Loose Ends

Loose Ends

The big stories of the week -- Jim Nussle to OMB, Mike Bloomberg and his little balls switching parties, and the UI presidency search finally ending -- were better covered by others. But I've got a few tidbits.

Krazy King strikes again. The Hill reports:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be permitted to use State Department funds to travel to nations that are known to have sponsored terrorism if a Republican amendment to appropriations legislation passes the House on Thursday.

The amendment to the $34 billion State and Foreign Operations bill, offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), prohibits funds to be used to travel to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria.

UPDATE: Crushing defeat, 337 to 84, losing even among Republicans. Tom Latham joins King and votes with the minority of the minority.

Ron Paul is one of only two house members to oppose the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. At Kos, mcjoan calls Paul "that darling of people who aren't paying close enough attention to reality."

Speaking of not paying attention to reality, Alan Keyes seems to think the third tier presidential field is too small. Politics1 is reporting that Alan Keyes, R-Maryland Illinois Maryland, is readying to enter the race. Ron Gunzburger writes:

Check out alankeyes.com -- a site which Keyes has controlled for many years. The website disclaimer said it is paid for by "We Need Alan Keyes for President, Inc." The group is described on the site as "a political action committee organized according to rules established by the FEC ... [and] not managed by Alan Keyes, but rather is an organization designed to determine and rally support for a presidential candidacy by Dr. Keyes, should he choose to run."

Yup, Alan Keyes is drafting Alan Keyes to run for President.

Don't laugh yet, Ron: Remember Keyes winning Linn County in the `96 caucuses? Of course, he fared less well in 2000. There's also those three Senate defeats, two in Maryland and that three-to-one slaughter in 2004 as the self-appointed, only one willing, last second GOP nominee against Barack Obama in Illinois.

In Georgia's 10th CD Tuesday, the top Democrat finished third in a special election to fill the seat of the late Republican Charlie Norwood. This sets up a runoff between two Republicans next month.

I was, of course, all over the Hillary Clinton-Celine Dion story, but I ignored the Air Canada angle. And one commentator at the Albany Project speculates that the Dion "win" was the result of a Sanjaya-like effort. Though that assumes that the vote actually had anything to do with the song choice. C'mon.

Tuesday the Iowa City council voted to put 21 bars on the ballot rather than just passing it, which was what we knew was gonna happen so it wasn't much of a story. Still, duly noted.

Information Swimming watched the shuttle and space station fly overhead in tandem Wednesday, as I did too.

And a milestone: I see that this is the 3000th post on John Deeth Blog. (That's about 1.8 a day for 4 1/2 years.) Thanks for reading, folks.