Tag Archives: vote

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Monday mad weather News …&cspan.org live stream


Easter break has both Chambers of Congress a little more quiet than usual.  I can’t lie the heat in both Chambers was exciting, irritating and anyone watching has to admit seeing our Political process at work or being abused was upsetting.  The crap that was done to Americans 8years ago led to a change we can all believe in and voted for.  Republicans keep saying the people don’t want this; actually, change is just what this country needs and again, 53% voted for.  It is with great pride to see Democrats finally act like Politicians trying to do the work of the people while Republicans continued to use procedural moves to block or stall the governing party and that was  sad… The process was just getting fun, what with all the fighting or debating as the Politicians like to say.  The break will be a time for Democrats to be with family and sell health care reform; as a good thing for all of us and why.  It was a good Month;there will be many more to come with the help of all Americans who so want to get back on track and be number one in the nation again.

Other News … Cspan.org live-stream

watch State Briefing on START Treaty

**Pres. Obama met with U.S. troops after an unannounced visit to Afghanistan that included a meeting with President Hamid Karzai. The two met briefly at the Presidential Palace in Kabul to discuss “benchmarks for progress” during Mr. Karzai’s second term.

watch Pres. Obama Greets Troops in Afghanistan watch Pres. Obama & Pres. Karzai Speak to Press

**reports are that female bombers kill 37 innocent people in Moscow injuring 65

C-SPAN Radio's New iPhone App

Think tanks Host Event On The Future Of Nuclear Weapons. After Friday’s announcement of a new U.S.-Russia arms reduction treaty, the Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Instit. present findings from a report examining the future of nuclear weapons. They will discuss the Administration’s goal to reduce nuclear weapons, as well as the strategies employed for their use.

Commission looks at Iraq contracting drawdown. At a hearing held by the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC) in Iraq and Afghanistan, witnesses will discuss plans to reduce the workforce of nearly 100,000 contractor employees in Iraq as part of the U.S. agreement to draw down its military forces. In particular, the hearing will look at Texas-based KBR, Inc, which has reported 2009 revenues of $4.8 billion from the contract with the military.watch Hearing: Panel 1 watch Hearing: Panel 2

U. S Treasury Holds Symposium On Women in Finance.  Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner speaks at a forum recognizing the contributions of women in the financial sector. The event also includes two panel discussions focusing on the economic recovery and the challenges women face in the financial community. Participants will include FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair and the heads of the Small Business Administration and Securities and Exchange Commission.

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The President’s Recess appointments and why


Fifteen Appointees Have Waited an Average of 214 Days for Senate Confirmation

WASHINGTON –After facing months of Republican obstruction to administration nominees, President Obama announced his intent to recess appoint fifteen nominees to fill critical administration posts that have been left vacant, including key positions on the economic team and on boards that have been left with vacancies for months.

“The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees.  But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis,”  said President Barack Obama. “Most of the men and women whose appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate.  At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months. I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.”

Following their appointment, these nominees will remain in the Senate for confirmation.

Obama Administration appointees have faced an unprecedented level of obstruction in the Senate.

  • President Obama currently has a total of 217 nominees pending before the Senate.  These nominees have been pending for an average of 101 days, including 34 nominees pending for more than 6 months.
  • The 15 nominees President Obama intends to recess appoint have been pending for an average of 214 days or 7 months for a total of 3204 days or almost 9 years.
  • President Bush had made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, but he was not facing the same level of obstruction.  At this time in 2002, President Bush had only 5 nominees pending on the floor.  By contrast, President Obama has 77 nominees currently pending on the floor, 58 of whom have been waiting for over two weeks and 44 of those have been waiting more than a month.
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Weekend News &reviews … cspan.org


It’s Sunday and while re-broadcasts of  the President and Nancy Pelosi signing the HCR into law is exciting …reports are that our President made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, his first;updates when needed.  This week was great even the low points were exciting and eye-opening because it gave me new energy…we have a fight on our watch ladies and gentlemen … to push the US to be the best it can be, to be more self-sufficient, to be number ONE again.  We have a chance to move into the 21st Century and with that we can also be compassionate enough to help other Americans;  to pitch in a little more so that others can begin to do better, to finally demand no force financial regulations; oh the list of good things are so long it’s just incredible.  The last administration left such a mess the clean-up could last years. This week, we saw President Obama act with resolve, he pushed back, stayed the course…with nancy pelosi’s/harry reid’s help  passed HCR, showed tough love to Israel, russia/US agreement to reduce nuclear arms, use a well-used procedure to get his cabinet filled because Republicans have decided to break him if and or make sure he cannot govern the way a President should,possibly create more sanctions for Iran to think about and took the student loan process away from the banks and guess what? we will save 60billion dollars to re-invest in … Americans people!!! We the People… good …no that’s huge

It’s Saturday …Some not all Democrats have definitely shown Americans exactly who are the adults in both Chambers of Congress.  The world didn’t end, no one saw anything different happen with the exception of the New Law of the Land that will help everyone not just poor people.  If implemented correctly, smoothly HCR will cover over 30mil people and create  an obvious up-tick in employees; it will also move us into the 21st Century and that is about time. The fight is not over  as concerned voters, we need to push movement toward climate, immigration, education and more

What’s on CSPAN… and Updates

Discussion On The Function, Budget and Oversight of FEMA.  This week on Newsmakers, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate describes how the agency has changed since Hurricane Katrina. He also discusses the function, budget and oversight of FEMA. In 2003 the agency was absorbed into the new Department of Homeland Security, due to security changes following the Sept. 11 attacks.

watch Pres. Obama’s Weekly Address

Other News …or Updates

the media is reporting that “the people” are not onboard the bill or law … who are they asking? or polling? we don’t know how many on the right voted in any one poll on any given day

In direct response to the party of no, the party that said hell no to Boehner, Cantor, Palin and those on the right who have been blocking the Obama administration and it’s right to govern the President has or will make recess appointments and believe me i am relieved.

The House is on it’s Easter Break

Senate business

Convenes: 9:30am3/27/2010 Morning Business until 12:30pm with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Stabenow and Coburn or their designees.

Votes:
Unanimous Consent:
Passed HR4957, FAA Extension Act (extends to April 30, 2010; current extension expires March 31, 2010).

Passed S.3162, a bill to clarify the health care provided by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs that constitutes minimum essential coverage.

Passed HR4621, the Prevent deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act.

Passed HR4573, Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act.

Passed H.J.Res. 80, 65th anniversary of the Blinded Veterans Association.

Adopted S.Res.117, 80th anniversary of the Daughters of Penelope.

Adopted S.Res.412, designating September 2010 as “National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month”

Adopted S.Res.427, designating the first week of April 2010 as “National Asbestos Awareness Week” (with Baucus amendment to the preamble).

Adopted S.Res.471, recognizing the University of Southern Mississippi

Adopted S.Res.472, a resolution in recognition and support of “National Safe Digging Month”.

Adopted S.Res.473, designating April 4, 2010, as “National Association of Junior Auxiliaries Day”

S.Res.474, supporting the designation of April as “Parkinson’s Awareness Month”.

Passed S.3191, Satellite Home Viewer (10 year extension)

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Action Alert … change.org


Don’t Let Texas Rewrite History

If you thought that decisions made by the Texas State Board of Education don’t affect you, think again.

Led by right-wing ideologues, the Texas board recently gave preliminary approval to a plan that would radically change what children across the country learn in history class.

The ultra-conservative majority on the board — many of whom are explicitly anti-science and believe that the United States is a “Christian nation” — took the curricula proposed by teachers and made over a hundred changes, questioning the separation between church and state and diminishing the role of women and minorities.

But it gets worse. Since Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the country, material written to cater to the Texas curricula will find its way into textbooks across the country unless textbook publishers take a stand.

We can’t allow a small group of extreme ideologues on the Texas State Board of Education to re-write history. Click here to tell textbook publishers to stand up to Texas extremists.

Children who use textbooks conforming to the new standards will not learn anything about the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson or his thoughts on the separation of church and state. When they learn about the Civil War, they’ll have to study Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address alongside Abraham Lincoln’s. And when they study the civil rights movement they’ll have to learn about the “unintended consequences” of affirmative action and Title IX.

In a particularly glaring rewriting of history, when reading about Joe McCarthy students will be told that he was right all along about communist infiltration into the U.S. government.

This is outrageous. We will have failed our children and imperiled our future if we cannot teach accurate history. We can’t let far-right ideologues co-opt our educational system.

Click here to tell the textbook publishers: Don’t let Texas rewrite history.

Thank you for standing up for the American educational system.

– The Change.org Team in partnership with CREDO Action

 Click here to sign your name

The job of textbook publishers is to educate our children, not indoctrinate them.

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

TGIF news and cspsan.org live-stream


It’s Friday,  thank goodness and it definitely has been a damn good week for We The People; nothing even remotely feels  like Armageddon as suggested by John Boehner or Eric Cantor.  It was raining the wind was blowing and while our weather in the 206 did change … The Political Party of NO did everything they could to stop change, to stop having Americans move into the 21st Century with an opportunity for good health, to stop being denied or be discriminated against, to have relief because your student will be covered under  your insurance until the age of 26; the right has said this is a welfare program… College is not cheap; people lose everything in some cases from having to pay out of the nose because of the lack of good health care coverage or no coverage at all;  small businesses will be able to get tax credits for hiring and maybe afford to provide health care too.

Oh yeah, these are bad ideas even novel … wonder why no one else thought about or tried to improve the lives of Americans … oh wait; Presidents in the past have tried but no one was able to until now.  The HCR bill is not perfect but it can be adjusted. It’s time for the middle class to re-enforce the ideology of the Democratic party.   The new law of the land is just a beginning of change we can all believe in.  It’s change that is also the beginning of what  53% heard, listened and voted for.  We not only will expect it to continue We The People must participate in keeping this change happening by calling when we need to push Democrats to push forward into the 21st Century, sign Petitions to show the numbers that continue to support climate change, stop out-sourcing,  education, energy and green jobs for all projects.  The change we voted for will not be easy, it will not get done just by the President we need to rise up; voice our opinions shut down the negative noise of Republicans. The party of NO has now seen what change looks like and they will continue to from now on.

Updates as needed

Other News …

**More needy college students will have access to bigger Pell Grants, and future borrowers of government loans will have an easier time repaying them, under a vast overhaul of higher education aid that Congress passed Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama.AP

**The price of a Movie Ticket will be going up today

**British Airways is warning of a 2nd round of strikes starting at midnight 3/26/2010

**UPDATE 3/26/2010 South Korea navy fires in direction of N.Korean at an unidentified vessel and now a SKorean ship is sinking by possible torpedo stricke **On 3/25/10 SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea’s military warned South Korea and the United States on Friday of “unprecedented nuclear strikes” over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the totalitarian country.

Senate adjourning until April 12 without extending unemployment benefits after Sen. Coburn blocked efforts Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/25/republican-senator-blocks-unemployment-insurance-insists-democrats-pay-for-spending/#ixzz0jIcvopJS

**A 6.2 earthquake in Chile today no word of injuries yet

**Sarah Palin is campaigning for McCain today in Arizona; and as far as the show on Discovery channel? i vote to BOYCOTT it

CSPAN.org … live-stream


U.S. & Russia agree to new arms treaty. The White House announced today that it has reached an agreement on a new strategic arms reduction treaty (START) between Russia and the U.S. Pres. Obama will be joined by Sec. of State Clinton, Sec. of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen at today’s White House press briefing. The agreement will be signed on April 8 in Prague.

Census Director Discusses 2010 Census. With the U.S. 2010 census underway, Census Bureau Dir. Robert Groves joins the Washington Journal to discuss how the census is conducted and evaluated. On Wednesday, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the agency had already received 20 percent of the distributed forms. Those figures suggest this year’s census is set to match or surpass participation rates from 2000, said officials.

House Passes Senate Changes To Health Care Reconciliation Bill. On Thursday, the House passed the Senate changes to the Reconciliation Bill by a vote of 220 to 207. The bill will now go to the President for his signature. Earlier, the Senate passed the Reconciliation bill by a vote of 56 to 43.

Counterterrorism and National Security Focus of Events.  A panel at the Center for Strategic and Int’l Studies will discuss their recent report on counterterrorism efforts. The discussion focuses on national security reform and lessons learned from the attempted Christmas Day bombing. Also today, the Heritage Foundation will gather policy experts to analyze the success rate of terrorist de-radicalization programs in which select detainees from Guantanamo Bay were sent abroad.

watch CSIS: From Earlier
visit CSIS visit The Heritage Foundationwatch Heritage Foundation: From Earlier