(http://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-roberts-court-undermined-sensible-gun-control/)
“The Second Amendment was a response to concerns raised during the ratification of the Constitution that the power of Congress to disarm the state militias and create a national standing army posed an intolerable threat to the sovereignty of the several states,” then-Justice John Paul Stevens correctly noted in his minority opinion, joined by Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer. “Neither the text of the Amendment nor the arguments advanced by its proponents evidenced the slightest interest in limiting any legislature’s authority to regulate private civilian uses of firearms.”
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(from http://thegoodlordabove.com/articles/details/236)
". . . God held a press conference today to demand that the United States of America remove the words ‘In God We Trust’ from their national currency. . . “It's like they’re trying to shame Me into always keeping them safe and rich,” said God. “Why are you putting all this on Me? God bless you, God bless America, in God we blah blah blah…just leave Me alone, you freaks”. . . Republicans in Congress have attacked God’s statement as being unpatriotic and blasphemous. . . God has given Congress 10 days to pass legislation removing the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ from US currency. If not the USA may be in store for several plagues. . . I will strike with a plague of . . . voting irregularities, a plague of horrible presidential candidates, and a plague of unforgivably stupid idiots! SMITE!” . . . "
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(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)
(from Outsider in the White House by Bernie Sanders with Huck Gutman)
". . . During the course of the NAFTA debate, various congressional members expounded on the need for American workers to become more competitive in the global economy. I was so impressed by their arguments that I introduced legislation that would make the president and members of Congress competitive with their Mexican counterparts. My office discovered that members of the Mexican Congress earned about $35,410 a year. If American workers were going to compete against Mexicans who were forced to live on $1.00 an hour, I thought that members of Congress should lead by example and lower their $133,644 salaries to the Mexican level. I didn't get many cosponsors for this legislation. . . "
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(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Is is me or should this man (a tower of principled jello) be laughed out of the Presidential race . . .
Five years after the Affordable Care Act became law, one of its biggest opponents says he may be signing up.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the first major candidate to enter the 2016 presidential race, is now shopping around for health coverage after his wife, Heidi, took a leave of absence from her job at Goldman Sachs to campaign with her husband. The unpaid leave does not include benefits.
"We will in all likelihood get health care through my employment, which means you end up going on to the exchange and getting health insurance," Cruz said during an appearance on the Mike Gallagher radio show Wednesday. Members of Congress without insurance are required to sign up through health care exchanges created by Obamacare because of an amendment to the law added by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
However, Cruz said he would not accept a subsidy members of Congress are eligible for to help pay for coverage. "I'm going to purchase health insurance with my own funds for my family, like millions of Americans," he said.
The first-term senator became the face of GOP opposition to Obamacare in 2013 when he spoke for more than 21 hours on the Senate floor in opposition to the law. He urged his GOP colleagues not accept a government funding bill that kept Obamacare intact, setting in motion a 16-day partial government shutdown.
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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
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. . . if the media (and the electoral system) provided equal time and attention to ALL U.S. political parties instead of just the two with the most money, the most ridiculous of them could objectively be identified for what it is . . .
(from http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-flips-the-script-endorses-executive-overreach)
". . . About a year ago, the Republican condemnation of President Obama shifted – “he doesn’t lead enough” was out, “he leads too much” was in. The more Obama’s policy agenda succeeded in practical terms, the more the GOP argued the president is a lawless, out-of-control tyrannical dictator, hell bent on limitless power without regard for the Constitution. This week, however, Republicans are disgusted by Obama’s lack of executive overreach. GOP lawmakers are suddenly convinced the tyrannical dictator needs even more sweeping powers to act unilaterally in matters of life and death. . .This isn’t so much an example of Republicans temporarily putting aside their principles for the sake of convenience. Rather, it’s fresh evidence that the principles themselves have always been a mirage. . .
Republicans think Obama must stop acting like a dictator and start working with Congress as the Constitution intended – unless we’re talking about wars, in which case Obama should go ahead and circumvent Congress as much as possible.
Republicans think higher deficits are an economic scourge – unless deficit financing advances conservative policy goals, in which case budget shortfalls are better left ignored.
Republicans think government spending is inherently wasteful and counter-productive – unless the investments are directed at their state and/or their policy priorities, in which case government spending is great.
Republicans think the big federal government shouldn’t interfere with local decision making – unless the residents of the District of Columbia make a decision the right disagrees with.
Republicans think Congress should take a leading role in economic policy – unless we’re talking about trade authority, in which case it’s time to curtail Congress’ influence and empower the lawless White House to do as it pleases. . . "
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, 2015 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)
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, and Senate majority leader ACTUALLY said:
“After so many years of sluggish growth, we’re finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope; the uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama Administration’s long tenure in Washington: the expectation of a new Republican Congress. So this is precisely the right time to advance a positive, pro-growth agenda.”
During the election cycle, McConnell constantly accused the President of destroying the economy. As McConnell whined, economic conditions just kept getting better and U.S. job growth reached a 15-year high last year.
Never mind all those bothersome facts, now McConnell wants credit for the recovery’s unexpected strength. McConnell took his time to come up with this rhetorical trick. Two days before Christmas, when Americans learned that GDP growth in the third quarter of 2014 reached an 11-year high, McConnell said . . . nothing.
(thanks to http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-wants-credit-economic-turnaround)
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)
(from NBCNews.com)
". . . House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday warned that the president will "poison the well" for the new Congress if he takes executive action to address the deportation of undocumented immigrants."I've made clear to the president that if he acts unilaterally on his own outside of his authority, he will poison the well and there will be no chance for immigration reform moving in this Congress," Boehner told reporters at his first news conference after big GOP gains in Tuesday's midterm elections. "When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. And he's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path," he said. Boehner also pledged that the House will vote to repeal the president's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, despite the fact that repeal legislation would be headed to a certain veto and perhaps failure in the upper chamber. "Now whether it'll pass the Senate, I don't know," he added. "But I know in the House, it will pass." Boehner Warns Obama: Don’t 'Play With Matches' and Get Burned on Immigration. Boehner said that, although he has "a nice relationship" with President Barack Obama, "my job is not to get along with the president just to get along with him." "My job is to listen to my members and listen to the American people to make their priorities our priorities," he added. Other issues Boehner said he wants to address in the new Congress included energy policy, education reform and changes to the nation's tax and legal systems. Republicans gained at least seven seats in the Senate and at least 14 seats in the United States House. . ."
Isn’t there a law against threatening a U.S. President?
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
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
. . . how your reps voted on cutting military pensions in Congress? . . .
. . . then you probably saw this . . .
(http://reason.com/24-7/2014/01/21/senate-could-vote-to-restore-military-pe)
The Senate may consider a proposal to restore cuts to the pensions of working-age military retirees as early as Monday, according to a Senate aide.
The measure was inserted in an omnibus veterans bill sponsored Thursday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and would repeal the $6 billion in cuts made to veterans’ pensions included in the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) invoked “Rule 14” last Thursday, which will allow the bill to bypass committee votes and go straight to the Senate floor, an aide for Sanders said
(from http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/11/21863224-boehner-lashes-out-at-conservative-groups-on-budget-deal?lite)
Republican leaders defended a modest budget deal that would maintain
government operations through 2015 amid conservative opposition that
could scuttle the legislation in the House.
House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, lashed out at conservative advocacy groups that have
encouraged GOP lawmakers to oppose a budget framework unveiled last
night by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
"They're
using our members and they're using the American people for their own
goals," an animated Boehner told reporters at the Capitol. "This is
ridiculous."
Republican
House Speaker John Boehner delivers a message to advocacy groups
opposing the bipartisan budget framework agreement that was reached this
week.
Ryan and Murray, the top budget officials in their
respective chambers, announced an agreement that would set baseline
spending levels for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The agreement calls
for spending levels slightly above the cap established by the automatic
spending cuts known as the "sequester" through a combination of reforms,
cuts and new, non-tax revenue.
Conservative groups had been girding themselves against the deal
before its details were finalized, mostly because the spending levels
exceed sequester levels. The Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity
and Heritage Action -- each of them well-financed conservative advocacy
groups that hold some sway over Republican primary voters -- have begun
lobbying furiously against the modest government funding agreement.
"By
having a budget agreement that does not raise taxes, that does reduce
the deficit and produces some certainty and prevents government
shutdowns -- we think is a good agreement," Ryan, the architect of the
budget agreement, said after a closed-door meeting with fellow
Republicans.
Of the package's prospects for passage, the 2012 GOP
vice presidential nominee added: "We feel very good at where we are with
our members."
Chuck Todd reports on the budget deal presented by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray.
The
Republican leadership's struggle to manage its restive conservative
flank is a familiar storyline to any observer of Congress over the past
three years.
(from Ain't Nothing Like Freedom by Cynthia McKinney)
". . . The old 11th District that first sent me to Congress was Georgia's second poorest district. People paid rent, but didn't have running water in their homes. Why was it, then, that when Blacks finally did get representation, the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that purports to be a "civil rights organization," filed an amicus curiae brief on the side of the five White plaintiffs, and against the 649,995 Blacks and Whites who were working together in that district, in a lawsuit designed to dismantle that district and allow insensitive representatives to continue to fail to serve Georgia's poor, rural, and much-neglected Black Belt? Surely, the Anti-Defamation League would support poor Blacks who had never had authentic Congressional representation, right? Wrong.
And as I think about it, it might have also had something to do with me not signing the pledge for Israel. . . "
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