Edward M. Kennedy 1932-2009
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Saturday August 29, 2009
As the memorial services and remembrances for Ted Kennedy come to an end as he is laid to rest his Saturday at Arlington National Cemetery, next week the national debate will undoubtedly return to health care reform — both in Washington and around the country. And with the most controversial component of that legislation — universal coverage for all — being a major unfulfilled goal of the late senator’s political career, this Leftwing Nutjob believes that the Democrats can and should snatch a legislative victory from the hands of a Republican-Special Interest-Lobbyist-Contarian defeat.
Beginning with President Obama’s eulogy, both he and the Democratic congressional leaders need to get their caucuses in order and pass this legislation in Mr. Kennedy’s honor — utilize the momentum of this great American’s passing and forever honor his memory by providing this basic right to all Americans in his name. Play hardball with the Right and rub their noses in their own polemics by labeling it as nothing more than an affront to Senator Kennedy’s memory and what he stood for.
When Congress went into their Summer recess a few weeks ago without passing any legislation, this Leftwing Nutjob believed at that time that the game was effectively over. Momentum had been lost and that no amount of cajoling, arm twisting or threatening would get the job done once the boys and girls on Capitol Hill left Washington, D.C. Now, in order to define Senator Edward Kennedy’s career and to award his service to this country, a new game-plan must be adopted today to seize upon this opportunity to put this issue to rest once and for all.
I’m sure it would make Teddy proud.
Links:
Washington Post – Obama to deliver eulogy at Kennedy funeral
Boston Globe – A time to remember
Lockstep Homophobes
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Thursday May 18, 2006
Making good on their promise to completely squander this summer’s legislative calendar on nothing more than petty political pandering, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines this afternoon to send to the floor of the US Senate a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The measure is set to be voted on next month during the week of June 5 and is not expected to pass.
The proposed amendment was approved 10-8, with the Committee’s chairman, Arlen “Single Bullet Theory” Spector, stating that he is “totally opposed” to the measure, but still felt that it needed to be debated, yet again, by members of the Congress.
Today’s move follows last week’s ruling by a Georgia judge that overturned the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. 76% of that state’s homophobic voters approved the measure last November, and Governor Sonny Perdue is now threatening to convene a special legislative session unless the Georgia State Supreme Court acts soon to put the law back in place.
Have these clowns nothing better to do?
Source:
Feingold, Specter Clash Over Gay Marriage – Washington Post
Power Of The Purse
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Thursday April 27, 2006
Senator Arlen “Single Bullet Theory” Specter is mad as hell and his isn’t going to take it anymore.
After repeatedly watching his GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill abdicate their oversight powers to the Bush Administration, effectively giving the White House carte blanche to continually circumvent civil liberties under the guise of “The War On Terror,” the Pennsylvania Republican is now prepared to use the only weapon left to the Congress to hit back at an increasingly arrogant and dismissive Smirking POTUS: the power of the purse.
Complaining that is has been nearly impossible to get any kind of information out of Administration officials regarding the President’s NSA-led domestic spy program, Specter is now threatening to pull funding for the controversial program unless the White House “plays ball” and does what is said it would do: keep Congress in the loop.
“Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment,” Specter, R-Pennsylvania, told the [Senate Judiciary Committee]. “If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.”
Senator Specter has said that he has informed the president about his intentions, and is currently considering an amendment to a Iraq war/hurricane relief spending bill that would effectively kill the program. And while some of his colleagues chaff at the veteran Senator’s bravado, Specter acknowledged his Democratic colleague’s fears about the effectiveness of any potential oversight when he stated that “it is true that we have no assurance that the president would follow any statute that we enact.”
But this Leftwing Nutjob doesn’t believe for one minute that no one in the Congress didn’t see this coming. And by differing real action on the issue some two months ago, when the Senate Intelligence Committee failed to stand up and order hearings into the president’s domestic spy program, it’s become shit-or-get-off-the-pot time for the boys and girls on Capitol Hill. Because if they don’t act now, I believe the American people will replace them in November with someone who will.
Source:
Sen. Specter threatens to cut off funding for secret wiretaps – CNN.com
Wakeup Call
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday April 2, 2006
The Senate Judiciary Committee convened on Friday to consider Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold’s censure resolution against the Smirking POTUS for his “unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans within the United States without obtaining the court orders required.”
Presented with a historic perspective on how the Smirking POTUS’ actions stack up against the illegal transgressions of Richard Milhouse Nixon, former White House legal counsel John Dean, who himself spent four months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, offered poignant testimony before the bi-partisan committee.
Imploring the Congress to not fail in their duty to the country, and to exercise the very governmental oversight that they are charged with, Dean asserted that President Bush may have even exceeded former President Nixon in terms of his wrongdoing and scope of his actions.
“Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented,” Dean told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it.”
Fiengold, so far only joined by two fellow Democrats, Senators Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California, implored his colleagues to look beyond partisanship and to recognize that there is more at stake than simple party politics.
“If we in the Congress don’t stand up for ourselves and the American people, we become complicit in the lawbreaking,” Feingold, D-Wis., told the panel. “The resolution of censure is the appropriate response.”
The Republicans on the committee were quick to cast the proceedings as nothing more than election year grandstanding, refusing to follow either Fiengold or Dean down their respective roads. But this Leftwing Nutjob finds it more disturbing that Senate Democrats, some with presidential aspirations, would find it so difficult to join their colleague and support his censure resolution.
Playing politics merely for the here and now, and actively abdicating their Constitutional responsibilities, does nothing to protect either the dignity or the sanctity of the office that they ascribe to. If anything at all, the political careers of these hand-wringers should be flushed down the toilet alongside of the very U.S. Constitution that they refuse to protect.
That means you, John Kerry.
Source:
John Dean appears at hearing on whether Bush should be censured – CNN.com
Last Man Standing
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Monday March 13, 2006
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, one of the last members of the US Senate with any measurable degree of integrity or strength of conviction, is calling for his colleagues to join him in censuring the Smirking POTUS over his domestic spying initiative.
Calling it like it is, Senator Feingold pulled no punches yesterday when he stated on ABC’s “This Week” that “the president has broken the law, and, in some way, he must be held accountable.”
The five-page censure resolution is set to be released today, and argues that President Bush did not have the legal authority to conduct wireless surveillance on American citizens without a warrant, something that the Smirking POTUS asserts was given to him implicitly in the sweeping omnibus bill known as the Patriot Act.
Senator Feingold, as you may recall, was the only member of the Senate not to vote for that disgraceful affront to the Constitution.
And continuing his record of never failing to make an ass of himself if given the chance, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, reacting to his colleague’s announcement, pulled out the GOP’s one hit wonder about not criticizing the president during a time of war and played it for all who would listen.
“The signal that [censure] sends, that there is in any way a lack of support for our commander in chief who is leading us with a bold vision in a way that is making our homeland safer, is wrong.” – Bill Frist
But this Leftwing Nutjob believes that he American people have long since seen through that acrid smokescreen and will be giving the Republican Party a wake-up call come this November, after which we will see what kind of signal the Impeachment of President Bush by Democratically-controlled House will send to the world.
Early Vegas odds have our standing in the world community increasing by ten-fold.
Source:
Feingold Seeks Senate Censure of Bush – Washington Post
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!