Category: Congress

What’s the Difference Between a “Moderate” Democrat and a “Moderate” Republican?

1 Comment

A moderate Republican will buck the party, but on the close votes about an important issue, will vote with the Republicans.

A moderate Democrat will buck the party, but on the close votes about an important issue, will vote with the Republicans.

So, I see the fact that Olympia Snowe is joining Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson in retiring from the Senate as an unalloyed good:

Citing excessive partisanship and a dispiriting political environment, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a three-term Republican from Maine, said Tuesday that she would not run for re-election in November. Her surprise decision delivered a potential blow to Republicans who need just a handful of seats to regain control of the Senate; Ms. Snowe was considered one of their safer incumbents.

“After 33 years in the Congress this was not an easy decision,” said Ms. Snowe, 65, a moderate who served 16 years in the House before moving to the Senate. “My husband and I are in good health. We have laid an exceptionally strong foundation for the campaign, and I have no doubt I would have won re-election.”

Her entire statement sounds like a hissy fit, so maybe it’s a fit of pique.

The lateness of her announcement, it’s almost March , does jam up the Republicans, particularly since Maine is really not fertile ground for the Teabagger types, particularly after their close exposure to flying monkey right wing nut job, and current governor, Paul LePage, and moderate Republicans have to deal with Grover Norquist and the Club for Growth.

Quote of the Day

No Comments

Courtesy of the The Rude Pundit:

You got that? The whore who fronts for an industry owned by multinational megacorporations like NewsCorp, Sony, and Viacom is actually attacking BoingBoing.net owners Happy Mutants LLC for using the internet for some evil agenda to steal Chipmunk movies just because they went on a one-day strike. That’s a bit like Ted Bundy accusing a student nurse of having a messy dorm room just before bludgeoning her to death.

He is, of course, describing former Senator Chris Dodd’s pimping for big media in has capacity as chief lobbyist for the MPAA.

Quote of the Day

No Comments

Warren and Brown are jockeying back and forth on the best method of keeping outside groups out of their race. Here’s a novel concept: Both candidates could just buy up all the television air time themselves. After all, based on their ludicrous fundraising pace, it looks like they’ll be able to afford it.

—Reid Wilson upon observing that Elizabeth Warren had a 24-hour money bomb that raised over $1 million

So, the Keystone XL Pipeline Is On Hold

No Comments

The ‘Phants forced a decision in the payroll tax bill, and so he denied the application:

President Obama on Wednesday rejected, for now, the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, saying the $7 billion project could not be adequately reviewed within the 60-day deadline set by Congress. While the president’s action does not preclude later approval of the project, it sets up a baldly partisan fight over energy, jobs and regulation that will most likely persist through the November election.

The president said his hand had been forced by Republicans in Congress, who inserted a provision in the temporary payroll tax cut bill passed in December giving the administration only until Feb. 21 to decide the fate of the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would stretch from oil sands formations in Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

The State Department, which has authority over the project because it crosses an international border, said there was not enough time to draw a new route for the pipeline and assess the potential environmental harm to sensitive grasslands and aquifers along its path. The agency recommended that the permit be denied, and Mr. Obama concurred.

“As the State Department made clear last month,” the president said in a statement, “the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment.”

The Republicans think that they have an issue, but it will be long forgotten by election time.

As to the final outcome, it will be approved after the election, and Obama will tweak the route a bit, and claim some sort of post partisan victory, all while basically selling out to big oil.

It’s Been the SOPA/PIPA Protest Day Today

No Comments
Click for full size


Wikipedia Went Dark

Well, it looks like the rent seekers who normally win this stuff (the “Mickey Mouse” Sonny Bono Copyright Act anyone?) are getting at least a temporary brush-back over their attempt to turn the internet into a gated community:

When the powerful world of Old Media mobilized to win passage of an online antipiracy bill, it marshaled the reliable giants of K Street — the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America, and of course, the motion picture lobby, with its new chairman, former Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat and an insider’s insider.

Yet on Wednesday this formidable Old Guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.

As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the looting of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old.

“I think it is an important moment in the Capitol,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and an important opponent of the antipiracy legislation. “Too often, legislation is about competing business interests. This is way beyond that. This is individual citizens rising up.”

Legislation that just weeks ago had overwhelming bipartisan support and had provoked little scrutiny generated a grass-roots coalition on the left and the right. Wikipedia made its English-language content unavailable, replaced with a warning: “Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Visitors to Reddit found the site offline in protest. Google’s home page was scarred by a menacing black swatch that blotted out the search engine’s label.

Phone calls and e-mails poured in to Congressional offices against the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect I.P. Act in the Senate. One by one, prominent backers of the bills dropped off.

It should be noted that the Republicans are walking away from this faster than the Democrats.

Even Orrin Hatch, the MPAA and RIAA’s bitch,* has withdrawn his support of the bill.

BTW, this debacle is largely the fault of the entertainment industry, because until now they have refused to meet with the tech companies to work out differences, though they are begging for that now.

Here’s a suggestion to the tech companies:  keep your boot on the MPAA’s.

You’ll be doing them a favor.  You might remember then MPAA chair Jack Valenti claiming that the VCR would destroy the studios, when the video rental revenues actually saved their bacon.

Here’s a thought to the unproductive leeches who are entertainment executives, whose business, after all is to rip off the artists who actually produce this stuff:  Do less cocaine, fire your worthless brothers-in-law, and invest in treating the actual creative people, and in producing better content.

*For which he has been richly paid through record contracts from the labels.

You Know It’s an Election Year, Because ………

No Comments

The Obama administration has come out against the most draconian measures in the rent seeking anti-piracy bills in the House and Senate:

The Obama administration won’t back legislation to combat online piracy if it encourages censorship, undermines cybersecurity or disrupts the structure of the Internet, three White House technology officials said.

Their statement, posted yesterday on the White House website, was a response to online petitions on legislative proposals to combat online piracy. The movie and music industries support such measures as a means of cracking down on theft.

“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” Aneesh Chopra, Victoria Espinel and Howard Schmidt wrote in a blog post.

The statement marks the administration’s most significant foray into a fight between content creators and Internet companies that has been playing out in Congress. The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote Jan. 24 on starting debate on an anti-piracy bill.

The first thing to note is that this is a very tepid condemnation.

They didn’t make a Friday night release of this blog post, it was around noon on a Saturday when it was competing with the NFL playoffs, and Obama himself has not made a comment here.

That being said, I think that this is the first time that the Obama administration has come out against rent seekers as versus the general public.

I think that the Obama administration has made a tactical decision that they will get plenty of money for the campaign, and so they it isn’t necessary at this time to sh%$ on a motivated and tech savvy part of the electorate.

Good News on the Campaign Front

No Comments

On the Congressional side.

First, in Maryland’s 4th district, Donna Edwards will be running unopposed in the primary, former PG County States Attorney (DA) Glenn Ivey declined to run, which basically means that she will be reelected.

The primary was actually a matter of some concern, because the redistricting moved a lot of Montgomery County was moved out, and a lot Anne Arundel county moved in.

Because AA county is more Republican, it meant that PG County, and the (largely corrupt) PG County machine had a lot more influence over any primary contest, and Edwards is not a their friend, having taken down their golden boy, the then-incumbent Al Wynn in 2008.

Not only is she honest, but she is an unabashed liberal, so 2 snaps up.

Additionally, in the Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren out-raised Scott Brown in 2011, $8.9 million for the year and $5.7 million for the quarter as versus $8.7 million and $3.2 million, though Brown still has about twice her cash on hand, $12.8 million versus $6 million.

Considering the fact that Brown is Wall Street’s favorite Senate candidate, this is surprising, and welcome, news.

Just When Thought that the ‘Phants Could Not Get Any More Repulsive

No Comments

They have slipped a provision into the payroll tax extension which would deny unemployment compensation for people who lack a high school diploma:

For legislation to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of 2012, House Republicans are expected to push for a provision on unemployment insurance (UI) that is appalling even by current Washington standards. Neither President Obama nor Congress should accept any payroll-tax legislation that includes it. Here’s why:
The provision, part of a full-year payroll-tax bill that the House passed in December, would deny UI benefits to any worker who lacks a high school diploma or GED and is not enrolled in classes to get one or the other — regardless of how long the person worked or whether he or she has access to adult education, which itself has been subject to significant budget cuts in the past few years and is heavily oversubscribed.
The proposal would deny UI benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers — many of them middle-aged — who have worked hard, played by the rules, and effectively paid UI taxes for years and who then were laid off due to no fault of their own.

This would violate the basic compact that the UI system has embodied since its creation under President Roosevelt in 1935 — that people who have amassed a sufficient record of work, and on whose behalf UI taxes have faithfully been paid, may receive UI benefits for a temporary period if they are laid off and are searching for a new job.

Republicans need to find a way to blame the victim. It’s in their DNA.

Just put on the f%$#ing glasses, and look.

Just really look, and understand that these are two sorts of people with the ‘Phants, the aliens, and the people who gleefully say, “I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.”

This is Not a Sudden Case of Balls

No Comments

It’s just that, at least until November 2, Barack Obama is more scared of the Occupy movement than he is of the Republicans, hence his recess appointments today:

President Obama kicked off the election year aggressively, picking a fight with congressional Republicans by sidestepping the Senate to fill the top job at the government’s newly created consumer protection bureau.

He also filled three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board, which referees labor-management controversies — a priority of his allies in labor unions.

The appointments Wednesday, which had been stalled in the Senate, came as Obama moved to make confronting Congress a central part of his strategy for reelection. His job approval rating remains low, but Congress’ standing is even lower — “as unpopular as Ebola virus” — as one administration aide recently put it. In a confrontation between the two, the president will have the upper hand, White House aides say.

Actually, the NLRB appointments might be more significant, because the Republicans had shut down the board for lack of quorum.

I don’t expect the CFPB doing much, because Obama was dragged into the entire idea kicking and screaming, and his closest financial regulation adviser, Tim “Eddie Haskell” Geithner, hates it, and with Elizabeth Warren effectively neutered by virtue of her running for Senate, which pretty much requires her to be in lock step with the Obama administration, I expect to see a remarkably passive posture from Richard Cordray.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Barack Obama will do the right thing, once he believes that he has no alternative.

Well, Knock Me Over With a Mackerel!

No Comments

Congress has ended both the subsidy on corn ethanol and the tariff on imported Brazilian sugar based ethanol:

Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, an ethanol trade group, clearly wasn’t thrilled with the decision, but in an interview earlier this month he claimed the ethanol industry would survive without government handouts stating, “The blenders’ tax credit initially helped the ethanol industry develop. But today, we don’t have a production problem, we have a market access problem. Without the tax credit, the ethanol industry will survive; it will continue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs and strengthen our economy.”

By some estimates the total gifts to corn ethanol business totalled $45B USD since 1980.

The subsidy cut — approved by a 73-27 Senate vote in June — also is accompanied by the end of a tariff on the importation of Brazilian ethanol. Brazil has an excess of sugarcane ethanol, but the U.S. government had previously penalized this fuel stream as a means of allowing U.S. ethanol producers to escape competing on the free market.

The ethanol debate has divided both political parties and even set federal representatives within certain corn-producing states against each other.

I wonder if this says something about the increasing irrelevance of Iowa caucuses this year.

I’m pleasantly surprised by this development.

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

No Comments

Senator Ben Nelson (DINO-Nebraska) is retiring.

This man has been a cancer on the Democratic caucus in the Senate for two terms, all while being adored by the morally bankrupt Washington punditocracy.

That being said, all is not well, as there is even more intense wankeritude in the wings, “Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska, had also been mentioned on political blogs as a possible candidate if Nelson retired.”

Blah.

It Sucks to be John Boehner

No Comments

Yes, I know, orange, likely drinking problem, looks like a poster child for sex without partners, so it always sucks to be him.

It’s just that today, it sucks even more, because he had to back down on his attempt to short circuit the 2 month extension of payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

The problem here is that he backed out on a deal that he cut with, among other folks, the Senate Republicans, because he has no control of his caucus, and once the members of his caucus realized that they looked like complete prats, though not as complete as John Boy, they got in his face too.

When one looks at the basic mechanics of the office of Speaker of the House, and excludes the prism of ideology, Boehner is still the worst speaker in recent memory:  He can’t count votes, and he can’t hold onto them, and he cannot protect his caucus from their own worst impulses.

The word is that it’s Eric Cantor who is setting himself up for this sh%$, because he wants the gavel, but Boehner, having attempted an unsuccessful coup against Gingrich in the 1990s, should know what is going on, and how to deal with it.

Works for Me

No Comments

Marcy Wheeler looks at the defense authorization bill, and its provisions for indefinite detention without trial, and observes that it could be used to lock up JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon forever.

You see, his firm has attempted to thwart sanctions against Iran, allowed their bank to be used to to funnel money to terrorist assassins, and a whole bunch of other people who have, “supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces.”

If Obama was willing to do this, I might actually vote for him.

Then again, considering the fact that he’s signing the Defense Authorization act which tramples on the very notion of civil rights, which, ironically enough, is what gives him the power to lock up Jamie Dimon forever on nothing more than his say so.

I just have to figure out who I’m going to write in for the primary and the general.

Adding Someone to My Act Blue List

No Comments

Rob Zerban.  (see Matthew Saroff’s Act Blue Page)

He’s running against everyone’s favorite Randroid nutjob, Paul “Let’s voucherize Medicare” Ryan, and a recent poll seems to show that he is vulnerable:

A prominent Democratic pollster is making the case that the party should invest in a challenge to Rep. Paul Ryan, the architect of the conservative House budget plan.

Pollster Paul Maslin’s survey of 405 likely voters “shows that challenger Rob Zerban is well-positioned to give incumbent Paul Ryan the toughest fight of his career, with a very good chance to upset him,” Maslin wrote in a memo.

A serious campaign against Ryan is a tempting prospects for Democrats hoping to restore the third-rail status of the major entitlement programs Ryan would dramatically alter; it would be a massively expensive effort on both sides in a state, Wisconsin, that has been the center of the ideological combat of the last year.

The survey found the district, the Wisconsin First, evenly divided on partisan issues — both President Obama and Governor Scott Walker have even approval and disapproval ratings

According to the memo, the late October and early November poll found a deep dislike of Congress in general that is spilling over onto Ryan

Here’s hoping that he raises some good money, because if the Democratic Party apparatus, particularly the DNC under Tim Kaine, is true to form, they aren’t going to support him at all, but will instead blow their money on conservadems on solidly Democratic districts.

Frank Will Not Run for Reelection

No Comments

He is citing redistricting as the reason for this:

US Representative Barney Frank, the state’s highest-profile congressman and one of the nation’s leading liberal voices after being among its first openly gay elected officials, announced today that he will not seek reelection next year.

The Newton Democrat faced the prospect of a bruising reelection campaign next year after surviving a brutal battle in 2010. He also would have run in an altered district that retained his Newton stronghold but encompassed more conservative towns like Walpole.

The PV on the new district was about +10 PV for the Dems, as opposed to about +18 PV in the old one, so the idea of a “bruising” reelection campaign is a joke.

I will take him at his word, that redistricting was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but I also think that it is also an indication of the fact that he does not believe that Democrats will take back the house in 2012, and I also get the sense that he is sick and tired of fighting the Obama administration over financial regulation, where his own admittedly weak tea is watered down.

I’ll miss him.

Deja Vu

No Comments

Congress is looking at declaring pizza a vegetable:

The Obama administration’s push to limit the starchy vegetables and tomato paste served to millions of children at school each day was derailed by lawmakers this week, in effect enabling school cafeterias to continue offering pizza and french fries.

………

The proposal also would have nixed the favorable treatment granted to tomato paste. Currently, an eighth of a cup of tomato paste is credited with as much nutritional value as half a cup of vegetables and thus counts as one vegetable serving. That enables food makers to better market their pizzas to schools.

………

Ordinarily, these type of issues would be hashed out as the USDA gathers comments from the public while finalizing the proposal. But several lawmakers made an end run around the process. They added amendments to block the two changes, on starchy vegetables and tomato paste, to agriculture spending bills moving through the Senate and House.

Late Monday, Senate and House negotiators reconciled the differences between their two spending bills and unveiled the final version, which included language to halt the potato and tomato paste changes.

Just like Ronald Reagan declaring ketchup, but the tomato(e)* is a fruit.

I’m expecting to see a Mr. Fusion powered DeLorean back on the big screen.

*It’s an homage to J. Danforth Quayle, who has more brains and common sense than any of the current ‘Phant hopefuls.

Karl Marx is Laughing

No Comments

Because Congress is less popular than Communism:

There is a deeper message, which is that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell has managed to take an institution which already held in low esteem, and absolutely trash it.

While the “very serious people” in the Democratic Party think that this is a political advantage, they are wrong.

You see, the foundation of conservative electioneering is the idea that government does not work, and as much as they might damage themselves in the short term, they are, in the long term, undermining the very idea that government can regulate the banksters, keep the poor from starving, protect us in the work place, and provide healthcare for the rest of us.

While someone like John Boehner may be too gin soaked and stupid to consciously understand this, he, and His Evil Minions™, do understand that constant gridlock and dysfunction plays to their strengths, and that it’s a lot easier than doing something constructive.

Desperately Seeking Anger Management Counseling

1 Comment

I give you deadbeat dad teabagger Congressman Joe Walsh:

I’ve seen politicians at confrontational meet and greets, and heard of one where the politician walked out (The well justified action of MD State Senator Bobby Zirkin when dealing with the [literally] insane CB screaming at him).

Sometimes a politician replies with mockery and scorn, see Barney Franks’ epic take-down of teabagger hecklers.

As you can see above, Joe “Not the Guitar God” Walsh is not even attempting an epic take-down, he’s just throwing an epic hissy fit.

I was half expecting him to throw a stroke.

No wonder his wife dumped his sorry ass.