The National: Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau on Senate Reform

Posted on January 29, 2014 by kireschneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

Perfect example of how the Canadian Senate is different from the American Senate. In America the Chairman of the National Party Democratic or Republican Party can’t order their party members to do anything. And neither can the President of the United States and even if we had an official leader of the opposition, which we don’t and I wish we did, that person wouldn’t be able to order their members of the Senate or House of Representatives to do anything. Especially kicking members out of their caucus. Because we have checks and balances and different branches of government.

In the Federal Government of Canada the official party leaders basically have complete control over their own parties. And can even make decisions about who can stay and who can go even in political bodies they aren’t members of. The Leader of the Opposition in Canada is a member House of Commons and not the Senate. In the United States Congress only the party leaders in both chambers can decide who can and cannot be members of their caucus. And they probably need majority support of their caucus to do so.

I’m not a Canadian, but an American of course and it seems to me Canada should make a decision about their Senate. Which right now is technically their upper chamber in their Parliament. And that is to either have a real Senate with real authority only accountable to their constituents and not the Prime Minster or Leader of the Opposition, or get rid of the Senate. And have a unicameral Parliament or just call it the House of Commons. Because their Senate is a joke. And this story with Leader Trudeau is a pretty good example of that.

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Thom Hartmann: Daily Take: A Declaration of the End of The Reagan Era

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Derik Schneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

Actually what Thom Hartmann didn’t bother to mention which I’m sure he already knows this having lived through these periods in his thirties and forties unlike myself who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, is that President George H.W. Bush raised taxes and went back on a campaign promise that probably cost him his reelection in 1992. To deal with high debts and deficits in 1990 that he inherited. Bill Clinton basically finished the job along with a Democratic Congress when it came to deficit reduction of the 1990s. In 1993 with tax hike on the wealthy to go along with strategic budget cuts as well.

The tax hikes that Thom Hartmann talks about were not about economic growth. But deficit reduction and if they didn’t come with budget cuts, the economy and the deficit would’ve been even worst because of the lost economic growth with business’s struggling and even going out of business. The economy of the 1990s partly did better because of deficit reduction. But also because of infrastructure investment, new trade opportunities and middle class tax relief as well. And with the information technology boom of the 1990s.

When Thom Hartmann says he would repeal the Reagan tax cuts, I didn’t hear him say he would just repeal the tax cuts for the wealthy, but the Reagan tax cuts. That could mean the all the tax cuts because the 1981 Economic Recovery Act which I believe is what that bill was called, was across the board tax cut that lowered taxes on everyone and expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit. That is tax relief for low-income Americans so they do not have to pay taxes, came from President Reagan as well.

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Kyungho Dean: Documentary- Edward R. Murrow vs. U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Derik Schneider

See it Now

See it Now


This post was originally posted at The New Democrat

What was so brilliant about Ed Murrow and his See it Now broadcast which was CBS News’s nightly newscast before the CBS Evening News was created, what was so brilliant about Ed Murrow and See it Now in how they handled the Joe McCarthy hearings, is they just reported what Senator McCarthy said. And then Ed Murrow would give his commentary on what the Senator said, but they didn’t put words in his own mouth. “This is what the Senator said and what we think about it.” They didn’t put words in Senator McCarthy’s mouth or what his investigative committee in the Senate that he chaired said and what they were up to. They simply listened to what the Senator said and then used his own words against him. Which is very different from listening to what someone said and then trying to make it sound worst than what it really. Which is what partisan news organizations do today and back then as well.

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Commonsense Capitalism: Representative Charles Rangel Debates Dr. Walter Williams – On The Minimum Wage

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Sounds to me that whatever spin that Common Sense Capitalism wants to give it, that Representative Rangel was arguing not only in favor of the minimum wage, but empowering those workers to be able to get additional skills so they wouldn’t have to work for the minimum wage. And be able to get better jobs and be able to support themselves. With Dr. Williams arguing and using traditional spin of the Right that the minimum wage kills jobs and costs others jobs even when some others are getting jobs.Representative Rangel was arguing for economic empowerment for low-income low-skilled workers. So they wouldn’t have to work for the minimum wage long-term. While Dr. Williams was making the so-called free market argument when it comes to employee compensation. “Let the free market decide”. When in fact the so-called free market wouldn’t decide that. Employers who just happen to be part of the market, would decide what wages should be for everyone including themselves.

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Footage File: Edward R Murrow vs Joe McCarthy

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Derik Schneider

See it Now

See it Now


What was so brilliant about Ed Murrow and his See it Now newscast. Is that they actually did not bring down one of the most popular U.S. Senators and members of Congress. In Senator Joe McCarthy, Senator McCarthy did that to himself. By speeches he gave in and out of the U.S. Senate and what Murrow and his See it Now staff would do. Is just report on those things that Senator McCarthy did. And then Ed Murrow would give his commentary about those things.

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David Von Pein: Firing Line With William F. Buckley: Mark Lane (December 1, 1966)

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Rik Schneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

It is now clear that there were many holes in the Warren Report on the JFK Assassination. They did not know enough about Lee Harvey Oswald and probably didn’t look into other possibilities enough when it came to this assassination, but they did get at least one thing right. That Lee Oswald wanted Jack Kennedy dead and had the means and access to shoot and kill President Kennedy. And he was the person who shot President Kennedy whether he was the only person behind the assassination or not.

I’m personally a hundred percent sure that Lee Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy. The question is whether or not he was the only person behind this assassination. Or were others involved in this plan to kill the President, or was Oswald acting on his own. And I don’t believe we still know the answers to that considering that were plenty of the people on both the far-right and far-left that wanted President Kennedy dead in Dallas, Texas alone.

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Radical Films: VHouse Un-American Activities: Looking For Communists in Hollywood

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Erik Schneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

The House Un-American Activities Committee and then later the Joe McCarthy Government Oversight Committee in the Senate were classic cases of guilt by association. Because they assumed some Americans were Un-American and not deserving of being Americans simply because of people they may have associated with and political positions they may have held. Not because of any illegal activities they have been involved in. Which is how we are supposed to judge people’s involvement in criminal activity.

The United States a liberal democracy where Americans have the right to believe what they believe. And say what they want to say with a few exceptions. Like encouraging violence or libeling people without any basis in fact. Yelling fire in tight public spaces. But for the most part our own politics is our own business. And we are free to either express our own political opinions, or opinions about any other subjects or not. And not be held criminally libel because of what we believe.

But what we got instead from these Congressional communist investigative committees was guilt by association that ruined a lot of good productive Americans lives. And for what, so people on the far-right and people simply just looking for political advancement, Senator Joe McCarthy comes to mind, could have a big issue and use it to advance their own political careers. No matter who they may hurt along the way which is about as Un-American as it gets.

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Paul Ibbetson: Larry Schweikart: ‘A Patriot’s History of The Modern World’

Posted on January 28, 2014 by kireschneider

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Source:The New Democrat 

I love the United States Constitution. The whole document and not parts of it like the Far-Right and Far-Left like to pick off. And say this what is great about the Constitution as they try to destroy other parts of it. I like the whole document and every amendment to it including the First Amendment that includes Freedom of Religion and I’m in favor of that even as an Agnostic whose in a small minority when it comes to religion. But our constitutional rights do not come from God whether it its a Christian God or anyone else. Our constitutional rights come from the U.S. Constitution itself. Our constitutional rights come from our Founding Fathers who founded our Federal Republic and liberal democracy. Who wrote our U.S. Constitution. Not from God, Christian or otherwise.

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Thom Hartmann: Video: President Obama’s 2013 State of The Union: A Report Card

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Derik Schneider

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in his first speech in the 111th Congress back in 2009, laid out the Senate Republican strategy at least if not the Congressional Republican strategy as a whole, both House and Senate when Minority Leader McConnell who may be leaving Congress if he’s not reelected in 2014, because he’s going to have a very strong Democratic challenger, but he said his number one goal was to prevent President Obama from being reelected.

The Senate minority party obviously has the power to slow and block legislation. Especially if they are a large minority that Republicans have had in the last three years. The House is a little different obviously, but what the House Minority Leader can do is tell his or her caucus, “you are not to work with the majority party on anything”. And get that memo out to their caucus. “Because we want to use everything they pass and try to pass”, that is the House majority party in this Congress, “against them whether the legislation becomes law or not.” Which is what John Boehner who in President Obama’s first Congress did as the House Minority Leader.

The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. Yet that person whoever they are, are limited to what they can do both constitutionally and legally. But politically as well and when you have an opposition party that is strong enough to at least slow you down in Congress and they tell you, “we aren’t going to work with you on anything. And just want to win more seats in Congress and are waiting for you to leave office one way or the other”, it makes the President’s job very difficult to get much done through law.
Mitch & John

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USFL Forever: Video: ABC Sports: USFL 1984-Week 2: New Jersey Generals @ Jacksonville Bulls: Full Game

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

USFL 1984-Week 2: New Jersey Generals @ Jacksonville Bulls: Full Game – YouTube.

Ederik Schneider on Google+

Jacksonville can thank the USFL for their NFL franchise that they were rewarded in 1993. That became the Jacksonville Jaguars because the USFL proved that Jacksonville and perhaps. North Florida could support major league pro football.

Home of the Jacksonville Bulls

Home of the Jacksonville Bulls

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