House Freshmen Push Bills That Benefit Big Donors

USA TODAY

By Fredreka Schouten and Alan Gomez

WASHINGTON – Several House freshmen who swept into power vowing to change Washington’s ways are pushing legislation that could benefit some of their most generous campaign contributors, a USA TODAY review of legislative and campaign records shows.

Five months after taking office, Rep. Stephen Fincher, a cotton farmer from a mostly rural swath of Tennessee, introduced a bill to mandate swift federal approval of genetically modified crops for commercial sale. Fincher has received more campaign money from agribusiness than any other industry.

Two months after he filed the bill, the political action committee of the Minnesota-based agricultural giant Land O’Lakes’ staged a $500-a-head fundraiser to benefit the Republican’s re-election campaign. The company spent more than $740,000 on lobbying last year on a range of issues, including federal regulation of its genetically modified alfalfa seeds.[...]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-08-30/House-freshmen-push-bills-that-benefit-big-donors/50196680/1

Cheeseburgers, coffee and butter comes into the political “limelight” and neither is required for the physical health of human beings. What would happen if America, for the sake of the country, started to eat and drink healthy?

A New Military Man To The helm of the CIA

And this time it raises no rancor. General Petraeus to the CIA seems natural.

Not so, for military men, back when an American citizen who worked for the CIA revealed one of the neocons’ many secrets. The citizen revealed that the neocons were secretly spying on American citizens. A management shake-up at the CIA followed.

President George W. Bush, America’s Commander-In-Chief, looked to the military for a replacement. America’s President sits at the top of the military chain-of-command. He is the Commander-in- Chief.

The Commander-in-Chief picked from the ranks of the military for his new CIA head. And twenty-five democrats voted for his choice while many Americans were against the civilian to military shift. That was some time ago.

This transition to General Petraeus, however, seems natural. He is a warrior but he is also a man of honor.

When the neocons were claiming their surge(too little, too late) was the cause of Iraq’s quiet, General Petraeus and the United Nations gave some credit to “an enemy” whose 60,000 or so militia had called a ceasefire. Al-Sadr declared a ceasefire in Iraq. And it looks like the neocons “stole” Al-Sadr’s thunder.

While the Pandora’s box that became the CIA under the ideology prone(other human values suffered) neocons, that era is, hopefully, now over.

Will The Challenges Ever Cease?

Much of what the neocons have encountered in America’s economy, Constitution, democracy, climate and ethics seems to be at variance with neocon ideology. Neocon ideology seems to be challenging core America.

The neocons encountered an American economy that was the envy of the world. The neocon ideology, however, dictated that America’s treasury give back, via tax-cuts, substantial portions of its income. Neocon tax-cuts were monstrous. Did the neocons adjust spending in relation to America’s decreasing income? Can a bear fly?

It could have been neocon ideology or perhaps neocon VOODOO ECONOMICS that delt America’s economy a blow almost as hard as the Republican’s 1929 blow to America’s economy.

And due to America’s current day ombudsmen(voters) political choices America’s economy is still not out of the “woods” yet. America’s ombudsmen(voters) decided to return neocons to power – perhaps so that they could finish what they started in December of 2007.

It is safe to say that most Americans love and respect their Constitution. While the Constitution’s predecessor – the Articles of Confederation might draw a blank stare – NOT America’s Constitution. And yet, into America’s CURRENT EVENTS news pool came this: The Constitution ain’t nothing but a Goddam piece of paper. And that is an attack on America’s fabric.

America’s democracy has done well. It has enabled America to “tap”, from sea to shinning sea, the brains of 300 million people.

A few “fat cats” would now love to “inherit” that knowledge base for control by themselves. They could then squeeze out SOCIALISM(the millions of Americans who made America what it is today) and enjoy the rewards of America by themselves. It’s all about money. Monkeys( a relative of sorts) have no need for money.

The neocons attack on climate is eye-crossing. The neocons have not demonstrated the capability to manage what they are paid to manage. So, why would the neocons send their man into NASA to dictate to climate scientists what they can and cannot say about climate.

Ethics? The neocons took ethics to new lows. William Buckley Jr. called their “stint” in the ethics cesspoll, pitiful.

The neocons have challenged much of what makes America – America. And in the process, they have substantially wrecked America’s government.

Is The Economy On Its Way To Re-Wrecking?

In December of 2007 America’s economy went into recession. Perhaps due to early neglect, the recession grew into a Great Recession. All the time the neocons were in denial of a R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N.

America’s ombudsmen(voters), In an attempt to repair that recession, rehired those who caused the recession. And tax-cuts and war spending continued.

America’s treasury has been under a “debt” attack since 1980. Tax cuts and war spending were high priorities for neocons. Finally, in 2003 came the straw that broke the camel’s back. President Bush “fixed” a working economy.

The worldly wisdom, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, might have saved America from its second greatest economic disaster since the last time Republicans “managed” America’s economy into a Great Depression.

America’s ombudsmen(voters) returned neocons to power. And they have picked up where they left off.

Polls now say America’s ombudsmen(voters) are not happy with Congress and the President. Well la-de-de. What a surprise.

The neocons, no matter the alias, have continued to pose trouble for America’s President AND continued to ignore the recession. That is not a new behavior for neocons.

And polls now say Americans are disappointed with the conditions in Washington???.

Got an idea!! Perhaps the “magic mirror” has an answer to the question about behavior of America’s ombudsmen(voters).

Mirror, mirror on the wall – who is the best American ombudsman(voter) of them all?

Is the economy on the way to re-wrecking? News stories say there is the possibility of a second recession. That would be another record for the neocons.

In Need of the “Grain of Salt” idiom?

Some, if not many of today’s “news” stories begs the “grain of salt” idiom. Some news stories should be taken with a “grain of salt”.

Hurricane Irene just visited America’s shores this weekend. Weekend consists of Saturday and Sunday. Today is Monday – Monday morning. It is early Monday morning. The nation just said, “good night” to Irene hours ago. And already USA TODAY sports this news title:

Recovery slow in Irene’s wake

Saying that recovery was slow in Katrina’s wake was accurate. Dead bodies were floating down America’s streets this soon after Katrina. This soon after Katrina doctors and nurses were mulling “merciful” deaths for incapacitated patients of nursing homes. And even today, there is unfinished Katrina business. Katrina happened in 2005. Today is August 29, 2011. Recovery is slow for Katrina.

Long ago, it was said that newspapers targeted the reading skills of a 14 year old. Perhaps the rest of the  ”cognitive skills” were set even lower?

Could hurricane Irene be President Barack Obama’s Katrina? The neocons have been calling  even accidents – Obama’s Katrina. You can’t MAKE a neocon talk about their own accomplishments. Why? They haven’t accomplished anything they can talk about. Twenty-some-odd years at the helm, and NOTHING to boast of. Were there failures in two categories here?

[Here this morning - gone this afternoon? It is now 1:57 P.M. and joejolly Can't find the "Recovery Slow In Irene's Wake" article anymore.] 

Advancing Toward Fascism?

Advancing toward fascism?  That seems to be the lesson taught by the Starbucks boycotting tactic in politics. Business seems to be hard at work trying to own America’s government. That, in addition to,  owning America’s economy.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned Americans long ago of a pressure on America’s democracy by those who displayed a Concentration of Economic Power. Here is a part of what he told Congress on April 29, 1938:

[...]The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe, if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.

Both lessons hit home.

Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing. This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.[...]

http://publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/faculty-research/new-deal/roosevelt-speeches/fr042938.htm

Prior to the current problems with business, America had another problem with business that made it into America’s CURRENT EVENTS news pool. TIME Magazine U.S. posted this:

The Avery Problem

Monday, June 19, 1944

Sewell Avery might have been grateful. His appearance before a Congressional investigating committee came on Dday. This accidental circumstance kept his testimony off the nation’s front pages, and this was just as well for Sewell Avery. For even his most sympathetic Congressional supporters discovered that the 69-year-old head of giant Montgomery Ward is no easy man to get along with. He blustered and stormed, made long speeches, evaded questions, interrupted committee members. D-day was field-day for Sewell Lee Avery. He said the War Labor Board “must be destroyed”; it was a mistake to think “that kind of trash can succeed in making a successful country.” He was disgusted with WLB’s industry members because they followed democratic procedure—when outvoted, they accepted the majority decision. He insisted that his $600-million-a-year business, employing upwards of 60,000 workers, had nothing to do with the war effort. And, retelling the story of his widely-pictured ouster by two soldiers from Ward’s Chicago plant, he made it clear that he had deliberately forced the eviction in order to dramatize his case. (“Thank heaven I did that! Because the damned photograph resulted. . . .”)[...]

And the saga of the advance toward fascism continues?

Will Starbucks Reveal the List of Businesses That Joins In its Political Boycott?

Making public the list of companies that are going heavily political might be enlightening to the customers of those companies. It might show customers of those companies that the boycott is still a power to be reckoned with.

It has been awhile since customers have used boycotts of business on a massive scale. But business may bring back the idea of customer boycotts of business. Business is proving that significant numbers of like-minded businesses can be brought together around a central topic. And in today’s world, communications is in an advanced state.

Communications was likely central to Starbuck’s political organizing activities. Starbuck’s needed to communicate its feelings to others. And world communications, though not yet in a single language, still does get the message out.

America and the world now have communications systems that practically allows world-wide communications – at the drop of a hat. Social communications is much in the news at this time.

And the idea of “social communication” being the domain of the young is changing. Pew Research Center shows this:

65% of Online Adults Use Social Networking Sites, Big Rise Since 2008

If one has a grievance, be it political or business, and one feels like a catalyst, one now has the tools of communications to express those grievances to a wide audience.

Starbucks used its free speech in a domain that business used to stay out of. Long ago, Business used to TELL AMERICA to be civic and vote. Now business tells America who to vote for. And to believe that business is trying to save America from the “LEFT” and Democrats is foolish.

America’s two near death economic experiences came via the business route and Republicans. In 1929 banks loaned America’s ombudsmen(voters) money to businesses and business people to buy stocks.  The Stock Market crashed and banks locked their doors and went on a banker’s holiday. Americans could not access their bank accounts. And the great recession of 2007 was practically a duplicate performance but with different financial instruments.

Businesses that sells products or services that keep Americans out of coffins have used that fact to earn a healthy profit from America and the world. But cheeseburgers and coffee? How much clout does cheeseburgers and coffee have with man’s needs?

America’s military, long ago, advised its military people to try and avoid “free speech” on the topics of politics and religion. That was wise. It helped keep friends friendly. Business should do the same. Business and politics don’t mix – except perhaps in a fascist state.

jodaph970 Responded To My Post, “What If Your Politics Don’t Match Their Politics?”

Thanks for your response jodaph970.

jodaph970 said:

Interesting. Perhaps this is the pendulum swinging away from extreme left behavior from unions that contribute to Democratic campaign funds.

joejolly responds:

Your pendulum must have an exceptionally long period. The neocon cycle is now twenty-some-odd years old and no-way can anyone believe the neocons treated labor fairly. And “Tit for Tat” is no way to run a government”.

Extreme left behavior? Someone, perhaps on the extreme right, questions extreme left behavior? That’s the same tact the neocons are taking with their “debt” strategy.

jodaph970 said:

Extremism only breeds more extremism, and corporate America is now trying to shrug off the burdens of liberal America.

joejolly responds:

To believe the above, joejolly would have to have gotten his hands on some of that left over crack cocaine destined for sale to minority neighborhoods during the Reagan administration.

After the Reagan administration got caught in the drug business some of their product might not have been properly disposed of. If the shelf-life of crack cocaine permits, perhaps some could be ingested.

Thanks again for your response jodaph970.

What If Your Politics Don’t Match Their Politics?

Two American businesses have recently gone publically political. What if your politics don’t match theirs? What if your poliics don’t even come close to theirs?

A McDonald’s in Ohio wants its employees to vote republican(far right wing of the republican party). Starbucks has ganged up with others of the same ilk to boycott, via campaign contributions,  the Obama administration and congress. Business already owns America’s economy and is now trying to own America’s government.

As America approaches fascism, business becomes more and more outwardly political. Owning America’s economy and government – without having a social responsibility is like Heaven for business.

If the boycott is returning to America as a tool that business is willing to use, it might just as well do a historical return. It might just as well return as it was in the past – a tool that customers of business used.

If a customer likes his/her political party more than cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers may take on a political “persona”. If a customer likes his/her political party more than coffee, coffee may take on a political “persona”. Both of those products are optional. And as “fast foods” go, they do have their own reputation.

America – my how you have changed!

“Debt” As a Political Theme

When your political record of accomplishments is ZERO, political campaign themes are not easy to come by. Debt could then become a political weapon for the “creative” political type.

Granted debt is closer to politics than “lipstick on a pig” or “what I did as a POW in Vietnam” but debt is bottom fishing political topics. And in actual practice – the way the neocons used debt, they are the last – very last group of politicians who should bring up the word “debt”.

Wouldn’t you be embarrassed to bring up the word debt if this was your performance managing America’s debt?:

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

The neocons, name changes not withstanding,  are the worse debt managers America has seen in a long time – perhaps ever.

What mental state would your target audience need to be in to accept neocons as debt managers? And the way the neocons are using debt against labor makes debt look more like a weapon than a tool.

A fool and his country may have already parted.