Tag: Politicians

You Want Change?

In 2008 we all fell for the con job of change and hope…..we have had neither in almost 3 years and now we are about to enter into the 2012 primary season…..and once again I hear the word change being thrown around but this time it is from the Right.

I have written a couple of post on a way to achieve REAL change not the veiled promises of bought and paid for politicians…….You Want Change?  Then read these posts first…..http://t.co/18gNDYo

That one post has other post referenced…please read them…they will help explain where I am coming from….

There are others who feel as I do….that this system of picking our leaders is useless and antiquated…….

The following criteria are listed in [an] LWV study:

  • Ensure majority rule. Most major political races currently can be won with only a plurality.
  • Encourage minority representation, where minority is defined by either party or cultural
  • affiliation.
  • Encourage fair gender representation.
  • Produce fair and accurate representation of diverse political views in legislatures.
  • Increase voter participation.
  • Encourage geographical representation.
  • Encourage “sincere” voting, as opposed to “strategic” voting.
  • Maximize effective votes/minimize “wasted” votes.
  • Provide a reasonable range of voter choice.
  • Prevent fraud and political manipulation.
  • Encourage competitive elections

–League of Women Voters in Oregon, Criteria for Evaluating Election Systems, Election Methods: Review of Alternatives and Oregon, Proposals, Executive Summary

All these are reasonable and logical and rational changes that could go a long way to changing the way that we are governed….the system we have now is NOT doing the people of the US any good….it only perpetuates the exploitation of the voter……

Like I have said…there are several others that have valid ideas for giving the people the final voice in the governing of the country…..try this one on……http://t.co/7U8uCSZ   ……..A group named “Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH)”…..personally I think that they are on to something here….

Anything has GOT to be better than the joke, the circus that we have now!

Thoughts?

Who Speaks For The People?

Here a lobbyist……there a lobbyist….everywhere are lobbyists.  Another group that tries to be a voice of us mortals that no one else will listen to in the political arena…..

We have ex-politicians making millions while acting as the voice of big oil or manufacturing or financial services, etc…….they all have a voice in Congress.  But what about the people that elect these semi-literate thugs we have as representatives?  That means….YOU!

Who speaks for you?  If you think your local politician does then you are sadly mistaken or just outright naive……..under a perfect governance the representatives we send to Washington would be our voices……so much for perfection, huh?

Ever hear of PACMEN?  No not the 80’s electronic game….but rather……..

Turns out a there’s a political action committee that fights against the influence of political action committees and doesn’t rake in the corporate donations.

PACMEN, or “People Against the Corporate Manipulation of Elections and News,” was started earlier this year by Massachusetts residents Jeromie Whalen and Scott Bloomberg, the duo behind the website WhatTheFuckHaveUnionsDoneSoFar.com.

The PACMEN’s websitedescribes the group as run by “regular, everyday, non-billionaire, non-lobbyist, people” who “are fighting against two problems that we consider to be at the root of many other problems in the United States,” the “Corporate Manipulation of Elections” and the “Corporate Manipulation of News.”Citing Karl Rove’s group American Crossroads, the PACMEN write that that “system has created a fundamental shift in who holds the power in our political process. When elections are decided by billionaires and corporations, it is an injustice to the will of the people.”

Unfortunately, I doubt just how effective they can be…..after all they are fighting an uphill battle with little cash and their opponents have an almost unlimited amount of money to throw at politicians and buy lots of friends and influence……but at least they are trying….more than I can say for our Congress!  Maybe if we can get enough of groups like this…..eventually someone in Washington will begin to listen…..I know a dream…..but what the Hell?

Who’s The Crook?

They are all bums…..they are all liars………they are all crooks……and they are all corrupt…….you have heard this all before….no matter which party you lean to…..the other is all a bunch of crooks and liars……Personally, I have been saying it for at least 30 years….maybe more……but now……there is some validity to the accusations……….

Voters are more convinced than ever that most congressmen are crooks.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters now view most members of Congress as corrupt. That’s up seven points from June and the highest finding yet recorded. Just 29% think most members are not corrupt, and another 25% are not sure…

Similarly, a whopping 85% of voters think most members of Congress are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people. That’s a record high for surveys stretching back to early November 2006. Only seven percent (7%) believe most of the legislators are more interested in helping other…….

Could it be that the voter is just pissed at Washington….well, yes and no……I will tell you why I say yes…..

I recently wrote a piece about the insider trading being committed by members of Congress……..

Four university researchers examined 16,000 common stock transactions made by approximately 300 House representatives from 1985 to 2001, and found what they call “significant positive abnormal returns,” with portfolios based on congressional trades beating the market by about 6 percent annually.

What’s their secret? The report speculates, but does not conclude, it could have something to do with the ability members of Congress have to trade on non-public information or to vote their own pocketbooks — or both.

The researchers, Alan J. Ziobrowski of Georgia State University, James W. Boyd of Lindenwood University, Ping Cheng of Florida Atlantic University and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski of Augusta State University, noted that the circumstances are ripe for abuse.

“In the course of performing their normal duties, members of Congress have access to non-public information that could have a substantial impact on certain businesses, industries or the economy as a whole. If used as the basis for common stock transactions, such information could yield significant personal trading profits,” they wrote.

So members are getting rich trading on information that the rest of us do not…….that is illegal…it is called insider trading…..the SAME thing that Martha Stewart was convicted of doing…..so why has the media NOT made a bigger deal out of this…..I mean Wiener’s wiener was NOT illegal…insider trading is…..why is the justice dept not investigating?

And then there is the investments of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor….while what he is doing is NOT illegal….it is a conflict of interests with his duties as the majority leader…..

Debt ceiling negotiations were shut down by House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) last week. This raised renewed fears that the U.S. is on the verge of total credit default, and it raised a question as to whether Cantor – the GOP’s key operative in debt ceiling talks – has a “glaring” conflict of interest. According to Salon, Cantor may be fighting against government credit default in Congress, but he’s personally invested in a mutual fund that will “skyrocket” should default occur.

SO one of the so-called “geniuses” of the GOP is betting against the country as he negotiates the economy situation……is that about it?  And the media has not jumped on this story either….they had rather let Nancy Grace’s head explode or report on a runaway Chihuahua…than focus on the real problems with this country…..it is ruled by criminals and liars…..you would think the justice dept would be all over a report like this….you would think!

All this is sickening!  These people are corrupt and crooks and especially liars…..the sooner we find a way to replace these criminals the better….at this point I am open to anything for a real change…..

Are Things As Bad As They Seem?

The partisanship…..the extremism……lack of respect…….the out right lies…….the misinformation (and yes, it is different from lies)…….and it all comes down to the American voter….YOU voted for morons and now you are paying the price for that vote…..I know, what could be so bad we might get lower taxes and balanced budget and spending controls….what could be so bad?

Glad you asked!  While you were bobbing and weaving through the political shit slinging….the middle class suffers…….while you were thumping your chest about “Obamacare” or Planned Parenthood or NPR…..while you were being lead down a alternative road, which by the way, has NO place to go…it is a DEAD END!……the working class is being attacked and systematically being wipe out…..Where’s my proof of what I say?

Sorry to say, next year it may all get worse……(but that is another post….coming soon)…….

BLN.com writer Micheal Synder has a really good look at this situation……..

#1 Only 58 percent of Americans have a job right now.

#2 Only 56 percent of Americans are currently covered by employer-provided health insurance.

#3 The median yearly wage in the United States is $26,261.

#4 The average American household is carrying $75,600 in debt.

#5Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

#6 At this point, American families are approximately 7.7 trillion dollars poorer than they were back in early 2007.

#7 The poorest 50% of all Americans now own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

#8 According to one study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States were living below the poverty line in 2010.

#9 Today, there are more than 44 million Americans on food stamps, and nearly half of them are children.

#10According to Newsweek, close to 20 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 54 do not have a job at the moment.

Not one of those points shows that the Middle Class will ever recovery….this whole situation is making a two class system….”haves and have nots”  (sorry, but it is a good term)……..

In closing, something to think about…….under Pelosi the House introduced 200+ bills..,..under the leadership of Boehner it has issued 12….even if they work the asses off the Reps….the best it could do is about 50….remind me again what we pay these guys and gals to do!

Could It Be Term Limits? (Again)

I am old enough, and believe me that is OLD, to remember back in the mid 90’s when the Congress was fighting Clinton tooth and nail……there was a call for our elected representatives to be put on term limits….but after things starting working well, as well as could be expected, then the calls grew more quiet……that is until this Congress starting acting like the bunch of spoiled kids with few adults.

Okay, what do I mean by term limits?

“Homesteading” in Congress, made possible by reelection rates that approached 100% by the end of the 20th century, brought about a popular insurgency known as the “term-limits movement”. The elections of 1990-94 saw the adoption of term limits for state legislatures in almost every state where citizens had the power of the initiative. In addition 23 states limited service in their delegation to Congress, with the general formula being three terms [six years] in the U.S. House and two terms [twelve years] in the U.S. Senate.

As they pertain to Congress, these laws are no longer enforceable, however, as a result of lawsuits filed by term limits foes including ousted Speaker of the House, Tom Foley. In 1995 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned congressional term limits.

Where rotation in the legislative branch has withstood court challenges, term limits continue to garner popular support. As of 2002 “U.S. Term Limits” found that in the 17 states where state legislators served in rotation, public support for term limits ranged from 60 to 78 percent.

As you read, it has been defeated and bad mouthed by anyone who is elected…..the reason should be obvious…..but with the shenanigans going on in Washington there is a renewed interest in the issue……polls show, not just one but as many as 19, say that the American people are sick of the political games being played…..Congress’ approval rating is running about 18%….now is the time for the American people to demand and get term limits from their elected officials….the Tea Party as well as the GOP and the Dems should support this issue….it will will make the slugs we elect more willing to work on something good and while we are at it….why not demand that no retired official be allowed to work as a lobbyist or even in a lobbying firm for 10 years after they leave Congress……

These people are getting rich on your dime….and how has that benefited you?  It is time for change in our system of exploitation and term limits would be a great place to start….But how?

The only way to get term limits for our elected people is through a Constitutional amendment….that is NO easy feat to accomplish…..and here is why…..

The authority to amend the Constitution of the United States is derived from Article V of the Constitution. After Congress proposes an amendment, the Archivist of the United States, who heads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is charged with responsibility for administering the ratification process under the provisions of 1 U.S.C. 106b. The Archivist has delegated many of the ministerial duties associated with this function to the Director of the Federal Register. Neither Article V of the Constitution nor section 106b describe the ratification process in detail. The Archivist and the Director of the Federal Register follow procedures and customs established by the Secretary of State, who performed these duties until 1950, and the Administrator of General Services, who served in this capacity until NARA assumed responsibility as an independent agency in 1985.

The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. None of the 27 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed by constitutional convention. The Congress proposes an amendment in the form of a joint resolution. Since the President does not have a constitutional role in the amendment process, the joint resolution does not go to the White House for signature or approval. The original document is forwarded directly to NARA’s Office of the Federal Register (OFR) for processing and publication. The OFR adds legislative history notes to the joint resolution and publishes it in slip law format. The OFR also assembles an information package for the States which includes formal “red-line” copies of the joint resolution, copies of the joint resolution in slip law format, and the statutory procedure for ratification under 1 U.S.C. 106b.

The Archivist submits the proposed amendment to the States for their consideration by sending a letter of notification to each Governor along with the informational material prepared by the OFR. The Governors then formally submit the amendment to their State legislatures. In the past, some State legislatures have not waited to receive official notice before taking action on a proposed amendment. When a State ratifies a proposed amendment, it sends the Archivist an original or certified copy of the State action, which is immediately conveyed to the Director of the Federal Register. The OFR examines ratification documents for facial legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature. If the documents are found to be in good order, the Director acknowledges receipt and maintains custody of them. The OFR retains these documents until an amendment is adopted or fails, and then transfers the records to the National Archives for preservation.

Yes, a lengthy process and  we know how well the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) did, huh?  Another big problem is that it will be up to politicians to cut their own throats and we know what a cowardly bunch they really are, right?

The only thing that could possibly work in the favor of such a move could be the ineffectiveness of the elected officials to get anything accomplished, other than some minor legislation like the naming of Post Offices….ineffectiveness, partisanship, corruption, bribery and blackmail run rampant in the US Congress….if we cannot give them term limits….then I say arrest them all and employ temps to do the country’s business until we get a new batch of lawmakers (and that is the key word)…..but all that is a post for another day……

2011 Anal-Ocity #16

It is good to know that not all anal crap flows from the mouths of Americans…..this one is from the mouth of a Brazilian politician……Congressman Jair Bolsonaro….when being interviewed on a national radio show, he was asked how he would feel if his daughter were to fall in love with a black man…….his response…..

“I don’t run that risk,” the Bolsonaro said. “My children were very well educated and they don’t live in the sort of environment that, sadly, you do.”

You guessed it…Bolsonaro is a white guy!  See!  Idiots come in all flavors and nationalities…….you think this guy could possibly a sort of….RACIST?

But First, A Little History

College of Political Knowledge

I think we have all about exhausted the story in Wisconsin….the situation and the reporting is becoming redundant…….there is not more we can saw about the issue…only that the people seem to be on the side of unions and the GOP is fighting it tooth and nail…..

I will let it go after I give a bit of history for those that are not aware of what the labor movement has done in the past……back in the early days of the 20th century there was a massive labor movement and yes there were some Leftists involved in it…….but without the fight for fairness in labor we would not have the situation we have today….we would NOT have the 8 hour work day or the 5 day work week or overtime or minimum wage or benefits or a safe work place or a ban on child labor and the list goes on and on….let me ask…what would you working life be like if NOT for the fight of unions of the past?  We soon forget the hardship and sacrifices that our people had to deal with in their work environment….but we should thank unions for the life we have today…..

But wait….history seems to be trying to repeat itself starting in Wisconsin and now moves on to Ohio…..

Another showdown on an Ohio bill to restrict the bargaining rights of public workers could come as early as Wednesday with a vote by a Republican-majority legislative committee whose chairman says he has the support to send the measure to the Senate.Worker rights and collective bargaining have sparked debate in statehouses across the country, most notably in Wisconsin, where a scheduled vote on a similar bill prompted Democratic lawmakers to flee the state.

A repeat of history?  Where?

In many ways, it’s the 1930s again. Just as then, workers and their political allies and other supporters are demonstrating, picketing, marching, striking and otherwise forcefully demanding the basic civil right of collective bargaining – the unfettered right for workers’ representatives to negotiate with employers on setting their wages, hours and working conditions.

Eventually, workers and their millions of supporters won the 1930s struggle. Congress, acting closely with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, granted the legal right of collective bargaining to most workers. Farm workers, domestics and a few other groups were excluded from the law, but all others finally had that vital right.

The 1930s struggle arose primarily because of the economic pressures of the Great Depression that led to massive protests, just as today’s struggle can be traced to the pressures of the Great Recession that also have led to massive protests.

There are key differences between then and now, however. In the thirties, the struggle was to win union rights for workers in the face of strong opposition from large financial interests, powerful conservative politicians and other anti-labor forces. Today, the struggle is to keep union rights from being taken away from workers by today’s anti-union forces. Their main targets are public employees and the pensions and other benefits they won in past bargaining with their government employers.  (Thanx to Buzzflash and Dick Meister)

Once again workers are having to fight for their right to work……it really comes down to the cash that unions and their members are willing to give to politicians that is the real story….it has little to do with the workers themselves just the influence that they can wield…….it is about elections NOT jobs!

Shared Sacrifice

Daily Agitator

A wonderful term, at least politically……

And most of the time it does NOT mean ALL Americans, just those that work hard and try to survive…….those calling for a shared sacrifice seldom ever have to sacrifice anything……

My friend over at Quintessential Havoc (go to blogroll and visit an insightful site) and I have been bitching about politicians for some time now and it got me to thinking about ways of changing the whole atmosphere in which they work (I use the term loosely).

Americans for generations have been asked to sacrifice for the country’s sake…..wars, depression, national disasters, etc….each and every time Americans have stepped up for the good of their country…most recently Americans have sacrificed, not all, but a few….war has made American families sacrifice everything…not only the loss of lives and the mutilation of bodies.  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken families to the brink…..multiple deployments, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers taken away from their families so that many situations are lost like births, deaths, birthdays, anniversaries, first steps, etc. etc.  And these people do this voluntarily for the good of the country.

What have you done?

If you do not live near a military base then the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mean very little to you…..Americans are not asked to sacrifice for the good of the country and when only a small percentage is asked to do so…sacrifice, that is……

I am tired of hearing these “do nothing” worms in Washington talk about sacrifice…they know nothing about sacrifice….but they want you top sacrifice while they retain their privileged existence…..that is time for a change…….

But then I think that congress people should not have their families with them and that they should live in a dormitory type structure…(I hear that the Watergate is for sale..) after all these people only work about 3 days a week and spend the rest of their time at home fund raising….so it is not like that they would be deprived of their families, like the troops.  There would be NO need for private schools or houses in exclusive neighborhoods.   If they have time for tanning beds and golf and other such pursuits then we are paying them too much or they are NOT doing their job…after all they are in Washington to run the government, not to increase their visibilities at social functions.  Or to take vacations and call it work.  Let these clowns share in the sacrifices of the working people of this country.  (Emphasis for effect)

And further more it is time to consider making these perpetual candidates to start retiring when they hit 75…..time to move past people running the country that are over 90 and cannot remember their gran kid’s names…we all bitch about making the government more fiscal conservative then eliminate the expenses that these celebrities run up in the name of doing their jobs.  But nope we had rather let them gut the education system, among many programs and retain their elitism.

The problem is that Americans are timid and allow the top 10% to make their decisions and their sacrifices.

YOU WANT CHANGE!  Then change everything about the Congress…you will have to do it because your elected officials will NOT change the sure thing or the sweet gig that they have….but NO you prefer to let them talk and promise and bullsh*t you…all the while they are getting rich on your dime…..does that sound logical or for that matter, rational?

Oil Spill Theater

Daily Agitator

Just like ALL issues or situations…the political theater is in full swing……the Gulf oil spill is a train wreck that I cannot stop staring at…..and the politics of the spill are so f*cking absurd that I cannot stop keeping up with ……

We have the CEO of BP who cannot take his foot out of his mouth….we have news organizations that are trying to link the spill to Obama and his band of radical environmentalists and we have state politics speaking and accusing and….all in all playing politics….with a disaster of this magnitude, that should be treason or some equally serious crime…

Mississippi’s Haley Barbour has gone on record as saying that the drilling moratorium is more disastrous than the spill…,.and then there is Louisiana’s  gov. Jindal…who has spent more time in front of the cameras than Paris Hilton….he has accused the government of slow action…he has accused BP of withholding info and cash…he has…..oh Hell he has accused everybody but Christ for the oil problems.

He has especially bitched about not having the proper tools at his disposal to fight the oil spill…..B-U-T!

a CBS News Investigates report that Gulf coast governors haven’t been fully utilizing the 17,500 National Guard troops authorized by the federal government to help them with the oil spill,  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office offered a tart response.In a statement sent to ProPublica, Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said that Louisiana would “call up more National Guard troops as the Adjutant General tells us he needs them.”

He followed up with a harsh criticism of the federal government’s response efforts.

“We spend more time fighting red tape and bureaucracy than we ever should have to if the federal government understood this oil spill as the war that it is.”

Jindal’s statement doesn’t address the specific question of why Louisiana is using only 1,053 of the 6,000 National Guard troops available to the state. The governor said that he would “deploy every resource” available to win the war against the BP oil spill, and complained that Coast Guard and BP authorization were required for individual tasks, which apparently slowed down the deployment of National Guard troops. However, the governor’s office told CBS News that he has not specifically asked for more National Guard troops.

He is playing a political game…..he is following the GOP line that the government is to blame….every time I see him on the tube he is throwing out political barbs at the president….he seldom answers direct questions of what HE is doing….he is playing the people for political advantage……personally I think the pigs like this are the assh*les we can live without.

Stop The Brit Bashing!

Daily Agitator

There has been a lot of blame thrown around over the oil spill that BP made…..and across the pond we are being warned……

This from the Evening Standard in the UK……

Senior Tories today warned Barack Obama to back off as billions of pounds were wiped off BP shares in the row over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” after days of scathing criticism directed at BP by the President and other US politicians.

Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit branded Mr Obama’s conduct “despicable”. And with the dispute threatening to escalate into a diplomatic row, Mr Johnson also appeared to suggest that David Cameron should step in to defend BP.

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect here…….politicians in the UK are up in arms about the US bashing the country……I hate to piss on their parade but NO one here is blaming the country of Great Britain for the oil spill….however we are pretty pissed at a company called British Petroleum (BP)…..but I do not believe that anyone here thinks that they are one in the same entities……as I have said in the past, Americans are not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but I do NOT believe that anyone is stupid enough to blame a country for what a corporation has done.  Unless of course, the corporation is running the country……

I mean, on come, even the CEO of BP has stated for the record that it is the responsibility of the company to make good on the losses that they have created….

Apparently the news coverage across the pond is not being accurate and are trying to lather the people up for NO good reason……maybe it is just political spin for some reason…kinda the way some are blaming Obama for the spill….whatever the case it is f*cking wrong to do so.

This news does NOT pass the sniff test……Sorry my friends but NO one is blame the UK!