Category: Congress

Help Tammy Duckworth Win!

February 27, 2012
Barack ObamaCongressDemocratic NewsLiberalsMilitary
0 Comment

Help Tammy Duckworth

From U.S. Senator Dick Durbin:

I wrote to you a few months ago to tell you about a remarkable candidate for Congress — Tammy Duckworth.

Joe Walsh continues to be the most outspoken (and controversial) Tea Party member of the House.

He relishes the endless confrontation and works overtime to fuel the bitter rhetoric attacking the Democrats and the President. He is proud of the Tea Party threats to shut down essential government services and destroy America’s reputation for paying its debts. Joe Walsh promises more confrontation; more personal attacks and more stalemate.

Illinois and our Congress deserve better.

Will you help Tammy defeat Walsh by contributing $5 or more to her campaign?

Tammy is a true public servant who knows what it means to serve our country.

She’s also a proven leader who understands what it will take to rebuild our economy and create jobs. Her courage and common sense make her exactly the kind of person we need in Congress.

I can’t think of a better person to replace Joe Walsh than Tammy.

Please join me in supporting her with a contribution of $5 or more.

Thanks for your help,

Ron Paul Calls Rick Santorum “a Fake” (Video)

February 25, 2012
CongressConservativesElectionsRepublicans
0 Comment

Welcomed with cheers by the audience, Ron Paul called former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum "a fake."

Personally, I wouldn’t vote for either of these guys, but in the circular firing squad called the Republican race for the White House, this was a laudable moment.

Recall that, while serving as a United States senator, Santorum took $100,000 from Pennsylvania tax payers to home school his children — while living in Virginia.

Never, ever forget that.

Pennsylvanians still have not.

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) Has Not Lived in Indiana for 30+ Years

January 31, 2012
CongressConservativesElectionsEthicsHomelessnessRepublicans
0 Comment
Senator Richard Lugar

Is Senator Richard Lugar a Carpetbagger?

Would you like to serve in the United States Senate in Indiana? Turns out you don’t even have to live there. And there is more than three decades of legal precedence.

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar allegedly represents the people of the state of Indiana, a state where he has not resided for over 30 years.

In 1982, then-Indiana Attorney General Linley Pearson said that the senator is not required to actually live in the state he represents because he is acting “on business of this state or of the United States,” according to Will Rahn at The Daily Caller. The Attorney General issues legal opinions that are not binding. The AG does not make the law.

Here’s the truth: Sen. Richard Lugar is running for re-election in a state he has not lived in for over 30 years.

Should that matter to anyone in Indiana or the rest of the United States?

From The Daily Caller:

Lugar sold his home at 3200 Highwoods Court in Indianapolis shortly after first assuming office in 1977. But due to a loophole in Indiana law, both he and his wife Charlene Lugar are still registered to vote at that address.

Greg Wright, an Indiana tea party member and certified fraud examiner, told The Daily Caller that he has been investigating Lugar’s residency situation “for a few weeks” and has not been paid for his efforts. He just heard one day from some tea party friends that Lugar didn’t actually live in the state, and took it upon himself to find out if it was true.

According to The Daily Caller, Richard Lugar and his wife Charlene both have driver’s licenses indicating that they currently live at 3200 Highwoods Court.

The current resident of 3200 Highwoods Court was surprised to hear that Lugar still claims that address as his own:

“I knew [Lugar] built it,” Hughes told TheDC. “Every now and then we get his mail, and we couldn’t figure out why after all these years we were still getting his mail every now and then. And now we know why.”

“I was surprised, but I was more surprised that no one seemed that interested,” she added.

Is it enough that Lugar slips through a loophole in the law? Would you be concerned if you found out a pol was claiming your address as his or her own? Would you be concerned if that same pol had a legal document – a driver’s license – indicating that he or she resided at your address?

I wonder which address he uses for his tax returns?

Only in America.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com

Earth to Newt Gingrich: Phone Home

January 30, 2012
CongressConservativesElectionsEthicsRepublicans
0 Comment

The title is suggested from Charles M. Blow’s wonderful critique of Newt Gingrich 2011-12, still the Newt of the 90s, even if the GOP dares not recall:

Gingrich told a crowd on Florida’s so-called Space Coast on Wednesday that “by the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the Moon. And it will be American.” And he said that he would push for the introduction of a “Northwest Ordinance for Space” so that when the number of colonists reached 13,000, they could petition for statehood.

(By the way, I find it interesting that Gingrich didn’t insist on answering the question about Puerto Rican statehood at Thursday’s debate, yet he’s advocating for a state on the Moon. Earth to Newt: phone home.)

The writer notes former Senator Bob Dole’s concerns as well:

One of the latest establishment Republicans to try to avert the Gingrich catastrophe is former Senator Bob Dole, who wrote a letter to the Romney campaign on Thursday saying: “I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich, but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late.” It only got better from there. Dole continued, “hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him, and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice.”

How long until Newt is tossed aside?

Or, dare we say it, how long until he wins the nomination from the GOP? Then what? Will the Dems finally win the south again, as well as the east, west and north?

Sh*t Homophobic People Say. No Kidding. (Video)

January 13, 2012
Civil LibertiesCivil RightsCongressConservativesConstitutionEducationEthicsPhilosophicalRantRepublicansStrange
0 Comment

Commentary

Sh*t Homophobic People Say: no spoofing necessary, 100% real commentary by antigay public figures. Some, many, masquerading as Christians.

Lambda Legal fights for the rights of LGBT people and people with HIV.

Wow.

John McCain Tells Romney Supporters President Obama Will Turn Country Around (Video)

January 5, 2012
AmericaBarack ObamaCongressConservativesElectionsHumorJohn McCainRepublicans
0 Comment

Senator John McCain expresses his "confidence that President Obama will turn this country around" while speaking for Mit Romney.

Oh, well.

Washington Post: Growing Wealth Widens Distance Between Lawmakers and Constituents

December 26, 2011
AmericaBusinessCongressEconomyElectionsEthicsHomelessnessHousingimmigrationJobsLegal
0 Comment

From the Washington Post:

The growth of income inequality has tracked very closely with measures of political polarization, which has been gauged using the average difference between the liberal/conservative scores for Republican and Democratic members of the House.

“The proximity of these trends is uncanny,” according to a 2003 paper by researchers Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. “Remarkably, the trends of economic inequality and elite political polarization have moved almost in tandem for the past half-century.”

Excellent commentary on this from Eric Byler at Coffee Party USA.

BOOM! Obama Just Played The Bin Laden Card (Video)

December 8, 2011
AmericaBarack ObamaBusinessCongressConservativesDemocratic NewsElectionsLiberalsMilitaryRepublicansWhite House
0 Comment

From Business Insider:

President Barack Obama was just asked to respond to Republican charges that he has engaged in a foreign policy of appeasement.

Obama responded: "Ask Osama bin Laden, and the 22 out of 30 top al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement — or whoever is left out there, ask them about that."

There you have it.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com

Senators Tribute to Senator Frank Lautenberg’s 9000th Vote (Video)

December 4, 2011
CongressDemocratic NewsRepublicans
0 Comment

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) give tributes to Senator Lautenberg as he prepares to cast his 9000th vote in the U.S. Senate.

If Congress (Read – The GOP) Does Not Act, Middle Class Taxes Will Rise

December 3, 2011
Barack ObamaCongressConservativesDemocratic NewsEconomyElectionsJobsLegalRepublicansStrangeWhite House
0 Comment

It’s simple.

If Congress — meaning the Republicans in Congress as Democrats are on board — does not support President Obama’s plan to extend and expand the payroll tax cut, middle class taxes will rise.

Find out how much your taxes will rise here.

I will lose over $1000.  How much will you lose?

Watch and read President Obama’s weekly address here on this crucial issue.