Posts Tagged ‘Senate’
Image from the BBC!
What’s a pipeline got to do with a payroll tax holiday? Ask the US Senate.
A new strategy to curb illegal immigration: fencing off the ocean.
Looks like TLC’s “All American Muslims” found some advertisers to replace Lowes.
Hunting and gathering in the holiday season.
Thanks to the LA Times!
While the country is snarling at democratic candidates in much of the country, there’s at least one Democrat whose chances of a win in 2012 look bright.
Her name is Elizabeth Warren.
If you’re thinking, “I know that name.” you are not alone…
Warren previously served as President Obama’s Special Adviser to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she also created.
But now she’s running for the U. S. Senate in Massachusetts facing the rookie Republican Scott Brown.
Recent polls show the candidate leading Brown by a significant 7 points. The Republican incumbent won the seat in the heavily Democratic state after the death of longtime senator Ted Kennedy. He now must run for his own full term.
The new poll results are bound to send more shockwaves across the country, where Democrats and Republicans are closely watching to see whether the Harvard Law professor can knock off one of the GOP’s rising stars. The Massachusetts race could determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate and Democrats are making the race one of their top priorities.”
While Warren must first win her state’s primary, big name Republicans are already eyeing her as the eventual competitor.
…the consumer advocate-turned-Massachusetts Senate candidate, is fighting back after a new ad from an independent group founded by Karl Rove accuses her of being too close to big business. Warren has emerged as an early target of Rove’s Crossroads.”
Do Democrats have one thing to look forward to in 2012?
Thanks to The Washington Post!
Times are tough. Folks are suffering. Time for Washington to act, Right?
Nope!
At least that was the answer in the Senate yesterday.
In a move that should surprise no one, the Senate GOP voted unanimously to block President Obama’s jobs bill.
The $447 billion proposal faced its first real test after being touted all over the country by the president himself. But the Republicans weren’t the only ones with “doubts” about the bill.
On Tuesday morning, senior White House officials said this is just the first act in a long-term play. They brushed aside the dissent among Democrats and urged Americans instead to look at the Republicans, unanimously voting against job-creation measures.”
Facing opposition from both parties, the next steps for the legislation remain unclear.
Votes on pieces of the bill could begin later this month, perhaps as early as next week, Senate Democratic aides said. Party leaders said they needed to consult their caucus before they decide on the timing or choose the provisions to be considered separately.”
Is the president running out of time? Or will be looking for a job soon?
While the US election is still over a year away, campaigning is in full swing in many parts of the country.
In the state of Massachusetts, one election promises to get plenty of national media attention.
Last week, noted consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren announced she would seek the office of United States Senator for the Democrats.
Warren, who is a professor at Harvard Law School, writes and speaks extensively on issues relating to consumer finance protection
She’s a strong advocate for protecting consumers against credit card companies, mortgage companies and student loan outfits who
“want to do business… through tricks and traps and fine print and fooling people.”
President Obama sought Warren’s advice in establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this year. However, she was not nominated to head the new agency. Is the protection of consumers exclusively a liberal goal?
A video of Warren on her “Talking Tour” has gotten a lot of traction online. Her knowledge of serious issues and her ability to explain them to non-experts (in a simple, unpatronizing way) have appealed to some voters.
If she wins the Democratic primary, Warren will face incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown, the total dreamboat who won the election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat in January of 2010. Brown’s success in that election was in part due to the lackluster campaign of his opponent, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who the Democratic party figured was a shoo-in.
According to Public Policy Polling, Warren leads Sen. Scott Brown by two points–but, of course, it’s still very early.
Is Elizabeth Warren the candidate Massachusetts has been waiting for? Will her advocacy on behalf of the middle class win her their support? We’ve got a long campaign season ahead of us. The race between Warren and Brown is definitely one to watch.
With all the important stuff going on in the world (Like the finals of Dancing with The Stars) we at USDemocrazy have completely forgotten about NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION.
Yes folks, Armageddon is Back! And two people want to do something about it: Superman (see above) and President Obama (no, they are not the same person).
Let’s focus on Obama…
Russia, our arch enemy for decades is still armed to the teeth with massive amount of Nuclear bombs, missiles and even landmines. Our teeth are similarly armed.
President Obama has his own anti-nuke dental floss that he would like to deploy to both nation’s teeth. It’s the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) the president signed with Russia.
Designed to replace the old and expiring START treaty
“New START limits both the United States and Russia to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, 30% below the upper limit of the 2002 Moscow Treaty.”
The treaties is signed… so the US is beginning to reduces its nuclear arms, right?
Wrong! thanks to that pesky thing called the US Constitution, the Senate needs to ratify all treaties signed by the President.
Unfortunately, many Senators, mostly Republicans have stated their opposition. …read more.
Such are the words spoken by the first contender in USDemocrazy’s seminal 2010 election for BEST CAMPAIGN AD (of the year) EVER.
This week’s ad comes to us from a contender against Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont in the Democratic primary. Daniel Freilich makes a couple promises in this ad, but forgot to promise that if he got enough votes, TV viewers in Vermont would get more campaign gems like these. Check it out:
If the premise of the commercial seems familiar, it might be because you’ve seen those Old Spice ads that were such a hit on the Internet this summer. Nothing like basing your campaign strategy on deodorant marketing!
Now, we need your help in gauging public opinion on the greatness of the ads you’ll be seeing as the election season progresses. Comment away! (And don’t let the fact that Freilich only gained 11% of the vote in the August 24 primary sway you.)
We’d like to pretend we understood everything that was going on in the House over the past two days… But, well, we didn’t. (Hey, you try explaining parliamentary procedure!)
So, we’re here to show you what we’ve been reading to educate ourselves on just what happened yesterday when the House (well, the House Democrats, really) voted to pass this historic health care reform legislation. …read more.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
Question: Do you remember that recent financial crisis that was going to (play scary music) DESTROY THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!?! (in case you don’t… crawl out from under your rock and check out US Democrazy’s past coverage).
Fortunately for us, politicians everywhere agreed to do everything possible to ensure that such a crisis did not happen again.
Unfortunately, these politicians cannot seem to agree on… what exactly “everything possible” means…
Like everything in Washington these days, reform of the financial and banking industry (which helped create the almighty mess we are stuck in) is in a partisan deadlock.
There was some progress made in 2009 when the House of Representatives passed a financial reform bill last December.
Since then, that bill has languished in the clutches of the US Senate (an organization about as fast as molasses up hill in January).
But HARK! (play triumphant music) all that is about to change! A Senate version of the bill may be emerging! …read more.
Photo Credit: The Washington Post
Washington DC is rolling in pork. We don’t meat all those BBQ ribs consumed at Super Bowl Parties (Who Dat?!).
No, we are talking about pork-barrel spending. That’s when politicians grab government funds for pet projects in their congressional districts.
Now, to be fair, every politician does this. If congress folk bring home the Bacon (hence the term “Pork”) to their district voters love ‘em for it. Who doesn’t like somebody else’s money being spent on them?
But there are some in Congress who are artfully abusing working this system. The most notorious example might be Alabama Senator Richard Shelby’s $40 billion pet project (yes, that is Billion with a B).
His local project wants to take taxpayer money to create air-to-air refueling tankers and an explosive testing lab for the FBI (let’s hope the the exposive testing does not take place inside the fuel tankers).
Okay…maybe the USA needs these projects…but Senator Shelby has a curious way of convincing opponents to support him: he is using BLACKMAIL.
The powerful Senator has decided to block any of the Obama administration’s nominees (and there are loads) until he gets his Mega Billion Payout. …read more.
Scott Brown (left) annd Martha Coakley
This coming Tuesday is an important day for USDemocrazy. We’re going to see Avatar for the sixteenth time!
But apparently it’s also a big day for blue people that have nothing to do with James Cameron: the Democrats.
Tuesday there will be an election for a Massachusetts Senate seat occupied by the late Ted Kennedy. This election is tightly tied to health care reform, an issue Mr. Kennedy was very passionate about.
Here’s the contenders: Democrat Martha Coakley vs. Republican Scott Brown. And it’s going to be a close one, folks.
Why is this a big election for health care reform? Says the Wall Street Journal:
If Brown wins, ObamaCare dies. He would be the 41st vote to prevent any compromise legislation from coming to the floor of the Senate.
And if ObamaCare dies, then Mr. Obama himself won’t look so great. Hence why he has been right there with Coakley, campaigning hard for a Democrat to keep the seat. (check out above video that doesn’t include hecklers) …read more.
Image taken from fruitfly.wordpress.com
We here at USDemocrazy are quite familiar with reruns. By reruns, we mean our editors mercilessly rerun the same gripes about our alleged bad speling.
But this week, we have come across a rerun of the political sort.
The Associated Press reported over the weekend that former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani may be seeking to re-ignite his political career. …read more.
We at US Democrazy may not have been working last Saturday night, but our friends on Capital Hill were.
Recently you may recall that there has been a bit of a tussle about health care reform. (Okay.. it wasn’t a tussle, more like a mud wrestling match).
Well, a health care bill has taken its first tentative steps towards life after a close 220-215 vote in the House of Representatives.
What does the bill entail? A lot, it’s over 1000 pages short long. For a more sane, digestible look, here is the official summary.
Peter Orszag, who heads the Office of Management and Budget
We are told nothing in life is free, (except the useless advice given to us by our editors). With this in mind, we at USDemocrazy regularly set out to find websites that have real value.
With all the talk of billions of dollars being spent by the government… we wanted to find out how something of real value (our money) is being spent. …read more.
WHY DID YOU STOP PANICKING?!?! Swine flu is not gone!!!!
Shocking! Apple announces an electrifying feature of its iPods and iPhones.
Michael Steele: Back and With a Vengeance. Summer blockbuster or real life?
So, Guantanamo, what’s new with you these days? No one is sure…
We here at USDemocrazy ponder politics quite a lot. (That’s why we get paid the big bucks — wait… we haven’t been paid in a while… Gotta go talk to someone about that.)
You know who DOES get paid? Senators… and right now things are really paying off for Democratic Senators.
Yesterday it was announced Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator Arlen Specter… is SWITCHING OVER TO THE DEMOCRATS!
That’s gotta make some people (namely, Republicans) unhappy, right? You betcha. (Michael Steele said Specter basically “flipped the bird” to Republican leadership…)
The best explanation for this monumental switch can be heard straight from the horse’s mouth (or do we call him a donkey now?), which you can see in the video above.
Now… this switcheroo is kind of a big deal.
Specter’s addition to the Democrats in the Senate would give them a filibuster-proof majority (it takes 60 votes… they currently have 59). This will allow the Democrats to straitjacket any Republican opposition and bulldoze through their (and President Obama’s) agenda.
This a body blow to an already reeling Republican opposition.
There’s so much news on this subject right now that we’re going to let those people who are WAY smarter than us do the talking. I mean, those journalists get paid too… So they better be doing a good job.
Here goes:
Salon explores “The Specter of a shrinking GOP”
The NYT gives us the deets (that’s hip-talk for details, we’ve been told).
Was this just a career-saving move? Some say yes.
The floor is now open for debate on what will be Specter’s contribution to the Dems.
Can he alter Obama’s financial agenda? Really?
What does this supermajority truly mean?
How’s the GOP taking this? Maybe better than we thought? (But maybe not.)
He was against party-switching before he was for it.
Finally, what does our good ol’ Vice Prez think? As a Democrat, he’s pretty happy. Here’s what he had to say:
I welcome my old friend to the Democratic Party. Senator Arlen Specter is a man of remarkable courage and integrity. I know he will remain a powerful and independent voice for Pennsylvania and the country.
Do you think party-switching should be allowed? How do you feel about Specter’s choice? We know we’re still caught up in the whirl of news stories, so we’d appreciate some opinions…
