My two favorite senators are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They both have phenomenal records, not just on voting, but on leading. No one's perfect though. Bernie, for example, endorsed anti-choice Michigan reactionary Jerry Cannon, the former commandante of the Guantánamo gulag. What does that say about Bernie? Not much; just that he's human and makes mistakes.
If you signed any of the pathetic Democratic Party petitions yesterday to "tell Congress to overturn Citizens United, you can be sure yopu will be hit up for cash by corrupt Democratic conservatives like Steve Israel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and that your e-mail address will be widely shared and sold and that you will wish you have never signed a petition that isn't troll Congress anything anyway.
Every time I see some clueless DIY pundit say something about the "Elizabeth Warren-Bill De Blasio wing of the Democratic Party," it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Bill De Blasio? He has a record, which is why Blue America never endorsed him and why DWT never had any editorial comment on him beyond him being better than the even worse character that EMILY's List ran, Christine Quinn.
In 2008, "no one" (i.e., Beltway Establishment conventional wisdom) thought a half-term Illinois senator, Barack Obama, had a shot at beating out Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential race. But he did. Although her voting record was slightly more progressive than his-- her ProgressivePunch crucial vote score was smack dang in the center of the Senate Democrats and his was at the bootom of the Democrats and in the center of the Senate as a whole-- she had voted for Bush's Iraq war. He was lucky enough to have not taken that vote.
The 26th Amendment to the Constitution is a simple one: "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age." After being ratified by the 38th state legislature, North Carolina's, on July 1, 1971, it became part of the Constitution 4 days later on July 5. It has passed the Senate on March 10, 1971, 94-0, and the House March 23, 401-19.
Just a week ago we warned about how conservatives were eager to prevent progressives to end a tax loophole that allows corporations to do "inversions" that allow them to pay no taxes. Yesterday, the Senate failed to break a Republican filibuster lead by Wisconsin corporate whore Ron Johnson.
Hawaii's primary is August 9, a week from Saturday. Saturday? Sure, that's how to encourage voter participation in a democracy-- have the elections when people aren't working. Conservatives are generally terrified at the prospect of more people voting-- especially working class people-- so they tend to block legislation like Hawaii's. Hawaii is a pretty progressive state, first to mass a $10.10 minimum wage, first to start the process of marriage equality. The Republican Party is pretty moribund there and the Democratic Party has been in charge since 1962.
Elizabeth Warren's new book, A Fighting Chance, makes it pretty clear that I'm not the only one who thinks Capital One is one big scam and nothing-- at least up on top-- but a nest of crooks and thieves.
The other day I visited my old campus-- Stony Brook-- for the first time in exactly 45 years. I was there to begin a relationship with a program that assists high school kids from financially strapped backgrounds envision themselves going to college and the succeeding in college. Great program! It's called EOP/AIM-- Educational Opportunity Program/Advancement on Individual Merit.
