239 Days & Counting

 

 

It was all over the airwaves last night.  By the end of this year, Congress will have worked a total of 126 days and taken 239 days of vacation.  Or as Kenneth D. Ackerman puts it,



"What's the best job on earth? Why, of course, to be a Member of the United States Congress."   Huffington Post 12/03/12

Mr. Ackerman cites the average Congressional salary is $174,000 with the Speak of the House receiving $223,500.

I can only imagine how this sits with the public who are, as was I, just waking up to the real hard facts of what these people do not do. 

Mr. Ackerman wrote the above quoted blog exactly one year ago.  This was at the beginning of what will turn out to be, according to the Boston Globe 12/04/2013,

 "...the least productive crop of legislators in modern history."

That same Globe article states Congress has passed only 55 bills, spent only 36 hours per week in session, averaging one bill per week. 

I don't know about you but I'm thinking of running for Congress.
 

 

Costco vs WalMart

I don't think the sentiment of this internet meme will surprise you.  However, I think the reality of the statement and the linked article in today's HuffPost will.

If this is true, and apparently it is, why doesn't everyone do the right thing?  

Now What?

Qaddafi Forces Hold Strategic Town as Allied Attacks Continue

Rebels want Qaddafi alive to face trial. Per HuffPost, they don't want any international forces to invade the country..."believe we can do it ourselves..." 

Death toll from Japan’s disasters over 8,000; more than 13,000 missing

Japan's "worst crises since WWII." 

Workers Flee Japan Nuclear Plant As Smoke Rises 

They know what needs to be done; question is, can they do it in time?

A Very Liberal Intervention

I hope this guy is right about the President's intentions but I'm not feelin' it.

Tom DeLay Guilty

mug shot

A few days ago, Tom Delay was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in the 2002 campaigns.    

The heavy-handed style that made Tom DeLay one of the nation's most powerful and feared members of Congress also proved to be his downfall Wednesday when a jury determined he went too far in trying to influence elections, convicting the former House majority leader on two felonies that could send him to prison for decades.  Huffington Post  11/24/10

I guess "DWTS" wasn't enough to turn this puppy around.          

That's one for our side. 

 

Oh Please, Let It Be True

House Minority Leader John Boehner was asked by a liberal blogger Thursday to answer questions about an affair with a lobbyist, an allegation that will reportedly be the focus of an upcoming New York Times expose. Boehner ignored the question outright.

The New York Post sees a journalistic plot to drop a bombshell on the upcoming midterm elections by smearing a high-profile GOP leader.  Huff Post

And who owns the NY Post?  Rupert Murdoch. 

"Is it funny?  Is it fair?"  I don't think they are asking those questions this time.  The guy asking the questions is Mike Stark, "an activist and blogger" per Huff Post. .

Wait for it...



Feet of clay, anyone?

SSDD

Interesting headline from Robert Reich's blog today.

The Super Rich Get Richer, Everyone Else Gets Poorer, and the Democrats Punt

The super-rich got even wealthier this year, and yet most of them are paying even fewer taxes to support the eduction, job training, and job creation of the rest of us...Only twice before in American history has so much been held by so few, and the gap between them and the great majority been a chasm — the late 1920s, and the era of the robber barons in the 1880s...And yet the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which conferred almost all their benefits on the rich, continue...Democrats have decided to delay voting on whether to extend them for the top 2 percent of Americans or for the bottom 98 percent until after the mid-term elections.

Sure hope this doesn't hurt the Dems in races where the Huff Post reports this morning:

Are the Democrats experiencing a rebound on the Pacific Coast? Three new surveys, two in California and one in Washington State, indicate small gains for Democratic since mid-August. More specifically, two new California polls confirm that Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer is maintaining a narrow lead over Republican challenger Carly Fiorina...The two new California polls also suggest a reversal of the previous trend favoring Republican Meg Whitman. The Field poll results released yesterday show Whitman tied with Democrat Jerry Brown (at 41% each), while SurveyUSA gives Brown a small but statistically insignificant advantage (46% to 43%). So while six surveys had shown Brown with nominal leads in August and early September, the five most recent polls show either a tie or a slight Brown edge...SurveyUSA also released new data this week in Washington confirming a similar rebound by Democratic Senator Patty Murray over Republican challenger Dino Rossi. The new automated poll gives Murray a two-point edge (50% to 48%)...Democrats also received encouraging news in Florida, where a new Mason-Dixon poll shows Democrat Alex Sink holding a six percentage point lead (47% to 40%) over Republican Rick Scott.

And then, there's The Daily Show POV. His take last night on the Republicans and their "brand new"(sic) Pledge to America.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Postcards From the Pledge
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Say It Ain't So Maxine

Congresswoman Maxine Waters

I've always admired Maxine Waters. She voted with courage and common sense against the invasion of Iraq. She was also co-sponsor of a House resolution to impeach Dick Cheney for "making allegedly false statements about the war." She has worked hard for the downtrodden in California. She is a ten term congresswoman and one of the most powerful members of the House. Like all powerful leaders, she has her supporters and detractors. She's now under scrutiny now for possible ethics violations.

Waters is under investigation for arranging a meeting between the federal regulators and executives of a bank in which her husband owns $250,000.00 in stock. The investigation involves conflict of interest as to whether she helped steer government aid to the bank while she was a member of the Financial Services Committee.

Not many details have been released. I read the NY Times and HuffPost articles this morning. I can't really glean much from either except to say if she did this, it was pretty darn stupid and maybe that's why I find it harder to believe than the charges against Charlie Rangel who has always seemed a grandstanding, loud-mouthed, showy member of the rank & file. Perhaps he genuinely feels for his constituents but his demeanor and the controversy he continues to inspire belies it. Maxine, on the other hand, has always appeared caught up by the needs of her constituents as well as the greater good. Perhaps this is my wishful thinking but...

...say it ain't so.

Maxine Waters from blackpast.com

 

Elizabeth Warren: Fighting the Good Fight

Anyone who's been following Elizabeth Warren on cable tv knows she's an expert on the state of the country's financial health.  She has testified before Congress.  She is an expert on news/talk shows. This Harvard Law School professor has been studying "families, debt and bankruptcy for almost three decades". As far back as 2003, she predicted by the end of this decade (2010) "one in every seven families will go bankrupt." In 2005, one out of every 53 families filed. The numbers peaked in 2006 and, while I do not know if she hit the mark, below is a chart on personal bankruptcy filings from 1992-2009 (double click to enlarge):


This is the woman who, in 2005, fought the financial industry's successful campaign to make declaring bankruptcy a tougher propostion (thank you Congress, in particular Chris Dodd).  At the time, this same industry  was marketing unsustainable loans based on unrealistically inflated property values to consumers, also known as the subprime mortgages.  She was appointed by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, to chair the congressional oversight panel for the Troubled Relief  Asset Program better known as TARP.

Elizabeth Warren is the architect of the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There is hot debate over whether or not she should lead the Bureau. 

While many hope she gets the job, others are not quite as excited.   

Timothy Geithner's Secret Thoughts on Elizabeth Warren - watch more funny videos

All I know is, anyone "who's been a sharp critic of" Geithner "and a sharp critic of Treasury policies" is the one for me!

Reverse Racism?

Shirley Sherrod with the "Family Farm Champion Award" from aglawllm.blogspot.com   2009

By now, you are probably familiar with the Shirley Sherrod situation.  If  not, go here.   Up until yesterday, Ms. Sherrod served as USDA director of agriculture in the state of Georgia.  She is African American.  She was asked to resign by Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsak.  She was also condemned by the NAACP.
The reason?  A  tape surfaced on the conservative web site BigGovernment.com showing Ms. Sherrod supposedly telling a story of how race played a part in her work with a white farmer 24 years ago who came to her seeking a loan.  The tape is edited.  It is only a segment of an entire speech she was giving at an NAACP dinner in which the point of the story was reconciliation through race.  The web site's edit makes the speech look as though she was influenced by her feelings towards whites to not help the farmer.  Interestingly enough, said farmer says he wouldn't have his farm today without her help back in the day.

This is all over the news.  It's a big story about racism on both sides of our government.  It's also about viral information, sound bytes, editing, spin. The mainstream media have expressed shock and surprise that the government and NAACP would punish her without vetting the tape, watching it in its entirety.  The conservative media are using this as an example of the NAACP, who last week accused the tea party of being "rascist", as now on the receiving end of the same thing.  One blogger whose writings incense alot of his readers feels she's been thrown under the "O Bus".

This is a fascinating debate and really points up the complex fast paced nature of news today.  While I abhor the tactics used by conservative media, they are on the right side this time (no pun intended) by calling for Ms. Sherrods "re-instatement" and apologies from the Administration.  The NAACP already issued their apology last night.

Another MASSEY ENERGY Mine Disaster

Twenty five miners killed in what is being described as the "worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades."   Performance Coal Co, operating in Montcoal, W.V. is a subsidiary of Massey Energy, the nation's largest mining corporation and its worst environmental offender.  Massey Energy has continuously been cited for major safety violations at their mine sites.

ABC News reported:

 The nation's sixth biggest mining company by production, Massey Energy took in $24 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company paid what was then the largest financial settlement in the history of the coal industry for the 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, also in West Virginia. The fire trapped 12 miners. Two suffocated as they looked for a way to escape. Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports.

Massey CEO, Don Blankenship, has, over many years, been the subject of articles and inquiries regarding his business practices including political support of those in position to do his company the most good. Massey Energy has been accused and convicted of ongoing safety rules violations usually receiving what is known in the industry as a "soft fine".  For example, a recent case involved a judge who overturned a $50,000,000.00 judgment against the company on appeal.  This judge had long ties with and received thousands of dollars in campaign finance support from Blankenship.   



Rescue efforts were suspended this morning because high levels of methane gas made the operation unsafe, according to the NY Times.
 
You can help by donating to the Salvation Army or Red Cross  both of whom are on the scene supplying aid.
 

Michael Steele, RNC, WTF?!!!!!!

For links to above stories from The Huffington Post:
1) Voyeur
2) RNC Hypocrisy
3) Tone Deaf

Where do I go for Political POV?

 

Hosed   by Cole Scott

Thought I'd post some links to places I go for points of view on the news I'm getting from the networks, the NY Times, the Huffington Post, et.al.

the Field Negro   His profile indicates he is a lawyer. His POV is "candid discussions about race" Just started reading his posts.

Political Carnival  Hilarious posts on anything and everything political.  

FiveThirtyEight    Statistical breakdowns on everything from polls to stock market, etc.  A must stop for Type As.

Think Progress    Liberal POV striving for "Social and Economic Justice; Media Accountability;Healthy Communities; Global and Domestic Security".

The Raw Story    is "...an alternative news nexus....draws upon a panoply of news sources and select stories... most intriguing to an audience seeking news underplayed by mainstream media." 

FactCheck.org    the facts, ma'am, just the facts.  They check, clarify and/or correct statements made in the media.  A must for anyone following politics.  Check out Whoppers of 2009.

Favorite tv news show:  The Daily Show.  Nobody skewers news like Jon Stewart.

Favorite News Anchor:  Seth Meyers, Weekend Update.  Check out last night below.  Classic.

Sarah Palin Is Coming to a Book Store Near You

If Sarah Palin doesn't have the decency to go away, we might as well make fun of her ongoing shameless self-promotion.  The Nation is doing just that with "Going Rouge: An American Nightmare" a parody of Ms. Palin's autobiography "Going Rogue: An American Life".

Both books hit bookstores November 17th.  Ya gotta love it.

Image from article on Huffington Post.

Bad Dreams Starring Dick Cheney

Various headlines online today are making me woozy:

Cheney in 2012? Some Key GOPers Aren't Kidding

Hypocrisy Alert: Cheney Relies on the Objectivity of the Justice Dept to Defend Torture

Cheney Says Politics Behind CIA Probe at Justice

last but not least from the WSJ: Cheney for President


And of all things, sanity from the mouth of John McCain:

Your request is being processed...