Hey, That’s My Name

Lucas stated that it was “reasonably obvious” that Obama would be a Jedi. For the first time in years, I think I may agree with George Lucas. ;P

George Lucas testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet to back the Universal Service Fund.

Lucas refused to answer a question about “Who is President Bush more like: Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader?”, but insisted that Barack Obama would be a Jedi.

[From LOL: George Lucas Tells House Subcommittee That Barack Obama is Obviously a Jedi | /Film]

The House has passed legislation that would give federal employees 4 weeks of paid parental leave time when they adopt or give birth to a child on a vote of 278 to 146. Guess who doesn’t think time with your new kid is important?

And the White House threatened to veto the bill, calling it a “costly, unnecessary, new paid leave entitlement.”

[From Paid Parental Leave Act Passes House, but Faces Veto Threat - washingtonpost.com]

Mississippi Democrat wrests House seat from Republicans

In the midst of the MSM falling all over themselves about whether or not Clinton’s totally forseeable huge win in West Virginia calls in to question Obama’s claim on the Democratic nomination, some fairly relevant election news is getting largely ignored.

A special election was held in Mississippi to fill a vacant Congressional seat. Travis Childers, a Democrat, successfully won the state’s 1st Congressional district. It’s very worth noting that this a district Bush won with 62% of the vote in 2004. This is a very red district and Childers won it by 4 percentage points last night. This is the third special election in the past several months in which Democrats of successfully claimed a Republican House seat. And this trend does not bode well for the Republican party come November.

It is also worth noting that the Republican attack ads against Childers attempted to discredit him by tying him to Barack Obama and even featured images of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Can we use this a little bit more evidence that voters a) Don’t care about Rev. Wright and b) will be more likely to vote for downticket Democrats with Barack Obama on the ballot.

This is really great news for Democrats. Take a moment to savor the sweetness.

Tom Reynolds expected to announce retirement on Thursday

Add Representative Tom Reynolds of New York’s 26th Congressional district to the growing list of Republican congressional resignations and retirements, he is number 29 on the list of Representatives, in addition to 5 senators that will be stepping down. This mass defection does not bode well for the Republicans if they’re planning on taking back the majority of the House of Representatives in November’s election. It’s true that some of these districts are very solidly Republican and will not flip, but having defend so many seats will certainly stress their resources. Here is the list of Republicans we won’t have to kick around any longer:

Sen. Wayne Allard (CO)
Rep. Richard Baker (LA)
Sen. Larry Craig (ID)
Rep. Barbara Cubin (WY)
Rep. Tom Davis (VA)
Sen. Pete Domenici (NM)
Rep. John Doolittle (CA)
Rep. Terry Everett (AL)
Rep. Mike Ferguson (NJ)
Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (MD) – lost his primary
Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE)
Rep. David Hobson (OH)
Rep. Kenny Hulshof (MO)
Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA)
Rep. Ray LaHood (IL)
Rep. Tom Lantos (CA)
Rep. Ron Lewis (KY)
Rep. Jim McCrery (LA)
Rep. Steve Pearce (NM) – running for senate
Rep. John Peterson (PA)
Rep. Charles “Chip” Pickering (MS)
Rep. Deborah Pryce (OH)
Rep. Jim Ramstad (MN)
Rep. Ralph Regula (OH)
Rep. Rick Renzi (AZ)
Rep. Tom Reynolds (NY)
Rep. James Saxton (NJ)
Rep. Tom Tancredo (CO)
Rep. James Walsh (NY)
Sen. John Warner (VA)
Rep. Dave Weldon (FL)
Rep. Jerry Weller (IL)
Rep. Heather Wilson (NM) – running for senate

I debated including the Reps that are resigning in order to run for the Senate, but since both of them are running for the same Senate seat, the best case scenario (from their perspective, not mine) is that one of them will be out of a job in the end.

It’s probably also worth noting that, in addition to the five Republican senators that are stepping down, Ted Stevens of Alaska will be running for re-election in the midst of being investigated for bribery. Granted, it is Alaska, but you never know. I personally would have loved it if Mike Gravel capitalized on his popularity from the presidential election by challenging Stevens. You can’t tell me that a debate between those two crazy coots wouldn’t have been insanely fun to watch.