Paterson: Take Your Negotiations And Shove Em!

Governor Paterson doesn't want to hear it from the Legislature. The time to negotiate is over and anything that he doesn't like will be, and has been getting the official veto stamp.

Bush Professes His Love Of Women By Paying Them Less

Our President may want gynecologist to express their love for women, but when it comes to their paychecks it is a different story. The Paycheck Fairness Act is making its way to the President, but he is showing signs of pulling out his veto crayon and marking all over it. As usual, the White House makes whine out of the upcoming legislation.

From ThinkProgress:

This week, the House is expected to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor for a vote, legislation that would help close the wage gap between working men and women and “close loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility” for discriminatory pay. In an official statement, the White House said it would veto the bill:

The bill would unjustifiably amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for, among other things, unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even when a disparity in pay was unintentional. It also would encourage discrimination claims to be made based on factors unrelated to actual pay discrimination by allowing pay comparisons between potentially different labor markets. In addition, it would require the Department of Labor (DOL) to replace its successful approach to detecting pay discrimination with a failed methodology that was abandoned because it had a 93 percent false positive rate. Thus, if H.R. 1338 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

Wow, what an utter piece of garbage. Does the White House really think anyone is going to believe these excuses? With the pay gap virtually unchanged in thirty years, how successful is the Department of Labor with their approach at detecting pay discrimination? That 93% sounds like their failure rate to protect women, but then again, that number is probably too low.

Senate Passes Webb's GI Bill

Congratulations to the Senate for passing Webb's economic and educational package for our nation's troops. More than half of the Republicans voted for it, defying their dear leader (a.k.a. Mr. 28%) due to plenty of little add-ons to the bill. Although the motion to start ending the conflict was voted down, this is considered major progress in that the Senate got something done that wasn't completely regressive in nature.

From Yahoo News:

The vote on the domestic add-ons was a rebuke to Bush, who has promised to veto the measure if it contains the domestic measures. However, the president still has enough GOP support in the House to sustain a veto.

The House still has to act on the bill. Last week, it voted to reject money for continuing the war. It endorsed the help for veterans and the unemployed, but kept its version clean of most other domestic programs.

The huge tally in the Senate was driven by $15.6 billion over two years to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and more than $50 billion over the upcoming decade to provide returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.

But dozens of add-ons favored by senators in both parties contributed to the unexpectedly sweeping tally that embarrassed the White House.

Embarrassing the White House is always nice. George Bush wanted the war funding bill to be free of excessive waste (such as helping our troops to pay for college) because frankly, all of these soldiers should be going back for their 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, right George?. Seriously, how dare they want to better their lives? Now we all expect the President to veto this so he gets his way to claim a spirit of bipartisanship. What happens next is up to Congress and if they have the chutzpah to override his dismissal of our soldiers.

Dear Senators and Members of Congress, this is the time of year we recognize Memorial Day and turning your backs (by a 2/3rds margin) on the President is the right thing to do for the troops in your state/district and for every man or woman that dons the uniform of our military.

Today Is Another Sad Day For The Presidency

While the race in Wyoming between Obama and Hillary adds to the excitement of the 2008 election, and Bill Foster takes on Jim Oberweis to reclaim IL-14 for the Democratic party in Congress, it is a sad day over at the White House. Now Bush may not be in a glum mood, but the American ethic, the people and our reputation around the world will truly suffer as George vetoes a bill that would have banned torture.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The White House says President Bush will veto legislation on Saturday that would have barred the CIA from using waterboarding _ a technique that simulates drowning _ and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

Bush has said the bill would harm the government's ability to prevent future attacks. Supporters of the legislation argue that it preserves the United States' right to collect critical intelligence while boosting the country's moral standing abroad.

"The bill would take away one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror, the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives," deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto said Friday.

The bill would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.

Those 19 techniques have unearth scores of secrets and won over many of our adversaries in the past. Way back in World War II, interrogators knew that torturing their captives never provided truthful or useful information. All that does is produce what the victim perceives the torturer wants to hear.

I think that this is quite indicative of our President. He only sees and hears what he wants to, discarding the truth when he sees fit. You can't fit much of the truth in if the glass you are looking through is as narrow as the Presidential red plastic viewfinder.

Relevant Insanity

Relevancy and insanity are two words that do not usually go together in the same sentence, but when we are dealing with President Bush, it fits perfectly. His little tirade yesterday confirmed his delusional state where he believes that he is still relevant to this nation. Sadly, in a way he is right.

The President still unconstitutionally goes over the American people and Congress' head with his wiretapping, his war and the signing statements he adds on to bills passed by the Legislative branch that he must sign when confronted with veto-proof majorities. The small percentage of America that still backs him somehow provides enough leverage for him to continue to execute the badly planned occupation in Iraq and the full-out assault on our Constitution.

Even though the American people overwhelmingly came together last fall and threw out the Republican-led House and Senate, the new Democratic Congress is almost as bad as the old one. Their acquiescence to his crimes and willingness to bend over for The Decider is absolutely disgusting.

Sure, the Democrats aren't all bad, they voted to expand S-CHIP, increase the minimum wage and do a few other things. But. But. The Democrats were placed in power to stop the war and to present a new direction for the country where international cooperation would replace the six year nightmare of overt unilateralism that made our Founding Fathers turn over in their graves.

So when George claims that he is still relevant...it is not his veto-wielding that keeps him in the spotlight as much as his hubris and authoritarian-like executive power that the Congress has consistently failed to check in the last nine months.

They May Be Innocent But You Know Better

Now follow the message and do your part, these kids deserve better.

Bush Wields The Veto Over Helpless Children

Well now it's official, Bush actually carried through with a pledge to keep health care away from children. Through no fault of their own, millions of young kids will go without the benefits of health insurance. SCHIP is already a successful program but that didn't matter to our benevolent President today.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — President Bush, in a confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.

It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year's elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number.

The White House sought as little attention as possible, with the president wielding his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage.

There may not have been a party at the White House for this, but the champagne is surely flowing at places like Blue Cross/Blue Shield and HMOs across the country. At least the Senate has enough members to override the veto, but House Republicans should be ashamed that their caucus cannot agree to protect children over the President's faithfulness to his friends in the health insurance business. How they can ever look children in the eye again is besides me. I hope the GOP pays a high price for this cruel act during next year's elections.

The Veto

Yesterday George Bush carried out his promise to veto a bill that gives the troops all the support they need and bring about a conclusion to our occupation of Iraq. For over four years, Bush has kept our soldiers in harms way for no good reason, and without all of the proper equipment. Now that the Democrats are in charge of Congress, we finally got what the country needs in terms of the war. Full funding for the time being and getting the hell out as soon as possible is what the majority of Americans desire.

Meanwhile the President, or as he now likes to be called, the "commander guy" continues to live in a state of delusion. He does not care about what the people think. He believes what he is doing is right, even if all the facts show he is dead wrong. Well we are not going to take his crap anymore. His 'mandate' is gone, if it ever really existed in the first place. Democrats aren't taking it either. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have vowed to fight back against the President and give the people what they want.

Unfortunately there were not enough votes to override the veto today, but that does not mean the fight is over. The Congress has the right and the duty to give the President another bill that accomplishes what the vetoed one did. We must leave Iraq, it is just and it is right. Bush can veto all he wants, but eventually he must wake up and realize that we live in a democracy and this is what the American people want. It was clearly shown in the November 2006 elections. Republicans were kicked out of office to end the war that they rubber-stamped for several years. Now that time is at an end.