(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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(from http://truth-out.org/news/item/11792-the-israel-lobby-and-how-it-operates)
". . . Step One: A lobbyist, in this case someone from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), approaches Congresspersons or Senators. At some point in time that means every single one of them has been approached: all 435 voting members of Congress and every one of the 100 voting members of the Senate. Party affiliation is not an issue here.
Step Two: The lobbyist offers to organize financial campaign assistance, positive media coverage, briefings on situations in the Middle East, trips to Israel, etc.
Step Three: All that is asked in return is that the recipient consistently vote in a pro-Israel way. In other words, AIPAC wants the politician to surrender a part of his or her mind to them — that part that might exercise critical and considered judgment on issues pertaining to Israel.
Step Four: There are several unspoken, but publicly acknowledged, consequences of turning down this offer, or alternatively, managing to get elected on your own and then voting the wrong way.
1. If you say no, the same offer will be made to your opponent both at the primary and general election levels.
2. If you are elected and vote against Israel, AIPAC will do all it can, sooner or later, to see you defeated. It has a good record of turning such people out of office.
Step Five: If you sign up for this Faustian bargain and are elected, the lobby becomes your permanent partner. It is a constant presence. Its agents are always hovering about, rating your performance, letting you know they are there. Prove yourself reliable and they will underwrite you for life. . .
President Obama made this bargain as solidly as have most other politicians in Washington. . ."
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(from IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS; HOW THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM COLLIDED WITH THE NEW POLITICS OF EXTREMISM by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein)
". . . A new law that flatly outlaws the super PACs would be the best route. But as the DISCLOSE Act vote in the 111th Congress shows, passing any campaign reform law without sixty Democrats in the Senate and a Democratic majority in the House is next to impossible. Also close to impossible would be reform of the FEC or a new set of commissioners, at least as long as Mitch McConnell remains Senate Republican Leader; he has made it clear that protecting the FEC as it now exists, that is, as a lawless agency, is a top priority for him. As Public Citizen's Craig Holman has noted, "[McConnell] is really the whole key to the FEC. . . . He realized several years ago that a very effective way to minimize the effect of federal laws is to undermine the regulator." So absent a recess appointment strategy on the part of the president, the government has to look for other options to provide disclosure and prevent brazen and illegal coordination. As a first option, the Justice Department could prosecute violations of the coordination bans in cases where the brazen behavior has been most evident. Justice does not need to wait for the FEC. . . "
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. . . that should be polarized is the electrical plug on your appliances. . .
Karl Rove, David Koch, Grover Norquist, Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Ted Nugent, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Chris Christie, John Boehner and Rick Santorum please take note.
(from http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-21/news/30424409_1_david-frum-republican-party-tax-cuts) " . . . Republican commentator David Frum, who recently mortified many members of his party by suggesting that Paul Krugman might be right about the US economy, is back with a long essay in New York magazine.
This time, Frum expresses dismay about how the Republican party has lost touch with reality.
In the space of only a decade, Frum observes, the GOP has gone from being a party dominated by reasonable right-of-center pragmatists to being hijacked by right-wing extremists.
A lifelong Republican, Frum sums up his views this way:
I’ve been a Republican all my adult life. I have worked on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, at Forbes magazine, at the Manhattan and American Enterprise Institutes, as a speechwriter in the George W. Bush administration. I believe in free markets, low taxes, reasonable regulation, and limited government. I voted for John McCain in 2008, and I have strongly criticized the major policy decisions of the Obama administration.
And then he looks at the views one has to have to be a loyal member of today's Republican party, and he's appalled by what he sees:
America desperately needs a responsible and compassionate alternative to the Obama administration’s path of bigger government at higher cost. And yet: This past summer, the GOP nearly forced America to the verge of default just to score a point in a budget debate. In the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, Republican politicians demand massive budget cuts and shrug off the concerns of the unemployed. In the face of evidence of dwindling upward mobility and long-stagnating middle-class wages, my party’s economic ideas sometimes seem to have shrunk to just one: more tax cuts for the very highest earners. When I entered Republican politics, during an earlier period of malaise, in the late seventies and early eighties, the movement got most of the big questions—crime, inflation, the Cold War—right. This time, the party is getting the big questions disastrously wrong.
Specifically: It was not so long ago that Texas governor Bush denounced attempts to cut the earned-income tax credit as “balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.” By 2011, Republican commentators were noisily complaining that the poorer half of society are “lucky duckies” because the EITC offsets their federal tax obligations—or because the recession had left them with such meager incomes that they had no tax to pay in the first place.
In 2000, candidate Bush routinely invoked “churches, synagogues, and mosques.” By 2010, prominent Republicans were denouncing the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan as an outrageous insult.
In 2003, President Bush and a Republican majority in Congress enacted a new prescription-drug program in Medicare. By 2011, all but four Republicans in the House and five in the Senate were voting to withdraw the Medicare guarantee from everybody under age 55.
Today, the Fed’s pushing down interest rates in hopes of igniting economic growth is close to treason, according to Governor Rick Perry, coyly seconded by TheWall Street Journal. In 2000, the same policy qualified Alan Greenspan as the “greatest central banker in the history of the world,” according to Perry’s mentor, Senator Phil Gramm.
Today, health reform that combines regulation of private insurance, individual mandates, and subsidies for those who need them is considered unconstitutional and an open invitation to “death panels.” A dozen years ago, a very similar reform was the Senate Republican alternative to Hillarycare.
Today, stimulative fiscal policy that includes tax cuts for almost every American is “socialism.” In 2001, stimulative fiscal policy that included tax cuts for rather fewer Americans was an economic-recovery program.
Frum's observations are far from radical. A couple of weeks ago, we noted that the Great Hero of the Republican party, Ronald Reagan, would not likely be able to get elected today, because of, among other things, his willingness to raise taxes when he needed to.
Frum attributes the GOP's drift to the extremes to the influence of talk radio and FOX News, ethnic competition, and the pain of economic stagnation. He observes that, once he raised his views on FOX News, he was immediately banned as a commentator.
The America championed by the current Republican party would be a brutal country with even more extreme wealth inequality and poverty and an even more powerful and richer ruling class. And, unfortunately, the extreme views of today's party will alienate many of the more moderate Republican ideas --or, worse, cause them to have to get extreme or risk getting excommunicated.
One hopes that, by bravely speaking out on these issues, David Frum will galvanize what might be called the Great Silent Majority of Republicans to take back their party. Because the sooner America returns to having two reasonable alternatives, the better. . . "
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(from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/paycheck-fairness-act-senate-vote_n_1571413.html)
". . . Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a bill that would have ensured women are paid the same amount as their male counterparts.
The Senate failed to secure the 60 votes needed to advance the
Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have required employers to
demonstrate that any salary differences between men and women doing the
same work are not gender-related. The bill also would have prohibited
employers from retaliating against employees who share salary
information with their co-workers, and would have required the Labor
Department to increase its outreach to employers to help eliminate pay
disparities.
The final vote was 52-47, with all Republicans opposing the bill.
That included female Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine),
Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia Snowe
(Maine).
President Barack Obama called it "incredibly disappointing" that Republicans would block a bill relating to equal pay for women. . . "
Note: Guess Ayotte, Collins, Hutchinson, Murkowski and Snowe have no problem being second-class citizens at the mercy of a 'Man's World'. Opponents say this is a political move designed to court the womens' vote. I say GOOD. Who was it that said, "Women are people too."?
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. . . or did EVERYBODY think that since insider trading is ILLEGAL, that members of Congress were NOT supposed to participate and should be, been and always be under particular scrutiny to guard against such a thing happening?????
A ban on insider trading by members of Congress cleared a key
procedural hurdle Monday in the Senate, moving toward final passage and a
House vote on similar legislation later next month. A bipartisan
group of senators voted 93 to 2 in favor of ending debate on the STOCK
Act, a piece of legislation meant to prohibit members of Congress, their
families and staff from using any information gleaned while working on
the Hill to execute stock transactions. The legislation 60 votes
to attain "cloture," or limit debate and move toward final passage. The
bill will be debated and amendments will be attached over the next week.
It's unclear when the final vote will occur.
The House version
will expand certain restrictions on insider trading to White House staff
and is also expected to create clear restrictions on members of
Congress making land deals using insider information. The House is
looking to move on that legislation within a month. "Leader Cantor plans to move an expanded version of the STOCK Act
through the House in February to make it clear that those in Congress
are subject to the same laws as everyone else," Laena Fallon, a
spokeswoman for Cantor's office told NBC. Fervor over insider
trading on Capitol Hill reached a peak last fall following the airing of
a "60 Minutes" segment questioning whether lawmakers including House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) made
investments based on their knowledge of legislative activity to which
they would be privy.
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