snagglepuss
snagglepuss's JournalDemocratic Voter Turnout In Erie County Trending High - Near Historic Level
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Erie County Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Len Lenihan is projecting a near-historic turnout for Tuesday’s primary election.
“I think by the time the night is up we’re going to be between 35 and forty percent and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hit forty,” Lenihan said.
He said Democratic voter interest is highest in the City of Buffalo where the white vote is projecting to be about sixty percent. The black vote in the city is running at about 25 percent.
In the suburbs, the elections commissioner said turnout is running consistently around 35 percent. Lenihan believes multiple factors are contributing including the fact that both races are contested, candidates and national media actually came to Western New York, and the weather was beautiful on Tuesday.
http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2016/04/voter-turnout-in-erie-county-trending-high/
The incompetent fuckups in charge of NYC elections got BIG pay raise last year after a secret vote!
The city Board of Election's executive director, Staten Island Democrat Michael Ryan, will see his pay jump nearly 10%, to $198,200 from about $180,600 after the secret vote. and that's just the start, go to link to read more.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/board-elections-managers-huge-pay-raises-article-1.2270469
MUST SEE! INSPIRATIONAL GIANTS - (Charlie Chaplin voice-over )
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Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
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The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
Bernie Gets It Done: SANDERS RECORD OF PUSHING THROUGH MAJOR REFORMS WILL SURPRISE YOU!
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Amendments in the House of Representatives are often seen as secondary vehicles to legislation that individual members sponsor, but they are an important way to move resources and build bipartisan coalitions to change the direction of the law. Despite the fact that the most right-wing Republicans in a generation controlled the House of Representatives between 1994 and 2006, the member who passed the most amendments during that time was not a right-winger like Bob Barr or John Boehner. The amendment king was, instead, Bernie Sanders.
Sanders did something particularly original, which was that he passed amendments that were exclusively progressive, advancing goals such as reducing poverty and helping the environment, and he was able to get bipartisan coalitions of Republicans who wanted to shrink government or hold it accountable and progressives who wanted to use it to empower Americans.
Here are a few examples of the amendments Sanders passed by building unusual but effective coalitions:
Corporate Crime Accountability (February 1995): A Sanders amendment to the Victims Justice Act of 1995 required “offenders who are convicted of fraud and other white-collar crimes to give notice to victims and other persons in cases where there are multiple victims eligible to receive restitution.”
Saving Money, for Colleges and Taxpayers (April 1998): In an amendment to H.R. 6, the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, Sanders made a change to the law that allowed the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education to make competitive grants available to colleges and universities that cooperated to reduce costs through joint purchases of goods and services.
Holding IRS Accountable, Protecting Pensions (July 2002): Sanders' amendment to the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 2003 stopped the IRS from being able to use funds that “violate current pension age discrimination laws.” Although he faced stiff GOP opposition, his amendment still succeeded along a 308 to 121 vote.
Expanding Free Health Care (November 2001): You wouldn't think Republicans would agree to an expansion of funds for community health centers, which provide some free services. But Sanders was able to win a $100 million increase in funding with an amendment.
Getting Tough On Child Labor (July 2001): A Sanders amendment to the general appropriations bill prohibited the importation of goods made with child labor.
Increasing Funding for Heating for the Poor (September 2004): Sanders won a $22 million increase for the low-income home energy assistance program and related weatherization assistance program.
Fighting Corporate Welfare and Protecting Against Nuclear Disasters (June 2005): A Sanders amendment brought together a bipartisan coalition that outnumbered a bipartisan coalition on the other side to successfully prohibit the Export-Import Bank from providing loans for nuclear projects in China.
Once Sanders made it to the Senate in 2006, his ability to use amendments to advance a progressive agenda was empowered. [b]Here are some of the amendments he passed in the Senate:
Greening the U.S. Government (June 2007): A Sanders amendment made a change to the law so at least 30 percent of the hot water demand in newer federal buildings is provided through solar water heaters.
Protecting Our Troops (October 2007): Sanders used an amendment to win $10 million for operation and maintenance of the Army National Guard, which had been stretched thin and overextended by the war in Iraq.
Restricting the Bailout to Protect U.S. Workers (Feburary 2009): A Sanders amendment required the banking bailout to utilize stricter H-1B hiring standards to ensure bailout funds weren't used to displace American workers.
Helping Veterans' Kids (July 2009): A Sanders amendment required the Comptroller General to put together comprehensive reporting on financial assistance for child care available to parents in the Armed Forces.
Exposing Corruption in the Military-Industrial Complex (November 2012): A Sanders amendment required “public availability of the database of senior Department officials seeking employment with defense contractors” – an important step toward transparency that revealed the corruption of the revolving door in action.
Support for Treating Autism in Military Health Care: Sanders worked with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to pass an amendment by a vote of 66-29 ensuring that the military's TRICARE system would be able to treat autism.
READ MORE AT:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-gets-it-done-sanders-record-pushing-through-major-reforms-will-surprise-you
GO BERNIE GO!
WOW! CNN - BERNIE TAKING A SLEDGEHAMMER TO THE POLITICAL STATUS QUO ON ISRAEL TAKES COURAGE!
WOW! CNN - BERNIE TAKING A SLEDGEHAMMER TO THE POLITICAL STATUS QUO ON ISRAEL TAKES COURAGE!
Van Jones, a former Obama political aide said "I haven't seen anyone at this level of the game -- say, 'Look, let's have a more balanced approach,...That takes a level of courage and a level of integrity. You can disagree with it, you can feel badly about it, you can be proud of it -- but something happened tonight."-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sanders refused to back down Thursday night from his claim that Israel in 2014 used "disproportionate" force to respond to Hamas rocket fire from Gaza while calling for the United States to stop being "one-sided" in the conflict there. In doing so, he upended a long-standing tenet of American politics: that unflinching support for Israel is non-negotiable.
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CNN political commentator Van Jones, a former Obama political aide, said Thursday night that Sanders' focus on Palestinian rights during the debate was "extraordinary."
"It's not just that it was interesting politics in New York. It's that I've never seen a Democratic candidate trying to be president -- I haven't seen a Republican, I haven't seen anyone at this level of the game -- say, 'Look, let's have a more balanced approach," Jones said. "That takes a level of courage and a level of integrity. You can disagree with it, you can feel badly about it, you can be proud of it -- but something happened tonight."
However, it is far from clear what political costs, if any, Sanders will face from his outspokenness, which also included him stating that "we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity" and "we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time."
Read more at
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/16/politics/bernie-sanders-israel-democratic-politics/
Go Bernie Go!
Haaretz: Bernie Sanders vs. the Out-of-touch American Jewish Establishment
Sanders' ... recognition of the injustice of the occupation, is a rebuke to those in the U.S. and Israel who believe Jews should only care about other Jews’ freedom and dignity. No wonder they’re trying to marginalize him.
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As Jews in the U.S., we are taught over and over about the history of our persecution. American Jews are applying the lessons we learned from that history — and the reality of our current situation — by supporting Bernie Sanders.
The out-of-touch American Jewish establishment — and some of their funders on Wall Street — believe the lesson of the history of Jewish persecution is to join with the powerful to protect ourselves. Many Jews in America believe our safety lies in becoming a part of the American empire, white supremacy, or corporate capitalism.
But as this generation comes of age in an economy wrecked by greed, a society alienated from each other by the gospel of individualism and the violent lies of racism, in an empire laid bare by the foolishness of conquest, we are looking for truth-tellers who defy the corrupt political and economic establishment. Bernie Sanders resonates with this generation of American Jews because he speaks with a prophetic voice that is at the heart of our tradition.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.714596
Times of Israel: Sanders’s Israel criticism has some US Jews feeling the Bern!
April 17, 2016,
Bernie Sanders "unprecedented questioning of Jerusalem’s policies will likely play into key Jewish vote in upcoming New York primary"
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not right all of the time,” said the Vermont senator at the debate. “We cannot continue to be one-sided.”
He criticized Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton for not saying that she would do more to promote Palestinian rights when she addressed the powerful right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby in Washington in March.
“If we are ever going to bring peace to that region, which has seen so much hatred and so much war, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity,” Sanders said.
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In other countries the remarks would have been considered run of the mill, said Daniel Sieradski, national organizer of the group “Jews for Bernie” which has 8,000 supporters on Facebook.
“But because the discourse in American Jewish politics has been pulled so far to the right in the last couple of decades, Bernie is being made to sound like some anti-Israel extremist,” he said.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/sanderss-israel-criticism-splits-jewish-american-vote/
Fact: Bernie Sanders Got More Done in the Senate than Hillary Clinton!
THIS IS COMPARING THE FIRST 8 YEARS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SENATE LEGISLATIVE RECORDS
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I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive that likes to get things done,” said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the first primary debate. Nevermind that the things Clinton helped ‘get done’ — the disastrous Iraq war, the Patriot Act — should have never been done, the purpose of this jab was twofold:
Leverage her status as a Washington insider to present herself to voters as a pragmatist uniquely qualified to get things done as president.
Draw a contrast between herself and her main rival, independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who she insinuated is a progressive that does not get things done.
This line of attack works because it plays on a common stereotype that socialists and progressives are more interested in ideological purity than in making real-world progress, but when we compare the first eight years of their respective Senate legislative records, it turns out Sanders got more meaningful legislation done than Clinton.
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As a Senator, Clinton sponsored three bills that became law:
The first of these renamed a highway in New York state, S.3145
the second renamed a post office in New York City, S.3613
and the third established the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, New York S.1241.
During Sanders’ time in the Senate, he sponsored two bills that became law:
The first of these renamed a post office in Vermont. S.885
The second increased compensation for disabled veterans and their families. S.893.
While Sanders chaired the Senate’s Veteran Affairs committee during the 113th Congress (2013-2014), 13 of the committee’s bills became law. That may not sound like a lot until you realize that the Senate Veterans Affairs (VA) committee only passed 8.5 bills into law on average during each of the past 20 Congresses and that these 13 bills became law during the second least productive Congress in American history.
Sanders’ most significant achievement during 113th Congress was passing a $16.3 billion bipartisan VA reform bill that expanded existing and created new health care facilities, allowed veterans to go outside the VA system to private health care providers when wait times are too long or if a veteran lives more than 40 miles away from a VA facility, and made it easier to fire VA officials.
Sanders was so effective as a legislator that the (right-wing) Veterans of Foreign Wars awarded him its highest honor in 2015.
How many bills did Clinton successfully shepherd into law as the chair of a Senate committee? Zero. Clinton did not chair any Senate committees during the three Congresses she served in because she did not accumulate enough seniority.
If you are looking for a presidential candidate with a proven record of beating partisan gridlock to get meaningful legislation passed in Washington, D.C., then Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders deserves your support.
https://pplswar.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/fact-bernie-sanders-got-more-done-in-the-senate-than-hillary-clinton/
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