West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
This is an open source project, so feel free to add your own insights.
No trolls on the highway. Here's the news I found lurking around the Internets...
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
On a programing note, you still have time to kick in a vote for this series. We are up for a kOscar (it really was an honor just to be nominated). You can vote for this series here nominated in (#7) "News or Political." The other diary for more categories is posted here. Many thanks to Laughing Planet and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse for their work on this.
Until the filibuster is ended in the not so much a gentleman's club in Washington, the US Senate, our nation will never come out of the dark ages of the Bush years. Every day that goes by requiring 60 votes to bring righteous legislation into law insures that nothing will be done to bring hope to those whose lives are made so difficult by allowing those that have so much to keep the rest of our nation behind. I think that there is nothing so selfish as the behavior of the blue dog democrats and their partners in crime all of the Republican Senators that have brought President Obama's promise of hope for our nation to an absolute standstill because the Senate has the archaic and absurd filibuster. Their co conspirators in the medical industrial complex and the financial industry are no less guilty as they make it possible for the aforementioned elected officials to ignore the needs of their constituents by handing them campaign contributions that reward them for bringing us bad government.
We have watched health care, bank reform, and wall street reform weakened or defeated either by the greed of these Senators or by the absolute Bull S**t financed by the corporations that permeates the airwaves because it is so easy to buy off media. That media isn't just Fox or Rush Limbaugh it is every person that calls themselves a reporter who fails to report the lies and deceptive stories for what they are.
Now we have a whole new category added to the fray with the actions of Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama who feels that he has the power to keep good Presidential nominees from being confirmed by putting a hold on their nominations until he gets earmarks for his state passed and signed into law by the President. What he is looking for is best described in New York Magazine (HT Balloon-Juice) in an article published on Tuesday...
So why exactly has Shelby taken such drastic action? Because he wants some pork for Alabama. Specifically, one earmark for a $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers, and another for a $45 million FBI testing lab. It's a $40,045,000,000 ransom demand to the United States government. When did Dr. Evil become a senator?
Note that the contract mentioned involves an aircraft built by Airbus, a European company with facilities in Alabama that is competing with an American company, Boeing, with facilities all over the United States.
Time to call Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd and tell them point blank that the filibuster must go and tell them that it is necessary to do this so we can have true representative government back in Washington.
Copyright 2011 West Virginia Blue
Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified.
This site exists thanks to financial support from BlogPAC, dedicated volunteers and participation by members of this community. The views expressed at West Virginia Blue belong solely to their respective authors.
