On June 25, 2008 the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 passed by a whopping 402-17 vote in the House. Sometime in September, the full Senate is expected to begin floor action on the Senate bill (S.3406). It currently enjoys the sponsorship of 65 Senators, and the endorsement of a wide variety of business and disability community organizations, so it's widely expected to pass, but your help is needed to provide just that little bit of insurance so that the opportunities and protections intended by Congress in the original ADA are certain to be restored to persons with disablities. We need to pass this with a veto-proof majority!

After the fold, there's an action request (the links are toward the bottom of the diary) as well as background information on why it's so important for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) to pass...

Note: I'm posting this quite late - it's nearly 2AM! - and won't be able to stay awake to respond right now to any comments. So here's a shameless pitch: please, my fellow night owls, help me out and rec this diary up, so that people may have a chance to see it in the morning. It's not campaign-related, but it's such an important issue!

Our favorite Senator is at it again. He chose to ignore a recent J Street survey of members of the Jewish community which found that 78% of American Jews do not support the idea of working with those Christian Zionist evangelical groups, such as Hagee's, that believe in an end-times theology in which Jews must return to Israel in order to hasten armageddon and the eventual return of Jesus.

And despite direct pleas from many in the Jewish community, last night, Joe Lieberman spoke at Pastor Dan Hagee's "Christians United for Israel" summit. Lieberman even said he was "proud" to do so.

"The bond that I feel with Pastor Hagee and each and every one of you is much stronger than that, and so I am proud to stand with you tonight," he added.

One of the argument that Hillary Clinton has apparently believed was most compelling and would convince the SDs to vote for her despite her fewer pledged delegates was the "Big State" argument. This says that even though Obama won more states, more delegates, the states that really matter are the big states, those with large populations and thus a lot of impact in November's electoral result. According to Clinton's big state theory, the primary results in states such as Texas, Florida, California, Michigan, etc., should therefore be given greater weight by those SDs who are still contemplating which candidate to support.

"I don’t think anyone doubts that a Democrat has to have a number of the big states anchored in order to put together the electoral votes needed to win." ~~ Hillary Clinton, March, 2008

According to the CNN political blog and Eric Kleefeld at TPM Election Central, the Michigan Democratic party has agreed upon a compromise plan to seat Michigan's delegates at the Democratic convention. According to the plan, the delegates are to be divided with a 59/69 split, with Clinton being awarded 10 more delegates than Obama.

The New Republic published an article yesterday, Did the Media Really Screw Edwards?  in which the author, Jason Zengerle, claims Edwards really did get media coverage. But a closer look reveals that Zengerle's thesis is more than just a little flawed.

I've been feeling a bit down the last few days. It's not because of things going on in my personal life, really, although I do have some stressful things going on right now. No, the reason for my dark mood has to do with a television show I watched last Thursday night...

In a move of stunning brilliance, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has seized the initiative to quell rising Palestinian violence, and perhaps has co-opted Israeli PM Olmert's unilateral convergence plan as well.

The proposed network neutrality legislation working its way through Congress poses a threat to many of us who relies on the net for political news and discussion. The proposal, considered to be potentially capable of generating billions of dollars in profits for large telecoms, cable companies and even internet companies, would allow a two tier pricing system to be set up by the companies, with users being forced to pay more for premium services and faster access.

But, according to an article in the Austin American Statesman, this bill that could have such a chilling effect on the internet isn't going to be debated in public. Instead, legislators are planning to work out the details in committee, where corporate lobbyists will be the ones ultimately crafting the law.