Senator Shelby (R-AL) Is Certifiable.
February 22, 2009 at 1:03 pm | Posted in Economy, senate | Leave a commentTags: Alabama, Republicans, Senator Shelby, stimulus bill
Lock at Wheeler Dam, Alabama, June 1942.
The people of Alabama should ask themselves whether having a senator as unhinged as Richard Shelby is really in their best interests.
Despite having several weeks to review the stimulus bill, Senator Shelby didn’t read it before he voted or since, as he explained to some of his constituents the other day:
(Culman Times) Shelby said he opposed the bill mainly because it requires the country to borrow billions for what he considers to be wasteful spending. In addition, he said he opposed the bill because nobody really knows yet where all the money will be going.
“Nobody’s read it yet,” Shelby said.
How does he know the bill contains wasteful spending if he has not read it?
The bill has been available to read online all during this process and the final bill is available for anyone to read. Many people have read it but not Senator Shelby who, nevertheless, feels qualified to declare it a very bad bill.
Shelby’s neglect of his duties is a troubling sign but that’s not why I think he’s certifiable. No, what brings me to that conclusion is his willingness to publicly question whether President Obama is a United States citizen:
(Culman Times) Another local resident asked Shelby if there was any truth to a rumor that appeared during the presidential campaign concerning Obama’s U.S. citizenship, or lack thereof.
“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”
RNC Chair Michael Steele said recently, “You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point.”
Shelby is a living example that what Steele said is true.
Alabama, you can do better.
UPDATE: Ben Smith at Politico got in touch with Shelby’s office ask about Shelby’s statement concerning President Obama’s citizenship. Shelby’s spokesman, Jonathan Graffeo put out this release:
The Cullman Times article contains an incomplete account, and therefore a distortion, of Sen. Shelby’s comments regarding President Obama’s citizenship. At the town hall meeting in Cullman, Sen. Shelby laid out the Constitutional qualifications for the Presidency and said that, while he hasn’t personally seen the President’s birth certificate, he is confident that the matter has been thoroughly examined.
Oh, well, that makes it all right then.
“The Republican leadership did NOT apply extreme pressure!”
February 20, 2009 at 1:16 pm | Posted in House of Representatives, politics straight up | 1 CommentTags: Anh “Joseph” Cao, Louisiana, politics, Republicans, stimulus bill
Ahn "Joseph" Cao celebrates with his wife, Hieu “Kate” Hoang, and their 4-year-old daughter, Betsy (photo credit: Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
Back on December 9, 2008 I predicted that newly-elected Representative for Louisiana, Anh “Joseph” Cao, who unseated
William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, would not satisfy the the lunatics who have taken over the GOP asylum.
Rep. Cao may already be regretting his party affiliation.
Cao voted against what he understood were his district’s best interests on January 28, 2008.
(NOLA.com) Cao said that the Republican leadership did not apply extreme pressure.
“The leadership wanted me to vote no, but they gave me freedom to vote for the needs of my district and this bill does not address the needs of the district,” Cao said.
Immediately after the vote, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the Republican whip, said he had talked to Cao regularly, including the last 24 hours.
“Mr. Cao is a terrific representative and voice for the people that elected him,” Cantor said. “I think he understands that even in a district as challenged in terms of the economy as his, that was devastated by the hurricanes, by Katrina, even in his district that polls indicate that 55 percent of people are against this bill.”
On February 12 Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-La.) told reporters he was likely to vote for the economic stimulus package despite his vote against it on January 28:
(NOLA.com) “I’m voting along what my conscience dictates and the needs of the 2nd Congressional District dictate, even if I were to be the only member of the GOP to vote for the stimulus package,” he said.
“Even though it is going to be a humongous bill, even though we will be in debt for years, I believe that more likely than not, I will vote for it because the 2nd Congressional District needs a stimulus package.”
According to Mr. Cao, his change of heart occurred because he “decided the benefits of the bill for his district did not outweigh his personal misgivings about the burden of debt the nation would incur.”
You don’t suppose his no vote was influenced by Republican chief deputy whip, California Rep. Kevin O. McCarthy, standing near Cao during the entire vote, do you?
A group of ministers in New Orleans have begun an effort to have him recalled. Its success is said to be unlikely but Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Cao’s hopes for winning a second term depended on “people in the district identifying him as a thoroughly independent person who is not in the thrall of the Republican leadership. Now anyone running against him can say, ‘He’s a Republican mouthpiece.’ ”
When the AEI thinks you’ve taken adherence to the Republican party line too far, you know you’re in trouble.
Senate Passes Stimulus Bill
February 13, 2009 at 10:50 pm | Posted in Economy, senate | 1 CommentTags: Economy, senate, stimulus bill
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the beer bill, March 1933
Vote 60-38.
(AFP) Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown cast the decisive vote in the 60-38 decision after returning from his homestate of Ohio, where he had been attending a memorial service for his late mother.
FINAL HOUSE VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 70
February 13, 2009 at 6:02 pm | Posted in Economy, House of Representatives | 1 CommentTags: Economy, house vote, stimulus bill
Ceremony in the House of Representatives Chamber, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the death of Lafayette, May 20, 1934.
The results are in for the House vote on the Stimulus Bill. It passed 246-183.
Republicans did not break ranks and, other than two who did not vote, every last one voted no, along with seven Democrats:
- Bobby Bright (AL – 2)
- Parker Griffith (AL – 5)
- Walt Minnick (ID – 1)
- Collin Peterson (MN – 7)
- Heath Shuler (NC – 11)
- Gene Taylor (MS – 4)
- Peter DeFazio (OR – 4)
Dan Lipinski (IL – 3) voted “present.” In a call to Lipinski’s office, a member of his office staff told me that Lipinski abstained because he was “not happy with the direction of the bill.” There was some muttering by the young person about transportation but I was so irritated that I did not make further inquiry.
Despite my inclination to assume the worst, it is possible that Lipinski and DeFazio at least had legitimate reasons for in effect casting protest votes.
On January 23rd DeFazio went on the Rachel Maddow Show to talk about the stimulus bill:
(ThinkProgress) Tonight on the Rachel Maddow Show, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) said the amount of infrastructure spending in the legislation is “not enough.” He argued that if the Republicans are recycling failed ideas of the past, “we don’t need to buy them off with $300 billion in tax cuts.” DeFazio said Democrats in Congress originally proposed more for infrastructure spending, but the effort was shot down by Obama advisers:
There’s a pretty good consensus among members of the House that it should be more. But the dictate from on high in the negotiations with Obama’s advisers — I don’t think the President is there — I think he’s ill-advised by Larry Summers. Larry Summers hates infrastructure, and some of these other economists — who were very much part of creating the problem. Now they’re gonna solve the problem. And they don’t like infrastructure.
They want to have a consumer-driven recovery. We need an investment- and productivity-driven recovery for this country, a long-term recovery.
Maddow noted Obama speaks “very highly” of infrastructure. “If there’s a distance between him and his advisers,” she said, then that’s a problem. DeFazio responded, “He needs to know it, and that’s why I’m speaking out.”
From what I read about the other five Democrats who voted no, my impression is that their votes were not based on any legitimate issue of principle. Check out the links to see what I mean.
James Clyburn (SC – 6), House Majority Whip, was the only Democrat who did not vote. A member of his office staff told me that he left Washington DC earlier today on a “family emergency.”
President Obama Talks Stimulus in Elkhart, Indiana.
February 9, 2009 at 6:01 pm | Posted in Economy, Obama Speaks | Leave a commentTags: Economy, Indiana, Obama!, stimulus bill
Town hall meeting President Obama held today in Elkhart, Indiana to talk to folks about the stimulus bill and the economy.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Here is Part 3.
And Part 8.
The President will attend a town hall meeting tomorrow in Fort Myers, Florida, with an introduction by Florida Governor Charlie Crist, to continue the discussion of his plan “to help American families cope with the severe economic downturn and lay the foundation for our long term recovery.”
If you are interested in hearing the President speak — and possibly having an opportunity to ask him a question — the AP reports that tickets are being distributed at the Harborside Event Center and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Doors will open at 10 a.m. for the Tuesday, February 10, 2009 town hall meeting.
“Spending IS Stimulus.”
February 6, 2009 at 12:02 pm | Posted in Economy, Obama Speaks | Leave a commentTags: Economy, Obama!, stimulus bill, video
Your President Speaks — Listen and Learn
Part I
Part II
From CNNs Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull, broadcast Feb. 5, 2009.
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