  Several anomalies have been identified which may imply a breakdown of the
statistical isotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In particular,
an anomalous alignment of the quadrupole and octopole and a hemispherical power
asymmetry have increased in significance as the data have improved. There have
been several attempts to explain these observations which explore isotropy
breaking mechanisms within the early universe, but little attention has been
given to the possibility that these anomalies have their origin within the
local universe. We explore such a mechanism by considering the kinetic
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect due to a gaseous halo associated with the Milky Way.
Considering several physical models of an anisotropic free electron optical
depth contributed by such a halo, we find that the associated screening maps of
the primordial anisotropies have the necessary orientations to affect the
anomaly statistics very significantly, but only if the column density of free
electrons in the halo is at least an order of magnitude higher than indicated
by current observations.
