We Need Another Democrat

Tomorrow’s Political Cartoon?

I’m trying my best. But there is a limit to what I can accomplish when there are 232 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives (a/k/a “the Comatose Caucus”) and only 201 Democrats.

If we’re going to win more votes, and pass more good bills, then we need more Democrats. Democracy is like that.

Tomorrow, there is a special election in South Carolina to replace Tim Scott, who was the last remaining African-American Republican in the House. (There are 42 African-American Democrats in the House.) The Republican nominee is former Governor Sanford. The Democratic nominee is Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Despite the fact that President Obama lost this district last year by 18 points, in the latest poll, the two candidates are only one point apart.

I’m not going to make fun of Governor Sanford. That’s just too easy.

Nor am I going to ask you to support Colbert Busch because her brother is Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Central Channel. By the same token, I will not ask you to support Warren Beatty for Congress just because his sister is Shirley MacLaine. Same thing with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Also Peter Graves and James Arness. And Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine.

I could ask you to support Colbert Busch because, according to one report, she is pro-choice, she backs marriage equality, and she supports immigration reform. So I could ask you to support her without feeling my gorge rise. But I won’t do it for that reason alone.

No, I’m going to ask you to support her campaign because the last thing that we need in the U.S. House of Representatives right now is another Republican. And the thing that we do need is more Democrats. Seventeen more Democrats, to be exact.

We’ve established a contribution page to help her campaign. Click here, etc., etc. Let’s take back the House.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

P.S. Please help elect another Democrat by sharing this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

launch

I just left the official launch of our Off the Sidelines campaign. I am amazed by how far this movement has come – and excited about how far it can go.

As much as we have accomplished together, I know we can achieve so much more.

Thank you for all you do,

Kirsten

CARE2

Over 40 Percent Of Americans Don’t Know If Obamacare Is Still Law                                     Despite the fact that Obamacare has been in place for over three years at this point, a lot of Americans still remain confused about the specific nature… read more

Conservatives Prefer Wasting Energy Over Protecting the Environment, Study Says                                     Apparently, some conservatives hate treehuggers so much, they are willing to kill the environment just to piss us off. read more

Governor Explains Poor Jobs Numbers: Most Unemployed People Are On Drugs                                     During an appearance on a local radio show this week, Corbett sought to explain away Pennsylvania’s less than stellar job performance. read more

CONGRESS

English: The western front of the United States Capitol. The Neoclassical style building is located in Washington, D.C., on top of Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall. The Capitol was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Senate will meet in pro forma sessions only with no business conducted on the following dates at the following times:

-          Friday, April 26^th at 11:30am,

-          Tuesday, April 30^th at 10:00am, and

-          Thursday, May 3^rd at 2:00pm.

• The Senate will convene at 2:00pm on Monday, May 6, 2013.
• Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 5:30pm with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.
• At 5:30pm, the Senate will resume consideration of S.743, the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, post-cloture. The filing deadline for 2^nd degree amendments to S.743 is 4:00pm.
• At 5:30pm, all post-cloture time will be yielded back, the Durbin amendment #745 will be withdrawn, no other 2^nd degree amendments will be in order and the Senate will proceed to 2 roll call votes in relation to the following:
  • Enzi-Durbin amendment #741 and
  • Passage of S.743, as amended, if amended.
• Upon the disposition of S.743, there will be a 3^rd roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.601, the Water Resources Development Act of 2013.

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May 2013

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

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The next meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on May 3, 2013.

12:00:22 P.M.		The House convened, starting a new legislative day.
12:00:36 P.M.		The Speaker designated the Honorable Andy Harris to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
12:00:41 P.M.		Today’s prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Donna Claycomb Sokol, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, Washington, DC
12:02:21 P.M.		JOURNAL – The Chair announced that pursant to Section 2(a) of H. Res. 178, the Journal of the last day’s proceedings was approved.
12:02:31 P.M.		PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG – The Chair led the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
12:02:52 P.M.		The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on April 30, 2013 at 2:56 p.m. stating that that body had passed S. 853 and H.R. 1765, without amendment.
12:03:23 P.M.		Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission – Pursuant to section 672(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (Pub. L. 112-239), the Minority Leader appointed Mr. Christopher Carney, Dimock, PA; General Peter W. Chiarelli, Seattle, WA.
12:04:02 P.M.		The Speaker announced that the House do now adjourn pursuant to H. Res. 178.

The next meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on May 6, 2013 for Morning Hour Debate.

6 Republicans put “On Notice” ~ Emily’s List

Can you help us out real quick?  EMILY’s List just put six extreme House Republicans “On Notice” and we’d like to get the word out about their appalling record — voting against women and families at every opportunity.
We’ve created a graphic for sharing on Facebook. Would you take a moment and share it with your friends and family?

Republicans “On Notice” meet two special criteria. First, they’ve amassed appallingly anti-woman, anti-family records. And second, there is major Democratic female talent waiting in the wings. Help us get the word out that the EMILY’s List community is ready to send these guys packing!
Thanks so much,

Melissa Ryan
Digital Director, EMILY’s List

Senators …

By  ThinkProgress War Room

10 Terrible Amendments Offered Today by Senators

The Senate has been debating the Democratic budget for the past few days. One of the quirks of Senate rules means that the amendment process on the budget is completely open, allowing senators to file and request a vote on an unlimited number of amendments. They don’t even have to say what their amendments are in advance, but many still choose to file them in advance. Since the process is so open, a rarity in the gridlocked Senate, senators often use this opportunity to file highly political message amendments. We sifted through the more than 400 amendments filed and found dozens that are terrible, ridiculous,  nonsensical, damaging, or just plain crazy. Here’s a look at ten of those proposals.

1. BOSS IN YOUR BEDROOM: Sens. Fischer (R-NE), Cruz (R-TX), Johanns (R-NE), and Enzi (R-WY) introduced an amendment to put your boss in your bedroom by allowing them to deny you birth control coverage based on their beliefs, not yours. This is just one of numerous anti-Obamacare amendments offered by Republicans. Incidentally, the law turns three tomorrow. 42 GOP senators and 2 Democrats voted for this amendment.
2. NRA-FUELED CONSPIRACY THEORIES: Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) offered an amendment that would prevent the U.S. from signing on to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. The NRA and other right-wing groups falsely claim that this is some backdoor gun grab, which led the Senate to fail to ratify the treaty last year. The NRA is currently making a full court press to kill or at least gut the treaty. Sen. Vitter (R-LA) offered a similar amendment that would prohibit the U.N. from registering or taxing Americans’ guns, something the organization obviously has no plans to do.
3. HOUSE GOP BUDGET: While Republicans found time to cook up hundreds of other amendments, it seems no Republican senator wanted to vote on the House GOP budget as a substitute for the Senate Democratic plan. When Democrats offered the draconian Ryan plan that ends Medicare and raises taxes on the middle class in order to slash them on the wealthy, a measly 40 GOP senators voted for the plan from their counterparts in the House. Three GOP senators, however, voted against it because it wasn’t extreme enough.
4. GIVEAWAY TENS OF BILLIONS TO WALL STREET BANKS: In the same so-called “reconciliation” bill that was necessary to finish passing Obamacare was a provision that stopped routing federal student loans through the big banks. Previously, the banks acted as a middleman between the federal government and borrowers, reaping billions in fees each year even though they bore no risk because the government was the one guaranteeing the loans. The banks role was eliminated in 2010 and the money was shifted to Pell grants. Earlier today, Republicans put forward an  amendment to repeal all of the Obamacare bill, including the student loan reforms. This would literally take money away from students and hand it over to the Wall Street banks. 45 Republicans backed this proposal, which also was the third time this week that GOP senators forced a vote on repealing Obamacare.
5. OBAMAPHONE: One of the more racially-charged moments in last year’s presidential campaign came when Republican groups promoted a video of an African-American woman proclaiming her support for Obama because, she said, the government was giving out free cell phones, among other things. The Drudge Report and other right-wing media immediately dubbed this the “Obamaphone” controversy. As it turned out, the FCC’s Lifeline program offering free cell phones to low-income Americans began under President George W. Bush and is based on a Reagan-era program to provide low-income Americans with subsidized telephone service. Sen. Coburn (R-OK) offered an amendment to “reform” or, more likely, eliminate, this otherwise obscure program that is important to low-income Americans.
6. MITT ROMNEY’S TAX PLAN:  The Democratic plan raises close to $1 TRILLION in revenue just by closing loopholes that benefit the wealthy and corporate special interests like Big Oil. Republicans wanted to replace this with revenue-neutral tax reform that used the money to pay for huge new tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations instead of using it to reduce the deficit. This is almost identical to the Romney-Ryan tax plan that raised middle class taxes and which voters soundly rejected last year. All 45 GOP senators voted for this recycled Romney plan, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) also included in this year’s House GOP budget.
7. KILL WIND JOBS, SEND CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY TO CHINA: Sen. Alexander (R-TN) wants to repeal the vital tax credits for wind power, just as Mitt Romney proposed last year. This would kill 37,000 jobs more or less immediately and effectively cede the clean energy industry to China and our other foreign competitors.
8. LEAVE THE UN: Sen. Paul (R-KY) proposed one measure to save a very small amount of money: withdraw from the United Nations.
9. RACE-BAITING WELFARE LIES: You may remember that Mitt Romney and other Republicans advanced the outright lie that President Obama “removed the work requirement from welfare.” This was categorically untrue, but that didn’t stop Republicans from airing millions of dollars in ads about it. In any case, the GOP campaign of distortion around the amendment has resulted in no states taking advantage of the flexibility requested by some Republican governors that the Obama administration offered to grant. Nevertheless, Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) is still so concerned that he offered an amendment to address the non-existent problem of the work requirement having been removed from welfare. For good measure, he offered a  second mean-spirited amendment that mandates drug testing for welfare recipients.
10. CREATE A PERMANENT IMMIGRANT UNDERCLASS: Sen. Sessions (R-AR), who has faced charges of racial prejudice in the past and was once denied a seat on the federal bench as a result, put forward a proposal to bar even those immigrants who receive legal status from receiving numerous tax breaks directed at the working poor. This would even prevent immigrants from receiving tax breaks that they are claiming on behalf of their American citizen children.

These are just a few of the dozens of terrible proposals put forward today by Republican senators.

March madness -Monday

photo from seattletimes

rain wind and more rain …

The 3-day CPAC summit should, if nothing else open up some minds to what Conservatives are all about and maybe hear what some believe is a misinterpretation of liberty, freedom and what  role our government plays in our society

Oh … get your cards out it’s time to fill in your brackets as 2013 NCAA Tournament play … March Madness begins on Tuesday without Kentucky! and Washington State is wishing Gonzaga the best as they receive first ever No. 1 seed

What worried me before the midterm and Election2012 was the possibility that people who have no experience, common sense or clarity may get on the floor of Congress and really ruin what use to be a great country if they “take back their country.”  I guess you can plug-in whatever that means for you though it sounds like an awful way to live if you are a minority on any level.  We all know folks who are suffering directly from votes Republican lawmakers made and are still making on the local state and federal level; to be sure, the midterm elections affected each state differently, in gross and horrific ways.

Election2012 resulted in a 2nd term for President Barack H Obama.

Now, maybe people understand and or know that all elections have consequences.  Then again, I could be wrong. The grim reality is that a vote for Republicans is a vote against your best interest – people.  If you live on the Gulf Coast or in Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan you have to ask yourself what have Republicans really done for you lately and do you have family friends co-workers who are Teachers, Cops, Emts, Firefighters …any type of Rescue worker … Why? Republican members of Congress have been voting against them on the floor of Congress since 2009 while Republican Governors are acting out the mission under the guise of “States Rights” , which is to restrict cut and abolish governmental workers. While making way for the privatization of social programs only our government should handle such as EPA, Dept. of Ed, Medicare let alone kill Medicaid, FEMA and more $$ for big corporations though government can be a force for good and if interpreted correctly …

“The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people,

whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot, so

well do, for themselves — in their separate and individual capacities.” – Lincoln

Obviously, the conservative plan is evil in my opinion , without remorse or forethought of what our neighborhoods would look once they defund every social service and eliminate Working Families.

The results from election2014 could affect our children, our lives, and our future.

Weekly Address: Congress Must Act Now to Stop the Sequester.

President Obama urges Congress to stop the sequester — the harmful automatic cuts that threaten thousands of jobs and affect our national security from taking effect on March 1.

Your Guide To The Looming Spending Cuts: Where They Came From And What They Will Mean

 

by Travis Waldron

ThinkProgress

The United States is rapidly approaching March 1, the date on which the automatic spending cuts put in place by the summer 2011 debt ceiling deal will begin taking effect. There is little indication that Congress will avert the cuts as it did in January, as Republican leaders have thus far been unwilling to negotiate with President Obama and Senate Democrats.

Congress is currently on recess until next Monday, leaving just five legislative days until the automatic cuts — known as sequestration — will take effect. Here’s a breakdown of why the sequester was created and what it will mean for programs facing cuts and the nation’s overall economic recovery:

Why the sequester was created. The sequester was a result of the GOP’s wrangling over the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011, when Republican leaders — who had previously passed clean debt increases 19 times under President Bush — demanded spending cuts as the price for averting a costly default. On the brink of default, Congress passed the Budget Control Act, which enacted immediate spending cuts and created a supercommittee tasked with striking a “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit. Republicans walked away from the committee after refusing to consider tax increases on the wealthy, setting sequestration into motion. The sequester, which cuts from both domestic and defense spending, was designed to be painful enough that both sides would negotiate to avert it.

How to avoid it. The sequester was originally supposed to take effect on January 1, but it was avoided as part of the overall “fiscal cliff” deal that maintained most of the Bush-era tax cuts and enacted spending reductions to offset the first round of automatic cuts. In the past, Republicans offered plans to offset the sequester by cutting more spending, even though deficit reduction efforts have been heavily skewed toward spending cuts to domestic programs already. Democrats have offered multiple proposals that would bring more balance to efforts to reduce the deficit. A plan from the Congressional Progressive Caucus would replace the sequester largely with new revenue, evening the balance of spending cuts and revenue increases in overall deficit reduction efforts. Senate Democrats proposed a plan that reduced the deficit by $110 billion, enough to offset the sequester until next January. Half of the reduction comes from cuts, the other half from tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans, however, have again refused to negotiate over new revenues, even from tax reform that would close corporate loopholes.

What it will mean. Because its cuts are across-the-board, the sequester will affect most domestic programs. Jobless workers will lose access to unemployment benefits, while safety net programs for women and children and early childhood education programs will face deep cuts. The sequester will cut funding for law enforcement and border security, food safety, airline travel security, Head Start, disaster relief, and health research. Defense programs will also see reductions. These cuts will have broad ramifications for the country’s recovering economy, pushing it down the austere path Europe has followed into second recessions. Independent reports predict that sequestration would reduce economic growth by 0.6 percent over the year while also leading to the loss of 700,000 jobs. The debt limit fight that created the sequester already pummeled the recovery, and allowing these spending cuts to take effect would cause even bigger problems.

VAWA passes in the Senate 78 – 22 : We ALL need to Stand UP and Speak Out

 and Men

April is known as “Sexual Assault Awareness Month” … Help break the accepted cycle and culture of violence -

Tell Congress to do what is right for ALL victims of Domestic Violence.

What better way for members of the House of Representatives to show ALL victims of domestic violence that as Public Servants, they support and protect the right to live a decent life which includes the pursuit of happiness by passing the Senate version of VAWA S.1925.

The fact is the Violence Against Women’s Act has always passed in both Chambers without a problem is well known, though the Republican led House chose to show overt prejudice against Native Alaskan, Native Americans, Undocumented and LGBT Americans when it rejected VAWA on March 30, 2012.

However, Republicans have yet another opportunity to do what is right. Tell your Republican member of Congress to be on the right side of History and pass the Senate version of #VAWA that protects all victims of these crimes, regardless of their age, gender, race, sexuality, or faith. The mission to continue that conservative party line lives on and seems to insist on taking, stripping, yanking, cutting, slashing away personal power while yelling that they want smaller Government and  it defies what Americans are about . Teapublicans in Congress, a small coalition, have made a choice to attack social issues, the decision to go out of their way to filibuster the economy is beyond my understanding.

If you believe Americans have A RIGHT to experience equality in all its forms: voter, union, women’s, gender, minority, and gay RIGHTs -along with more than a splash of compassion for the poor think about the Violence Against Women Act and how it might be affecting your family friends neighbors or co-workers.

on Apr 25, 2012 by     SenateDemocrats

Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer (CA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Patty Murray (WA) stress the importance of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act to protect victims of domestic violence, regardless of sexual orientation or background.

President Obama and his administration changed the definition of rape to help more people

Please show support for S.1925, Call your member of Congress Tell them to PASS #VAWA  -

A lot of misinformation is being circulated by the bills detractors about S. 1925, the real #VAWA.

Read below for the facts !

(1)    Since #VAWA first passed, the number of individuals killed by an intimate partner has decreased by 34% for women and 57% for men. #VAWA has saved lives while saving money, saving $12.6 billion in its first 6 years alone.

(2)    S. 1925 saves money by consolidating and repealing more than 15 programs, ensuring more funding will go directly to needed victim services rather than grant administration.

(3)   S. 1925 adopts almost word-for-word the accountability measures developed by Senator Grassley for the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Act.

(4)     S. 1925 does not create “new victims” or support “special interests”.  The real #VAWA protects all victims of these crimes, regardless of their age, gender, race, citizenship, sexuality, or faith.

(5)   Our nation must not say, “There are too many victims” or “You are not the ‘right’ kind of victim”. All victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking deserve help. That is what S. 1925, the real VAWA, does. It’s time – way past time — to do much more to stop this violence, and to protect victims from all walks of life including:

- Lack of services available to LGBTQ victims;•

- Barriers to services for undocumented victims; and•

- Continuing high levels of violence against Native American and Native Alaskan women.

- Please support VAWA’s Reauthorization.

- Domestic violence affects all of us.

- Congress should reauthorize the VAWA and provide funding.

Be a Seed for Change