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NAACP 2.0: Making Involvement Easier on the Web
Tweet Share on Facebook February 13, 2009 Comment (2)By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers
It's not just a big week for Abraham Lincoln, who would have been 200, but it's a big week for the NAACP, which turns 100. To celebrate, the civil rights group issued a new report laying the groundwork for the next century. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous tried to answer the all-important question: "Now what?" Jealous says he wants to get more people involved, and it's not the young people he's worried about. "Community organizing is cool again, and that makes our life a whole lot easier," he says. But his focus is slightly older African-Americans.
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Women Want Bill Clinton to be a House Husband
Tweet Share on Facebook February 13, 2009 Comment (14)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
It may be Valentine's Weekend, but women don't seem to be in a giving mood when it comes to former President Bill Clinton. Asked in our new Whispers Poll what Hillary Clinton should do with Bubba, more women chose making him her house hubby than anything else. "Looks like Bill better get an apron and mop, especially if women are making the choice," says our pollster, Synovate. Long memories? Well, the poll doesn't tell us that, but when comparing the percentages of women (40 percent) to men (34 percent) who thought the new secretary of state should ground her husband, it certainly looks like that.
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PETA Urges Obama to Give Kids Vegetarian School Lunches
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (37)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Well, President Obama this week said he was "open to any idea, whether it comes from a Democrat or a Republican or a vegetarian." So, here comes People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals with its idea: Put the National School Lunch Program on a veggie diet. "Vegetarians just may hold the solution to so many of the problems plaguing America today," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk in a letter to the White House. "Teaching our children the benefits of vegetarian meals would save animals, help stop climate change, and help keep kids at a healthy weight as well as help them avoid our nation's biggest and most costly killers—cancer, heart disease, and obesity. If promoting a vegetarian diet isn't already part of the proposed stimulus package, it should be."
Here's the letter:
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Congressional Offices Don't Have the Stimulus Bill, Lobbyists Do
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (239)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
We're receiving E-mails from Capitol Hill staffers expressing frustration that they can't get a copy of the stimulus bill agreed to last night at a price of $789 billion. What's more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists. E-mails one key Democratic staffer: "K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don't. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it's leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know—but we can't do that because we haven't seen the bill. Anyway, peeps up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, 'Is this really happening?'" Reporters pressing for details, meanwhile, are getting different numbers from different offices, especially when seeking the details of specific programs.
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Pentagon Officials Impressed With Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (13)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Pentagon officials don't normally gush, but Whispers has learned that top staffers were positively enthusiastic following their first meeting with the commander in chief in the secure conference room dubbed "the Tank" recently. They were impressed by the "high-level, global-strategic" discussion and by President Obama's detailed grasp of the difficulties that face the U.S. military. Said one senior Pentagon official: "He asked a lot of really, really good questions."
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a 'Star Wars' Fan
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (17)By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers
It turns out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a Star Wars buff. Pelosi presented the Lincoln Medal to Star Wars director George Lucas at last night's Ford's Theatre re-opening and told Whispers that she loves his work. "Oh yes, I'm a big fan of Star Wars," she said. "My five children, my husband, and I have seen the Star Wars movies over 100 times—we just couldn't get enough of it." Pelosi gushed about the director, who won the Lincoln Medal at the star-studded event attended by everyone from the Obamas to actors James Earl Jones and Sidney Poitier and even former cabinet pick Tom Daschle. "Every time George Lucas comes to Capitol Hill, it's so thrilling," Pelosi said. "He's my constituent, you see, and he's my friend."
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Family Group Pushes for Gun Control, Sex Education
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (24)By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers
One hundred and fifty families from 12 states started knocking on congressional doors today to push a progressive "National Family Platform." "It's holistic," former Democratic House Member Pat Schroeder tells Whispers about the plan. It offers a smorgasbord of recommendations to assist families in areas from education to housing that can be implemented at a local, state, and federal level. Schroeder is on the board of directors of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, which represents low-income families and helped write the platform.
The plan is somewhat idealistic. "No family should live in poverty," says the preamble of the 42-page document. The goal: Make families stronger. But some of the recommendations are sure to fire up the critics. Among them:
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Lautenberg to Obama: Don't Hide Our Fallen Troops at Dover Air Force Base
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (18)By Paul Bedard and Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers
President Obama is under more pressure this week to let media cameras cover the arrival of war dead at Dover Air Force Base. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to Obama provided to Whispers, said, "I respectfully urge you to work to bring an end to the misguided policies of the past that seek to hide the sacrifice of our soldiers and the public recognition and pride that should accompany it." The policy is controversial on all sides: Some claim the government wants to soften the impact of many coffins being pictured at once; others say taking pictures is disrespectful. Lautenberg has been outspoken on the issue for several years and pushed for a reversal of the policy in 2004, in the middle of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
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Republicans and Democrats Coming Together
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (3)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
If you think the GOP has lost its way and there are issues Republicans and Democrats can join on, then you're not alone. And brothers Keith and Ken Nahigian, both political strategists, are doing something about it. They just rolled out AmericaSpeakOn.org, a Web-based group that hopes to find areas of agreement on basic freedoms like speech and religion. "Other groups want to divide people," says Ken Nahigian. "We want to do the opposite." The brothers plan a national promotional bus tour and concert this spring. "People want to get involved. Here's how to do it," says Keith Nahigian.
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Busy Sarah Palin Backs Out of CPAC; Rush Limbaugh Is Still Speaking
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (111)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
The opening-day headliner for the annual CPAC conservative convention February 26-28, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has pulled out, citing state business in Juneau. "We're obviously disappointed," said a CPAC official. A spokesman for the three-day confab, organized by the American Conservative Union Foundation and others, said that Palin, the popular former vice presidential nominee, had indicated she would be able to attend but cited "duties of governing" in bowing out. Instead, she will send in a taped message. The decision was clearly a blow to many of those planning to be there, who expected to see Palin address the group on the opening day and Obama foe Rush Limbaugh wrap up the convention. Limbaugh is confirmed to speak on Saturday, February 28. One conservative associated with the convention said Palin, who earlier this month attended the prestigious Alfalfa Club dinner, was "making a mistake" by not appearing in person. But another said that the taped message, while lacking the wow factor of an in-person presentation, showed that she was still keen on keeping close ties to the conservative movement as she builds her political action committee, SarahPAC, and considers her national career in politics.
