More than 1/3rd make $50,000 per year and above. Another set of people have access to Medicaid and other programs.

Democrats send out first round of subpoenas

A House Judiciary subcommittee approved today the first in what is expected to be an avalanche of subpoenas to Bush administration officials. They will likely explore corruption and mismanagement allegations on everything from pre-war Iraq intelligence to the mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina.

The first round of subpoenas concern the recent controversial firings by the Bush administration of seven U.S. attorneys, some of whom were pursuing public corruption cases against Republican members of Congress.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law, chaired by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), approved subpoenas requiring four former U.S. attorneys to appear at a subcommittee hearing next Tuesday. The former U.S. attorneys include Carol Lam of California, David Iglesias of New Mexico, H.E. Cummins III of Arkansas, and John McKay of Washington state. The subcommittee approved the subpoenas by voice vote; no Republican lawmakers were present.

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Faith & frailty
Today’s arguments in the lawsuit over President Bush’s faith-based grant initiatives went at a dizzying pace—even more so when you consider that the issue was “standing”and whether taxpayers have legal grounds to file suit attacking the program in the first place. The justices were so engaged in the questioning it seemed like some of them were about to leap out of their high-backed leather chairs.

Chief Justice Roberts really ran the show, completely directing the argument against taxpayer standing—and even stepped in a couple of times to help Solicitor General Paul Clement explain why the atheist group, Freedom from Religion Foundation, had no legal right to sue. Roberts nailed Andrew Pincus, the group’s lawyer, with a pointed question right out of the box: “I don’t understand, under your theory, why couldn’t any taxpayer sue our marshal for saying, ‘God save this honorable court?’” It was Pincus’s very first question, and it turned the argument. By the end, it appeared that the atheists were going to be on the losing side—though the justices didn’t seem especially taken with Clement’s proposals, either (or, for that matter, with the line-up of their own precedents they have to take up to decide the case).

….

But today, we all were held in place for nearly a half a minute more –an eternity to a TV reporter–as Justice Ginsburg slowly collected her things and carefully left the courtroom. Justice Souter lingered behind at his chair, waiting to walk alongside her—almost as if he wanted to see if she needed assistance.

It was strikingly odd. I was standing next to Jim Vincini of Reuters, and we looked at each other with some alarm. No one could recall seeing Ginsburg in such slow motion, and it immediately begged the question of her health—which of course begs the question of whether any of the justices are going to be leaving the court anytime soon and give George W. Bush his third nomination. I have predicted with confidence that no one else will leave by design, and I’ve flatly rejected any suggestions that Justice Ginsburg was not at the top of her game physically. She’ll be 74 next month, and she’s active and social—and said to be recovered from her bout with cancer. People who don’t know Justice Ginsburg always say she looks so slight, so frail. But that’s Justice Ginsburg. She is slight. Even when she fell asleep during oral argument awhile back, I didn’t read anything into it since she’d just returned from out of the country and could easily have been suffering from jet lag.

The Court’s public information office said this afternoon that Ginsburg is absolutely fine. And she did ask several of the questions during the argument—she was focused and involved. So perhaps she twisted an ankle during her workouts ( she does exercise regularly). But it still made me think I’d better start pulling those possible retirement files together. As Justice O’Connor showed us all in 2005, big surprises can happen.

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Not trying to be ghoulish and hope for someones health to fail, but I am just pointing out that anything is possible as the article states.

But I am sure they will get it right….

Wonder who is doing the producing, Michael Moore?

Nifong Fights Back: Duke lacrosse prosecutor claims, ‘I was not always able to give the case my full attention’…

He offered several explanations for some of the problems that have arisen:

* The lacrosse case arose “during the last few weeks of a hotly-contested Democratic Party primary in which I was seeking to retain my office,” he said. “I was not always able to give the case my full attention.”

[Load of BS this one is. He sure had time for the multiple interviews he was doing in regards to the case and him pumping up his status off the back of the innocent - sanity]

* The volume of material to be copied for each defendant meant that a number of lawyers and support workers were involved in the numbering and copying of pages, he said. “These people were neither concentrating on the actual contents of the documents being copied nor familiar enough with the facts of the case to have known whether anything was missing.”

* He said he had never before encountered such determined pretrial resistance. “A well-connected and well-financed (but not, I would suggest, well-intentioned) group of individuals — most of whom are neither in nor from North Carolina, have taken it upon themselves to ensure that this case never reaches trial.”

[And here I thought it was Nifong that was ramrodding things the way he wanted - but now that he is busted on it, it is suddenly everyone elses fault but his - sanity]

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Do I win a prize?

Probably a moonbat who thinks “alien” means “Roswell.”

OK, let’s play “Guess the Legislator’s Party.”

Your clues are:

1. She’s pandering to the illegals in her district.

2. It would be a useless bill since there’s no penalty for ignoring it.

3. She’s more interested in politically correct language than in solving real problems.

Anyone want to take a wild guess?