For opinion pieces on any topic.
Just about all the bad things our governments do are defended with the claim that they are legal. But just because it is legal to do something, is it necessarily right? Anything can be made legal, after all.
We usually think of murder as being fundamentally wrong and almost certainly illegal, but it can be made legal in certain circumstances — as, for instance, when a drone kills dozens of innocents along with its alleged terrorist targets.
WASHINGTON, July 10 – Skeptical of a bid to overhaul the tax code by corporate-friendly congressional tax writers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today laid out his own specific proposals to raise revenue by closing loopholes that let multi-national corporations and oil companies avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, this summer launched a nationwide tour to hear what corporations want in a revamped tax code. Sanders said the tax code should be reformed to address the needs of the middle class and working families, reduce deficits and make profitable corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.
WASHINGTON, July 9 – Responding to more than 700 emails from college students and graduates in Vermont and around the nation, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called today for restoring student the loan interest rate to the level that was charged before the rate doubled on July 1 to 6.8 percent.
“We have a major crisis in our country today in terms of the high cost of college and the incredible debt burden that college students and their families are facing,” Sanders said in a Senate floor speech. “Our job is to improve that situation, to lessen the burden on students and their families – not to make it worse.”
Sanders read from some of the emails he received about how student loans have affected people’s careers and families.
Upstate Vermont, central Vermont, Albany New York area, and multiple parts of New Hampshire have experianced in some cases over six inches of rain in the last few days. New Hampshire and New York have decleared states of emergency to deal with well over thirty roads made unpassible as a result of these rains. All this disaster going on and not even a minute of news coverage last night.
A few years ago the similar damage occured and it made national news. It seems that this is the new normal. Flooding and destructive storms everyday. Some place in the USA is facing some type of natural disaster. This seems big news to me yet it is becoming so common that I hear people in the blogs saying they are tired of hearing about it.
New Mexico, is one of the top ten states with the most
undocumented illegal immigrants.
Governor Peter Shumlin, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont
want illegal aliens in Vermont and Governor
Peter Shumlin wants them to have drivers’
licenses. THE PROBLEM is now,
NEW MEXICO is planning to allow the SLAUGHTER
of HORSES for FOOD for HUMAN CONSUMPTION.
I started this letter last year, in a fit of pique at President Obama, who I perceived was moving in the wrong direction. Today, I finished it. Here’s what I wrote:
Dear President Obama,
All of your policies are wrong. Here are some things missing from your policies:
– heart
– soul
– beauty
– love
– joy
New Mexico, one of the top ten states with the most illegal immigrants (like Governor Peter Shumlin wants in Vermont) is now planning to SLAUGHTER HORSES for FOOD for HUMAN CONSUMPTION.
WASHINGTON, June 26 – Citing a major crisis in college costs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today urged quick action by Congress to keep student loan interest rates from doubling on Monday.
“If we do not act immediately, the subsidized Stafford loan program will see a doubling of interest rates from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent,” Sanders said in a Senate floor speech. “That would be a disaster for millions of students and their families in our country. We must not allow that to happen.”
At the very least, Sanders said, the current Stafford loan program interest rate of 3.4 percent must be extended. In the long term, the Higher Education Act should guarantee that students will be able to attend college and not be burdened with crippling loans.
NSA whistleblower Russel Tice has told reporters examples of people the NSA was spying on prior to the PRISM program. Tice says these people were targeted for blackmail and other leverage over them.
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The Supreme Court has ruled DOMA is unconstitutional. The Federal defensive marriage act which was writting to prevent recognition by the federal government of same-sex marriages is no longer a valid law. The supreme court has also sent back prop 8 to california, which means the last ruling stands. Two landmark rulings delivered today.
A good day to living in the US! Good job, Supreme Court Justices.
The Supreme Court Wednesday struck down as unconstitutional the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in the states where they reside. The court said it violated equal protection to provide benefits to heterosexual couples while denying them to gay couples in the 12 states plus the District of Columbia where same-sex couples may marry. The law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton recognized marriage as only between one man and one woman.
WASHINGTON, June 25 –Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Senate environment and energy committees, issued the following statement on President Obama’s proposals today on global warming:
“Global warming is the most serious environmental crisis facing the world today. It demands bold action to preserve our planet for our children and grandchildren. I applaud the president for saying he will take steps to limit heat-trapping pollution from coal-fired power plants and boost renewable energy production. These steps will help not only the environment but the economy too by creating many, many jobs. But let’s be clear: much more must be done.
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday introduced legislation that would add important reforms and improve certain provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and FISA Amendments Act. The FISA Accountability and Privacy Protection Act of 2013 will bolster existing privacy safeguards and require greater oversight, transparency, and accountability in connection with the government’s expansive domestic surveillance powers.
I am in shock at the high cost to repair Brattleboro’s Ice Arena. The Brattleboro Recreation Department as with almost every other department in Brattleboro keeps getting hit with all these expenses. I read the town meeting notes here, last week. Thank you Chris. Putting all other town business aside reading how our selectboard addressed this issue was comforting.
Seeing how the estimate of repairs obtain by the town had been so far off from the bid received for the job reading that the selectboard had chose to not pull the checkbook out and pay the the extra 120,000 was comforting. The board wanting to step back and access what other options are out there just seems like the most practical thing to do giving the state of economic affairs at the moment.
Congressman Peter Welch, United States House of Representatives
Official Appearance Schedule, Monday, June 21st, 2013
7:30 a.m. Delivering remarks at the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce Breakfast, Brattleboro Retreat, Education Conference Center, 75 Linden St., Brattleboro
9:15 a.m. Tour of Brooks House – The Brooks House in downtown Brattleboro was heavily damaged by fire in mid-April of 2011 and Congressman Welch toured the site soon afterwards. Rep. Welch will be receiving an update on planned renovations and the role the federal New Market Tax Credit is playing in redevelopment of this historic building. Corner of High St. and Main, Brattleboro
WASHINGTON, June 19 – The Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging held a hearing today on how Older Americans Act programs like Meals on Wheels reduce hunger and poverty among seniors and save money on more expensive nursing home and hospital care.
“These programs not only work to ease isolation, hunger and suffering, they also save taxpayers substantial sums of money,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the subcommittee chairman. “The simple truth is that we can feed a senior for an entire year for the cost of one day in a hospital.”
Sanders is the chief sponsor of legislation to reauthorize and strengthen the 1965 landmark law that he called “one of the most effective programs ever devised” to address the needs of vulnerable seniors.
I remember hearing the term, “melting pot” used to describe America. That was back in the ’60s.
The idea was that America takes all sorts of disparate human parts from Europe, Africa, and Asia, and melts them down into an ingot called an American. All traces of your old self were to disappear as you took on the new identity.
That was the theory. Of course, America was “whiter” back then.
Now, depending on who you listen to America either soon will, or already has passed the point where European Americans are the majority.
I got to watch a fair amount of CSPAN last week as I recovered from a flu. One of the more interesting moments came late in the week, after most of the work for the week was through and members could use their time to talk about anything they wanted.
Rep. Grayson, a lawyer and a former phone company president, decided to spend about a half an hour talking about PRISM, phone records, metadata, and government spying on US citizens. It’s a pretty good overview of the known programs, and he offers up some good points of further inquiry.
WASHINGTON, June 14 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation to put strict limits on sweeping powers used by the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation to secretly track telephone calls by millions of innocent Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.
“We must give our intelligence and law enforcement agencies all of the tools that they need to combat terrorism but we must do so in a way that protects our freedom and respects the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches,” Sanders said.
Lots of people seem to be upset with various aspects of American life, from education and healthcare to the economy and domestic surveillance. Mostly we gripe about it and that’s it. But there’s one simple thing we can all do that will actually help (more than doing nothing) and that is to write to your congressmen about it. It may be true that no one is addressing your concerns, but you’ll have a better argument if you’ve at least told people about it. More importantly, there are starting to be problems where it’s a bit like “speak now or forever hold your peace.” Or maybe, “now or never.”
