Federal workers will be hit with a third year of frozen pay

Two years of frozen pay for federal workers is about to turn into three years of frozen pay. Senate Democrats are caving on the extended pay freeze House Republicans included in their continuing resolution, saying it's necessary to avert a government shutdown:

"I want to say to the federal employees, thank you for your work. I wanted to do it with a modest pay raise, but right now the duty and the situation that I find myself reluctantly in is that the way I serve you best is to make sure there is no government shutdown," said Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, whose state of Maryland is home to 130,000 federal workers, on the floor of the Senate. "This bill will continue the existing pay freeze. It's necessary to avoid a shutdown of the federal government. Shutting down the government would make a tough situation even worse for federal employees."  

The proposed raise for federal workers, who have not had a cost of living adjustment for two years, was 0.5 percent.

Federal workers have already sacrificed $103 billion toward deficit reduction through pay freezes and changes to their retirement system. In addition to this continuation of the current pay freeze, many will lose up to 20 percent of their pay through furloughs over the next several months. Speaking to the Senate, Mikulski explained who these workers are:

"They're people who work at the National Institutes of Health finding cures or ways to contain disease'the next vaccine to help either the flu endemic or protect us against a pandemic. They're the civilian employees at the National Security Agency.  

"We employ the largest number of mathematicians in the world. And what do they do? They invent the kinds of technology that breaks the codes and protects us in the new cyber domain. They're the people who run the weather satellites. The European model might have done a better job predicting the storm last week, but you know why? Because we haven't had the resources to fund the weather service the way the Europeans have."

That's work Republicans don't want to pay for. And once again they've taken these workers hostage, using the threat of a government shutdown to get Democrats to make big concessions.

CPAC 2013: The racism at CPAC

The needed introduction: yep, I'm at CPAC right now. And while Thursday was relatively sedate and businesslike, on Friday, all hell broke loose and then some.

First off, the elephant in the room full of elephants. So, this happened:

A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans.

The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said 'For what? For feeding him and housing him?' Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry's outburst.

And then, yes, everything went to hell. Much, much more below the fold.

This week in science: night of the comet

There's a comet in the evening sky. It's dim, not easy to see, and the video above may help you zero in on it. There are more comets coming this year:

Comet Pan-STARRS is officially known as C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and was discovered in June 2011 by astronomers with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PAN-STARRS). Scientists estimate that the comet takes more than 100 million years to orbit the sun once.

Pan-STARRS made its closest approach to Earth last week and was closest to the sun on Sunday (March 10). The object is one of several comets visible in the night sky this year. The Comet Lemmon has been closely tracked by amateur astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere since January, while the Comet ISON' which some scientists say could be a potential "comet of the century" ' is making its way toward the inner solar system.

Who knows? Maybe there's something going on out in the Oort Cloud, something ancient, now stirring ...

• Urey-Miller goes cosmic.
• I have some questions about self publishing. See my first comment below for more.
• It is the Higgs!
• Even the most dyed in the red-wool elephantine wingnut extraordinaire grasps the fact that science equals money! It happens a little bird told me there may be some cash and capital being handed out soon for anyone who has a business plan for new or improved space-y products. Maybe I'll have the link[s] with more info and where you can apply soon.

Indiana kids cut from Head Start by sequester, leaving parents 'heartbroken'

Sequestration is cutting 1,000 Indiana children from Head Start, out of 15,400 who are in the program statewide. That's leading to heartbreak for the families of kids who are being cut from the preschool program, with at least two towns implementing a lottery system to make the cuts randomly:

Columbus resident Alice Miller told WTHR-TV that her 4-year-old son, Sage, was one of the children cut from the program. She spoke about how the program has helped her son advance academically and socially.

'He can say his ABCs. He's counting to 100. He writes his name. I'm very proud of him,' she said.

Miller said she was 'heartbroken' when his name was not chosen at the lottery.

'He loves school,' Miller said. 'I don't know how I'm going to tell him he's not going back.'

That story is going to be repeated and repeated and repeated, in Indiana and across the country. In addition to kids losing out on education and time with their friends, parents who rely on Head Start for childcare while they work will have to scramble to figure out how to keep their jobs while keeping their kids safe.

But Republicans are more concerned about White House tours being cancelled. Tell Republicans to quit whining about White House tours and pay attention to the people really being hurt by the sequester, like these kids.

AFL-CIO won't back a deficit deal that cuts Social Security through chained CPI

The AFL-CIO would not support a bargain, grand or otherwise, that included the cut to Social Security benefits known as chained CPI, two senior staffers told Huffington Post's Dave Jamieson.

"I don't see us supporting a deal that has chained CPI in it," said Bill Samuel, director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO, a close ally in Obama's reelection campaign. "It's a basic cut in benefits for seniors." [...]

"Chained CPI is the biggest dollar cut that anyone in Washington has put on the table in this discussion in a serious way," said Damon Silvers, the AFL-CIO's policy director. "It is clearly the one that would do the most broad-based harm to American families. It is structured in a particularly devious and pernicious way.

"It is not the sort of proposal that any Democrat who [supports] working people wants to be associated with," he added.

President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have been sending clear messages that they'd be open to chained CPI as part of a larger deficit deal. Obama followed up those messages by telling progressive members of Congress that he would only agree to Social Security benefit cuts in the context of a deal in which Republicans accepted new revenue, and that since Republicans aren't budging on revenue there's no danger right now. But there's no question that chained CPI is on the table, which means that now is the time to make it clear how unacceptable it is, rather than waiting until it's too late.

Send an email to the White House telling President Obama to immediately stop proposing any cuts to Social Security.

Elizabeth Warren takes on the NRA and the GOP

Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn't approaching her new job with the customary comity and caution you see from a lot of brand-new senators. She's not pulling any punches, even when it comes to her new colleagues from across the aisle. Or the NRA. Here she is, speaking to the Consumer Federation of America.

Warren hammered Republicans over their vow to block Richard Cordray, Obama's nominee to lead the CFPB, from being confirmed. [...] Warren, as well as the consumer advocates she was addressing, argues the Republicans are attempting to weaken the watchdog.

'Blocking Rich Cordray is about keeping the game rigged, keeping the game rigged so that consumers remain in the dark'and a few bad actors can rake in big profits,' Warren said. [...]

Warren hammered the NRA, naming the group among the 'armies of lobbyists [that] are fighting to rig the system so that the public remains in the dark.' [...]

'If as many people were dying of a mysterious disease as innocent bystanders are dying from firearms, a cure would be our top priority,' Warren said. 'But we don't even have good data on gun violence. Why? Because the NRA and the gun industry lobby made it their goal to prevent any serious effort to document the violence.'

She's onto something there, huh? Tell her colleagues to join with Warren in demanding they support President Obama's proposals for improved gun safety.

Republican lawmakers, thirsty for more Benghazi theater, threaten to subpoena survivors of attack

Please proceed, GOP: Republicans apparently want more of this Shocking news: Republicans are still going after that elusive treasure of political gold that they believe must be buried somewhere along The Benghazi Trail. This time, they're threatening to subpoena the survivors of the attack'and saying they might even filibuster the president's nominee for ambassador to Libya if they don't get access.

Republican lawmakers are threatening to subpoena U.S. survivors of the terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Exasperated GOP members say unless they get more answers from the White House, they will call on the survivors to testify before Congress, and might hold up President Obama's nomination to replace the U.S. ambassador who was killed on Sept. 11, 2012 in Libya.

The recent revelation that U.S. survivors are recuperating at Walter Reed Hospital has sparked GOP demands that the White House provide Congress with access to them. It has also breathed new life into the controversy that was highlighted repeatedly during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Among the lawmakers delivering the threats: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Jim Gerlach (R-PA). Apparently, they believe the accounts of the survivors could shed some light on how the White House characterized the attack, including the talking points initially offered by the administration in the days following the attack. In other words, this is clearly the kind of stuff upon which the fate of the republican rests.

Of course, it might be helpful if they actually took a comprehensive and rational look at what the administration actually said instead of developing fantasies based on cherry-picked soundbites designed to make it seem like the White House was trying to cover up President Obama's ties to Friends of Hamas al Qaeda. As Mitt Romney discovered in that second presidential debate, reality has a nasty habit of popping the right-wing bubble on things like this. But for now, all indications are that they are hell-bent on moving forward. So, please proceed, I guess.