Obama will be impeached next year

Prediction:  Some time next year, in advance of the 2014 elections, Barack Obama will become the third President of the United States to be impeached. (Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.)  The charge will be that Obama committed a “high crime or misdemeanor”  most likely associated with the administration’s explanation of the Benghazi attack or the IRS investigation of Tea Party groups or some other thing—any thing Republicans can think of or create out of thin air. 

We now have a pattern.  First, Republicans try to win the White House with dirty tricks such as using their control of state houses to pass laws making it as difficult as possible for groups thought to support Democrats, such as minorities, to vote.  When that doesn’t work, Republicans fall back on their use of the filibuster in the Senate to try to make it impossible for the Democratic President to get any of his legislative agenda—which Americans overwhelming favor—passed.  When that doesn’t work and the Democratic President actually gets some major pieces of his agenda passed, the Republicans turn to the courts.  When the courts end up declaring that the Democratic President's legislation—like Obamacare—is Constitutional, the Republicans have a temper tantrum befitting their mental age and begin calling for impeachment because…well, because the President has done something really, really bad, like defeating Republicans.

First we hear calls for impeachment.  Then, the process begins in the House which the Republicans control because Republican state legislatures have gerrymandered the districts to make sure Republicans win.  Republican members of the House strut upon the media stage declaring that the Democratic President is the very source of all evil.  Then after weeks and weeks, they vote and the President is impeached by a bare majority with all Republicans voting for impeachment and all Democrats voting against.

We are then treated to weeks of hearings by the Senate which must try impeachment after which the Democratic President is acquitted and remains in office.  Democrats win the mid-term elections and afterward the Democratic President enjoys his highest popularity ever.

It happened with Clinton.  Here we go again.

Is not a student better than a bank?

Here’s an idea worth considering.

Right now, if Congress doesn’t do something rates on Federal Stafford student loans are set to double July 1^st going from 3.4% to 6.8%.  In other words, we are going to penalize college kids for getting an education and add to the huge mound of debt they already face, not for buying stuff they don’t need with a credit card but for doing something that benefits them AND the country—getting a college education.   At the same time that we are doubling interest rates on student loans, we are allowing big banks to borrow money from the Federal government for just 0.75%.  In other words, if you want borrow money from Uncle Sam to get an education, you will pay nine times more for the loan than the big money bankers have to pay for money to fund risky investments they want to make that might go bad and tube the economy.  That’s WRONG, very WRONG.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass) has introduced a bill to remedy this gross inequity.  She proposes to let college students borrow at the same rate as the big banks (.75% instead of 6.8%).  That’s a good idea but I have a better one.  Let’s let college students borrow money for their college education from Uncle Sam for FREE—0% interest.  Let’s reward young Americans for getting an education, not punish them.

Watch Senator Warren explain her bill here or below

Read more here:

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/298461-warren-give-students-the-same-loan-rate-as-banks

Guns made just for kids????

You have probably heard the story by now.  On Tuesday a five-year old boy inside his home in rural Kentucky picked up a rifle to play with and ended up shooting and killing his two-year old sister.  What you might not know is that the five-year-old was playing with a gun manufactured and marketed for four to ten-year-old children.  Read the story here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/04/30/2621458/5-year-old-boy-accidentally-shoots.html

That’s right.  An American company designs, manufactures and markets REAL guns it claims are “ideally sized” just for young children.  It even produces the guns in a variety of colors-- “pink” for girls and “blue” for boys.  They even have have a cute cartoon cricket holding a gun to help with sales.

The company’s website has been taken down as of this writing but here are some screen shots from various pages of the company’s website courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  Enjoy.

Isn’t this a great country?  We allow a company to make guns tailored just for little children because, as Republicans would say, American kids have a 2^nd amendment right to keep and bare arms so they can engage in armed rebellion against the government just likely alongside their mommies and daddies.

Here are the pictures.  

Scary new poll--Republicans ready for armed rebellion

A new Fairleigh Dickenson University poll sheds light on why nearly half of Republicans are so opposed to the passage of any gun control laws.  They believe they will need their guns to violently overthrow the U.S. government in the next few years.  Elections aren't enough.  They aren't winning recently.  They are ready to take to the streets with their guns to take control of the government with violence.

65% of Republicans in the new poll oppose new gun laws compared to 73% of Democrats who favor gun legislation.

44% of Republicans agree that “In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.”  61% of Democrats disagree.

Read the results.  This is scary stuff people.

Read the full results of the poll here: http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2013/guncontrol/

Senators who voted against background checks

These Senators voted AGAINST expanding background checks to prevent criminals and severely mentally ill people for purchasing guns.  These are the Senators we need to defeat in the coming elections.

Retiring:  These two Senators voted AGAINST background checks even though there was no risk to them since they are retiring at the end of their terms.  These two were the biggest cowards.  Please email them and tell them how disgusted you are with them.

Chambliss (R-GA)
Hatch (R-UT)

2014—The following Senators voted AGAINST background checks and are up for reelection in 2014.  Keep their vote in mind and work to defeat them in the 2014 election.  They don’t deserve to hold office.

Alexander (R-TN)
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johanns (R-NE)
McConnell (R-KY)
Pryor (D-AR)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)

2016—The following Senators voted AGAINST background checks and are up for reelection in 2016

Ayotte (R-NH)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Coats (R-IN)
Coburn (R-OK)
Crapo (R-ID)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lee (R-UT)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Reid (D-NV)
Rubio (R-FL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)

2018—The following Senators voted AGAINST background checks and are up for reelection in 2018

Corker (R-TN)
Cruz (R-TX)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Wicker (R-MS
Barrasso (R-WY)

See who voted FOR background checks here: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/gun-control-amendment-votes-041713

Please my campaign to stop the gun violence

Please join my campaign to shame the Senate into passing legislation to stop the gun violence.  Here is what I am asking you to do. 

Each day visit this site to see the number of Americans killed by guns the day before.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html/

Send an email to your Senators like this:

Dear Senator……..
xxxxx  Americans died just yesterday from gun violence.  3,513 Americans have died from guns since Newtown.  You could have helped prevent that from happening.  You didn't. Shame on you.

If logic doesn’t work and reason doesn’t work and the poll numbers don’t convince them, maybe we can shame them into doing something.  It is worth a try.

Contact your Senators here:   http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

Start the fight

This afternoon the Senate refused to do anything about gun violence in our country.  They wouldn't even pass legislation designed to keep guns out of the hands of the criminally insane even though most Americans supported such legislation.

The current members of the Senate have refused to do the right and decent thing.  That doesn't mean we can't do what is right--change the members of the Senate.

Let's start the fight for fair and reasonable gun laws that will make all of us safer. 

You can help right now by doing two things.

1. Contact your Senators to tell them you are really mad at them for not passing reasonable gun control legislation like expanded background checks and that you will remember their cowardliness the next time you go to vote.  Find how to contact your Senators here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

2. Make a contribution to Gabby Giffords PAC Americans for Responsible Solutions at https://secure.americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/page/contribute/change-congress?source=em130417c  Giffords is leading a campaign to elect members of Congress who WILL vote for responsible gun legislation. 

Do it for your family.  Do it for your country.  Do it NOW.

Refreshing “Must See” Video

Last night New Zealand’s Parliament passed legislation legalizing gay marriage.  This video shows what happened next.  The entire Parliament and spectators burst into song, singing “Pokarekare Ana,” a love song in the language of New Zealand’s inidgenous Maori people.  The woman in the video wearing the rainbow shirt is Louisa Wall, a lesbian lawmaker who sponsored the legislation.

Can you imagine the U.S. Congress breaking into song about anything, much less the passage of legislation to give people long-deserved equal rights?  Always thought New Zealand was a beautiful country.

Watch the video HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW4DXOAXF8U&feature=player_embedded

It will make you feel good.

Once again Republicans are wrong

Once again Republicans have been shown to be wrong, this time about the national debt, economy, and the necessity for austerity and aggressive efforts to reduce the national debt. 

Republicans and others, like many leaders in Europe, have preached that austerity is the only way to prevent a country like the U.S., Greece, Spain, Italy and so on from slipping into permanent economic decline.  They relied largely on one 2010 study by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff to justify their policy recommendations.  Reinhart and Rogoff claimed their research showed that high debit led to slow growth.  Deficit hawks have repeatedly cited the Reinhart/Rogoff study as justification for countries adopting austerity budgets to hold down their debt loads even at the expense of sky high unemployment.  Now, a new study shows that the Reinhart/Rogoff study was deeply flawed and, as many economists suspected, the austerity obsession is just that—an unsupported and wrong headed obsession.   

Here is a summary of the findings from the new study:

Read the new study here: http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_301-350/WP322.pdf

and here: http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/31e2ff374b6377b2ddec04deaa6388b1/publication/566/

Please write your Senators RE: Background checks for gun purchases

A vote may be taken in the Senate as early as tomorrow on a bi-partisan proposal to expand background checks for gun purchases.  This bill is not perfect but it will make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to purchase guns.   Read about it HERE.

Please take a moment and write your Senators and urge them to support this legislation.  The votes of the following Senators will be critical to the outcome of they vote, so be sure to write them particularly if you live in their states.

Republicans:

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee,
Johnny Isakson of Georgia,
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,
Bob Corker of Tennessee,
John Hoeven of North Dakota,
Jeff Flake of Arizona,
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma,
Saxby Chambliss of Georgia,
Roger Wicker of Mississippi,
Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire,
Richard Burr of North Carolina, and
Dean Heller of Nevada.

Democrats:

Mark Begich of Alaska,

Mark Pryor of Arkansas,
Max Baucus of Montana
Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota,
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. and
Kay Hagan of North Carolina.

You can contact your Senators here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm