PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag washington

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin. "That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane." A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."

Republicans on Capitol Hill are desperately hoping to divert us from the Mark Foley scandal with a new storyline: Dem dirty tricks. Why did these disgusting e-mails come out just a few weeks before a critical election? It is true the party of Bill Clinton, Gerry Studds and Barney Frank is not going to clean out the sexual cesspool, but frankly I don't care: I'm not responsible for what they do. Rep. Dennis Hastert is a basically decent man who happens to head up a party that failed to investigate evidence that a GOP congressman (widely known among insiders to be gay) was seeking inappropriate contact with minor boys entrusted to his care. The Washington Times is right: He should resign his leadership post. ()() My question is what did the Democratic leadership know and when did they know it? Aren't they just as responsible? Maybe Nancy Pelosi should resign?

After much speculation, a staffer to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, admitted to Cox Newspapers today that the senator is the lawmaker who placed a “secret hold” on legislation that would open up the obscure world of government contracting to public scrutiny. Until now, it was a political whodunnit as to who quietly blocked legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year.

The big mystery in Washington this summer is the identity of the lawmaker who put a secret hold on a sunshine bill aimed at stemming pork-barrel spending. Efforts to smoke out the obstructer is taking place on a Web site called Porkbusters.org, which so far has cleared about a quarter of the Senate from suspicion, the Washington Times reports.

Two groups with widely divergent views on same-sex marriage gathered in Washington, D.C., Monday to present a surprisingly similar message: Churches, not the U.S. Congress, should settle the contentious issue.

While a series of marches focused much of the nation's attention on the plight of illegal immigrants, scores of other Americans quietly seethed. Now, with the same full-throated cry expressed by those in the country illegally, they are shouting back. Congressional leaders in Washington have gotten bricks in the mail from a group that advocates building a border fence, states in the West and South have drawn up tough anti-immigrant laws, and ordinary citizens, such as Janis McDonald of Pennsylvania, who considers herself a liberal, are not mincing words in expressing their displeasure.

As he steered his Straight Talk Express across the United States in recent weeks, Republican Sen. John McCain has tried to stay a-head of the immigration issue. But Friday the immigration issue delivered 36 or so heads to his Phoenix office -- heads of lettuce, that is. McCain has been getting skewered in the media for comments earlier this month to a union group in Washington, D.C., that immigrants are taking jobs no one else wants, and offered them $50 an hour to pick lettuce in the Arizona sun for a summer, suggesting they couldn't do it.

A first-of-its-kind conference on "The War on Christians" will be held in Washington, D.C., this month to examine attacks from the news media, Hollywood, courts and activist groups.

A federal judge has ruled against a public school teacher who filed a lawsuit after administrators removed Christian-themed postings from his classroom, including a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge and news clippings about the faith of President Bush and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Today, we must honor three presidents above all others: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. Each of these men led the United States through a period of deep national crisis, and each time the nation emerged stronger, freer, and more committed to its founding ideals.