". . . Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said. Citigroup has decided to withhold donations for now to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee over concerns that Senate Democrats could give Warren and lawmakers who share her views more power, sources inside the bank told Reuters. JPMorgan representatives have met Democratic Party officials to emphasize the connection between its annual contribution and the need for a friendlier attitude toward the banks, a source familiar with JPMorgan's donations said. . ."
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
In a 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court conservatives struck down some of the last remaining limits on how much wealthy donors can donate to electoral campaigns. The reason, they claim, is freedom of speech. FREEDOM OF SPEECH? How can donating large sums of money to a candidate, who takes that money and pays Hollywood to make an entertainment spectacle full of emotion and not small amounts of misinformation, slanted (by the way) towards the political and or social position of the donator of the large sums of money, which a great percentage of American people sitting comfortably in their lazy boys with a beer in their hand interprets as FACTUAL. . . be called freedom of speech?
With those limits gone, it will be even harder for everyday people to have their voices heard in Washington.
I’m all for freedom of speech but I don’t believe buying a politician is freedom of speech. Let the Koch brothers spend lots of money, go on TV, identify themselves and speak. That would be freedom of speech. The way it’s done now deceives all the bumpkins whose major form of recreation (and for some, their highest level of education) is watching TV.
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
(by Charlie Reese, a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper)
"Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. ( The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.)
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House?( John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. ) If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. [The House has passed a budget but the Senate has not approved a budget in over three years. The President's proposed budgets have gotten almost unanimous rejections in the Senate in that time. ]
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ..
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!"
. . . there was a 'plan'. The campaign had gotten nastier with time and, in spite of the opposition's lack of factual currency, began to lean in the other direction. And what a beauty of a 'plan' it was. Much like a past incumbency's 'wag the dog' scenario which was choreographed years ago without any serious consequences. If the required discretion could be maintained, it would be a coup.
A long, long-time international fugitive of the most despicable character, at least here at home, finally tracked down and killed, secretly, quietly, neatly, professionally; very James Bond-ian. How could he not secure re-election.
(Later) All went just as planned. Done, finished, complete, successful. A few minor snags with Navy Seals a little too loose-lipped afterward. But all was taken care-of without major incident. The election, by the way, also went in the planned direction. Four more years, integrity intact, no probing questions. But was the target, in truth, the long-sought after culprit of the worst terror attacks in the history of the world? Was an innocent person killed for political gain? Or was the whole thing 'staged'?
But in less than a week after election day, strange, unsettling, unusual, unbelievable news arose. The terrorist mastermind, so neatly disposed of, and whose assassination so neatly accomplishing its purpose, it was learned by the administration . . . had died ELEVEN YEARS AGO!
. . . or is it???
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do YOU think?
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. . . the election is finally over. One estimate said the presidential campaigns costs a combined total of $2.5 billion. I don't know why people brush off billions whenever I ask about saving such sums as the campaign expense. I know the national deficit is in trillions but, as Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." The campaign expenses are particularly irksome to me because they are purely showbiz. Dispensing facts to the general public in print or online, for example, would be infinitely less expensive than the hateful and reality-challenged television ads the two major candidates ran. And though we are left with a president who exhibits some leaning toward integrity, albeit not fully realized when applicable to the U.S. (and world also, for that matter) citizenry, and not with one who not only ignores the needs of the preponderance of the planet's population but also lives in a fantasy, pre-scientific world landscaped with hundred-dollar bills (or are they thousands?) - I don't really think all our problems are solved. Which leads me back to Rocky (Anderson, that is): ". . . The government is shafting the people of this country. It doesn’t matter
which party is the majority, they’re all feeding at the same trough of
special interest money and we, the American people, are suffering from
it. We’re in the midst of a new Gilded Age, with a greater disparity
between income and wealth since the 1920s and the highest poverty rates
since 1965. It’s as if all the gains of the war on poverty have
disappeared. That along with our outrageous healthcare system, including
Obamacare, results in incredible suffering, including the loss of tens
if not hundreds of thousands of lives every year. . ."
So even though the election is over, there is still much work to be done.
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do YOU think?
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(from http://www.raybly.com/)
"Ray Bly
U.S. Congress, District 2
My run for 2010 Congress
Why I am disillusioned about America is because of the money involved in getting elected to office. It takes millions of dollars to become a U.S.
Congressman and millions more to become a Senator and hundreds of millions to become President. The average campaign for a candidate for office costs them $1 to as much as $10 a vote and I've heard it's gone as high as $30 a vote. The only way you can get this money is from special interests and the corporate world and of course, if you get elected with corporate and special interest money, you have to vote on behalf of these groups. This is why our government for close to a century is now wholly owned and controlled by our special interests and our corporate world. No candidate wants to stand up against them because they will not get elected, or get the money they need to run."
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Mittster says,
"The president's campaign falls far short of the magnitude of these times. And the presidency of the last four years has fallen far short of the promises of his last campaign," Romney said. "Four years ago, America voted for a post-partisan president, but they have seen the most partisan of political of presidents, and a Washington in gridlock because of it."
Now let's look at this carefully. Here is a man who was a one-term governor and head of a 'global management consulting firm' who conveniently espouses positions that appeal to any particular audience to whom he is speaking at any particular time, and running as the Republican party candidate, claiming that the sitting president is the "most partisan of political of presidents"(sic) and has caused gridlock because of it.
Clearly this man does not live in a factual world.
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AMBIENCE & WINE
(from http://www.sobhaniformaryland.com)
". . .The campaign of Independent candidate for the U.S. Senate Rob Sobhani
today announced it has learned that both incumbent Senator Ben Cardin
and the Republican nominee in the race told a Baltimore radio station –
so far the only venue for a debate in Maryland’s senate race – that
neither would appear if Rob Sobhani were allowed to share the platform
with them.
This revelation comes in direct contradiction to the
claims of the campaigns of Cardin and his Republican opponent that they
are open to debating Sobhani, whom public opinion polling has clearly
shown to be running dead even with if not ahead of the Republican
nominee.
“This is precisely why Rob is running, to open up the closed system
that takes voters for granted and plays rope a dope games whether at
election time or when it comes time to actually govern on behalf of the
citizens,” Sobhani spokesman Sam Patten said. “Moreover, this is a
clear indication that neither of these establishment politicians is
being truthful with the media or the public on the subject of debates.
As such, it is deeply disappointing.”. . ."
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do YOU think?
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