Congress

AZ right wingers want possibly the nuttiest guy in Congress to be Speaker

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gohmert

From the denizens of Sonoran Alliance* comes this plea:

In an exclusive interview on Fox News this morning, Texas Republican Louis Gohmert announced that he is joining Florida Republican Ted Yoho in challenging John Boehner for the Speakership.

Both candidates echo the sentiment of the grassroots that Speaker Boehner has nothing but a track record of failed leadership and missed opportunities since taking the gavel in 2011. His unwillingness to use the power of the purse to reign in Obama in addition to his broken promises that he gave in 2012 to use of ‘Regular Order’ and the Hastert Rule are primary reasons that leave him vulnerable to a challenge…

…Will the Arizona Republican Delegation join Rep. Thomas Massie and Oklahoma Republican Jim Bridenstine and side with the Conservative base? Or will they side with the ineffective, inept, and complicit GOP leadership? Arizona voters will find out Tuesday when Congress votes — until then, give them a call or a tweet and make your voice heard.

Rep. Gosar Contact info – (928) 445-1683/(202) 225-2315 | Gosar’s Twitter Account
Rep. Franks Contact info – (623) 776-7911/(202) 225-4576 | Franks’ Twitter Account
Rep. Schweikert Contact info – (480) 946-2411/(202) 225-2190 | Schweikert’s Twitter Account
Rep. Salmon Contact info – (202) 225-2635/(480) 699-8239 |Salmon’s Twitter Account

Note: the primary Hashtag on Twitter is #FireBoehner

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Elizabeth Warren

Warren Blasts Corporate Politicians, Calls for Break-Up of CitiGroup (video)

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Elizabeth Warren
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says when CitiGroup can sneak deregulation into a must-pass governmental budget, it has too much power and should be broken up.

In a fiery but measured speech on the Senate floor, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren blasted the close ties between CitiGroup, Congress, and the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations as Wall Street “cronyism”. Channeling trust-busting, progressive President Teddy Roosevelt, Warren called for “opening up Dodd-Frank to make it tougher” and for an end to “too big to fail” banks.

“Let me say to anyone who is listening at Citi, I agree with you that Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said, looking directly into the camera. “It should have broken you into pieces.” [Full video after jump.]

Warren and other progressives are riled up because Congress inserted a Wall Street deregulation clause into the federal government budget bill which the House passed last week. This provision– written by CitiGroup lobbyists– weakens the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, allows Wall Street banks to return to the risky derivatives trading that sparked the worldwide financial collapse of 2008-09,  and paves the way for future Wall Street bank bailouts. The fix is in for more gambling with our money.

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“Polarization” is the new “incivility”

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pew chart

Pew recently released a survey that showed Americans to be (holy shit!) polarized on a variety of issues. Predictably, this has set off a flurry of pearl clutching and smelling salt huffing in Upper Elitist Punditopia about the nettlesome yokels. Here’s the Washington Post fretting over it.

There was a time in the not too distant past when conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans made up significant parts of their respective coalitions. Northeastern Republicans moderated the GOP, while Southern Democrats pulled their party to the right.

Those days are over. A new mega-survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that the percentage of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades. At the same time, the ideological overlap between the parties has shrunk to historic lows: Now, 92 percent of Republicans are to the right of the average Democrat, while 94 percent of Democrats are to the left of the average Republican.

Both Sides™!!

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Time to admit it: Trying to get immigration reform from Republicans is a waste of time

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

statue of liberty

When Eric Cantor lost his primary Tuesday night, and his position as House Majority Leader, a lot of liberals were exultant because why the hell shouldn’t we be? It was comical watching the whole thing unfold, since the Cantor camp had been assured of a 30 point victory by their own advisers. And Eric Cantor is a dick anyway. A huge wingnut. A wingnut with access to lots of money, therefore an “establishment Republican”, but that didn’t moderate a single one of his stances. It’s been Cantor leading the GOP House majority in obstructionism, even to the point of endangering the country’s solvency.

Oh wait, he was “good on immigration” or something like that, so I’ve been told by party poopers who insist that “immigration reform is dead now”. Meh. It’s true that immigration reform is looking pretty moribund these days, but that already the case before Cantor’s primary loss. I’m not sure what people think Eric Cantor would have done on immigration in the next few weeks that he won’t now that he’ll be resigning as Majority Leader next month. His past performance on the issue has certainly been less than impressive, as Vox‘s Dara Lind explains:

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Migtants

Migration Policy Institute Report Clears the Way for Evolution of Deportation Policy

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MigtantsFrom the National Day Laborer Organizing Network…

Today, the Migration Policy Institute issued a new report, The Deportation Dilemma, that helps shed light on unprecedented deportations and criminal prosecution of immigrants.   In recent weeks, as the President hit the inauspicious milestone of 2 million deportations, there has been considerable confusion about the characteristic of deportations.  Former acting ICE director John Sandweg’s comments that “run of the mill immigrants” aren’t getting deported has been belied by hunger strikers on the White House lawn and called into question given explosive allegations that he doctored an Inspector General report to cover up misrepresentations about deportation policy made to Congress.

The MPI report attempts to shed light on this debate through detailed data analysis, and its findings open the opportunity for executive action to strengthen discretion and reduce the harm of outdated existing laws.

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