Sen. Robert Byrd may join Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy among historic figures who have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda — an honor bestowed upon only 28 other Americans over the past 160 years.
Senate leaders are likely to make a request for Byrd to lie in state, aides said Monday, but they are still awaiting approval from Byrd’s family to go ahead with a formal resolution that would allow Byrd’s casket to rest under the dome for a public viewing.
With a career that spanned nearly 58 years and ranked him as the longest-serving member in congressional history, Byrd has likely earned the consideration.
In 2006, Gerald Ford was the most recent political figure to lie in state in the Capitol, and he was preceded by Ronald Reagan, whose casket was visited by thousands over three days in June 2004. The caskets are draped with an American flag, and rest upon the same wooden catafalque — a raised platform — constructed for Lincoln’s state funeral.
Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson were also honored in the political hallowed space.
In 1852, Henry Clay was the first to be honored in the Rotunda after serving five consecutive terms in the House, including service as speaker.
Other big names bestowed the honor include Spanish-American War hero Adm. George Dewey and architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Three nonpolitical figures have lain in honor, which is different from lying in state: civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the U.S. Capitol Police officers, Jacob Joseph Chestnut and John Michael Gibson, who were killed during an attack on the Capitol in 1998.
Typically, a concurrent resolution from both the Senate and the House must be passed granting permission for the Rotunda space to be used, but the process is usually given top priority, according to the Office of the House Historian.
Less than four days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, both the Senate and the House cleared a resolution, and the former president lay in state June 9-11.
The House is expected to introduce a separate resolution honoring Byrd’s service in Congress, and flags at both the Capitol and White House flew at half-mast today.
In the past, Congress has sometimes granted the honor without issuing a resolution, with authority being granted solely by the House speaker and Senate majority leader. The option is usually used when Congress is out of session or unavailable to vote on the use of the Rotunda.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39120.html#ixzz0sBSOPbiP
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Remember Keith Olbermann?
He was the one-time must-see anti-Bush ranter who helped rescue MSNBC (yes, it's still on at night) from even worse oblivion years ago.
Well, quietly last month while no one was looking, hardly anyone was watching Keith Olbermann anymore.
The guy, who's even apparently tried to get some Sarah Palin-like eyeglasses, is now forced to leap over-the-top on ex-state senators like Scott Brown and Tuesday's worst person, Fox News' Glenn Beck. Beck is the successful talker with the perfect haircut for radio. Like most Americans, he wasn't watching Keith.
There are a couple of reasons for KO's frustration and anger and volume and core meltdown over the Massachusetts election outcome, among other issues of galactic import. For one, lots more ranters around nowadays on all sides, including that colleague of Keith's with the hugest head in TV. Please, no 3-D for him!
Also, Olbermann's showboat is sinking. Listing in you-know-which direction.
It's as if he thinks talking LOUDER will keep his low cell battery from dying.
Worst, Olbermann's network president, Phil Griffin, is publicly praising him, always an ominous sign in television. While referring to his host almost in the past tense. "Keith has been our tentpole," Griffin says, adding later, "I'm pleased with where we are."
Where they are, as Jeff Bercovici points out over at Daily Finance, is way behind the big boys over at Fox News, Bill O'Reilly and gang. In fact, Keith is so far behind Bill, he can't even make out the state of the license plate, let alone the numbers. Bercovici thinks Americans may be outgrowing Olbermann's schtick.
In the most desirable TV demographic of 25-54, which Keith will soon outgrow himself, "Countdown" lost 44% of its audience from the beginning of President Obama's term until this year. It could have been worse -- say, 45%.
Olbermann averaged 268,000 viewers last month in that sector. That's just several thousand sets of those eyes more than Campbell Brown over on CNN. According to one count, Keith even finished in that time slot behind Nancy Grace. Nancy Grace!
And she's on Headline News, Headline News, the repetitious TV channel the repetitious TV channel inflicted on all U.S. airline travelers within any boarding area around the clock so that when, at least an hour late, each person is finally crammed into plane seats between professional wrestlers, they feel relief.
On the bright side, which everyone knows KO is fond of spotting, his MSNBC audience was only 696,000 viewers 24-54 behind O'Reilly, whose audience has grown 55%, according to Bercovici. Of course, it might be worse this month.
In the immortal words of Edward J. Smith, captain of the Titanic, "What iceberg?"
Well, quietly last month while no one was looking, hardly anyone was watching Keith Olbermann anymore.
The guy, who's even apparently tried to get some Sarah Palin-like eyeglasses, is now forced to leap over-the-top on ex-state senators like Scott Brown and Tuesday's worst person, Fox News' Glenn Beck. Beck is the successful talker with the perfect haircut for radio. Like most Americans, he wasn't watching Keith.
There are a couple of reasons for KO's frustration and anger and volume and core meltdown over the Massachusetts election outcome, among other issues of galactic import. For one, lots more ranters around nowadays on all sides, including that colleague of Keith's with the hugest head in TV. Please, no 3-D for him!
Also, Olbermann's showboat is sinking. Listing in you-know-which direction.
It's as if he thinks talking LOUDER will keep his low cell battery from dying.
Worst, Olbermann's network president, Phil Griffin, is publicly praising him, always an ominous sign in television. While referring to his host almost in the past tense. "Keith has been our tentpole," Griffin says, adding later, "I'm pleased with where we are."
Where they are, as Jeff Bercovici points out over at Daily Finance, is way behind the big boys over at Fox News, Bill O'Reilly and gang. In fact, Keith is so far behind Bill, he can't even make out the state of the license plate, let alone the numbers. Bercovici thinks Americans may be outgrowing Olbermann's schtick.
In the most desirable TV demographic of 25-54, which Keith will soon outgrow himself, "Countdown" lost 44% of its audience from the beginning of President Obama's term until this year. It could have been worse -- say, 45%.
Olbermann averaged 268,000 viewers last month in that sector. That's just several thousand sets of those eyes more than Campbell Brown over on CNN. According to one count, Keith even finished in that time slot behind Nancy Grace. Nancy Grace!
And she's on Headline News, Headline News, the repetitious TV channel the repetitious TV channel inflicted on all U.S. airline travelers within any boarding area around the clock so that when, at least an hour late, each person is finally crammed into plane seats between professional wrestlers, they feel relief.
On the bright side, which everyone knows KO is fond of spotting, his MSNBC audience was only 696,000 viewers 24-54 behind O'Reilly, whose audience has grown 55%, according to Bercovici. Of course, it might be worse this month.
In the immortal words of Edward J. Smith, captain of the Titanic, "What iceberg?"
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Scientists praise Obama as Doomsday clock reset
NEW YORK (AFP) – International scientists nudged back the minute hand of the symbolic Doomsday clock Thursday, as they praised President Barack Obama for helping to pull the world back from nuclear or environmental catastrophe.
"It is six minutes to midnight," the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end, said in a statement read out as the clock's countdown to midnight was turned back by one minute.
"For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material," the statement by the panel of international scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates, said.
"For the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable."
A key player in the new, global era of cooperation was Obama, whose election in 2008 ushered in "a change in the US government's orientation toward international affairs," said Lawrence Krauss, co-chair of BAS's board of sponsors, speaking at the ceremony to turn back the hands of the symbolic clock.
Obama brought with him to the White House "a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach" than his predecessor, George W. Bush, the scientists said.
"Not only has Obama initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the US government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years," Krauss said, reading from the BAS statement.
Since it was created by scientists who helped to develop the world's first atomic weapons, the Doomsday clock has come to be seen as a measure of what progress, if any, the world has made in moving away from the risk of nuclear, climate-caused or bio-warfare catastrophe.
Midnight on the clock signifies the apocalypse, and the minute hand symbolizes the countdown to disaster.
The last time the minute hand was moved was in 2007, when Bush was president. Then, the clock was bumped two minutes closer to midnight.
In resetting the clock this year, the scientists said they were encouraged by recent developments, but had chosen to put back the clock by only one minute to show they were "mindful that the clock is ticking," said Krauss.
"By shifting the hand back from midnight by only one additional minute, we emphasize how much needs to be accomplished" while at the same time recognizing that global cooperation has moved forward, he said.
Putting back the clock by only one minute also meant that "there's great potential for it to move again, in either direction," said Krauss.
Which way the hands of the clock are moved next time was up to scientists, world leaders and ordinary people, said Krauss, urging them all to seize the "unique opportunity we have right now to begin to free ourselves from the terror of nuclear weapons and slow drastic changes to our shared global environment."
"We are now poised at a unique time, with hope and opportunity. Let's not blow it," he said.
"It is six minutes to midnight," the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end, said in a statement read out as the clock's countdown to midnight was turned back by one minute.
"For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material," the statement by the panel of international scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates, said.
"For the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable."
A key player in the new, global era of cooperation was Obama, whose election in 2008 ushered in "a change in the US government's orientation toward international affairs," said Lawrence Krauss, co-chair of BAS's board of sponsors, speaking at the ceremony to turn back the hands of the symbolic clock.
Obama brought with him to the White House "a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach" than his predecessor, George W. Bush, the scientists said.
"Not only has Obama initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the US government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years," Krauss said, reading from the BAS statement.
Since it was created by scientists who helped to develop the world's first atomic weapons, the Doomsday clock has come to be seen as a measure of what progress, if any, the world has made in moving away from the risk of nuclear, climate-caused or bio-warfare catastrophe.
Midnight on the clock signifies the apocalypse, and the minute hand symbolizes the countdown to disaster.
The last time the minute hand was moved was in 2007, when Bush was president. Then, the clock was bumped two minutes closer to midnight.
In resetting the clock this year, the scientists said they were encouraged by recent developments, but had chosen to put back the clock by only one minute to show they were "mindful that the clock is ticking," said Krauss.
"By shifting the hand back from midnight by only one additional minute, we emphasize how much needs to be accomplished" while at the same time recognizing that global cooperation has moved forward, he said.
Putting back the clock by only one minute also meant that "there's great potential for it to move again, in either direction," said Krauss.
Which way the hands of the clock are moved next time was up to scientists, world leaders and ordinary people, said Krauss, urging them all to seize the "unique opportunity we have right now to begin to free ourselves from the terror of nuclear weapons and slow drastic changes to our shared global environment."
"We are now poised at a unique time, with hope and opportunity. Let's not blow it," he said.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Our Latest Terror Threat
Some right wingers and talk radio pundits are extolling the horrors of President Obama's recent Christmas golfing vacation in Hawaii with his family. Why are they so against the President taking a vacation? Where were they when Bush was out of office so much and gave his infamous 9-1-1 sound bite that was used in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911". Though much of the film was entertainment, that WAS a valid, unedited shot of President Bush. Why is it that Limbaugh can be an entertainer mixing in HIS truth while others like Moore get skewered for it?
I hear talk radio and others decry the upcoming trials for the terrorists saying they shouldn't be afforded the same rights as Americans. While I agree, I think we as Americans can lead by example and try these combatants in our court system and let justice prevail. We have to put our money where our mouth is on this one, folks
I hear talk radio and others decry the upcoming trials for the terrorists saying they shouldn't be afforded the same rights as Americans. While I agree, I think we as Americans can lead by example and try these combatants in our court system and let justice prevail. We have to put our money where our mouth is on this one, folks
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