tagged w/ Senate
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Is this what Democracy is all about?
90% of Americans want background checks for gun sales.
Newspeak 101, majority means minority. thinkingblue
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Thinking about Gabby Giffords, and what she had to say about yesterday's vote:
"Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.
I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/a-senate-in-the-gun-lobbys-grip.html
President Obama: Gun Lobby and Allies "Willfully Lied About the Bill"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1liUQ4imjCQIs this what Democracy is all about?
90% of Americans want background checks for... more
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WASHINGTON (CNN) —An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN.
After the envelope tested positive in a first routine test, it was retested two more times, each time coming up positive, the law enforcement source said. The package was then sent to a Maryland lab for further testing.
The envelope was addressed to a U.S. senator, though the sources would not say which one.
http://www.wgal.com/news/national/Ricin-detected-at-US-Capitol-off-site-mail-facility/-/9360498/19776528/-/format/rsss_2.0/-/fp6hwyz/-/index.htmlWASHINGTON (CNN) —An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin... more
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Lawmakers should take a pay cut during sequestration, say two Democrats.
Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Bill Nelson of Florida have introduced legislation that calls for a reduction in congressional salaries once furloughs begin across government. Furloughs could start as early as late March at some agencies, though April is more likely. They will continue through September unless Congress reverses the automatic spending cuts triggered on Friday.
“The federal workforce is looking at furloughs that would result in a sizeable pay cut -- and there’s absolutely no reason members of Congress should exempt themselves,” McCaskill said. “We can and should reach a balanced compromise to replace these damaging across-the-board cuts, but until we do, this is an obvious step to hold Congress accountable for the job we need to get done.”
The bill, dubbed the Congressional Overspending Pay Accountability Act, would reduce congressional salaries by the greatest percentage decrease furloughed employees face. Agencies have estimated that some employees could lose up to 20 percent of their salary based on the number of days they are forced to take unpaid leave.
The legislation, though, might not be legal. The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits a sitting Congress from increasing or decreasing its own pay, although it can change the pay of future legislative bodies. A provision in the McCaskill-Nelson bill says if the pay cut is deemed unconstitutional, then the legislation would take effect in the next Congress.
The public favors docking the pay of Congress and the president for failing to balance the budget. A whopping 81 percent of voters believe lawmakers should take a 25 percent pay cut until the federal budget is balanced, according to a January survey from Rasmussen Reports.
Other lawmakers and officials have expressed solidarity with federal workers facing furloughs, offering to give up part of their salaries during the sequester.Lawmakers should take a pay cut during sequestration, say two Democrats.
Sens.... more
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You saw the Senate's hearing on immigration, but did you see the beautiful faces of the 300 immigrants who showed up?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AQgXDiVGJYYou saw the Senate's hearing on immigration, but did you see the beautiful faces... more
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The newly minted Tea Party Dahling Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, has taken the Senate by storm on a crusade to ferret out those deemed un-American. The pro-gun, pro-life, pro-Israel, anti-liberal Cruz is invoking comparisons to Joseph McCarthy from his fellow Senators and the media over his questioning of Secretary of Defense nominee, former Senator Chuck Hagel.
In the spirit of Senator Cruz’s questioning of Chuck Hagel, and the McCarthy-esque tactics he loves so much, we would like to pose a few questions of our own to Teabagger Teddy...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=49049The newly minted Tea Party Dahling Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, has taken the Senate... more
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WASHINGTON -- Bank regulators got a sense Thursday of how their lives will be slightly different now that Elizabeth Warren sits on a Senate committee overseeing their agencies.
At her first Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Warren questioned top regulators from the alphabet soup that is the nation's financial regulatory structure: the FDIC, SEC, OCC, CFPB, CFTC, Fed and Treasury.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts had a straightforward question for them: When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial? It was a harder question than it seemed.
"We do not have to bring people to trial," Thomas Curry, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, assured Warren, declaring that his agency had secured a large number of "consent orders," or settlements.
"I appreciate that you say you don't have to bring them to trial. My question is, when did you bring them to trial?" she responded.
"We have not had to do it as a practical matter to achieve our supervisory goals," Curry offered.
Warren turned to Elisse Walter, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who said that the agency weighs how much it can extract from a bank without taking it to court against the cost of going to trial.
"I appreciate that. That's what everybody does," said Warren, a former Harvard law professor. "Can you identify the last time when you took the Wall Street banks to trial?"
"I will have to get back to you with specific information," Walter said as the audience tittered.
"There are district attorneys and United States attorneys out there every day squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin grounds and taking them to trial in order to make an example, as they put it. I'm really concerned that 'too big to fail' has become 'too big for trial,'" Warren said.
A Warren constituent, open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz, recently committed suicide after being hounded by federal prosecutors who reportedly said they wanted to "make an example" of him. Warren had met and said she admired Swartz and, after he died, expressed her concern by attending his memorial in Washington.
The financial regulators can blame, at least in part, Wall Street lobbyists (along with outgoing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Senate Republicans) for their embarrassing turn at the hearing. Warren would have been on the panel herself representing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, instead of a sitting senator, if her nomination to head the agency hadn't been thwarted in 2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/elizabeth-warren-bank-regulators_n_2688998.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2F6YkBa_Tig#!WASHINGTON -- Bank regulators got a sense Thursday of how their lives will be slightly... more
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S&R proposes assigning American billionaires to each fund all costs of one Senate or House race. In return, Congress can allow them to deduct these "donations" to reduce their taxes. Heck, collectively they're only paying an effective tax rate of 18 percent. They'll love this new deduction. Their average net worth is $4.4 billion. The most recent Forbes 400 list notes their net worth increased, on average, by $400 million in the previous year.
So they pony up the dough for congressional races. Then members of Congress may unfasten the dailing-for-dollars phone from their ears. Everybody's happy.
http://scholarsandrogues.com/2013/02/02/at-last-how-to-get-congress-to-work-a-full-week/S&R proposes assigning American billionaires to each fund all costs of one Senate... more
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srpr
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4 months ago
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To all elected officials if you don't do your job.
May your pockets go LEAN FOR 2013!!
If you lost the art of negotiation and compromise is filled with B.S. or frustration.
Let your pockets go LEAN FOR 2013!!
If we go off the cliff, your careers first butt-heads as the "dead weight stiff".
If poor and working class are to fall, let your career in politics plummet below to cushion us all.
I say it is time for your performance reviews.
Damn the rhetoric and face-time on sorta factual news.
Poof just like that, your benefits are cut.
Limited groceries, no gas money for the car or for your truck.
No Cadillac health plan, no Government check, nope your just shhhh outta luck!
Struggle... like the rest of us, fried, tired, used up and burned.
No more giving you any, nu uh, none --- of our hard earned.
Impossible, wow can your eyes actually produce tears?
You lazy, only fighting and passing 200 or so laws, in how many years?
It is simple my dudes, No hard workee no jobee. Both left and right, get the bleep out....
You heard me, don't you roll yo eyes at me, fix your lip and ya betta not pout.
Psssst that is your que, get yo stuff, now walk down the Steps!
You honor impaired, compassionate void, no courage having, cushy job Schleps!
Sorry times up, it's a Happy New Year, Woooohoooo now what can that mean?
Means ya fired mutha flowers, and now your pockets are LEAN IN 2013!! - Phil LewisTo all elected officials if you don't do your job.
May your pockets go LEAN FOR... more
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We all made it to another year. We are 13 years into the new millennium and not that much has really changed. But as with any new year, people are making commitments and resolutions thinking this will be a better year. We caught up with the last newspaper reader who was, as usual, on the couch reading the latest blues and news. Let's see if he is ready to jump into the digital generation.We all made it to another year. We are 13 years into the new millennium and not that... more
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More on this later, but how good a bill this is for progressives? Perhaps, unfortunately, this is the best we could get in light of the fact that the administration conceded too early – and when not under pressure to do so – the $250,000 tax rate increase threshold, and the number of taxpayers comprising that group is large. Passing tax increases on the wealthier folks with yearly incomes below $400,000 will be nearly impossible until the 114th Congress in 2015, Have our elected officials now decided that a joint filer with an adjusted gross income of $399,999 is a “middle class” income? . . .
http://latestbloomer.uskoa.com/h-r-8-the-fiscal-cliff-bill-passes-senate-heres-the-official-text-now-about-the-house/More on this later, but how good a bill this is for progressives? Perhaps,... more
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Happy new year from Washington DC. They push you over the cliff and spy on you while you fall. Notice bills like this also always sail through while the country is distracted with some sort of political wrangling. This time it's the bogus "fiscal cliff." I would really like to know why this was so outrageous when Bush was squatting in the White House but is seemingly OK now for Obama to resurrect. I am thankful however that my Senator voted no.Happy new year from Washington DC. They push you over the cliff and spy on you while... more
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Fiscal cliff is the most popular term used to describes what happens when January 1st rolls around and the Budget Control Act of 2011 goes into effect, which dramatically cuts government spending and raises taxesFiscal cliff is the most popular term used to describes what happens when January 1st... more
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Don't miss the recent story in The Hill in which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) apologized to Senate Democrats for actions by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that obstructed Senate consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act. McCain said (correctly) that Paul's action give credence to Democrats who argue for filibuster reform. On another matter, a former aide to Ron Paul criticized Rand Paul over his stand on Iran sanctions. Barely a day goes by without Rand Paul doing something that makes him look more like a radio talk show host than a United States senator. Let’s cut to the chase. Congressman Paul devoted a generation of hard work and deep thought to achieve a well-deserved reputation while Sen. Paul is the kind of shoot-from-the-hip politician who should not even think of running for president.
Republicans have enough problems without having presidential candidates such as Rand Paul who are clearly not ready for prime time, who are show horses intent on winning publicity and raising campaign money from extremist donors, and who are not credible voices for Republicans, libertarians or conservatives.
The Ron Paul show soon goes on the road to colleges making his case for younger voters. Good. Ron Paul has earned his stature. This is a debate worth having. Ron Paul has serious ideas worth being respectfully considered. On the other hand:
The Rand Paul show is a very bad act that is already becoming tired and boring. He should not be running for president, and if his bad act continues he will find voters just turning off his show and tuning out his voice.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/271197-ron-paul-yes-rand-paul-noDon't miss the recent story in The Hill in which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)... more
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Florida’s resident King of the TeaBaggers, Allen West, lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Patrick Murphy in last week’s general election. However, there is just one issue: Despite the fact that the ballot result is beyond recount range, West refuses to concede.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=45854Florida’s resident King of the TeaBaggers, Allen West, lost his bid for... more
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