It's Ten Minutes to Midnight ...

This is another great video from Andrew McQuinn about the current state of the health care debate. It's short (9 minutes or so) and definitely gets the point across. It's also a call to action for the American people to contact their legislators to let them know that the American people want comprehensive health care reform and they want it now. In support of the video and the call to action, contact information for the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives are provided below the video.

What did Edmund Burke say? "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". Be a responsible citizen and take the few minutes necessary to contact your legislators. As the commentator of the video said, it's ten minutes to midnight and time is rapidly running out. Don't rely on the "other guy" to do it. It's time for you to take action.




Here's how to contact the President:

• email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
• mail: The White House
  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
  Washington, DC 20500
• phone: 202-456-1111 (comments) or 202-456-1414 (Switchboard)
• fax: 202-456-2461
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/whitehouse
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/whitehouse

Contacting Representative in the House:
Contact My Representative.

Contact U.S. Senators:
Contact My Senators.

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Screw the 60 Votes - Let the Republicans Filibuster

On too many important issues the Democrats have given in to the Republicans for fear that they will filibuster and that the Democrats will not have the 60 votes necessary to block the filibuster (invoke cloture). It is the threat of a filibuster and not an actual filibuster itself that is stalling so much crucial legislation. Big mistake on the part of the Democrats.

Why all the fear about a filibuster? If the Republicans want to filibuster, let them. Let the American people see the Republicans for the obstructionists that they really are. If the Republicans filibuster, the Democrats win in 2010 and 2012.

When was the last time that a prolonged filibuster actually occurred in the Senate? Not for many year. Most recent filibusters have been short, allowing the person doing the filibuster to make their point, and then the Senate votes for cloture. In recent years, and on significant issues, it has always been the threat of a filibuster rather than an actual filibuster that has been used by the opposition.

Short filibusters don't make news. But if the Republicans are serious about say, filibustering health care reform, they would have to sustain the filibuster for a significant period of time; a week or more (a difficult task at best). Such a filibuster would be all over the news. And it would show the people that the Republicans have no interest in real health care reform and that their only purpose in filibustering is to obstruct such critical legislation.

The Democrats should not fear a filibuster and should not buckle down under the mere threat of one. A prolonged filibuster would only harm the Republicans. Let them filibuster if they want.

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Time to End the Senate Hold Procedure

There are "informal" procedures in the U.S. Congress that do not serve the interest of the people. One such procedure is the "hold" that a Senator can place on a nomination or other measure that may come before the Senate.

According to the Senate Web Site,

"hold - An informal practice by which a Senator informs his or her floor leader that he or she does not wish a particular bill or other measure to reach the floor for consideration. The Majority Leader need not follow the Senator's wishes, but is on notice that the opposing Senator may filibuster any motion to proceed to consider the measure".

Apparently, a "hold" can be public or anonymous (i.e., reveal or hide the name of the Senator requesting the "hold").

How does this practice serve the public interest? It does not.

Majority Leaders routinely "honor" these hold requests, apparently for fear that the Senator in question will resort to a filibuster if the bill comes to the floor. Blackmail. Pure and simple. Unfortunately, both Democrats and Republicans use the "hold" procedure.

It is time that the United States Senate end the blackmail practice of the "Senate Hold". If a Senator threatens to filibuster, fine. Let the Senator filibuster and show the entire nation that the Senator and his/her Party have no interest in pursuing the work of the people.

Senators are unlikely to actually filibuster many of the nominations or measures that the "hold threat" currently stalls because a filibuster is hard work and not very practical. Think about it. When was the last actual filibuster in the United States Senate? The "hold" procedure allows Senators to gain the advantages of the filibuster without actually having to do it. That is wrong.

It is time that citizens contact their Senators and demand that this practice be ended.

Here is the contact information for U.S. Senators:

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Strike While the Iron is Hot on Health Care Reform

There are new reports that opposition to health care reform may be subsiding. That is good news. But that doesn't mean that the chances of passing reform are really that much better. Because while the public may be seeing the benefits of the proposed legislation, there is another group that has to be considered - the insurance industry and associated lobbyists. This group is large, has vast amounts of money to spend on legislators, and quite frankly doesn't care what the public may or may not think.

Can the lobbyists who don't want health care reform be stopped? Maybe. If everyday people get off their behinds and act. What can they do?

Everyday people can write, call, or email their elected officials and tell them the following:

1. The individual will not contribute to the re-election campaign and will not vote for any legislator who fails to actively support meaningful health care reform this year.

2. The individual will not contribute to the re-election campaign and will not vote for any legislator who continues to receive donations in any form (individual, campaign, PAC, etc.) from insurance industry lobbyists.

This needs to be done and it needs to be done now while the public sentiment is moving towards support for health care reform. Here is the contact information for legislators:

Contacting Representative in the House:
Contact My Representative.

Contact U.S. Senators:
Contact My Senators.

A few hints on how to make such contact most effective.

• The most effective contact is contact from voters within the legislator's own voting district. Congressional lawmakers all worry about getting re-elected (in the House they need to do this every two years). They are very attuned to registered voters in their voting district and if enough of them weigh in on an issue, they could conceivably change the legislator's stand (or fortify their current support for health care reform). Contact from outside of the voting district may have some impact but no where near as much as contact from within the district.
• In any correspondence with the legislator's office the individual should make sure to 1) identify themselves as one of the legislator's constituents, and 2) identify themselves as a registered Democratic voter.
  
• If the individual has previously voted for the legislator or contributed to their campaign, let them know that right up front.
  
• The legislator's staff doesn't have time to read the full text of all of the emails that they receive. They just want to determine that the email is from a constituent and where that constituent stands on the particular issue. Put the stand (such as "Pass Meaningful Health Care Reform this Year") in the subject line or in the first sentence of the email. Not much else will be read.
  
• Telephone calls to local offices or to the legislator's Washington office should be short and to the point. Let the office know that the caller is a constituent, and a registered voter, and that they want meaningful health care reform this year. The staffer taking the call will simply keep track of the number of callers and whether they are pro or con on the issue being called about.
• Faxes can be effective. Keep them short and get the point out quickly. Again the fax should identify the sender as a constituent and as a registered voter.

Everyday day Americans can make a difference. Not only can they contact their legislators but they can also encourage their family and friends to do the same. It doesn't take a lot of time but it can actually make a huge difference in whether the United States gets health care reform or not.

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Senator Ensign's Affair - the Other Blackmail Potential

Family values proponent and born-again christian Senator John Ensign (R-NV) broke his marriage vows to his wife, had a prolonged sexual relationship with a woman on his staff (whose cuckold husband also worked for Ensign), and gave his mistress and her family almost $100,000 as a "gift" (through Ensign's parents). Talk about a made for TV scenario. But is that the end of the story or is there even more that has not come out yet?

Was the so-called "gift" a blackmail payment to keep the mistress and her husband from going public? More importantly, what about the other blackmail potential spawned by this sleazy affair?

Washington is a town whose currency is information; something truly worth its weight in gold. Power brokers, lobbyists, special interest groups, and foreign agents, buy and sell "information" on a daily basis. And the most valuable information is something that someone does not want to be know - a secret.

Affairs, by their very nature, are meant to be secret. Most spouses who have affairs, and this is particularly true of politicians, will do just about anything to keep that information from their family and from the public. Because of that the value of such secrets on the information trading block is enormous.

Blackmail. It's not always about money. Particularly in Washington. There, it is more about influence, about legislative votes, and about sensitive and classified information.

Senator John Ensign had an affair. He wanted to keep that affair secret. But that is easier said than done. Too many people would have had to know. One or more of his staff assistants undoubtedly knew; they'd need to in order to keep his schedule. A driver, perhaps? The people where the Senator and his mistress met for their secret "liaisons"? Surely the mistress told one or two of her closest friends. And who knows whom they might have told. Ensign bragging to his closest Senate colleagues about his mistress? It is public record that Senator Tom Coburn (R- OK) not only knew about the affair but also acted as a broker for Senator Ensign in his attempt to reach a financial settlement with the family of the mistress in order keep the affair secret.

Secrets in Washington rarely remain secret for long. Enter the power brokers, the lobbyists, the special interest groups, and the foreign agents. They pay, and pay extremely well, for such valuable information.

What is not known in this scandal is if they (the power brokers, lobbyists, and the special interest groups) bought this information about the Ensign affair, and if so, if they used it to influence Senator Ensign's votes on legislation or if they used it to blackmail him into influencing his fellow Senators to vote for or against particular legislation. What also is not known is if such information was purchased by agents of foreign governments or terrorists, and if so, did they use it to obtain sensitive or classified information (Senator John Ensign is a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs). That is the heart of the matter. That is why secret affairs by legislators, whether Republican or Democrat, are such a danger to our system of government and to the security of the nation.

John Ensign's affair is, and should be, something between himself and his God, and between himself and his family. But Senator Ensign's secret affair opened him up to blackmail by the Washington power elite and foreign agents, and the potential corruption of his votes, his influence, and his knowledge of sensitive and classified information. We may never know if that happened. But that Senator Ensign put himself in such a position that it could happen makes it abundantly clear that he is not fit to be a member of the United States Senate.

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Something is Wrong in America

This is a great short video by Andrew McQuinn that says what many of us have already been thinking. It is a call to action for Progressives and for every day Americans. Please pass it on to family and friends. It's short and extremely well done and it is worth your time.

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