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Bait, Switch & Bullet.
Author: Raine    Date: 04/07/2011 16:43:40

The 27th Amendment of the United States of America states:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.


So guess what? It's technically unconstitutional for Congress to not get paid for a government shutdown. Not that Barbara Boxer didn't try...

Back in February, Boxer announced she was introducing legislation to stop members of Congress from being paid during a shutdown.

"Failing to keep the government open because of politics, or because there's no will to compromise, is a failure of government," Boxer said. "If the government is forced to shutdown, members of Congress and the president should be treated like all other federal employees:
We should not be paid. And to take it one step further, we should not be paid retroactively once the government re-opens."

It's strange but true: Members of Congress get paid during a shutdown, even though most other federal employees do not. Also exempt from a pay freeze are the president, presidential appointees, certain legislative branch employees and employees either doing emergency work or ensuring an orderly shutdown, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The report noted that in the past federal employees were paid retroactively once shutdowns ended.

Boxer's bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent on March 1.[/quote
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57 comments (Latest Comment: 04/08/2011 02:14:48 by wickedpam)

They're all the Same?
Author: BobR    Date: 04/06/2011 12:47:33

You've heard the claim... perhaps even said it yourself on occasion: "They're all the same". Democrats and Republicans are all the same? Really? Let's take a look.

In some ways, I suppose that's true. Pick any random politician and I'm sure you will find they take campaign donations from Someone/Some Company You Don't Like. They've likely voted on a bill in a way you disagree with. They've likely broken a campaign promise.

But does that make them all the same? What about on substantive issues that really matter?
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96 comments (Latest Comment: 04/07/2011 00:22:06 by livingonli)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/05/2011 10:20:12

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,939th day in Iraq and our 3,467th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4443
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4304
Since Handover (6/29/04): 354
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 215
Since Operation New Dawn: 25

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,521
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 867
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 175, 672, 100, 000 .00


If you follow Paul Rieckhoff on facebook, then you've had a ringside seat to a quiet epidemic that is sweeping the veteran's community. The suicide rate among returning veterans continues to rise...and this past week IAVA lost one of their own.
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52 comments (Latest Comment: 04/05/2011 19:54:41 by TriSec)

This is a Human Right.
Author: Raine    Date: 04/04/2011 12:52:49

On Feb. 1, 1968, two sanitation workers in Memphis, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, rode out a driving rainstorm by climbing inside one of the Sanitation Division’s old “wiener barrel” trucks. The walls inside the packer were caked with putrefying garbage of all sorts—yard waste, dead chickens, moldy food.

Cole and Walker’s soiled, worn-out clothes smelled of garbage. The city did not provide them with gloves, uniforms or a place to shower. They did hard, heavy work, lifting garbage tubs and carrying them on their shoulders or heads or pushcarts to dump their contents into outmoded trucks.

As crew chief, Willie Crain drove the loaded garbage packer along Colonial Street, he heard the hydraulic ram go into action, apparently set off by an electrical malfunction. He pulled the truck over to the curb immediately but the ram was already jamming Cole and Walker back into the compactor.

The men were crushed like so much garbage.
Excerted from By Michael Honey, History Professor at the University of Washington, Tacoma, posted at the AFL-CIO website.
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52 comments (Latest Comment: 04/05/2011 02:08:36 by livingonli)

A Fable?
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 04/03/2011 14:08:32

Once upon a time there was a kingdom in a beautiful land, marked by luscious fields of bountiful crops tilled by happy farmers and their families. Scattered throughout the kingdom were several clusters of small villages and towns, each filled with everything that a person might need: candle shoppes, blacksmiths, farming supplies, inns, taverns, bakeries and of course, a Starbucks.

The kingdom was a very prosperous and happy kingdom ruled by the benevolent and somewhat progressive-thinking King Randolph.
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9 comments (Latest Comment: 04/04/2011 02:25:38 by BobR)

Hey, let's burn a Bible!
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/02/2011 13:11:30

Good Morning.

I'm a little ragey here this morning. Remember the vile and hateful pastor Terry Jones? Back about September 11, he was going to publicly burn a pile of Korans in some kind of twisted 'commemoration'. Because of the international backlash and feared violence, he backed out of it.

We all missed it at the time, but back on March 20, he quietly burned a Koran on the altar of his "church". All fine and good, and in fact, the Supreme Court recently avowed his right to do so as an act of "free speech".

But then the media got involved.
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7 comments (Latest Comment: 04/02/2011 23:44:48 by Raine)

Whigging Out on the Two-Party System
Author: BobR    Date: 04/01/2011 12:55:17

America is - and essentially always has been - a two-party country. The current Democratic and Republican parties were once a single party, in opposition first to the Federalists, and then to Whigs. As those two parties disappeared into history, the Democratic-Republican party split into the two we have today. Sure there are other parties (sometimes referred to as 3rd parties), but these two have dominated American politics for over 150 years. There are lessons to be learned by those who would like to see a third party rise to prominence, and lessons for the current two parties as well.
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33 comments (Latest Comment: 04/01/2011 20:47:28 by livingonli)

Opening Day!
Author: TriSec    Date: 03/31/2011 14:24:47

The football wing of the blog will grant me a brief indulgence.

Today is opening day. It’s a curious and grand American tradition…where young men gather together on verdant fields of green to play with a ball, a bat, and a glove.
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13 comments (Latest Comment: 04/01/2011 00:50:23 by clintster)

Remember the Ladies
Author: Raine    Date: 03/31/2011 12:49:52

As we bid adieu to particularly nasty month, let us take a moment for a great Woman:

"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."
Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband, John written March 31,1776

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44 comments (Latest Comment: 03/31/2011 19:23:46 by Scoopster)

Intervention
Author: BobR    Date: 03/30/2011 12:55:59


Intervention
noun: interposition or interference of one state in the affairs of another.

The current military action going on in Libya has had a polarizing effect on the American people. While most people are supportive on some level, there's been a lot of "why here? why now?" and "how much?" questions. These questions are valid, but it seems like the information is out there if you seek it. Those most critical, though, have already made up their minds and are not likely to be persuaded. I will not try to persuade, but here is how I see it...
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71 comments (Latest Comment: 03/31/2011 01:13:14 by trojanrabbit)

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