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Segami
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Segami's Journal
November 8, 2014
Joe 'I'm-a-hybrid-Dem' Manchin showing his true colors...........FUGG YOU JOEY......
Joe Manchin is stepping down from NoLabels, the Republican-lite group that exists to promote politicians claiming to be Democrats while actually behaving like Republicans. Good for him. That's another group that needs to die. But don't mistake that move for anything like Manchin behaving like a Democrat, because it's not. Nay, Manchin never misses an opportunity to slap around the President on behalf of his coal-minded Republican friends back in West Virginia. He also makes clear that he's stepping down but not abandoning their core belief, which is that if the Congress does Republican things, that means they're all getting along.
Time Magazine, that bastion of neutrality, interviewed him recently.
The reason Manchin wants to see how the Senate is restructured is this: He just wants the Senate to work. And if it works with Republicans at the helm passing lots of right-wing corporate agenda items, that's totally fine with him.
......FU!!
cont'
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/joe-manchin-perfectly-illustrates-dems
Joe Manchin PERFECTLY ILLUSTRATES Dems' Problem
Manchin never wastes an opportunity to take a gratuitous slam at President Obama while promoting ideals that more closely align with Republicans.
Joe 'I'm-a-hybrid-Dem' Manchin showing his true colors...........FUGG YOU JOEY......
Joe Manchin is stepping down from NoLabels, the Republican-lite group that exists to promote politicians claiming to be Democrats while actually behaving like Republicans. Good for him. That's another group that needs to die. But don't mistake that move for anything like Manchin behaving like a Democrat, because it's not. Nay, Manchin never misses an opportunity to slap around the President on behalf of his coal-minded Republican friends back in West Virginia. He also makes clear that he's stepping down but not abandoning their core belief, which is that if the Congress does Republican things, that means they're all getting along.
Time Magazine, that bastion of neutrality, interviewed him recently.
Manchin, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, could fill a key role next year as the Senate Republican majority tries to implement its agenda, including authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline and raising the Affordable Care Act’s workweek from 30 hours to 40 hours—two proposals that Manchin supports and believes have enough bipartisan support to reach 60 votes for passage. He called a Keystone vote a “slam-dunk,” and he considers the Obamacare fix crucial despite a nonpartisan congressional reportthat found it would reduce the number of people receiving employment-based coverage by about 1 million people and increase the deficit by about $25 billion over the next five years.
“To say that now we’re going to verify the 30 hours—we’ll be worse than Europe,” he said. “I can’t go to West Virginia and try to sell that crap.”
He is also considering another run for governor in West Virginia in 2016, a race that could lead him to leave his Senate seat two years early. He previously served as governor from 2005 until 2010. “Whatever I do in the future I want to see the restructuring of the Senate—where we are [and] how we’re going to operate—before I make that [decision],” said Manchin. “So that happens what, the middle of January? So hopefully by the first quarter. There will be a trend pretty quick by February or March. We’ll be able to say, ‘Is it same-old, same-old or is it really moving in a different direction?'”
http://time.com/3569910/joe-manchin-barack-obama-cares-senate/
“To say that now we’re going to verify the 30 hours—we’ll be worse than Europe,” he said. “I can’t go to West Virginia and try to sell that crap.”
He is also considering another run for governor in West Virginia in 2016, a race that could lead him to leave his Senate seat two years early. He previously served as governor from 2005 until 2010. “Whatever I do in the future I want to see the restructuring of the Senate—where we are [and] how we’re going to operate—before I make that [decision],” said Manchin. “So that happens what, the middle of January? So hopefully by the first quarter. There will be a trend pretty quick by February or March. We’ll be able to say, ‘Is it same-old, same-old or is it really moving in a different direction?'”
http://time.com/3569910/joe-manchin-barack-obama-cares-senate/
The reason Manchin wants to see how the Senate is restructured is this: He just wants the Senate to work. And if it works with Republicans at the helm passing lots of right-wing corporate agenda items, that's totally fine with him.
......FU!!
cont'
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/joe-manchin-perfectly-illustrates-dems
November 7, 2014
FULL INTERVIEW:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/7/matt_taibbi_and_bank_whistleblower_on
DEMOCRACY NOW: BANK Whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann & Matt Taibbi on HOW JPMorgan Chase HELPED WRECK THE ECONOMY
"...A year ago this month the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the banking giant JPMorgan Chase would avoid criminal charges by agreeing to pay $13 billion to settle claims that it had routinely overstated the quality of mortgages it was selling to investors. But how did the bank avoid prosecution for committing fraud that helped cause the 2008 financial crisis? Today we speak to JPMorgan Chase whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann in her first televised interview discussing how she witnessed "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations. She is profiled in Matt Taibbi’s new Rolling Stone investigation, "The $9 Billion Witness: Meet the woman JPMorgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking...."
FULL INTERVIEW:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/7/matt_taibbi_and_bank_whistleblower_on
November 7, 2014
Eric Holder's Legacy: The DIVINE RIGHT Of CRIMINALS
"...The abject failure of the nation's top law enforcer to enforce the law against bankers of any significance in the wake of a $10,000 billion crisis is notorious. Less well-known are (1) the astounding lengths to which Eric Holder's DOJ has gone to protect criminal banks, which just so happen to be clients of his law firm, (2) the degree to which the rule of law has been subverted (it's been destroyed; we have been living under the rule of man, officially, for some time), and (3) the broader implications of Holder's reign on U.S. national sovereignty (grave)..."
November 7, 2014
The Republican wave at the polls Tuesday didn't just give the GOP more power to obstruct Obamacare in Congress and block Medicaid expansion in more than 20 states. It also could jeopardize health benefits already extended to Americans living near the poverty level. Republican governors will replace Democrats in four states -- Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts -- that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And the Republican succeeding Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is dubious about that state's expansion. Heading into Election Day, advocates for more Medicaid were hopeful that Democrats would win gubernatorial races in Florida, Maine, Wisconsin and other states where Republican governors have blocked the policy, leaving millions uninsured. Instead, the only place where the tide could turn in favor of Medicaid expansion, which the Supreme Court made optional for the states in 2012, is Alaska. The race there remains undecided between independent Bill Walker, who supports the policy, and Gov. Sean Parnell Moreover, the new Republican governors in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts will have the power to threaten health coverage for hundreds of thousands who have enrolled in expanded Medicaid. None has publicly threatened to do so, but the program has become more vulnerable in those states. Here's what the governors-elect have said about Medicaid.
cont'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/gop-governors-medicaid_n_6108384.html
5 New GOP Governors Could UNDERCUT MEDICAID EXPANSION
The Republican wave at the polls Tuesday didn't just give the GOP more power to obstruct Obamacare in Congress and block Medicaid expansion in more than 20 states. It also could jeopardize health benefits already extended to Americans living near the poverty level. Republican governors will replace Democrats in four states -- Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts -- that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And the Republican succeeding Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is dubious about that state's expansion. Heading into Election Day, advocates for more Medicaid were hopeful that Democrats would win gubernatorial races in Florida, Maine, Wisconsin and other states where Republican governors have blocked the policy, leaving millions uninsured. Instead, the only place where the tide could turn in favor of Medicaid expansion, which the Supreme Court made optional for the states in 2012, is Alaska. The race there remains undecided between independent Bill Walker, who supports the policy, and Gov. Sean Parnell Moreover, the new Republican governors in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts will have the power to threaten health coverage for hundreds of thousands who have enrolled in expanded Medicaid. None has publicly threatened to do so, but the program has become more vulnerable in those states. Here's what the governors-elect have said about Medicaid.
Doug Ducey, Arizona
Gov. Brewer infuriated Republican lawmakers when she strong-armed the Medicaid expansion through the Arizona legislature last year. More than 230,000 Arizonans enrolled under the new rules as of last month, the state reported. Ducey isn't making noise about undoing the expansion, but he wants the state to seek federal approval to alter the program, including adding a requirement that beneficiaries deposit money in health savings accounts. Ducey has also vowed to constrain Arizona's spending on Medicaid as federal funding for the expansion drops from 100 percent through 2016 to 90 percent by 2022.
In a statement on DougDucey.com, he said:
Gov. Brewer infuriated Republican lawmakers when she strong-armed the Medicaid expansion through the Arizona legislature last year. More than 230,000 Arizonans enrolled under the new rules as of last month, the state reported. Ducey isn't making noise about undoing the expansion, but he wants the state to seek federal approval to alter the program, including adding a requirement that beneficiaries deposit money in health savings accounts. Ducey has also vowed to constrain Arizona's spending on Medicaid as federal funding for the expansion drops from 100 percent through 2016 to 90 percent by 2022.
In a statement on DougDucey.com, he said:
"...I will lead the effort to negotiate a Medicaid waiver for Arizona and to protect our state from Obamacare, one of the worst laws ever signed by any American president. ... The expansion of Medicaid as part of Obamacare receives significant federal money ... for the first three years. After that the rules will change, and Arizona taxpayers may need to pay considerably more. As governor I will prepare for all scenarios, and I will not allow a massive new entitlement to grow into a huge financial burden for future generations of Arizonans. We will keep a lid on health care costs, period..."
http://dougducey.com/issues/health_care/
http://dougducey.com/issues/health_care/
Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas
Arkansas led the nation in creating an alternative model for expanding Medicaid that uses private insurance plans to provide health coverage. Gov. Mike Beebe (D) devised the so-called private option with the GOP-controlled state legislature. More than 200,000 people enrolled in Arkansas, and states with Republican governors like Ohio and Pennsylvania adopted similar policies. But the private option was nearly defunded this year because Arkansas law requires spending bills to receive a 75 percent vote in both houses of the legislature. After Hutchinson's gubernatorial victory on Tuesday and gains by Republicans in the state legislature, winning that 75 percent will be even harder next year. Hutchinson has said he wouldn't have signed the bill creating the private option had he been governor at the time, but he has stopped short of calling for its repeal. Here's what he said in March after the legislature voted to keep the program alive:
Arkansas led the nation in creating an alternative model for expanding Medicaid that uses private insurance plans to provide health coverage. Gov. Mike Beebe (D) devised the so-called private option with the GOP-controlled state legislature. More than 200,000 people enrolled in Arkansas, and states with Republican governors like Ohio and Pennsylvania adopted similar policies. But the private option was nearly defunded this year because Arkansas law requires spending bills to receive a 75 percent vote in both houses of the legislature. After Hutchinson's gubernatorial victory on Tuesday and gains by Republicans in the state legislature, winning that 75 percent will be even harder next year. Hutchinson has said he wouldn't have signed the bill creating the private option had he been governor at the time, but he has stopped short of calling for its repeal. Here's what he said in March after the legislature voted to keep the program alive:
"..Ultimately, I would have designed the health care plan for Arkansas differently. But as Governor, I will inherit the decisions the Governor and General Assembly made in the fiscal session. ... I view the Private Option as a pilot project; a pilot project that can be ended if needed. As Governor, I will assess the benefit of the Private Option and measure the long-term costs to the state taxpayers. As Governor, I will weigh the cost and benefits of the program and determine whether the program should be terminated or continued..."
http://www.asaforgovernor.com/statement-from-asa-hutchinson-on-private-option
http://www.asaforgovernor.com/statement-from-asa-hutchinson-on-private-option
cont'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/gop-governors-medicaid_n_6108384.html
November 6, 2014
I've said it before: Rolling Stone is the only major publication digging into these stories. If you can afford it, buy a subscription. And now Matt Taibbi is back with a huge bombshell of a story: The main witness in the JPMorgan Chase settlement is breaking her gag order!
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/rolling-stone-blockbuster-main-witness
ROLLINGSTONE BLOCKBUSTER: Main Witness In JPMorgan Case BREAKS HER GAG ORDER
"I could lose everything. But if we don't start speaking up, then this really is all we're going to get: the biggest financial cover-up in history."
I've said it before: Rolling Stone is the only major publication digging into these stories. If you can afford it, buy a subscription. And now Matt Taibbi is back with a huge bombshell of a story: The main witness in the JPMorgan Chase settlement is breaking her gag order!
She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore.
"It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'"
Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower.
Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.
Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.
Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. "My closest family and friends don't know what I've been living with," she says. "Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview."
Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.
She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says.
This past year she watched as Holder's Justice Department struck a series of historic settlement deals with Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. The root bargain in these deals was cash for secrecy. The banks paid big fines, without trials or even judges – only secret negotiations that typically ended with the public shown nothing but vague, quasi-official papers called "statements of facts," which were conveniently devoid of anything like actual facts.
And now, with Holder about to leave office and his Justice Department reportedly wrapping up its final settlements, the state is effectively putting the finishing touches on what will amount to a sweeping, industrywide effort to bury the facts of a whole generation of Wall Street corruption. "I could be sued into bankruptcy," she says. "I could lose my license to practice law. I could lose everything. But if we don't start speaking up, then this really is all we're going to get: the biggest financial cover-up in history."
I haven't even finished reading it yet, I just had to let you know. Go read it now!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106?page=2
"It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'"
Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower.
Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.
Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.
Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. "My closest family and friends don't know what I've been living with," she says. "Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview."
Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.
She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says.
This past year she watched as Holder's Justice Department struck a series of historic settlement deals with Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. The root bargain in these deals was cash for secrecy. The banks paid big fines, without trials or even judges – only secret negotiations that typically ended with the public shown nothing but vague, quasi-official papers called "statements of facts," which were conveniently devoid of anything like actual facts.
And now, with Holder about to leave office and his Justice Department reportedly wrapping up its final settlements, the state is effectively putting the finishing touches on what will amount to a sweeping, industrywide effort to bury the facts of a whole generation of Wall Street corruption. "I could be sued into bankruptcy," she says. "I could lose my license to practice law. I could lose everything. But if we don't start speaking up, then this really is all we're going to get: the biggest financial cover-up in history."
I haven't even finished reading it yet, I just had to let you know. Go read it now!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106?page=2
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/rolling-stone-blockbuster-main-witness
November 6, 2014
Rush Limbaugh has given marching orders to newly-elected Republican senators and governors. They are not to ever think they should try and govern. They are there only to stop President Obama. That is all.
So to be clear here, Republicans broke the federal government by obstructing every single thing they could for the last four years. Then they campaigned on broken government and voters either fell in line like sheep or just didn't bother with that whole pesky voting thing at all. They broke it, they won it, and now they're going to break it some more. Because dammit, this is about stopping the uppity black man in the White House. Nothing more, nothing less. This is what happens when 2-year olds are rewarded for bad behavior. They turn into politicians sucking on the teats of billionaires.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/limbaugh-gop-you-were-elected-stop-obama
TRUTH BOMB: Limbaugh To GOP: You Were Elected To Stop Obama, NOT GOVERN
Rush Limbaugh wants Republicans to know they were elected to be thugs, not to govern. Stopping Obama is their only mandate.
Rush Limbaugh has given marching orders to newly-elected Republican senators and governors. They are not to ever think they should try and govern. They are there only to stop President Obama. That is all.
LIMBAUGH: Individual Republican candidates won, and they won big. They won in a wave landslide running against Obamacare. The national Republican brand or image didn't say a word, which makes the mandate that they have all the more incredible. It is rare that a political party running for office in a midterm election, not standing for anything, ends up with a mandate. And they have one. And it is the biggest, and perhaps the most important mandate a political party has had in the recent era. And it is very simple what that mandate is. It is to stop Barack Obama. It is to stop the Democrat Party. There is no other reason why Republicans were elected yesterday.
Republicans were not elected to govern. How can you govern with a president that disobeys the constitution? How can you govern with a president that is demonstrably lawless when he thinks he has to be? The Republican Party was not elected to fix a broken system and to make it work. The Republican Party was not elected to compromise. The Republican Party was not elected to sit down and work together with the democrats. The Republican Party was not elected to slow down the speed the country is headed to the cliff, and go over it slowly. The Republican Party was elected to stop before we get to the cliff. And that's the mandate.
AUDIO:
http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/11/05/limbaugh-republicans-have-a-mandate-to-stop-bar/201455
Republicans were not elected to govern. How can you govern with a president that disobeys the constitution? How can you govern with a president that is demonstrably lawless when he thinks he has to be? The Republican Party was not elected to fix a broken system and to make it work. The Republican Party was not elected to compromise. The Republican Party was not elected to sit down and work together with the democrats. The Republican Party was not elected to slow down the speed the country is headed to the cliff, and go over it slowly. The Republican Party was elected to stop before we get to the cliff. And that's the mandate.
AUDIO:
http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/11/05/limbaugh-republicans-have-a-mandate-to-stop-bar/201455
So to be clear here, Republicans broke the federal government by obstructing every single thing they could for the last four years. Then they campaigned on broken government and voters either fell in line like sheep or just didn't bother with that whole pesky voting thing at all. They broke it, they won it, and now they're going to break it some more. Because dammit, this is about stopping the uppity black man in the White House. Nothing more, nothing less. This is what happens when 2-year olds are rewarded for bad behavior. They turn into politicians sucking on the teats of billionaires.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/limbaugh-gop-you-were-elected-stop-obama
November 6, 2014
An op-ed from House Speaker John Boehner and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in The Wall Street Journal outlines their plans for crippling government what they call helping the "struggling middle-class Americans who are clearly frustrated by an increasing lack of opportunity, the stagnation of wages, and a government that seems incapable of performing even basic tasks." That includes taking on Obamacare, of course. They begin with the totally false premise that, "Health costs […] continue to rise under a hopelessly flawed law that Americans have never supported." Never mind that the rise in healthcare costs has slowed dramatically in the last several years, in part because of the law. And never mind that the law—even in Tuesdays' Republican electorate—gets more support than the idea of repealing the law. It's been a good 14 years since Republicans abandoned the reality-based world, and it's been working for them. So they're sticking with it. And how they say they'll start on the dismantling of Obamacare is this:
Right now, full-time employment is 30 hours/week for the purposes of the law. Republicans say that is forcing—forcing—poor beleaguered employers to cut workers' hours to below 30 hours to save them from the exorbitant costs of having to provide health insurance. And raising that threshold is going to restore those employees' hours how exactly? Now employers would be able to make workers put in a 39.5-hour work week without shelling out for health insurance. Which is, of course, the whole point for McConnell and Boehner. Hint, American worker: They're not looking out for your paycheck. Or your health insurance.
Problem one for Boehner and McConnell is getting their respective caucuses to go along with any Obamacare plan. Boehner's been at it for almost four years with no success, and McConnell's got at least three would-be presidents—Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida—to wrangle. Problem two for the "reformers" is the $83 billion hit to the deficit over the next ten years the CBO says this provision would cost. (Here's another hint: They don't really care about the deficit.)
Here's problem three for them, provided that the proposal actually gets to the respective floors, put succinctly, by Henry Aaron at the Brookings Institute: "If you break it, you own it. […] They're going to have responsibility for anything that goes wrong." That is, if Democrats refuse to play along and don't provide any votes to pass it.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/06/1342579/-McConnell-Boehner-announce-first-Obamacare-repeal-nbsp-target
McConnell, Boehner Announce FIRST Obamacare REPEAL Target
An op-ed from House Speaker John Boehner and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in The Wall Street Journal outlines their plans for crippling government what they call helping the "struggling middle-class Americans who are clearly frustrated by an increasing lack of opportunity, the stagnation of wages, and a government that seems incapable of performing even basic tasks." That includes taking on Obamacare, of course. They begin with the totally false premise that, "Health costs […] continue to rise under a hopelessly flawed law that Americans have never supported." Never mind that the rise in healthcare costs has slowed dramatically in the last several years, in part because of the law. And never mind that the law—even in Tuesdays' Republican electorate—gets more support than the idea of repealing the law. It's been a good 14 years since Republicans abandoned the reality-based world, and it's been working for them. So they're sticking with it. And how they say they'll start on the dismantling of Obamacare is this:
"... a proposal to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of full-time employment, removing an arbitrary and destructive government barrier to more hours and better pay created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010..."
http://online.wsj.com/articles/john-boehner-and-mitch-mcconnell-now-we-can-get-congress-going-1415232759
http://online.wsj.com/articles/john-boehner-and-mitch-mcconnell-now-we-can-get-congress-going-1415232759
Right now, full-time employment is 30 hours/week for the purposes of the law. Republicans say that is forcing—forcing—poor beleaguered employers to cut workers' hours to below 30 hours to save them from the exorbitant costs of having to provide health insurance. And raising that threshold is going to restore those employees' hours how exactly? Now employers would be able to make workers put in a 39.5-hour work week without shelling out for health insurance. Which is, of course, the whole point for McConnell and Boehner. Hint, American worker: They're not looking out for your paycheck. Or your health insurance.
Problem one for Boehner and McConnell is getting their respective caucuses to go along with any Obamacare plan. Boehner's been at it for almost four years with no success, and McConnell's got at least three would-be presidents—Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida—to wrangle. Problem two for the "reformers" is the $83 billion hit to the deficit over the next ten years the CBO says this provision would cost. (Here's another hint: They don't really care about the deficit.)
Here's problem three for them, provided that the proposal actually gets to the respective floors, put succinctly, by Henry Aaron at the Brookings Institute: "If you break it, you own it. […] They're going to have responsibility for anything that goes wrong." That is, if Democrats refuse to play along and don't provide any votes to pass it.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/06/1342579/-McConnell-Boehner-announce-first-Obamacare-repeal-nbsp-target
November 6, 2014
Beltway media is all buzzing over the question: How will Republicans govern now that they hold the entire Congress? The Villagers, apparently, have developed a bad case of amnesia which prevents them from remembering the past 4 years.....you know, the last four years during which Republicans set an historic number of GOP filibusters, shut down the government, caused a credit rating downgrade of U.S. debt and basically acted like a group of hysterical, methed-up baboons. Corporate media is wired Republican....because: profits....so the on again-off again amnesia problem corporate media is afflicted with when it comes to the GOP is expected. But what is really interesting is conservative media's take on this question of newly elected Republicans "governing." National Review Online is one of those conservative media members. If you leave a comment at NRO which questions any of the articles there, you will be banned from leaving any more comments. I've done so, and though I was respectable and not even snarky, I was immediately banned.
NRO has a piece up right now entitled "The Governing Trap." No, really. You see, while Villagers are all buzzing about Mitchy and the Republicans willingness and plans to "get things done"....the NRO conservatives are warning Republicans of the dangers of actually, yes, governing.
In case you don't recognize it......that is a WTF statement. Off the bat, NRO editors assert that when Americans vote to elect Republicans as the congressional majority party.....Republicans should not work to help the country and the American people through legislating, they should use their majority to advance their political power. In our current split-government situation, what that means is that congressional Republicans should use their majority exclusively for the goal of putting a Republican in the White House in 2016. That's what "political strategy" means to NRO Einsteins. The NRO editors lay down four points describing why Republicans should not get themselves trapped into a position where they actually govern. Three of the four points are ridiculously silly. But this "reason" Republicans should not get trapped into governing is the real deal....
If majority congressional Republicans try to govern.....try to do the job they were elected to do.....then that, in itself, will expose the fault lines in the conservative movement: "the tea-party versus the establishment." Exposing the tea-party versus establishment Republican differences, by, you know, legislating, would demonstrate to the public that the Tea conservatives are still crazier than shite house rats. And of course, that would diminish the chances of the GOP taking back the presidency in 2016. Not a sound "political strategy." But notice that the NRO editors purposely mentioned an immigration billl as something Republicans absolutely should not consider. Why? "Any refusal to pass" an immigration bill would be described as "a failure to 'govern.'"
Why try if you might fail, right?
But it isn't a possible failure to pass an immigration bill that NRO editors worry about. Hell, after all, Republican senators joined with a majority Democratic Senate to pass a comprehensive immigration bill which included a pathway to citizenship. If Speaker Boehner had moved that Senate bill to the House floor for a vote....it would have passed.....with some GOP votes. That's why Boehner refused to bring it to the House floor. So, it is not the fear of failure to pass an immigration bill which concerns the NRO. What the NRO fears is exposing the lines of division on immigration within the Republican Party that any congressional debate and vote on immigration would make plain. But left unsaid is the real NRO fear..... what I'll call the "GOP ugly." If you pay attention you know that elected Republicans often demonstrate a lack of human empathy or compassion. Citizens who can't find work are "hammock dwellers", citizens who are poor are lazy sluggards, Democratic voters only vote for Democrats because of Uncle Sugar". and on and on. Any House debate on an immigration bill will likely give opportunity for "GOP ugly" to be seen and heard by the public.....and THAT's what NRO editors want to avoid at all costs.
cont'
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/mass-destruction/blog-of-mass-destruction-1.298992/the-governing-trap-1.538599
Blog Of Mass Destruction: "The Governing Trap"
Beltway media is all buzzing over the question: How will Republicans govern now that they hold the entire Congress? The Villagers, apparently, have developed a bad case of amnesia which prevents them from remembering the past 4 years.....you know, the last four years during which Republicans set an historic number of GOP filibusters, shut down the government, caused a credit rating downgrade of U.S. debt and basically acted like a group of hysterical, methed-up baboons. Corporate media is wired Republican....because: profits....so the on again-off again amnesia problem corporate media is afflicted with when it comes to the GOP is expected. But what is really interesting is conservative media's take on this question of newly elected Republicans "governing." National Review Online is one of those conservative media members. If you leave a comment at NRO which questions any of the articles there, you will be banned from leaving any more comments. I've done so, and though I was respectable and not even snarky, I was immediately banned.
NRO has a piece up right now entitled "The Governing Trap." No, really. You see, while Villagers are all buzzing about Mitchy and the Republicans willingness and plans to "get things done"....the NRO conservatives are warning Republicans of the dangers of actually, yes, governing.
Already a conventional wisdom about what Republicans should do next has congealed. Supposedly it is up to Republicans to “prove they can govern” even though they do not have the White House. Senator Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) told NPR listeners that Republicans could do this by moving on trade-promotion authority, the immigration bill the Senate passed in 2013, and corporate tax reform. With all due respect to the senator and like-minded Republicans, this course of action makes no sense as a political strategy.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392082/governing-trap-editors
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392082/governing-trap-editors
In case you don't recognize it......that is a WTF statement. Off the bat, NRO editors assert that when Americans vote to elect Republicans as the congressional majority party.....Republicans should not work to help the country and the American people through legislating, they should use their majority to advance their political power. In our current split-government situation, what that means is that congressional Republicans should use their majority exclusively for the goal of putting a Republican in the White House in 2016. That's what "political strategy" means to NRO Einsteins. The NRO editors lay down four points describing why Republicans should not get themselves trapped into a position where they actually govern. Three of the four points are ridiculously silly. But this "reason" Republicans should not get trapped into governing is the real deal....
Third: A prove-you-can-govern strategy will inevitably divide the party on the same tea-party-vs.-establishment lines that Republicans have just succeeded in overcoming. The media will in particular take any refusal to pass a foolish immigration bill that immediately legalizes millions of illegal immigrants as a failure to “govern.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392082/governing-trap-editors
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392082/governing-trap-editors
If majority congressional Republicans try to govern.....try to do the job they were elected to do.....then that, in itself, will expose the fault lines in the conservative movement: "the tea-party versus the establishment." Exposing the tea-party versus establishment Republican differences, by, you know, legislating, would demonstrate to the public that the Tea conservatives are still crazier than shite house rats. And of course, that would diminish the chances of the GOP taking back the presidency in 2016. Not a sound "political strategy." But notice that the NRO editors purposely mentioned an immigration billl as something Republicans absolutely should not consider. Why? "Any refusal to pass" an immigration bill would be described as "a failure to 'govern.'"
Why try if you might fail, right?
But it isn't a possible failure to pass an immigration bill that NRO editors worry about. Hell, after all, Republican senators joined with a majority Democratic Senate to pass a comprehensive immigration bill which included a pathway to citizenship. If Speaker Boehner had moved that Senate bill to the House floor for a vote....it would have passed.....with some GOP votes. That's why Boehner refused to bring it to the House floor. So, it is not the fear of failure to pass an immigration bill which concerns the NRO. What the NRO fears is exposing the lines of division on immigration within the Republican Party that any congressional debate and vote on immigration would make plain. But left unsaid is the real NRO fear..... what I'll call the "GOP ugly." If you pay attention you know that elected Republicans often demonstrate a lack of human empathy or compassion. Citizens who can't find work are "hammock dwellers", citizens who are poor are lazy sluggards, Democratic voters only vote for Democrats because of Uncle Sugar". and on and on. Any House debate on an immigration bill will likely give opportunity for "GOP ugly" to be seen and heard by the public.....and THAT's what NRO editors want to avoid at all costs.
cont'
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/mass-destruction/blog-of-mass-destruction-1.298992/the-governing-trap-1.538599
November 6, 2014
..........................
After an election night where money was declared the winner, it’s easy to get discouraged. Over the election season, $3.7 billion were spent to elect mostly Republican, business friendly candidates. In midterm elections, where the average voter is old enough that they still watch TV and read newspapers, unlimited campaign financing, thanks to Citizens United, can be especially effective, and it was. Fortunately, though, there was at least one election where corporate America threw all the resources possible at one little town and they lost, handily.
Richmond, California, like its Berkeley and San Francisco neighbors, is diverse and liberal. However, its largest employer and its largest tax producer is a Chevron oil refinery – a refinery which caught on fire two years ago. Since the fire, Richmond’s City Council has been a thorn in Chevron’s side, demanding tougher environmental regulations, so, empowered by Citizen’s United, the multinational company decided to take on the council in 2014’s election, but in Richmond, it didn’t matter.
Perhaps the most notable in this David and Goliath story is of the incumbent Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles. Beckles describes herself as “an African American and Latina immigrant.” She’s also openly gay. Richmond’s voters didn’t care. Beckles and her team of progressives, led by Mayor elect Tom Butt, easily beat Chevron-backed candidates, despite being wildly outspent — $3 million compared to just $50,000.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/06/black-lesbian-immigrant-city-council-candidate-beat-citizens-united/
A Black Lesbian Immigrant City Council Candidate Beat Citizens United
..........................
After an election night where money was declared the winner, it’s easy to get discouraged. Over the election season, $3.7 billion were spent to elect mostly Republican, business friendly candidates. In midterm elections, where the average voter is old enough that they still watch TV and read newspapers, unlimited campaign financing, thanks to Citizens United, can be especially effective, and it was. Fortunately, though, there was at least one election where corporate America threw all the resources possible at one little town and they lost, handily.
Richmond, California, like its Berkeley and San Francisco neighbors, is diverse and liberal. However, its largest employer and its largest tax producer is a Chevron oil refinery – a refinery which caught on fire two years ago. Since the fire, Richmond’s City Council has been a thorn in Chevron’s side, demanding tougher environmental regulations, so, empowered by Citizen’s United, the multinational company decided to take on the council in 2014’s election, but in Richmond, it didn’t matter.
Perhaps the most notable in this David and Goliath story is of the incumbent Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles. Beckles describes herself as “an African American and Latina immigrant.” She’s also openly gay. Richmond’s voters didn’t care. Beckles and her team of progressives, led by Mayor elect Tom Butt, easily beat Chevron-backed candidates, despite being wildly outspent — $3 million compared to just $50,000.
Voters elected City Councilman Tom Butt as mayor and outgoing mayor Gayle McLaughlin, incumbent Jovanka Beckles and retired teacher Eduardo Martinez to the City Council, giving the panel a potential 6-1 left-leaning majority.
“It’s extraordinary. This is a celebration of democracy,” said San Francisco State political science Professor Robert Smith, who studies Richmond politics. “This means that big money doesn’t always win, that ordinary people can defeat huge corporate power.”
Chevron spent more than $3 million supporting Charles Ramsey, Donna Powers and Albert Martinez for council, and longtime Councilman Nat Bates for mayor. Butt won with 51.4 percent of the votes, with Bates trailing at 35.5 percent.
Incumbents Jim Rogers and Corky Boozé also lost. Boozé, who had previously been supported with Chevron money, had been in the news for his ongoing disputes with the city over his salvage yard, as well as his frequent clashes with Beckles, who was a target of harassment during council meetings because she is a lesbian.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Chevron-s-3-million-backfires-in-Richmond-5873779.php
“It’s extraordinary. This is a celebration of democracy,” said San Francisco State political science Professor Robert Smith, who studies Richmond politics. “This means that big money doesn’t always win, that ordinary people can defeat huge corporate power.”
Chevron spent more than $3 million supporting Charles Ramsey, Donna Powers and Albert Martinez for council, and longtime Councilman Nat Bates for mayor. Butt won with 51.4 percent of the votes, with Bates trailing at 35.5 percent.
Incumbents Jim Rogers and Corky Boozé also lost. Boozé, who had previously been supported with Chevron money, had been in the news for his ongoing disputes with the city over his salvage yard, as well as his frequent clashes with Beckles, who was a target of harassment during council meetings because she is a lesbian.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Chevron-s-3-million-backfires-in-Richmond-5873779.php
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/06/black-lesbian-immigrant-city-council-candidate-beat-citizens-united/
November 6, 2014
Get ready for WAR!............................
The Republican victory in the 2014 midterms is less than 24 hours old. But already, the hawkish wing of the GOP is planning an ambitious battle plan to revamp American foreign policy: everything from arming Ukraine’s military to reviewing the ISIS war to investigating the U.S. intelligence community’s role in warming relations with Iran. In an interview Wednesday, Sen. John McCain, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he has already discussed a new national security agenda with fellow Republicans Bob Corker and Richard Burr, the likely incoming chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Burr and Corker and I will be working closely together on everything,” McCain said. “For example, arms for Ukraine’s [government], examination of our strategy in the Middle East, our assets with regard to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in the region, China’s continued encroachment in the south China Sea.”
You could call it the neoconservatives’ revenge or the year of the hawks. But it has produced an interesting moment in Washington, where even the dovish side of the Republican party now acknowledges the mid-terms were a win for their party’s American exceptionalists. As Ron Paul, the isolationist father of Sen. Rand Paul, tweeted Tuesday evening: “Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!” William Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, was in rare agreement with the elder Paul. “I think Ron Paul told the truth,” Kristol told The Daily Beast. “And the truth is that his son had a bad election season and the Republicans who were elected are various species of hawks and not Rand Paul like doves.” Those hawks include some new faces in the Senate like Tom Cotton, the new Republican senator from Arkansas whose campaign was boosted in its final month with ad buys from Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel.
Other hawks like McCain have been around for years, but are now back in control of the powerful committees that exercise oversight of the executive branch’s foreign policy and war fighting. McCain said his first order of business as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee will be to end the budget rule known as sequestration, which requires the U.S. military to cut its budget across the board. “I want to start an examination of our policies in the world and then find out whether we have the capability to meet these expectations,” McCain said. McCain also said he would use his chairmanship to root out overspending at the Pentagon, but he emphasized his desire to reverse sequestration. Another major issue for the new Republicans will be a potential Iran deal. President Obama was circumspect Wednesday at a press conference on the current nuclear negotiations between Iran and six major powers that are set to expire in November. Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican likely to replace Rep. Mike Rogers as the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Daily Beast Wednesday that he would like to begin digging into the administration’s Iran talks—in particular, the role played in those talks by the U.S. intelligence community.
cont'
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/05/republican-hawks-already-have-a-war-plan-for-isis-ukraine-and-obama.html
Republican Hawks Already Have A WAR PLAN For ISIS, Ukraine, And Obama
Call it the neoconservatives’ revenge. But even the dovish side of the GOP now acknowledges the election was a win for their party’s hawks.
Get ready for WAR!............................
The Republican victory in the 2014 midterms is less than 24 hours old. But already, the hawkish wing of the GOP is planning an ambitious battle plan to revamp American foreign policy: everything from arming Ukraine’s military to reviewing the ISIS war to investigating the U.S. intelligence community’s role in warming relations with Iran. In an interview Wednesday, Sen. John McCain, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he has already discussed a new national security agenda with fellow Republicans Bob Corker and Richard Burr, the likely incoming chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Burr and Corker and I will be working closely together on everything,” McCain said. “For example, arms for Ukraine’s [government], examination of our strategy in the Middle East, our assets with regard to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in the region, China’s continued encroachment in the south China Sea.”
You could call it the neoconservatives’ revenge or the year of the hawks. But it has produced an interesting moment in Washington, where even the dovish side of the Republican party now acknowledges the mid-terms were a win for their party’s American exceptionalists. As Ron Paul, the isolationist father of Sen. Rand Paul, tweeted Tuesday evening: “Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!” William Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, was in rare agreement with the elder Paul. “I think Ron Paul told the truth,” Kristol told The Daily Beast. “And the truth is that his son had a bad election season and the Republicans who were elected are various species of hawks and not Rand Paul like doves.” Those hawks include some new faces in the Senate like Tom Cotton, the new Republican senator from Arkansas whose campaign was boosted in its final month with ad buys from Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel.
Other hawks like McCain have been around for years, but are now back in control of the powerful committees that exercise oversight of the executive branch’s foreign policy and war fighting. McCain said his first order of business as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee will be to end the budget rule known as sequestration, which requires the U.S. military to cut its budget across the board. “I want to start an examination of our policies in the world and then find out whether we have the capability to meet these expectations,” McCain said. McCain also said he would use his chairmanship to root out overspending at the Pentagon, but he emphasized his desire to reverse sequestration. Another major issue for the new Republicans will be a potential Iran deal. President Obama was circumspect Wednesday at a press conference on the current nuclear negotiations between Iran and six major powers that are set to expire in November. Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican likely to replace Rep. Mike Rogers as the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Daily Beast Wednesday that he would like to begin digging into the administration’s Iran talks—in particular, the role played in those talks by the U.S. intelligence community.
cont'
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/05/republican-hawks-already-have-a-war-plan-for-isis-ukraine-and-obama.html
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