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Having virtually all the money in the world often means you can buy silence, you can buy time, and you can buy lies. Chevron has demonstrated this time and again in its decades-long battle to evade accountability for deliberately dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the Ecuadorian Amazon. The problem is that this time what Chevron has bought is a bag of lies in the form of false testimony from a thoroughly disreputable source, and they aren’t able to hide the price tag… |
Tag Archives: Congress
Bush is Gone, But His Judges Are Here to Stay
Filibuster Wars Return
Following a brief detente over executive branch nominations over the past few months, Republicans yesterday went back to their same old obstructionist ways.
First, Republicans used the filibuster to block an up-or-down vote on Rep. Mel Watt, who has been nominated to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, an important agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is the first time since the Reconstruction Era that a sitting Member of Congress has been denied confirmation. Watt is also the first African-American FHFA nominee.
Republicans then filibustered the nomination of Patricia Millett for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, despite her sterling credentials as one of the most well-respected members of the Supreme Court bar, previous experience in both Democratic and Republican administrations, and the support of conservative legal luminaries like Ken Starr and Ted Olson.
The D.C. Circuit is second only to the Supreme Court in importance. It hears cases involving key national security issues and federal regulations like environmental and labor rules. During the Bush administration, all 11 seats on the court were happily filled by Republicans. But now that three vacancies have opened up, they are refusing to allow votes on President Obama’s nominees.
It’s no secret why — conservatives currently have a stranglehold on this important court and Republicans want to keep it that way. Of the eight current judges, four were appointed by Republicans and four were appointed by Democrats; however, five of six semi-retired senior judges who still hear cases were appointed by Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) indicated that Obama’s nominees will be voted on again and not-so-subtly threatened to change the filibuster rules if Republicans continue their blockade.
Why Courts Matter
The last 24 hours have provided important reminders about why the courts — and federal appeals courts in particular — matter.
In Texas, a three-judge panel of conservative Bush-appointed judges overruled an earlier ruling and reinstated Texas’ draconian new restrictions on abortion. The restrictions forced about one-third of Texas abortion clinics to close. Today.
And then this morning, D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown, one of Bush’s most radical appointees, issued a ruling against the Obamacare mandate that requires insurers to offer no-cost birth control.
Both of these vital cases will likely head to the Supreme Court, which also continues to be controlled by Republican-appointed justices, where they will face an uncertain fate.
BOTTOM LINE: The courts matter and it’s important that President Obama be allowed to exercise his constitutional duty to fill vacancies on the D.C. Circuit, other federal appeals courts, and district courts. Unless more progressive judges make it on to the bench, radical judges appointed by Bush and other Republicans will continue to try and drag the country backward and undermine hard won progressive victories.
Had enough? Click HERE to tell your senators that enough is enough and it’s time to allow a vote on the president’s nominees.
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Check out OFA’s new video on immigration reform
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| With the shutdown behind us, Americans are looking to Congress to get back to solving problems instead of creating them. And at the top of the legislative agenda is comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate passed a bill this summer (more than 100 days ago now), but so far the House has failed to move it forward. We’re the ones who can help change that — OFA is doubling down on its immigration reform effort, and we want to show members of Congress exactly what they’re up against. You’ve said immigration reform is something you’re willing to fight for, so we think you’ll like this — watch highlights from OFA’s organizing so far, and invite your friends to join you in this critical effort.  When reform passed in the Senate, it had the support of a bipartisan super-majority. It’s a no-brainer for a lot of reasons. It’s good for families, and it’s great for the economy — adding millions of jobs, and reducing the deficit by more than $800 billion. |
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Doubling Down
The GOP’s Anti-Obamacare Dead-Enders
The American people are not happy with the GOP for inflicting a government shutdown that cost $24 BILLION on the country in a failed and mean-spirited attempt to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. A new memo from former Obama campaign pollster Joel Benenson presents an “array of public polling from a wide variety of outlets” demonstrating that the GOP’s effort to undermine Obamacare has hurt the party “on every front”:
– A Quinnipiac poll shows that 58% oppose Congress cutting off funding for the health care law to stop its implementation.
– Kaiser’s tracking poll has consistently found strong opposition to scrapping the health care law. In late September, 56% disapproved of cutting off funding to the ACA.
– CBS / NY Times pollsters found 56% of voters want Congress to uphold the law and make it work as well as possible, compared to just 38% who want to stop it by defunding it.
– According to NBC/WSJ, only 39% support eliminating federal funding for the law while 50% oppose.
– In Gallup’s recent polling, just 29% want the law repealed, while 64% want it kept as it is, or kept with some changes.
– Even Tea Party supporters knew the Republican strategy was doomed, with a Fox News poll showing that 54% believed that the ACA would remain the law in spite of attempts to defund it.
In view of the unpopularity of their strategy and complete and total failure of the GOP to accomplish anything with their 16-day shutdown (other than sabotaging the economy and causing pain for millions of Americans) and more than 40 Obamacare repeal votes, one would think they’d shift gears.
One would be wrong. Even after the disastrous shutdown, the most prominent Obamacare opponents are simply doubling down on their failed campaign against the law:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): The Tea Party lawmaker was the primary architect of the GOP’s shutdown strategy. But now that it’s failed, Cruz won’t admit defeat. “I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything, to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare,” he said on Thursday. He has also hinted that he hasn’t ruled out pushing for another government shutdown over Obamacare.
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA): Vitter tried to use the funding negotiations to push through an Obamacare-related amendment that would ultimately force Congress members and their staff to pay more for their health plans under the law. He was unsuccessful, and the final agreement didn’t include his amendment. But Vitter isn’t fazed and promises to keep pushing to amend the law anyway. “I’m not going away, and this issue is certainly not going away,” Vitter said on Fox News this week.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL): Speaking on the Senate floor over the summer, Rubio told his colleagues that shutting down the government represented “our last chance and our last best chance” to undermine Obamacare. Now, the senator is saying that Republicans will keep fighting anyway. This week, he told Fox News that there is going to an “all-out revolt” next year, once the rest of Obamacare’s major provisions take root. “And that is, I think, the moment to absolutely act and say we are going to get rid of this law and then look for opportunities in the future to replace it,” Rubio said.
The Heritage Foundation: During the shutdown battle, Heritage’s political arm told its supporters that it needed their support because “we only have one more chance to repeal Obamacare.” The group didn’t deliver. Now, Heritage is simply assuring its supporters that it won’t stop fighting the law. The group’s president, Jim DeMint, published an op-ed this week claiming that most Americans’ lives “are not dominated by the electoral cycle,” so those people “shouldn’t have to wait three more years for Congress to give them relief from this law.”
FreedomWorks: The right-wing group recently claimed that shutting down the government “may be the last best chance to defund Obamacare before it goes into effect.” Rather than adjusting their strategy, the group is now planning rallies to discourage young Americans from signing up for health coverage. The group says that Obamacare will still be a losing issue for Democrats up for re-election in red states — although outside polling has shown that the shutdown fiasco has made more than a dozen House seats more winnable for Democrats.
BOTTOM LINE: Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The American people are sending Republicans a message loud and clear: stop the insanity on Obamacare.
Be a Seed for Change 
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