Wednesday Wacko of the Week: Bobby Franklin

(Courtesy of State of Georgia)

When I first heard the name Bobby Franklin I had the same reaction, who? Well, he is a state legislator in Georgia. This week he decided he wanted to introduce an interestingly odd piece of legislation that would runt hos Cash for Gold guys out of business. His idea was to require that taxes be paid in silver and gold coins. He defended his demand with the Constitution, of course.

no state shall "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts"

Ok. Sure, because that would solve a lot of problems. Look, the first problem is where the hell are people supposed to find gold and silver coins? The US mint decommissioned the last of them way back in the day. You know, I kind of want to support this bill just to see what would happen, but then again I must think like a normal person and realize that this guy its just nutso. Next time lets introduce legislation that can actually be carried out. Cool.

-Luis Guitart

Tuesday Top Stories: 12/22-12/28

Wednesday 12/22-

• (HuffPost)- After a filibuster and threats of obstruction by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday that would provide health care for first responders to the 9/11 terrorist attack. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer reached a deal with Republican senators to support the bill earlier in the afternoon.
• (NYT)- President Obama on Wednesday declared the lame-duck session of Congress to be the “most productive post-election period that we have had in decades” and promised to continue seeking common ground next year.

Thursday 12/23-

• (Bloomberg)- However history judges the 535 men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate the past two years, one thing is certain: The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s. For the first time since President Theodore Roosevelt began the quest for a national health-care system more than 100 years ago, the Democrat-led House and Senate took the biggest step toward achieving that goal by giving 32 million Americans access to insurance. Congress rewrote the rules for Wall Street in the most comprehensive way since the Great Depression. It spent more than $1.67 trillion to revive an economy on the verge of a depression, including tax cuts for most Americans, jobs for more than 3 million, construction of roads and bridges and investment in alternative energy; ended an almost two-decade ban against openly gay men and women serving in the military, and today ratified a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
• (PolitcalWire)- Televangelist Pat Robertson said on his show, The 700 Club, that he thinks marijuana should be legalized. Said Robertson: "I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That's not a good thing."

Friday 12/24:

• (HuffPost)- The Treasury Department has granted nearly 10,000 special licenses to American companies over the past decade so they could sell some types of products in Iran and other countries the U.S. considers terrorist sponsors, The New York Times reported Thursday.Companies such as Kraft Food and Pepsi and some of the largest U.S. banks benefited, the newspaper said. Most licenses were granted under a law allowing trade in humanitarian goods, even if that ended up including products as diverse as cigarettes and chewing gum

Weekend:

• (Chicago Tribune)- Former President Bill Clinton is coming to Chicago in January to campaign for mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. Before serving in President Barack Obama's White House and representing the North Side of Chicago in Congress, Emanuel worked in Clinton's administration as a senior adviser for policy and strategy.
• (The Ausralian)- The founder of the WikiLeaks website has signed a deal for his autobiography that will earn him more than $1.5million.  Julian Assange said the money would help his defence against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden. "I don't want to write this book, but I have to," he said. "I have already spent pound stg. 200,000 ($307,408) for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

Monday 12/27:

• (CNN)- As a crucial component of the nation's new health care law requiring all Americans to buy insurance faces an uncertain fate in federal courts, a new national poll indicates that a majority of Americans oppose that provision in the bill Congress passed earlier this year. And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates that a majority of the public still opposes the new law, but by a smaller margin than earlier this year.

Tuesday 12/28:

• (Anchorage Daily News)- A federal judge today dismissed Republican Joe Miller's federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the Nov. 2 election, clearing the way for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski to be certified as the winner.
• (WSJ)- The 2012 Senate campaign has its first tea party candidate. Jamie Radtke, head of the Virginia Federation of Tea Party Patriots, has filed federal papers to run for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat now held by Virginia Democrat James Webb.

Monday Mention: Neil Abercrombie



(Courtesy Hawaii 24/7)



If anybody deserves a nod this week its the new Governor of Hawaii Neil Abercrombie. Earlier this week he made a vow to finally end the 'birther' controversy once and for all. The 'birthers' are the crazies with names like 'Orly Taitz' that question if President Obama is an actual citizen of the US. Well anyway these annoying whiners have been a thorn in the side of the Governor for a while now. Although the whole 'birhter' movement has upset a vast array of sane and normal folk, it has pissed off Gov. Abercrombie the most. This is because Abercrombie was friends with the President's parents when they gave birth to Obama. To quote Abercrombie " I was there when that little motherf**ker came out that c**t". Okay, maybe that wasn't his exact quote, but it was along the same lines. So now the Governor has decided to try to change some laws in his home state to make it easier to procure evidence that Obama was in fact born in the United States, and that the Governor knows first hand of the birth. Hopefully once its all said and done we don't have to hear words come out of  Orly Taitz's face hole anymore.

-Luis Guitart

Friday Fight: Corporate Christmas

Its the Friday Fight. Here we take a look at two sides of an issue, give the plus and minus, pros and cons, basically a debate with myself. Today's topic: Should corporate retailers use the term 'Christmas' when they advertise?

(Courtesy of Life)

Let the Christmas Bells Ring!

  So here's the deal. There's a cool little thing in this country called First Amendment Freedoms. These include the right to free speech and religion. Although it is written to say the government can not establish an official religion, traditionally we interpret it as the right to excercise whichever religion we chose.

  Now I can hear those bellyachers complaining that these rights are reserved for individuals and not corporations, but let me remind my friends of a little decisions the Supreme Court made this last year. In the notorious Citizen United decision the high court ruled that a corporation can contribute to whichever political action committee they'd like, doing so as an individual. So, who's to say that they can't celebrate whichever holiday they chose.

 Yet, at the end of the day, its not advocating a certain religion. Its not about forcing people to accept that the 25th of December is the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. At the end of the day its about profits for the corporations. Just look at the numbers, a vast majority of American's say they celebrate Christmas, a pretty strong consumer block. If the retailers can attract these buyers in by catering to their holidays then that's a good business strategy. To say you don't want our corporations to capitalize on our religious holidays then that's just plain un-American. Let them say what they want, its the patriotic way!

Its the HoliDAYS...not day!

   Welcome to America, a melting pot of cultures, races, and beliefs. Yes, beliefs, many of them having to do with religion, many of them not Christian.

  *GASP*...someone revive Michele Bachmann, or don't actually.

 Plain and simple, this a place where we are meant to celebrate our differences. The first amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". That exists for a reason, so that one religion isn't promoted over the other. Now, I understand the Congress does not equal Corporations but there is some deep rooted connections.

  Anywho, its just a thing of respect. The values of America are founded upon equality, and being forced to live in a commercial society promoting a certain belief can be an unfair world for some people. Look, its not like by not saying "Merry Christmas" a retailer is insulting one's religion, instead they are combining many beliefs under one umbrella with a "Happy Holidays".

 Its a season of giving and sharing, if we can't share and give joy to our fellow neighbors then what's the point of celebrating? Would would Jesus do? There's no denying he is a selfless guy, how about we celebrate his birthday in that kind of spirit?

-Luis Guitart

  

Thursday Free Thought: Guest Blogger: Erik Ordal

Note: This is not written by me, this is a post from Erik's blog that I wanted to share for the free thought.

If you enjoy reading this make sure to check out Erik's blog at : http://the-daile-grind.blogspot.com/

Republican or Democrat?

I look shitty in red.  But I grew up in South Dakota.  I'm a Kansas Jayhawks fan (colors: red and blue) which makes it even more confusing.  Who do I really belong to?  Am I a Democrat or Republican?

I found a new way of thinking about it (from a financial perspective) at school yesterday.

In history class, we are reading a book about higher education, and how the public universities of America are beginning to copy the structure of corporations.  Anyone with some sense knows that corporations have one underlying goal - making as much money as possible, right?  Now if you were paying attention to those first two sentences, you would maybe conclude that I'm attempting to say that our public institutions are making money off of the students they are supposed to serve.  At the University of Minnesota, we have 12 administrative officials, all with six-figure salaries and much more in expenses (office personnel, benefits, travel, etc.).  What do these "officials" actually do?  I pay the U almost 20,000 dollars a year in order to receive the best possible education I can.  Little did I know, my teaching assistant in Short Calculus decided to speak Asianese and I received a glorifying (wince) ... C-.

Bottom line: Why was this guy who could hardly speak English and probably making next to nothing in wages teaching my class?  I pay big money for a big time degree from some big time professors.

My money instead is going to administrative officials, outlandish buildings (if you haven't seen the state of the art STSS building on the U of M campus, please google now), and our ever shittier athletic program.  My university is acting like a business and finding the cheapest labor possible to teach it's students, and then spending wildly in many other unnecessary areas.

You can see a strong correlation in these administrative officials to the rich, old white guys who many deem "Republicans." These guys have tons of money, and why shouldn't they share with everyone else?  They are all greedy right?  Wrong.  What many people fail to realize is there are two sides to everything. For as many rich, white, greedy guys, there are those who are highly talented, and have worked incredibly hard all their life to be where they are at right now.  I'm spending a bunch of money right now to eventually become one of them, but many of my peers despise these people.  They want to tax them, they want our society to become more even.  How do you create a system where you take all the money from the undeserving and not from the hard-workers?

Same goes for the other end of the spectrum.  There are people out there who desperately need help.  Who have just run into bum luck, or been put in situations that they couldn't have helped.  Taxing the rich will certainly help these people, and deservedly so.  But what about those less deserving?  Those who blow money on cigarettes and booze instead of taking care of their families?  Who disregard their children, and can't seem to hold a job?  Do they really deserve someone's money who has spent 25+ years working hard for his family and his company and is now reaping the benefits?

I understand it's a vague point and a skewed example, but definitely relevant.  While I'm sitting in class wondering who I should be supporting, I don't even know how I feel about it!  In a perfect world, we would all work hard, and give a little bit too.  We wouldn't have economic problems, or be fighting about taxes.

An uneducated and uninformed solution would be to get rid of the tax cuts for philanthropy, to tax those who inherit assets and monies even higher.  Why should someone be reimbursed for giving money away to help others?  They should do it out of the bottom of their hearts.

Financially, I'm a Republican.  You work hard and you get rewarded for it.  Everyone should be held accountable for their actions, and their decisions.  Rise and grind every day of your life, don't take no for an answer or give up.  If you want to have money and security, all you have to do is have a serious goal and work hard.  Anyone can be successful if they put their mind to it, and that is the bottom line.

-E

 

Again, if you enjoy reading this make sure to check out Erik's blog at : http://the-daile-grind.blogspot.com/

 

Tuesday Top Stories: 12/7-12/13

Tuesday 12/7:

• (NewsObersver)- Elizabeth Anania Edwards, who became a national figure in her fight against cancer and as a partner in her husband John's political career, died today. She was 61. Edwards spent much of her life as a little-known Raleigh lawyer and mother. But that all changed when her husband, John Edwards, entered politics as a U.S. senator and became a two-time presidential candidate and the Democratic nominee for vice president.
• (HuffPost)- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested and jailed without bail Tuesday in a sex-crimes investigation, but his organization scarcely missed a beat, releasing a new batch of the secret cables that U.S. officials say are damaging America's security and relations worldwide. A month after dropping out of public view, the 39-year-old Australian surrendered to Scotland Yard to answer a warrant issued for his arrest by Sweden. He is wanted for questioning after two women accused him of having sex with them without a condom and without their consent.

Wednesday 12/8:

• (PioneerPress)- More than a month and 2.1 million recounted ballots after Election Day, Republican Tom Emmer stood outside his Delano home in frigid temperatures this morning and conceded the 2010 governor's race to DFLer Mark Dayton. The concession comes a day after the state Supreme Court issued a ruling that seemed to foreclose any hope Emmer had of overcoming Dayton's nearly 9,000-vote lead heading into an automatic statewide recount, which concluded last week with little change to the overall vote total.
• (HuffPost)- The House on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have adopted sweeping changes in mine safety regulations in response to the explosion that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners in April. The measure would have made it easier to shut down problem mines, increased penalties for serious safety violations and offered more protection for whistle-blowers.

Thursday 12/9:

• (NationalJournal)- In a stunning act of defiance against President Obama, House Democrats said today that they will not take up the tax-cut deal that the White House reached with the GOP earlier this week.In a voice vote that appeared almost unanimous, the Democrats passed a resolution asserting that they are unwilling to vote on the package unless significant changes are made to some of its key components. One of their primary demands is that the issue of tax-rate cuts for middle-income taxpayers be “decoupled” from those for the wealthiest Americans.
• (MSNBC)- A key procedural vote on the bill containing a repeal of the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy failed Thursday, likely dealing a final blow to advocates who hoped to overturn the 17-year old ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military during this session of Congress.

Friday 12/10:

• (WashPost)- According to the Westboro Baptist Church's Web site, the Kansas church known for its anti-homosexual protests will protest Elizabeth Edwards's funeral in Raleigh, N.C., near the Edenton Street United Methodist Church on Saturday. Elizabeth Edwards died Tuesday from cancer. Westboro's Web site does not say why it has singled out Edwards's funeral, but it was likely protesting Edwards' stance on gay marriage: she once said she was completely comfortable with it.
• (NYT)- President Bill Clinton is to met on Friday with President Obama at the White House for a post-election conversation about moving the agenda forward in a new political environment, a senior Democrat told of the meeting said. The meeting was the first between the two men since the midterm elections, when voters handed Mr. Obama a political rebuke not unlike one Mr. Clinton suffered 16 years ago

Weekend-

• (McClatchy)- President Barack Obama's approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he'd lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. The biggest reason for Obama's fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center since he led the party to landslide losses in November's midterm elections. At the same time, he's gained nothing among independents.
• (HuffPost)- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began a tightly stage-managed visit to Haiti on Saturday in which she visited cholera clinics while avoiding crowds and the press.The 2008 vice presidential candidate was a guest of Rev. Franklin Graham, whose aid group works in the impoverished country. Haiti is facing a brutal cholera epidemic while struggling with an electoral crisis and reconstruction from the January earthquake.

Monday 12/13-

• (ABC)- Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died. On Friday, Holbrooke was rushed to the hospital with a torn aorta. He went through more than 20 hours of surgery. Earlier this evening, speaking at the US State Department, President Obama sang Holbrooke's praises and called him "a tough son of a gun."
• (PolitcalWire)- A federal judge upheld a constitutional challenge of the insurance coverage mandate in the new health care law but denied an injunction to stop its implementation.The case will almost certainly make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Update: Gawker reports that the judge "owns between $15,000 and $50,000 in a GOP political consulting firm that worked against health care reform."

Tuesday Top Stories: 11/30-12/6

Tuesday 11/30:

• (Bloomberg)- The Obama administration’s health- care overhaul survived a federal court challenge in Virginia by a Christian college. The suit, brought by Liberty University and five individuals, claimed the health-care reform law didn’t protect against mandatory insurance payments being used to fund abortion coverage. Their claim that the law is unconstitutional was rejected yesterday by a judge in Lynchburg.
• (NY Daily News)- The civilian and military leaders of the nation's armed forces urged Congress Tuesday to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy based on a survey showing that most troops are okay with gays serving openly.Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it was a simple matter of right and wrong: "A policy that requires people to lie about themselves to me seems fundamentally flawed," Gates said.

Wednesday 12/1

• (City Pages)- When Jeremy Geifer was charged with 11 counts of sexual misconduct November 18th, Tim Pawlenty might have envisioned his presidential ambitions going up in smoke. Just over three years ago, the Minnesota governor granted Giefer a pardon extraordinary, voting with the two other members of the Board of Pardons to wipe clean his previous criminal sexual record.
• (HuffPost)- The latest extension of emergency unemployment benefits expired on Tuesday, as a dysfunctional Congress let the deadline go without striking a deal to keep the money flowing.

Thursday 1/2:

• (PoliticalWire)- The House passed an extension of only the middle-class tax cuts on 231-187 vote with just three Republicans in favor and 20 Democrats opposed.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he might bring the House bill to a vote in the Senate but it's unlikely to pass without a compromise with several Republican senators.
• (NatJournal)- With the House censure Thursday of Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., for ethics violations, he is the first representative to be censured since 1983, when Massachusetts Rep. Gerry Studds was censured for a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male 10 years before.

Friday 1/3:

• (Politico)- President Barack Obama made an unannounced pre-holiday visit to U.S. troops here Friday, telling them that they are “on the offense” in Afghanistan now, and making progress against the Taliban. After a 13-hour flight from Washington, Obama spent only about three hours at the sprawling base, meeting with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces, and U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry, and visiting wounded soldiers at the base hospital before addressing troops gathered in a hangar.
• (HuffPost)- In a statement sent out by his office, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) announced that he is supporting DADT repeal

Weekend:

• (WashPost)- During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said that he is "much more inclined to run" for president in 2012 than not run. Gingrich has been hinting for months that he may seek the presidency -- though he has a history of making a lot of noise about running before deciding against it, as he did before the 2008 election. On Sunday, Gingrich said that after speaking with friends and colleagues, he is "more inclined to think it is doable." However, he said he would not make a decision until the "end of February, beginning of March."
• (HuffPost) A member of the House of Commons Defense Committee said Sunday that his Russian assistant is facing deportation as a suspected spy.Mike Hancock said he was unaware that the security services had any suspicions about his aide, Katia Zatuliveter, 25, until she was detained.Hancock, 64, is a member of the House of Commons Defense Committee, and the European Security and Defense Assembly of the Western European Union, a security and defense organization. He is a Liberal Democrat, the junior party in the Conservative-led government.

Monday 12/6

• (HuffPost)- President Barack Obama announced "a framework for a bipartisan agreement" Monday night over the impending expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Addressing the press after having discussed the arrangement with congressional Democratic leadership, Obama said he was unwilling to let "working families" become "collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington." He also stressed that his preference remained to let the rates for the wealthy expire. But Republicans wouldn't budge from their perch, he added. And securing a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits and other administration-favored tax credits in exchange for a two-year extension of all rates was, Obama stressed, a decent deal to make.
• (ABC)- So, who will Republicans choose to run the committee that controls the government’s purse strings?  Will it be a proven deficit hawk?  A fiscal conservative?  An avowed opponent of pork-barrel spending? The front-runner is Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky), a 16-term Congressmen who known for funneling taxpayer money for pet projects in his district – and far beyond.  Roger’s has brought so much federal money to his hometown (Somerset, Kentucky; population 11,000) that it is known as Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.  There’s a $52 million National Center for Hometown Security.  The tiny airport that received $17 million in federal dollars but has so little traffic that the last commercial airline pulled out in February.  And then there’s the Hal Rogers Parkway, which was formerly known as the Daniel Boone Parkway before being renaming for Kentucky’s Prince of Pork.