a majority of the votes cast, state law requires a run-off between the two candidates on June 8. Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 3:47pm
Panel Examines Proposals To Tax Online Gambling A key supporter of a law banning Internet gambling Wednesday found himself trying to defend the measure against those who questioned why the federal government shouldn't benefit by taxing an activity that many Americans are engaging in despite the prohibition, CongressDaily reported. During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the issue, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who helped author the 2006 law set to go in effect in June, defended the measure that bans Internet gambling and requires credit card firms to block payments to offshore gambling operators. Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 3:41pm
RNC Members Squabble Over Steele RNC chair Michael Steele has been the victim of an organized campaign to spread mistruths about his tenure, an emerging ally of Steele's charges in an uncommon letter to fellow RNCers. OR GOP chair Bob Tiernan, a relatively new member of the committee who backed Steele during his run for chairman in '09, has sent a letter to fellow RNC members specifically calling out OR RNC member Solomon Yue for what Tiernan characterizes as an organized campaign of "secret attacks." Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 3:04pm

Thursday's Starting Lineup

Good Thursday morning. It's May 20, the day committees file their monthly money reports. Be sure to follow @FECtweets on Twitter to get the latest money numbers and our observations about each party's financial health.

Here's today's Starting Lineup, previewing the people who matter in politics today:

Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 7:50am

The Burqa Ban And The Erosion Of Human Rights

ABOUT THE GUEST COLUMNIST Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., is the chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. French President Nicolas Sarkozy 's promotion of a ban on burqas seems to be exacerba

Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Dem Challenges Administration On School Turnarounds

Union leaders and a House Democrat pushed back this morning against the administration's proposals for turning around chronically underperforming schools. A newly released plan from Rep. Judy Chu of California criticizes the four models for improving the nation's worst schools pushed by the ad

Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Pelosi Criticizes GOP For Blocking Competes Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized Republicans Wednesday for blocking passage of legislation that would reauthorize research and development programs, boost science, math and technology education, and other programs aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness. For the second time, Democratic efforts to gain passage of a bill reauthorizing the America COMPETES Act failed after they were unable to muster the two-thirds vote needed to pass the bill on the House floor under the suspension of the rules.

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 5:39pm

Watchdog: Poor Security Leaves VA Systems Open To Attack

An internal agency watchdog said the Veterans Affairs Department runs unsecure Web application servers, uses weak or default passwords to protect its hardware and software, and does not comprehensively monitor connections between its systems and the Internet, Nextgov.com reported. These conditions leave department systems vulnerable to penetration or attack, said VA Assistant Inspector General Belinda Finn in testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Wednesday.

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 4:30pm

Labor Willing To Spend More For Halter

The AFL-CIO wants credit for helping LG Bill Halter (D) force Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) into a runoff election, and they've pledged to keep spending to support Halter's cause in advance of the June 8 rematch.

"We are certainly ready and able to spend whatever we need to spend on behalf of Halter," said AFL-CIO Pol. Dir. Karen Ackerman. "We will spend the next 3 weeks ... continuing the campaign to turn out voters."

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 4:21pm

Bill Targets Data-Pass Marketing

Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced legislation Wednesday that would bar companies from automatically passing a consumer's credit or debit card information to an online partner in an effort to crack down on a practice known as data-pass marketing. Rockefeller also released a second report on the data-pass marketing tactics used by some firms to misleadingly get consumers to sign up for discount membership clubs and other services as part of other online transactions with respected online retail sites.

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 4:06pm

Halter's Rural Performance Stopped Lincoln

The battle for the AR Dem nomination won't be decided for another 3 weeks. According to the latest update on the Arkansas Democrat Gazette web page, with 99% of the precincts reporting, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) won 45% to LG Bill Halter's (D) 43%.

The AR Sec/State's office, which has fewer votes reported, gives Lincoln 44.4% and Halter 42.6%. In either case, since neither candidate won a majority of the votes cast, state law requires a run-off between the two candidates on June 8.

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 3:47pm

Panel Examines Proposals To Tax Online Gambling

A key supporter of a law banning Internet gambling Wednesday found himself trying to defend the measure against those who questioned why the federal government shouldn't benefit by taxing an activity that many Americans are engaging in despite the prohibition, CongressDaily reported. During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the issue, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who helped author the 2006 law set to go in effect in June, defended the measure that bans Internet gambling and requires credit card firms to block payments to offshore gambling operators.

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 3:41pm

RNC Members Squabble Over Steele

RNC chair Michael Steele has been the victim of an organized campaign to spread mistruths about his tenure, an emerging ally of Steele's charges in an uncommon letter to fellow RNCers.

OR GOP chair Bob Tiernan, a relatively new member of the committee who backed Steele during his run for chairman in '09, has sent a letter to fellow RNC members specifically calling out OR RNC member Solomon Yue for what Tiernan characterizes as an organized campaign of "secret attacks."

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 3:04pm

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