The Republican party really think that voters are stupid.  The GOP honestly believe that the American people have forgotten the disasterous eight years of Republican rule.  Not only do they think voters have forgotten but they also believe that they do not need to offer up anything so far as a plan for the American people to put them back in control of Congress.  You remember when the GOP controlled Congress?  They shut down the government (think the current situation in California).  Republicans also spent millions of taxpayer dollars investigating a Democratic president that resulted in nothing more than a slap on the hand.  Republicans did recently announce that they plan to launch several investigations of the current administration for things like the alleged job offer to Joe Sestak; the new black panthers ridiculousness; repeal health care and wall street reform and virtually everything that has been accomplished by this administration in the last two years.   So no ideas of its own just repeal all the laws that have been passed in the last nineteen months by Democrats and cut more taxes for wealthy Americans.  To hell with the ballooning deficit that it was critical to decrease when it came to extending unemployment benefits for the nation’s most vulnerable.  But rich folks must be able to pay for that extra luxury car.

You see, the GOP believes that all the large companies need to stop hoarding money and start hiring is more tax cuts.  Because when we lowered interest rates for banks borrowing money from the Fed they went straight out and started lending to small businesses and homeowners?  They didn’t???  What..the Fed is basically giving banks free money in an effort to stimulate lending and the banks are not following through and lending it to small businesses?  We are shocked, shocked that gambling is going on in here! (Casablanca). 

We have played the game of giving corporate America more money through tax breaks and they will hire.  Heck..George W. Bush gave unprecedented tax cuts to corporate America and he had the worst job creation record in history in addition to driving the country/economy into the ditch!  Yes we remember!  How about we not encourage the rich to take money out of their businesses by way of tax breaks but instead raise their taxes so that they are incentivized to invest profits into their business by way of innovation and expansion?  It is clear that corporations are not going to do anything that does not make sense for their business.  The President is onto something by making business expansion more desirable than hoarding through a tax increase.  If the GOP thinks that all of a sudden because Wall Street got tax breaks it is suddenly going to start hiring the people who make up the grand old party are delusional.

Yes, our memories are still fresh from twenty months ago.

NOTE:Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

That didn’t take long.  Rupert Murdoch, owner and CEO of Fox News Corp, just donated $1 million dollars to the Republican Governors Association.  Thanks Supreme Court of the United States (Citizens United) now Murdoch can simply purchase election without the pretense of a legitimate news outlet.

A report from Business Week reveals that Rupert Murdoch is keen on electing Republican governors. His News Corp donated a million dollars to the Republican Governors Association in June.

According to Politico:

“[News Corp's]‘s media outlets play politics more openly than most, but the huge contribution to a party committee is a new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the GOP.”

NOTE:Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

After voicing his support for extending the tax cuts to the rich or the top two percent of earner in the United States, Majority Whip Eric Cantor admitted the following:

“[I]f you have less revenues coming into the federal government, and more expenditures, what does that add up to? Certainly you’re gonna dig the hole deeper. But you also have to understand, if the priority is to get people back to work, is to start growing this economy again, uh, then you don’t wanna make it more expensive for job creators.”

First, you do not make it more expensive for “job creators” you make it more expensive for them to liquidate their assets into personal income or engaging in risky Wall Street investments (taxable event).  Instead you make it easier/very inconvenient for ”job creators” to avoid paying the higher taxes by investing their money back into their businesses (non-taxable event) thus expanding their businesses and by extension creating jobs. 

“That there’s no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “They increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.”

This is a ludicrous statement.  Revenue to the government comes from tax payments by its citizenry, if taxes are lower that is less revenue going to the government.  The GOP knew that these tax cuts were too expensive and would explode the deficit which is why such tax cuts have a cut-off date.  However, now they are insisting that the top two percent of earners in the country are worth blowing a huge hole in the deficit but the unemployed are not worth increasing the deficit by a fraction of that amount in comparison.  Hypocrisy thine name is Republican.

NOTE:Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

The Republicans are telling Americans how they will treat us…..LISTEN! 

Republicans/Tea Party Contract on America

1. Repeal Health Insurance Reform

1. Privatize Social Security of Get Rid of It

1. End Medicare as it Presently Exists

1. Extend the Bush Tax Breaks for the Wealthy and Big Oil

1. Repeal Wall Street Reform

1. Protect Those Responsible for the Oil Spill

1. Abolish the Department of Education

1. Abolish the Department of Energy

1. Abolish the Environmental Protection Agency

1. Repeal the 17th Amendment (ending direct election of U.S. Senators)

Midterm elections are in November….PLEASE VOTE!

NOTE:Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

The GOP has decided that there is no need to offer a alternative plan to governing because it will be scrutinize by the public and the pundits.  So the American people are suppose to trust that Republicans can govern competently in spite of a recent eight year track record that clearly demonstrates otherwise.  The GOP strategy for governing as revealed so far is to Repeal all the legislation passed in the last eighteen months, Repackage the Bush policies, and Repeat them resulting in  Recession deux.  For example, when asked repeatedly how are they going to pay for the extension of tax cuts for the wealthy that many GOP Senators and House members are pushing for the answer is silence or its not necessary to pay for such tax cuts.  Yet they withhold their vote for unemployment benefits for thousands of Americans struggling to pay their rent and put food on the table for their families.  Democrats were able to pass the extension yesterday with the help of Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins but every other GOP senator voted against the extension of benefits to the jobless during this recession. 

Because Republicans refuse to inform voters about what is their plan for cutting spending can we expect them to cut social security?  How about Medicaid and Medicare benefits?  The GOP is exploiting the unemployed for November gain why not seniors next?  GOP policies and priorities focus on the entitlement of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor.  And somehow Republicans manage to get the very people they exploit (the working class) to vote against their own interest by voting Republicans into office.  The grand old party does so by using a  divisive single issue that gets people “wee wee’d up” like same-sex marriage, abortion, or the military industrial complex.  Somehow we don’t think that voters will be so easily fooled this time with all the information available on the “Internets and the Google.”.

Try and argue  with this logic:

According to Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s and a former campaign advisor to John McCain, unemployment benefits are one of the most effective ways of stimulating the economy, with each dollar the government spends on unemployment benefits generating $1.61 in economic growth. And the impact is rapid.

Which is another reason why the GOP is blocking the benefits because it want to curtail any wins by this administration and Democrat controlled Congress even if it means that Americans are being put out of their homes and sleeping on the streets.  Though several GOP members have boasted that if were not for TARP the unemployment rate would be double what it is now they will not give this administration any credit for implementing it.  And they continue to say that no jobs were created.  A contradiction?  Exactly.  This administration has taken the country from losing 750,000 jobs per month in the spring of 2009 to creating 100,000 jobs last month.  In case you need the math, that is 850,000 jobs saved or created by the policies of the Obama administration and teh Democratic controlled Congress.   If you think that the GOP can do better than that for you then you should vote for a Republican in the November midterms.  But if you remember that it was GOP policies of trickle down economics that had us losing 750,000 jobs in the spring 09  and eight million jobs in the eight years prior then you should examine the Democratic  track record of the past 18 months.  Republicans are still pushing tax cuts for the rich and it will trickle down to the middle class and the poor.  The theory is not borne out by recent history.  The country went from bleeding jobs to gaining them in 18 months.  The GOP focus is the more the people of this country suffer the better it is for them in November and that is all that matters. 

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

The GOP continues to claim that everything MUST be paid for EXCEPT the extension of Bush tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest Americans.  Yes, according to high ranking GOP members in Congress, the $55 billion dollar price tag that it would cost for one year of extending the Bush tax cuts to Americans making over $250,000 annually should be written off as necessary.  So the GOP believe that it is more important for rich people to live better than it is for poor and unemployed individuals to live at all.  Who represents your interest and values in Washington, DC?

The second highest ranking Republican in the Senate doubled down on a controversial statement he made this weekend, arguing in greater detail that tax cuts for wealthy people should never be offset by tax increases in other areas — but that unemployment benefits need to be fully paid for by either spending cuts or tax increases. In so doing, he claimed candidly that the very existence of unemployment insurance is a “necessary evil,” while tax cuts ought not be paid for by increases in order to make it easier to shrink the size of government.

“My view, and I think most of the people in my party don’t believe that you should ever have to offset a tax cut,” Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl told a handful of reporters outside the Senate chamber this afternoon. “That clearly reduced savings is a better way to offset increased spending than a tax increase is.”

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

Republicans have turned to their priority constituents to form its policy agenda for the 2010 midterm elections.

Roll Call obtained a letter from Boehner’s office to leaders and lobbyists for the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and about two dozen other business groups inviting them to a forum on the Hill to discuss “ways the business community can be an important part of the discussion on America Speaking Out as House Republicans listen and then form a governing agenda.”

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

When people tell you how they are BELIEVE THEM!  Rep. John Boehner was interviewed recently where he gave a couple of not surprising tidbits about Social Security, Wall Street Reform, etc:

Ensuring there’s enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country’s entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he’d favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.

“We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we’re broke,” Boehner said. “If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you’re retired, why are we paying you at a time when we’re broke? We just need to be honest with people.

Wall Street reform bill currently moving through Congress is comparable to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.”

Boehner seems to forget that the nation’s financial system nearly went off a cliff into the abyss just 18-months ago.

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

Not my quote but the quote of Ed Schultz and he is right on the money.  The GOP boast and scream from the rooftops how much they love this country yet they continue to deny their fellow Americans the dignity of being able to put food on the table for their family.  Republican politicians wear their patriotism on their sleeve, if only they would wear their humanity the same way.  The GOP and Ben Nelson clearly believe that the unemployed do not deserve to eat and pay their bills.  From their votes this past week and their continued hold out on extension of unemployment benefits they repeatedly enforce the erroneous and out-of-touch assumption that all of the unemployed are not working by choice.  Newsflash….it has been proven over and over again that employers are not rushing to hire in the current economic climate.  Sure there are a very small percentage who may be taking advantage of the system but the vast and overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans want to work and are applying for jobs everyday to no avail.  These unemployed Americans grew up in the same America that GOP Senators and Sen. Nelson grew up in.  The America where it is honorable to complete an honest days work for an honest days pay and where there is a stigma attached to accepting public assistance.  You see Senate Republicans and Sen. Nelson, they are no different than you except their tax dollars have paid your salaries since you took office.  Senators,  you are not the only ones entitled to the dignity of providing for your family when times are rough (pension), the people who provide your pension DESERVE a break also.  Pass the EXTENSION! 

UPDATE:

Republicans filibuster unemployment benefits AGAIN!  Congress makes history by cutting off unemployment benefits at a time when unemployment is at its highest. It is very easy to judge the unemployed from your bastion of job stability and government benefits but hopefully many of those politicians voting against the average American will learn the lesson in November.  Republicans disengeniously claim that the unemployment extension must be paid for before they will vote for it.  Where was the fiscal responsibility when you decided to finance two wars and tax cuts on CREDIT?!  This is pure midterm politics folks. Perhaps it makes more sense for the unemployed to go on welfare or some other type of public assistance.  Yes that is much more fiscally responsible.

Here are some voices from the unemployed:

*  formerrepub wrote:  

I cant wait for things to come back on handout and I promise you they certainly will. Having voted a straight republican ticket my whole life I can assure you that will change. I also warn everyone to not vote for tea party nutjobs because they are even further right than the yahoo’s retards in Congress right now. Very ashamed of myself because I had a hand in voting Voinovich in office. No more republicans from me. Handout be man enough to show your face when us unemployed take to the streets and throw you obese repubs from your homes. It is coming my friend because I refuse to sleep under a bridge in the hood.

*  Unemployed Angel wrote:

I have sent out resumes or applied to every viable job I could do. I will vote against everyone one that has voted against me. That’s the way I see it. Republicans beware… there’s a feeling, a hatred that is coming you’re way and the feeling is tangible. We hate your political, money grubbing butts. Trust me, whether it passes or not, I will remember in November how much stress you added to people who are already stressed from not having a job. I will take my unemployed self and specially volunteer to defeat you. We now hate your party. I have vote Republican many times – Never again.

*  Andy Thomas wrote:  

I am an unemployed American that has been literally sending out hundreds of individually tailored resumes and cover letters. I am smart and articulate but have not received one opportunity to even interview! The unemployment funds that I’ve been receiving keep food on the table for my wife and I. I can only imagine what things would be like if we had kids.   I have voted Republican since I was 18 and I can assure you that because of their current stance on passing unemployment legislation, I will never again vote for the Republican party. I am going to use every ounce of influence that I have (550 facebook friends, college connections, friend, etc) to get the message out about what has happened in the Senate. (And yes, before you ask, I’ve exhausted all of these resources looking for a job). The Republican party is going down, you can take that to the bank!…facepumpers!

*  Iredell Sanders wrote:

I must retain a home and a legal income on order to get custody of my kids. The 15 month dead line is coming up and after that the state can put my kids up for aboption. Just give me a job! What are we going to do? The system notes that I am a good fit parent. I just need a job. Most often even if there is a hireing sign they say no applications or the positins been filled. I ask for a job at a store and they say “NOT HIREING”, but then I see new workers as time goes by. One of the new workers had her arm in a sling tring to bag groceries. One has to know some one in order to get a job. One has to fit a profile of gender and race. I just hate that. I hate that card altogether. Family tends to bond together. None of my family has the means to production or a job to give, or money to spare. Just give me two mules and some seads then put me on a boat back home.

*  Rich Clanton wrote:

I am ashamed to be a republican right now. I cannot believe that my party could be so hearless to leave so many americans heading for the streets. I was laid off a year and a half ago and have looked all day every day for work and have had only two responses that went nowhere. My party has got to face up to it THERE ARE NO JOBS you idiots. Take your cushy jobs and choke on them.

*  Cheryl wrote:

My husband experienced a downsizing in Dec. He is 64 years old and a Vietnam Vet! Neither he nor I have ever collected unemployment! His tier 1 benefits are about to run out with no extension. We are angry. Reduce benefits as you increase tiers – phase out from 99 weeks back – not everyone!! Between the two of us- we have PAID INTO unemployment for 80 YEARS without using it. This is so unfair.!!!! Is anyone listening??
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU – DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS!!!!!!!!!

*  do your part now!!!!!!!!!!!!! wrote:Grassroots demonstration for extended unemployment benefits planned for July 2 in Washington DC

http://www.mlive.com/…

People its all or nothing now! If you do not help we get nowhere. Make the call, email or visit local office. this is your fight! Now get out there and WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cspan and bring up tier 5
Washington Journal Telephone Numbers
Republicans: (202) 737-0001
Democrats: (202) 737-0002
Independents: (202) 628-0205
Outside U.S.: (202) 628-0184
C-SPAN Radio: radio@c-span.org

*call this toll free number 1-888-245-0215
and speak with V.P. or any member of congress or the senate*

Coulby is spearheading a demonstration planned for July 2 on the Mall in Washington, D.C. He’s asking the unemployed who are losing their benefits to converge on the Mall at noon with tents and resumes. The tents will symbolize the unemployed who are losing their homes. The resumes will be used for a bonfire to symbolize the lack of jobs.

“The event is meant to raise awareness and show the country that the unemployed are willing to do whatever is necessary to survive,” Coulby said.

I asked Coulby why he felt compelled to organize a demonstration.

“The real question is not why I felt compelled to do this but instead how anyone could read the posts of desperate Americans and not be willing to take any action,” he said. “Also, it sickens me to read the few posts stating that the unemployed are lazy and/or do not deserve any assistance. The world would be a much brighter place if we were defined not by what we have but by our willingness to help others.”

If you want more information about Coulby’s planned event, you can email him at lols01@aol.com.

its up to you now to be the home front and fight from there!!!!

e mail ed@edschultzshow.com ask him to send people to meet with us. 

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

As most have been told at some point in their lives, when people tell you who they are…BELIEVE THEM.  Republicans have told the Americans how they will treat them if they gain control of Congress.  In fact, Rep. Joe Barton, the BP apologist, would be in charge of the congressional committee on energy in charge of investigating BP.  Thus, there would be no investigation of BP if Barton was leading such Committee given his opinion that BP is the wronged party in its own oil spill disaster.  Never mind the miners who lost their lives, the fisherman, and all the other gulf coast residents tragically affected by BP’s actions or lack thereof.

Lets also not forget the The Minerals Management Service (MMS).  MMS was captured and corrupted under the Bush/Cheney Administration thanks to its policies and its stacking of the government agency responsible for oversight of the oil industry’s response to oil spills with oil executives.  Yet the GOP criticizes Obama for not cleaning up its corruption fast enough.  You know, because the President had so much free time while bringing the economy back from the brink, reforming health care, etc..  Several Republican politicians are huge beneficiaries of oil industry money thus are beholding to the companies when it comes to the little guy versus Big Oil.  Such a philosophy could not be more apparent than from recent comments by several members of the Republican party.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX)

“I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown,” Barton said. “I’m only speaking for myself, I’m not speaking for anybody else. But I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize.”

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)

“BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics.  These actions are emblematic of a politicization of our economy that has been borne out of this Administration’s drive for greater power and control.”

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

“I think the people responsible in the oil spill–BP and the federal government–should take full responsibility for what’s happening there,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference on June 10.

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

The Mississippi Governor might not suffer politically for it, but he’s repeatedly insisted that the oil spill isn’t worth fretting over. It “isn’t anything like Exxon Valdez,” Barbour claims, comparing the crude itself to caramel mousse, toothpaste, and the fuel sheen surrounding speed boats.

Sarah “Simpleton” Palin (R-Who Knows)

“Extreme Greenies:see now why we push”drill,baby,drill”of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?”

Rand Paul (R-KY)

“This sort of, you know ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,’ I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business,”

Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)

“Don’t treat BP like an ATM.”  “BP extorted by the White House”

When the President took office we had an economy that was shrinking by over six  percent, it now is growing by three percent.  We went from losing on average 700,000 jobs  to gaining on average 140,000 jobs a a direct result of the Obama administration economic policies.  Who do you think will better look out for the interest of the people?

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

Republican state senate candidate in Idaho’s 1st District Vaughn Ward has lifted Senate candidate Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention speech that propelled a then unknown Obama to the world stage. It is blatant….tsk….tsk…tsk.

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination – even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin. 

-Rand Paul in a letter to Bowling Green Daily News written in protest to the Fair Housing Act.

The really sad part about this is that this was brought up in April of this year during the Republican primary in Kentucky and Rand’s opponent never made it an issue.  But I digress.  Though the media  is running towards the low hanging fruit regarding Dr. Rand Paul’s, the Kentucky Republican Senate nominee,  comments concerning private businesses being allowed to freely discriminate we do not believe that is the issue.   Instead pundits really should address the meat of Rand Paul’s philosophy rather than immediately jumping to the racism card.  Paul is a Libertarian and believes in a totally free society with minimal government involvement in the private lives of its citizens.  He believes in repealing the American Disabilities Act and allowing  private enterprises to freely discriminate against minorities because the Civil Rights Act and the ADA  is excessive government intrusion in private businesses.  Paul, like his father Ron, believes that left to its own device private industry will do the right thing mainly because it is bad business to discriminate.  The Kentucky Senate candidate further believes that Americans are basically good and will not tolerate private businesses discriminating against any minority or the disabled.  Therefore, Paul’s logic is that because private businesses would lose revenue by engaging in discriminatory practices towards minorities, women, or the disabled, that they will not do so. 

We would like to introduce Dr. Paul to the Civil Rights Movement circa 1955-1975 where this very argument was made by segregationist and other opponents of the Civil Right Movement.  A business owner was not incentivized by loss of revenue when he/she refused to serve African-Americans at the Woolworths counter.  Businesses were not motivated to do the right thing in allowing African-Americans to attend private schools with Caucasian-Americans.  The government had to pass laws and make businesses, via force, comply with such laws.  Many African-Americans were killed trying to gain the freedom, respect, dignity, and economic and social equality that Caucasian-Americans enjoyed.  Is that okay Dr. Paul?  Or is that merely the collateral damage that must be endured in order to achieve your truly free society?  How many lives should be lost in order to protect the rights of private businesses to do as they please with no government intervention?  Can a private business also sell sub-standard food to its African-American and other minority patrons to save money thereby causing illness or death?  Can a restaurant refuse to serve Jewish people or allow them in their establishment?  Exactly how much collateral damage is too much to achieve your Utopian society?  Should big oil companies be allowed to spill oil into the ocean destroying the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who own small businesses as well as causing irreparable harm to the environment?  Should liquor stores be able to sell alcohol and cigarettes to children?  Should private businesses be allowed to pay less than a minimum wage?  Should a business be allowed to pay women less than men for doing the same job?  Explain your completely free society and what is the cost, in terms of human life, dignity, freedom, equality, etc., . What about when your freedoms impinge on mine…is there a problem?

Over 24,000 discrimination suits are filed every year under the Civil Rights Act.  Two recent high-profile ones involved Denny’s and Texaco just a few years ago.  Last year a Pennsylvania pool was sued under the Act because it refused to allow African-American children to swim in it’s pool.   Businesses are not incentivized by loss of revenue to do the right thing.  As a matter of fact, firing someone because you don’t like the color of their skin or their disability may increase revenue and can be used as an easy way out if all of sudden a company has to downsize.

Finally, in case you haven’t looked at a history book lately this argument was made by opponents of the Civil Rights Act.  The  Supreme Court has ruled and it is now settled law.  In the CONSTITUTION, the Supreme Court is granted the power to determine the constitutionality of all laws. Is the Supreme Court of United States necessary in your totally free society?  It seems to me that if a Senate candidate does not believe in the constraints within the Constitution what is his basis for running for Senate?

Welcome to the jungle Dr. Paul.

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, told a group of students at DePaul University in Illinois what many African-Americans already know and that is that the GOP is not exactly welcoming African-Americans into the Republican party.  And in fact goes out of its way to alienate AA’s and other minorities by way of extreme rhetoric and racist comments that are continually tolerated by leaders within the party including Steele himself.  Specifically,  Steele was asked why African-Americans should vote Republican and answered in the following way:

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,”

Yes Mr. Chairman, you are exactly right.

Not a cross-section of the American electorate nor does it represent a majority. Shocker!

To the contrary, the movement more closely resembles the electoral base of today’s Republican Party: Overwhelmingly white (89 percent), predominantly male (59 percent), mostly middle-aged and older (75 percent) and fiercely conservative (73 percent).

In addition Tea Partiers are eating its own by way of mounting primary challenges against Republicans such as John McCain (J.D. Hayworth) and Charlie Christ (Marco Rubio).

The buck stops at the top Mr. Steele. We are not sure what is going on at the RNC but this many screw ups should not go unnoticed.

Republican National Committee chief of staff Ken McKay has resigned in the wake of a controversy over an expenditure at a risque California nightclub, according to RNC communications director Doug Heye.

McKay’s resignation comes one week after the Daily Caller website reported that the RNC’s January expenditure report included nearly $2,000 spent at Voyeur in West Hollywood, a topless nightclub.

RNC officials worked to distance Steele from the controversy — insisting that not only was he not in attendance but that he had no knowledge of the reimbursement — and promised changes in the way that people were reimbursed by the committee.

In light of the violence that has already occurred and is still being directed at Democratic Congress women and men who voted for health care reform Eric Cantor claimed that he was “directly threatened” by a bullet that was shot through his campaign office.  Cantor’s actual statement is as follows:

“Just recently I have been directly threatened. A bullet was shot through the window of my campaign office in Richmond this week.”

Now what actually happened according to the Richmond Police Department:

A Richmond Police detective was assigned to the case. A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds. There was no other damage to the room, which is used occasionally for meetings by the congressman.

The Richmond Police Department is sharing information about the incident with appropriate law enforcement agencies.

At this time there are no suspects.

The Richmond Police Department is investigating an act of vandalism at the Reagan Building, 25 E. Main St., Richmond, Virginia. A first floor window was struck by a bullet at approximately 1 a.m. on Tuesday, March 23. The building, which has several tenants including an office used by Congressman Eric Cantor, was unoccupied at the time.

And at the end of the news day this:

Bullet that hit Va. congressman’s office random

RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor’s office had been randomly fired skyward.

In the mean time:

In related news, officials have determined that the gas line leading to the home of the brother of Congressman Tom Periello [Democrat VA-5] was severed intentionally. Tea partiers had urged members to “drop by” Perriello’s brother’s home thinking it was the Congressman’s.

This is so freaking typical.  Folks in California saw this lie unraveling as soon as Cantor opened his mouth.  Several Democratic House members have been threatened, spat at, called horrendous bigoted names and epithets, had bricks thrown through windows, had gas lines at the homes of family members cut, and envelopes with white powder being sent to their offices.  Not to mention one GOP leader, Sara Palin, using crosshairs to target Democratic House members on her Facebook page.  Eric Cantor’s response?  Cantor gets in front of the TV cameras asserting some ridiculous false equivalency about being “directly threatened” with a bullet that was shot into the air at 1am in the morning and went through the window of his campaign office not even penetrating the blinds.  Not to mention that the office was unoccupied at the time.  Can someone please explain how a Congressman is “directly threatened” by a bullet shot into the air at 1am in the morning that strikes a window, on its way downward, in a satellite campaign office while said Congressman is nowhere near the scene?  Precisely….completely made up out of thin air.

Take a look at the Washington Post’s version of the above story:

A first floor window was struck by a bullet at approximately 1 a.m. on Tuesday, March 23. The building, which has several tenants including an office used by Congressman Eric Cantor, was unoccupied at the time. … The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds.

Seriously???? Talk about pushing a false meme when it clearly has all the facts at its disposal.  The Post completely left out the very important fact of the investigating officer concluding that the bullet was a random one that shot into the air and happened to fall near a window in Cantor’s office.  But it’s okay because it allows the MSM to fall into its very comfortable false equivalence mode…see it happens to both sides.  Do your job Washington Post and report ALL the FACTS!!!

The GOP has decided to work half days until further notice because they are upset with Democrats for passing health care reform.  So health care reform is now the law of the land and the Republican party in an act of political vengeance has decided to double down on its obstruction. Sen. John McCain even announced yesterday that Democrats should not expect any cooperation from Republican members for the rest of the year.  So Arizonans should not expect anything from McCain in exchange for that $200K salary that they are paying him.  This is truly rediculous.  Regardless of which party you’re in last I checked we do not pay politicians to holiday in a time of such economic strife.  If John McCain worked for a corporation he would be fired immediately.  This is not the playground.  People’s lives are at stake.   You lost the election, GET OVER IT!!!  Elections have consequences which means the GOP agenda will not be implemented when you have a Democratic majority.  You were hired to do the people’s business now do your job.  You’re 73 years old for goodness sake!

Reconciliation Fixes Update:

At around 3am this morning due to a couple of hiccups with the Byrd Rule the Parliamentarian struck a couple of non substantive technical provisions having to do with the education portion of the bill requiring the bill to go back to the House of Representatives for another vote.  The changes are minor and technical so the Reconciliation bill should have no problems getting through the House again.  This is pretty much a done deal.

Neither [flaw] is of any substance, but the Senate parliamentarian informed Democratic leaders that both are in violation of the Byrd Rule.

One is related to Pell Grants and the other makes small technical corrections. Why they’re in violation of the Byrd Rule doesn’t matter; the upshot is that Republicans will succeed in at least slightly altering the legislation, which means that the House is once again required to vote on it…

After the Parliamentarian Alan Frumin had advised the leadership of his ruling, the Democratic and Republican leaders huddled on the Senate floor and agreed to adjourn until 9:45 a.m…

“The Parliamentarian struck two minor provisions tonight from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, but this bill’s passage in the Senate is still a big win for the American people. These changes do not impact the reforms to the student loan programs and the important investments in education. We are confident the House will quickly pass the bill with these minor changes,” said a statement from Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

One Republican who is fed up with the Republican Party is long time conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish:

I’m not sure if I left the Republican Party or the party left me. All I know is that I no longer feel comfortable.

The national GOP is a party of exclusion and litmus tests, dominated on social issues by the religious right, with zero discernible outreach by the national party to anyone who doesn’t fit neatly within its parameters. Instead, the GOP has extended itself to its fringe while throwing under the bus long-standing members like New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a McCain-Palin supporter in 2008 who told me she voted with her Republican leadership 90 percent of the time before running for Congress last fall.

Which is not to say I feel comfortable in the Democratic Party, either. Weeks before Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh’s announcement that he will not seek reelection, I noted the centrist former governor’s words to the Wall Street Journal‘s Gerald Seib. Too many Democrats, Bayh said in that interview, are “tone-deaf” to Americans’ belief that the party had “overreached rather than looking for consensus with moderates and independents.”

Where political parties once existed to create coalitions and win elections, now they seek to advance strict ideological agendas. In today’s terms, it’s hard to imagine the GOP tent once housing such disparate figures as conservative Barry Goldwater and liberal New Yorker Jacob Javits, while John Stennis of Mississippi and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts coexisted as Democratic contemporaries.

At its annual convention held this past weekend the standard bearer of the Republican party CPAC had GLENN BECK as its keynote speaker for goodness sake!

The President is a very smart man so we are sure that he realizes that the Republicans in the House and the Senate will never support any piece of legislation that will contribute to him succesfully putting the country back on track.  Why? Because Republican’s success depends on the country being in a ditch in 2010.  The success of policies proposed by this President or implemented under his watch means a decreased chance of the GOP regaining control of the House and Senate in 2010.  So the GOP will continue to block and obstruct anything proposed by the Democrats or this President.   This could not have been more apparent than when President Obama endorsed a debt commission in light of the GOP’s newly acquired obsession to the deficit.  The debt commission idea was originally proposed by Republican Senators who when it came to vote for the bill the seven GOP senators who proposed it changed their mind and voted against the measure at the last moment.  Why?  Because it may make the President look good.  This is how strongly the GOP feels about the defecit and reducing the debt.  In other words, “debt on the backs of our children” does not matter when it comes to becoming the majority in the House and the Senate.  The American people are secondary.  Pure and utter politics. 

The next obstruction planned by the GOP?  Financial regulatory reform.  Notorious GOP pollster Frank Luntz recently wrote up a memo of how to do it.

Nine months after he penned a memo laying out the arguments for health care legislation’s destruction, Republican message guru Frank Luntz has put together a playbook to help derail financial regulatory reform.

In a 17-page memo titled, “The Language of Financial Reform,” Luntz urged opponents of reform to frame the final product as filled with bank bailouts, lobbyist loopholes, and additional layers of complicated government bureaucracy.

This continued quest for bipartisanship is an exercise in futility that is a waste of taxpayer money.

You don’t??  No worries there was none.  The attempted attack aboard the Northwest flight  to Detroit on Christmas day was eerily familiar….like we lived it before about eight years ago.  Remember Richard Reid the shoe bomber who attempted to blow up an American Airlines flight on December 22, 2001?  You don’t?  Well lets refresh your memory and the memories of the GOP members who were out loud and proud this week criticizing President Obama’s handling of the situation.  Their main issue is that the president did not respond appropriately with the seriousness that such an occurrence deserves.  And by respond, we can only assume that the Republican House and Senate members believe that the president should have appeared in a cowboy hat and boots with guns blazing.  But I digress. The thwarted attack happened on December 22,2001.  The person who came to the rescue in 2001 was a fellow passenger similar to the actions of the passenger on Northwest flight 253.  Guess what else?  The shoe bomber was arrested and put in jail just like the failed attacker on the Northwest flight.  President Obama made a statement yesterday regarding the failed attack and has been briefed on the hour about new developments in addition to ordering a full investigation of what went wrong.  The President has also ordered new procedures for all flights entering and departing the United States.  What did President Bush say in his 2001 statement regarding the failed shoe bomber attack you ask?

First 24 hours?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT:
….
Some additional information to bring to you at this time. We do know that President Bush was notified about this situation earlier today and that he has already had a briefing on the situation. The president, as we have noted, is spending the holiday weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David.

CNN 12/22/2001

Crickets, crickets

48 hours??

December 23, 2001

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that President Bush continued to monitor the situation and receive updates at Camp David. Bush has not issued any statements about the incident.

Boston Globe 12/24/2001

crickets, crickets

Five days later…more crickets.

Finally, TEN SIX DAYS later President Bush merely mentions the attack in passing while discussing a different point.

A NATION CHALLENGED: THE PRESIDENT; Bush Says Taliban Leader Will Be Found

President Bush said today that it was ”just a matter of time” before Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, was captured, but he did not say if and when the United States Marines would join in any search. Mullah Omar is believed to be hiding in southern Afghanistan.

”I’m patient, and so is our military,” Mr. Bush said before having a cheeseburger and onion rings for lunch with staff members and friends at the Coffee Station, the only restaurant in this town of about 700. The president is spending the holidays at his 1,600-acre ranch, eight miles northwest of here.

….

Mr. Bush, in his last question-and-answer session with reporters in 2001, also said that the main task of the F.B.I. was now to protect Americans from further attacks.

”The whole culture of the F.B.I. has changed for the better,” Mr. Bush said. He added that the country as a whole was ”on alert” and praised the flight attendant on an American Airlines flight on Dec. 22 who noticed the man whom Mr. Bush called ”the shoe bomber,” Richard C. Reid, trying to light a fuse in his sneaker.

NYT 01/01/2002

By the way, the shoe bomber Richard Reid was indicted on terrorism charges by a grand jury, tried and convicted in a federal court, and is now serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.   And guess what?  Not a peep was spoken by a single Republican about the arrest of the shoe bomber or the fact that this terrorist was tried and convicted in the United States federal court system.  Not even from former Homeland Security Chairman Tom Ridge.

Meanwhile Sen. Jim DeMint is blocking the nominee, Erroll Southers, for the top position at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) because the Republican member does not want baggage screeners to join a union.  So let me get this straight…..currently we have no one heading the airline security in the United States because Sen. DeMint is afraid of collective bargaining?  Can you imagine if this was a Democrat blocking a TSA Chief nominee right after an attempted terrorist attack five days ago?  Exactly…HYPOCRISY!!!

Two more things.  First, didn’t a Republican administration develop the Homeland Security program and had eight years to perfect it?  Second, because the Republicans are labeling this an attack, does this mean that there was another attack on the US during the Bush presidency thereby disproving the claim that Bush prevented subsequent terrorist attacks on the US during his presidency?

Bruce Bartlett, former domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and former treasury official under George H.W. Bush, penned a recent article pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of the GOP’s rabid focus on the allegedly increased deficit that will occur as a result of the passage of the health care reform bill.

The human capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me, so it shouldn’t surprise me that so many Republicans seem to genuinely believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Perhaps at one time they were, but those days are long gone.

Speaking of health care and fiscal responsibility…remember the Medicare drug benefit bill?

This fact became blindingly obvious to me six years ago this month when a Republican president and a Republican Congress enacted the Medicare drug benefit, which former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has called “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.”

As for the cost of the GOP orchestrated Medicare Part D program compared to either the Senate or House version of the Health care reform bill according to Bartlett:

Just to be clear, the Medicare drug benefit was a pure giveaway with a gross cost greater than either the House or Senate health reform bills how being considered. Together the new bills would cost roughly $900 billion over the next 10 years, while Medicare Part D will cost $1 trillion.

And now for the kicker..how did the GOP controlled Congress plan to pay forits Medicare Part D program?

Moreover, there is a critical distinction–the drug benefit had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers; 100% of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit, whereas the health reform measures now being debated will be paid for with a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, adding nothing to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (See here for the Senate bill estimate and here for the House bill.)………..

Recall the situation in 2003. The Bush administration was already projecting the largest deficit in American history–$475 billion in fiscal year 2004, according to the July 2003 mid-session budget review…….

Recall, too, that Medicare was already broke in every meaningful sense of the term. According to the 2003 Medicare trustees report, spending for Medicare was projected to rise much more rapidly than the payroll tax as the baby boomers retired. Consequently, the rational thing for Congress to do would have been to find ways of cutting its costs. Instead, Republicans voted to vastly increase them–and the federal deficit–by [$534] billion between 2004 and 2013.

The Prescription Drug Benefit program added $15.5 trillion in current value to our nation’s deficit!  Some of the Republicans that voted for the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit bill?  Jim Bunning (R-KY),  Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Orrin Hatch (R- UT), and Jon Kyl (R-AZ).  Yep you guessed it…the ones with the biggest mouths concerning the deficit being passed to their children.

The GOP continue to harp on the alleged lack of bipartisanship overtures by Democrats in the House and Senate.  We now have confirmation from a former member of the Republican caucus that such complaints are disingenuous.  We all know that the GOP game plan for the 2010 and 2012 elections is to obstruct and prevent the President from accomplishing any of his domestic agenda and to do it by any means necessary.  Well Sen. Arnel Specter confirmed on Sunday what every person paying even mildly attention already knew…the GOP has been plotting to bring this President down since January 20. 2009.  Specter revealed the GOP strategy according to private conversations that he was privy to as a member of the Republican caucus before he switched to the Democratic Party in April of this year.  See video below.

For months the GOP has been attacking and obstructing the passage of the House health care plan drafted by the Democratic majority without ever having produced one of its own.  Well this week they did just that and submitted it to the Congressional Budget office to be scored.  Mind you the list of reforms was a compilation of oldies that the grand old party has been singing for decades.  You know…..selling insurance across state lines, medical malpractice reform, health saving accounts…yada yada yada.  Well the CBO scored the compilation and concluded that the GOP bill will cost billions more and cover substantially less people.

The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that under the $61 billion Republican amendment to the House health care bill, the number of uninsured Americans would increase to 52 million by 2019, but deficits would decrease by $68 billion over the 2010–2019 period. The bill could slightly reduce premiums for Americans who purchase coverage independently.

Millions of Americans would remain uninsured and continue to pay higher premiums. In fact it’s unlikely that any of the members of the Republican House Leadership would be able to find affordable insurance under their own proposal, should they chose to give up their government-sponsored plans.

What else is lacking you ask? For one, the plan does not prevent insurance companies from rescinding coverage when a person gets sick nor does it prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people who have a pre-existing condition.  Not to mention this little tidbit:

By weakening or removing requirements that insurance cover certain services–everything from cancer screenings to mental health–the Republican bill would likely result in people getting insurance that covers less.

In other words, bupkus.  Thanks GOP for continuing to waste taxpayers money throughout this GOP lead boondoggle process.  Republicans believe that Americans should pay a premium for the illusion of health insurance.