The headline at HuffPo says it all: Leahy Buckles, Will Push Back Holder Hearings. Well, he must have a good reason, right? Try this one on for size:

Nonetheless, in order to accommodate the Republicans members, I am rescheduling the hearing on Mr. Holder for twice that long, until more than six weeks after his official designation. It is disappointing to me that they are insisting that we delay at a time when the nation needs its top law enforcement officer and national security team in place and working.”

Really? Well, it's disappointing to me that you're giving into their insistence, Senator. It's good to know who's really calling the shots here, even with the expanded Dem majority. I could almost envision a Senate with 80 Democrats and they'd still bend over to accomodate the wingnut brigade. As far as setting the tone, here's really what's at stake here:

By moving the hearings back to the 15th, Leahy is taking one Republican argument off the table — the idea that this nomination was somehow being considered in haste. Moreover, if all goes to plan, Holder will be confirmed by the time Obama takes office. But the Vermont Democrat is also signaling that GOP protests, even those driven by the most hyper of partisans (see: Rove), will be considered. He is also offering Republican critics of Holder more time to build their case against the nominee.

Basically, he's telling Republicans that as long as they piss and moan, they will always get what they want. Give them nothing.  You know what to do, folks.

Only about 30 days left .

Mail a shoe to the White house

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Okay, now that we’ve cleared up the… “problem” of not having any of the proposed cuts made available to the public, I’m going to to discuss a few that flagged as I was scanning the letter:

Sec. 2.228. Department for children and families – reach up

Reach Up Grants and Support Services – Phase I

Reduction of $400,000 in Support Services – Each Reach Up case manager has available a  pool of dollars to assist people in addressing specific barriers to employment.  In Vermont,

transportation is the largest barrier and consumes much of the Support Services line  item. This reduction would reduce the amount of support services per client on average to  $175 from $200.

The use of “on average” is fairly meaningless.  Some clients need a great deal more support than others and those, of course, are the ones who will get screwed.

Reductions in Reach Up Support Services – Phase II – $300,000

While the TANF caseload is up as a whole, the post secondary population is trending  downward; therefore less funding is needed.

Sec. 2.230. Department for children and families – office of  economic opportunity

Individual Development Accounts and Micro Business Grants – The Department is

suspending any additional commitments to these programs; the uncommitted funds

available for rescission are estimated to be $150,000.  

I’m not certain about this, but I think that some of this funding is funding that was promised but without some specific detail of the paperwork being completed or some other such thing.  I.e., people who were told the money was coming as soon as one detail is taken care of.

Sec. 2.216. Health –  public health

Immunization Program for Adults

This $4 million program is in its second year and was instituted as part of the Health Care  Reform Act of 2007. A reduction of $1,000,000 will be absorbed by eliminating HPV vaccine for women over 18. This will preserve access to HPV vaccines for children under  18, and to adult vaccines of greatest importance to the public’s health, PPV 23, TDaP, and  Hep A and B.

Right.  Because we want to roll dice with the public health of adults.

Yikes.

Many of you probably know this symbol…

Could we finally have a new one?

Now, I know there’s some mixed feelings about the “shoe incident”. Iraqis are already calling for the release of the reporter, hailing him as a national hero.

Kestrel has the vid in the sidebar if you haven’t seen it yet. So what is it, people, bold action? Horrible? Best thing since sliced bread or descent into madness? All of the above? Discuss.  

Hopefully, this will be fixed soon enough, but… as of 10:30am, if you go to http://www.leg.state.vt.us/JFO/ you will see this item on the upper left:

(I highlighted the relevant section).

I’ve been wanting to check this out all weekend, so I’ve been waiting to see what the recommendations are.  What do I get when I click on them?

This:

Perhaps an early budget cut was competent web developers.