It's not a surprise to hear Republicans criticize President Obama's proposed budget. However, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) writes this in today's Wall Street Journal:

The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 is a sprawling, $410 billion compilation of nine spending measures that lacks the slightest hint of austerity from the federal government or the recipients of its largess...

Congress should vote "no" on this omnibus and show working families across the country that we are as committed to living within our means as they are.

Last year, rather than pass a budget for fiscal 2009 (October 2008 - September 2009), Congress approved money to continue operations until after the inauguration. The bill that Sen. Bayh references is designed to fund the federal government through September of this year.

Learn more about the budget process.

I just stumbled upon this new resource (a directory) from the Washington Post: Who Runs Government. The goal is for the site to eventually become reader-edited, but that user-generated content will be vetted by WaPo editors before going live. The site has a blog for site-related matters as well as ThePlumLine, Greg Sargent's blog.

A few weeks ago, Deborah White noted that the New York Times rumor mill had Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) pegged as the Obama Administration choice for Health & Human Services Secretary. Today, President Obama finally confirmed the rumor, asserting that she can bridge partisanship issues surrounding health care.

About's Guide to Catholicism, Scott P. Richert, calls the move a "slap in the face" for the nation's Catholics because Sebelius is "radically pro-abortion." He also believes that "it also signals a willingness to confront the Catholic Church on the question of unborn life."

Read more...

It's the opposite of bi-partisanship, a key element in the rhetorical formula of the Obama presidential campaign.

"It" is using the budget reconciliation process to "pass" controversial legislation by slipping it into the filibuster-proof process. And President Obama's OMB Director, Peter Orswag, suggested Sunday that getting controversial legislation passed "this year" is so important that the means doesn't matter.

He's wrong.

Read more...

Gawker reports that another high-ranking Obama Administration staffer -- the person charged with vetting nominees -- may have a tax issue of his own. It looks like White House general counsel Gregory Craig is party to unpaid taxes to the Washington D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs because there is no business license (and thus taxes) for the business that his wife runs out of their home.

Has cheating on taxes become as American as apple pie?

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has rejected a claim by the Obama Administration (echoing that of the Bush administration) that "national security would be compromised if a lawsuit brought by the Oregon chapter of the charity, Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, was allowed to proceed."

The lawsuit is related to the Bush Administration wiretapping scandal. This case revolves around papers that the Bush Administration turned over to the defunct charity; the the papers allegedly "showed illegal wiretapping by the National Security Agency." The charity returned the papers to the government. The Department of Justice has called the papers "state secrets;" lawyers for Al-Haramain say that they need these papers to show harm, that they were subjected to an illegal wiretap.

It's not clear how the Congressional retroactive immunity would play into the case, should the documents be released, as the appeals court has ruled.

The tactic being used is similar to something known as greymail. When charged with a crime, a government employee claims that classified records are necessary to the defense.

EmptyWheel argues the significance of the court's ruling. The clock is ticking: the five-year statute of limitations runs out on 10 March 2009.

Under pressure from the left blogosphere, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) is back-pedaling from his claim Tuesday night about how involved he was in helping out Sheriff Harry Lee (D) "during Katrina."

What's odd is that this YouTube clip of Sheriff Lee ("the last of the yellow dog Democrats in Louisiana") places Jindal in the sheriff's office the day after the storm hit. For most people, that counts as "during Katrina." In this clip, Lee is endorsing Jindal for governor:

Hurricane Katrina, the day after, Bobby was in my office, said, "What do you need?" And it wasn't phone calls, he was in my office... I know how involved he was... He was hands-on. I got him everywhere he had to go in my helicopter, and he was there all the time. When the thing was over, he'd got equipment for us.

Read more...

At the risk of sounding like President Clinton, it depends in large part on how you define "automobile" and "invention."

In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama indirectly and incorrectly asserted that the automobile was invented in America:

I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

Was the automobile invented in America? Read more...

You can watch it online or read a transcript.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), the most senior Democrat in the Senate, sent a shot across the bow of the White House over the appointment of executive branch "czars" for health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change.

Byrd is known for skepticism over White House claims of executive privilege and jealously guards Congressional authority as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

Read more...