PBS: Video: NewsHour: Shields and Ponnuru on House GOP vs. Obama, missing IRS emails

As far as the Republican primary elections last Tuesday, it was a great night for establishment Republicans in Congress. With none of them losing with Representative Jim Lankford winning his primary overwhelmingly. But the biggest victory would have to be for Senator Tad Cochran who has been in Congress since 1973 when he was first elected to the House. In a really bad year for Congressional incumbents with Senator Cochran being one of the biggest porkers in Congress and perhaps the biggest porker in the Senate. Winning his primary against a Tea Party favorite because African-Americans voted for a Mississippi Republican.

As far as Speaker John Boehner’s suit against President Obama. This reminds me of when the Speaker back in 2011 decided to take up the defense of the Defense of Marriage Act that the Obama Administration decided not to defend. Then the Speaker appointed some Republican representatives to defend the law in court. With a lot of people in both parties pretty much deciding that DOMA was dead because of the makeup of the Supreme Court when it came to homosexuality and privacy. And with recent Federal curt decisions going against DOMA. The Speaker’s suit is just as dead because it will probably never even be heard in court at least not while Barack Obama is still President.

As far as the missing IRS emails. The IRS already has a great person running the IRS who has a lot of respect from both political parties. (Perhaps Tea Party not included) They already have multiple investigations into this issue and the Justice Department is looking at it as well. So another House investigation into it looks like more wasted taxpayer money on the behalf of House Republicans. A skill they mastered during the Bush Administration wasting taxpayer money.

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PBS: Video: NewsHour: Shields and Brooks on Keystone Politics

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

This just in, politicians make policy decisions for political reasons. Now we return you to your normally scheduled programming.

The environmental left (to be nice) tend to look at just about any type of economic development as bad for the environment and some type of giveaway to the wealthy.  This is not a mainstream political view in America but like with the Republican Party and the christian right, the Democratic Party needs the environmental, really socialist, left  to be successful politically, especially in mid-term elections.  That was a big factor in the delay of the Keystone Pipeline by the White House.

 

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Chris Brandt: U.S. Representative Steve Cohen Schools DEA Official at House Oversight Hearing

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat

I agree with Representative Steve Cohen that marijuana prohibition is definitely a joke and overwhelmingly hurts ethnic and racial minorities compared with Anglos and Caucasians.  It is a war on freedom to criminalize what people do to themselves, especially when we are talking about a drug that can’t kill you immediately, unlike heroin or cocaine. We are really talking about a drug as it relates to health aspects like alcohol.  It is actually far less dangerous than tobacco, which is legal.

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The Young Turks: Jimmy Dore & Ben Mankiewicz: Simple Weed Question Destroys Deputy Drug Czar

U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, D, Oregon

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat

This video is the perfect example of why the U.S. Government whoever is in charge since the creation of the so-called War on Drugs, why they have lost credibility. And no longer have much credibility on the War on Drugs. Especially with young adults let’s say early fifties and younger, but adolescents as well. When the Deputy Director of National Drug Policy Michael Botticeli can’t or won’t answer a simple basic question of whether or not marijuana is as dangerous as cocaine, heroine or meth.

Representative Earl Blumenauer Democrat from Oregon who I like and respect, but do not agree with him on everything. Asked National Drug Policy Deputy Director Michael Botticeli who probably has all the information about the dangers of these illegal drugs as well as legal drugs and may even know this information by heart. Because it is a big part of his job. Was asked point-blank by Representative Blumenauer, “is marijuana as dangerous as meth or cocaine or heroin.” And Mr. Botticeli dodged the question, can only speculate why not being a mind-reader. But he must know the answer, but refused to share that information.

Representative Bluemenauer also made another great point that we’ve reduced the use of tobacco in this country. Not by locking people up, but by educating Americans about the dangers of tobacco. And then people seeing and knowing that and if they aren’t currently smoking, not getting into tobacco. And if they are current tobacco smokers getting off of tobacco or getting help for it. Which is exactly what we should be doing as far as how we deal with marijuana in this country.

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The McLaughlin Group: American Exceptionalism

“The McLaughlin Group 9/13/13”

From The McLaughlin Group

The simple fact that the most of the democratic world tends to look to America when there’s a crisis like this dealing with human rights and humanitarian crisis’, is the perfect example of American exceptionalism. But that can be used to go too far when you think your power is unlimited.

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PBS NewsHour: Hari Sreenivasan- ‘White House Makes Emotional Appeal on Syria’

Source:PBS NewsHour– USA Today Chief Congressional Corespondent Susan Davis.

“Susan Davis, Chief Congressional Reporter for USA Today, spoke with Hari Sreenivasan about how many days — or weeks — it might take for President Obama to get a final vote for a military strike on Syria.”

From the PBS NewsHour

“The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. The PBS is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Wild Kratts, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, The Kidsongs Television Show, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Nature, Nature Cat, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Peg + Cat, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping Up Appearances, and This Old House.[8]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[9] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government.”

From Wikipedia

Looks like at least according to Susan Davis (and there’s an all-American name if I ever heard one) and I do not have any reason to doubt her, that President Obama gives his big speech on Syria Tuesday night (which I’ll blog about as well then) and depending on how that speech goes the Democratic Senate led by Leader Harry Reid, will vote on the Syrian resolution by the weekend or by the end of next weekend. And depending on how that goes the Republican House led by Speaker John Boehner, will hold their vote next week. So the President still has time to sell his resolution to Congress and the country as a whole. But how successful he’s at this week will decide whether or not he gets his resolution or not.

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