Events in the news this week have some of us thinking about change on a national and global level. Today we’re posting this week’s “Say It In Song” pick: Bob Dylan’s “Things Have Changed.”
“People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed.… [Read more]
Many of us pay attention to national elections and our local political races. It’s often a challenge to get people to pay attention to elections that don’t have impact them directly. One political race, however, is receiving widespread attention: the Virginia governor’s race.
The recent fundraising e-mail sent by the Democratic Governors Association is a reminder of the stakes :
Friends,BREAKING: A new Roanoke College poll on the Virginia governor’s race shows radical Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli beating our Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, 34-29.… [Read more]
On April 24, 1867, the Ku Klux Klan held its first national meeting in a bid to organize and build structure among their many disparate often groups. In 2013, one hundred forty six years later, the klan still exists.
On Wednesday I spent the entire evening surfing through Ku Klux Klan affiliated websites. I read their literature, watched videos, and scanned through a ton of pictures. … [Read more]
This week’s “Say It In Song” pick is an oldie but goodie by famed R&B group, The O’Jays. ‘Backstabbers’ feels appropriate based simply on its definition; it means to attack someone particularly in a sneaky, deceitful and underhanded manner.
Doesn’t that seem like what’s going on in U.S. politics today? We have elected officials in place to make the nation better for its citizens but, clearly, the agenda is controlled by far too many special interest groups.… [Read more]
Religious leaders have called it immoral; some have even suggested that Jesus himself would oppose it. Various leaders of the Republican party have opposed it and even David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s budget director, called it a fairy tale. Many on the left have referred to it as ‘austerity on steroids.’
What has all of these different people so upset?… [Read more]
Many of us are watching the next move in the political game of financial chess. Today, President Obama will submit his long-awaited budget proposal. Keeping focus on deficit reduction in the face of a slowly recovering economy and unemployment figures that hover in the upper end of the 7 percent level, the president’s proposal includes $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, which is expected to bring in total deficit savings to $4.3 trillion.… [Read more]
President Obama’s salary and pension may be exempt from sequestered cuts but that hasn’t stopped him from taking the same cut that other federal employees are being subjected to due to budget sequestration. Today, it was announced that the POTUS plans to return 5% of his $400,000 annual salary in response to and in support of federal workers who are going to be furloughed.… [Read more]
Let me start by saying I think the entire Electoral College process stinks. It’s antiquated and subject to manipulation. Although I don’t think that it will happen in my lifetime, I believe that it’s time to move to a popular vote process.
If Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and the need for affirmative action can be argued as outdated, why can’t the Electoral College process?… [Read more]
Part of the fallout from our current recession has been the growth of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), neé ‘Food Stamps,” participation throughout the nation. This Federal program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Food & Nutrition Service and the states, provides non-cash food assistance to households in impoverished financial distress.
Republican conservatives regularly use SNAP as a poster child for lambasting ‘welfare’.… [Read more]
I can remember back, even in the “go-go” defense spending days of an administration which proved a matinee cowboy actor could get elected President, when this writer was a Navy Supply Corps officer. In my “beans, bullets, and black oil” portfolio came the responsibility of competitive bidding in procurement from private industry. By statute, regulation, and policy, we were to shop the marketplace for the best deal for mission effectiveness and value to the American taxpayer.… [Read more]
“If standing for the Constitution, standing for liberty, standing for conservative values makes one a wacko bird … then I am pleased that birds of a feather flock together.” – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Little Havana)
Viewed as a 2016 rising star, the freshman senator from Florida accomplished in one short speech, calling liberals “freeloaders,” what unsuccessful 2012 Presidential wannabe Mitt “Mitt WHO?” Romney (R-Bain) labored several years to get ineptly caught at with his infamous “47%” secretly videotaped, campaign scuttling, fundraiser remark.… [Read more]
This week Congressman Paul Ryan released the new Republican budget for the federal government. One thing was notably missing: anything different from the budget he proposed last year. Rep. Ryan and his colleges on the GOP budget committee produced a document that turns Medicaid into a voucher system, makes further cuts in programs that many Americans rely on for their daily survival and his core proposal being the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.… [Read more]
“Spring forward”….yes, that’s a good message to share as we wrap up another week. In taking stock of the past week’s events, we can see that several things took place that lay a foundation for moving forward, including but not limited to improvement in the nation’s employment figures, record-setting stock market averages, reauthorisation of the Violence Against Women Act, and even (some) Senate Republicans broke bread with the President to discuss getting beyond the self-imposed sequester.… [Read more]
Those of us in the political pundit class tend to be big fans of Frank Capra’s 1939 Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Some of us keep replaying the film often enough to keep the lines fresh among the decaying political plant fiber in the Washington swamp.
Before the fabled filibuster was reduced from rare drama to daily droll by Senate Republicans under Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), once upon a time, filibustering was a marathon talking event.… [Read more]
So the Republican-controlled House of Representatives proposed a $982 billion bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year instead of more brinksmanship. Before we start dancing in the streets, and name a few golf courses and watering holes after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the devil is again in the details.
As a former Federal agency budget analyst and before that, a military comptroller, we need to look beyond the spin platitudes and delve into the numbers.… [Read more]
Two-time Pulitzer winning cartoonist Mike Luckovich, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sketched an appropriate cartoon the other day on the string of inept GOP brinksmanship showdowns. Yes, America is tired of it. Making a mess in the kitchen, and leaving it for the missus is not a path to domestic bliss.
Kowtowing to the Tea Terrorists, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.) “led” his ‘Party of No’ on another sabotage raid on the American economy.… [Read more]
Remember when the Senate passed a reauthorisation of the Violence Against Women Act but then House Republicans threatened to block the legislation? And then protests and petitions asking that citizens tell House Republicans to stop denying women protection against violence because of petty partisan politics bombarded the offices of elected officials who were standing in the way of renewing the VAWA?… [Read more]
The famous title line from “tough guy” actor, director, and GOP Convention empty chair talker Clint Eastwood is now for President Obama and Congressional Democrats to use against Right-wing foes bent upon driving the nation off yet another fiscal cliff.
Congressional Republicans want to allow dramatic across the board cuts under the sequester. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.), unable or unwilling to provide adult leadership to the more radical ideologues in the ‘Party of No’, now see fit to let the crazed upstarts drive the bus off the cliff.… [Read more]
“Senators are a never-ending source of amusement, amazement, and discouragement…” Will Rogers (1879-1935)
So nice to see in the land of the free and home of the brave the US Senate remains ever vigilant. Not content to convene a Secretary of Defence confirmation hearing reminiscent of Romper Room, the Republican minority brain trust has let slip their dogs of war and …..sanctioned the latest howler, a once-in-a-century filibuster to ensure that the self-styled Great Democracy® again lives down to its formidable reputation for utter stupidity.… [Read more]
A look back on this past week reveals another historical first – and we’re in only the second month of the year. By now most are aware that for the first time ever, a presidential cabinet nominee was filibustered. Republicans succeeded in blocking a man who happens to be a fellow Republican. What did that man, defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, do to deserve use of this filibuster procedure that should be reserved for critical legislative actions?… [Read more]
