Heating aid for the poor

That's among the benefits to the most vulnerable Americans that the Obama budget reportedly will cut, in the spirit of "bipartisanship," a word that apparently has come to mean "selling out the poor to avoid forcing the wealthy to pay taxes they can easily afford."

So when you're freezing your ass off inside your home today, tonight, the rest of this winter in order to conserve whatever heating source you use; when your children complain to you that they are cold while huddled under blankets in your 59-degree home, remember that it's going to get worse, not better.

And remember why it's going to get worse: Because Republicans absolutely refuse to agree to a tax hike to the wealthiest, warmest, most comfortable Americans. (Regardless of what the swine in Washington would have you believe, cutting spending isn't the only way to address a budget shortfall). And because Democrats are too chickenshit to challenge them and help those who need help the most.

I think the revolution just got moved up another week.

How they voted

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
I Give Up - 9/11 Responders Bill
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

on HR 847 to provide health care to 9/11 rescue workers.

Because not everyone will click through to see the shameful list of assholes, here are the 159 no voters. Of these, 155 are Republicans and four are Democrats (the Democrats are in bold).

Aderholt, Alexander, Austria, Bachmann, Bachus, Barrett (SC), Bartlett, Barton (TX), Bean, Berry, Biggert, Bilbray, Bilirakis, Bishop (UT), Blackburn, Blunt, Boehner, Bonner, Bono Mack, Boozman, Boustany, Brady (TX), Bright, Broun (GA), Brown (SC), Brown-Waite Ginny, Buchanan, Burgess, Burton (IN), Buyer, Calvert, Camp, Campbell, Cantor, Capito, Carter, Cassidy, Castle, Chaffetz, Coble, Coffman (CO), Cole, Conaway, Cooper, Crenshaw, Culberson, Davis (KY), Diaz-Balart L., Diaz-Balart M., Djou, Dreier, Duncan, Ehlers, Emerson, Fallin, Flake, Fleming, Forbes, Fortenberry, Foxx, Franks (AZ), Gallegly, Garrett (NJ), Gerlach, Gingrey (GA), Gohmert, Goodlatte, Granger, Graves (GA), Graves (MO), Hall (TX), Harper, Hastings (WA), Heller, Hensarling, Herger, Hunter, Inglis, Issa, Jenkins, Johnson (IL), Johnson Sam, Jordan (OH), King (IA), Kingston, Kline (MN), Lamborn, Latham, LaTourette, Latta, Lee (NY), Lewis (CA),Linder, Lucas, Luetkemeyer, Lummis, Lungren Daniel E., Mack, Manzullo, Marchant, McCaul, McClintock, McCotter, McHenry, McKeon, McMorris Rodgers, Mica, Miller (FL), Miller Gary, Myrick, Neugebauer, Nunes, Olson, Paul, Paulsen, Pence, Petri, Pitts, Platts, Poe (TX), Posey, Price (GA), Putnam, Rehberg, Reichert, Roe (TN), Rogers (AL), Rogers (KY), Rogers (MI), Rohrabacher, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Roskam, Royce, Ryan (WI), Scalise, Schmidt, Schock, Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shimkus, Shuster, Simpson, Smith (NE), Smith (TX), Stearns, Sullivan, Terry, Thompson (PA), Thornberry, Tiberi, Turner, Upton, Walden, Westmoreland, Whitfield, Wilson (SC), Wittman, Wolf.

The Democrats used a procedural tactic that prevented Republicans from adding all kinds of bullshit, pro-wealthy amendments to the very popular bill, which would have made it all but impossible for Democrats to vote against said amendments. But that tactic also requires a 2/3 vote for the bill to pass. So even though the vote was 255-159 in favor, the bill required 285 votes to pass. Sure, the tactic made it harder to get the bill passed, but getting Republicans to do the right thing shouldn't be so hard. This bill was a slam-dunk, but without amendments giving away what's left of the national treasury to the already super-rich, this bill just didn't seem like a good idea to Republicans. It's just more evidence that, unless you have obscene amounts of money, Republicans don't give a shit about you.

The procedural tactic isn't the reason the bill didn't pass. The 159 assholes who voted against it are the reason it didn't pass.

ACORN cleared

Just so you know.

When a duo of right-wing provocateurs posing as a pimp and prostitute released selectively-edited videos trying to impugn the community activist group ACORN, both Democrats and Republicans condemned the organization.

Congress then voted to cut off federal funding for the group (a decision that was later ruled unconstitutional). Following negative press and Congress' vote, ACORN effectively disbanded Apr. 1 and reorganized under new names.

But a just-issued report by the Government Accountability Office that reviewed ACORN's federal funding at the behest of Congress found little grist for the mill for politicians or right-wing bloggers looking to bash the now-defunct advocacy group for the poor.

The 38-page report surveyed over 31 federal agencies, probing how ACORN used federal funds and whether adequate controls on spending existed.

The report found no evidence of fraud, lax oversight or misuse of federal funds.

In fact, the report discovered that ACORN had adequately accounted for spending $40 million worth of major and minor grants awarded by the federal government to the group since 2005 to combat a variety of problems afflicting poor Americans, including lead poisoning, housing discrimination and lack of adequate job training.

The preliminary report on the group’s funding also found that of the grants that warranted audits no irregularities in spending were found. Smaller grantees said that oversight was adequate as well.

Of eight major grants awarded ACORN by the federal government the report found fault with one, a grant by Neighbor Works.

“Neighbor Works determined that ACORN Housing Corporation had not provided a description of what it planned to accomplish under the grant, as required. After Neighbor Works brought this to the attention of ACORN Housing Corporation officials, these officials subsequently provided the documentation. Oversight of sub-awards is generally delegated to grantees,” the report states.

Of fifteen sub-grants awarded ACORN by a variety of federal agencies, the report did not find any irregularities.

Along with the preliminary finding, the federal agency did a comprehensive review of all criminal investigations by the Department of Justice and federal Inspector General’s since 2005. [...]

The agency also found the Federal Election Commission had closed all investigations into voter fraud by the group.

Of corurse, that still leaves open the question about the motives of the "right-wing provocateurs posing as a pimp and prostitute" and their financial backers. Do they hate poor people, programs that work to help poor people, or the effective use of federal funding?

Enemy of traditional marriage

The state of Texas.

“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

This is the language of an amendment to the Texas Constitution that was adopted in 2005. But don't worry. Apparently it doesn't mean what it says.

“The Texas Constitution and the marriage statute are entirely constitutional.”

Hear that? The Texas Constitution is constitutional. So everyone can relax.

Until they hire some people better versed in the English language, Texas might want to consider a "You Know What Was Meant" amendment, because in their attempt to trample the civil rights of some of their citizens, Texas lawmakers have trampled the civil rights of everyone. In the process, they made it unlawful for anyone to become married or to be recognized as married in the state.

But you know what was meant. So go ahead and ignore this particular provision of the constitution.

Unless you're gay.

Their real goal

with programs like NCLB, "issues" like gay marriage, networks like Fox News and amendments like this is to try to keep us ignorant. The less informed and more distracted from the real issues we are, the more crimes they can get away with.

Obstruction

Republicans are slowing work on the healthcare bill in the Senate HELP committee by objecting to their own amendments.

The party of 'No'

Both the House and Senate passed budgets yesterday, with not one Republican vote in either case. Zero Republican votes in the House, zero Republican votes in the Senate.

As for the GOP budget "plan" -- you know, the one without any substance or even many actual numbers (see for yourself), Deputy Director for Management and Budget Rob Nabors called it a "joke." And it appears that some Republicans may have agreed with him.

About twice as many Republicans (38 or 20 percent of their conference) voted against the GOP alternative budget -- than Democrats (20 or 8 percent) who nixed their party's spending plan.

To be fair, it's possible that those Republicans are so accustomed to obstructionism that they simply voted no out of habit.

So once again we see that it is possible to get legislation passed in both the House and the Senate with no Republican support whatsoever. And we have seen that Republicans are simple obstructionists with no ideas of their own who will vote no to Democratic proposals without offering any meaningful alternative.

So can congressional Democrats now stop trying to work with people who have no interest in working with them? And can the American people just stop voting for Republicans? Because, even in this hour of great national crisis, Republicans cannot be bothered to either support efforts to solve our country's problems or offer an alternative. Even in the face of the worst economic disaster of most of our lifetimes, Republicans would rather do nothing than support the efforts of Democrats.

Dear Democrats

You can now stop bending over backwards and watering down legislation in order to win Republican votes, because you don't need them.

The House has passed H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, by a vote of 244 - 188. The House GOP fulfilled their pledge to mount “100
percent” opposition to the legislation.

Instead, you can concentrate on crafting legislation that will best lead this country and its people out of the mess that Republican rule has created.