Sunday, January 10, 2016

Bernie Cartoon


Texas Gov. Abbott ‎calls for convention on Constitution, proposes amendments


Texas Gov. Greg Abbott looked for Republican support on Friday for calling the first constitutional convention since 1787, a new priority for his administration that has blocked state laws over gay marriage, abortion restrictions and voting rights.
Abbott hopes his weight as the leader of the nation’s largest conservative state can revive momentum in an enduring, yet unattainable dream of some Republicans. Abbott’s vision includes an outline of new state protections that would nullify federal laws and weaken the Supreme Court as well as a federal balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
One of his nine proposals would require a supermajority of seven justices — out of nine — to invalidate any state law. The plan spanned nearly 70 pages, according to the Dallas Morning News.
"The Supreme Court is a co-conspirator in abandoning the Constitution," said Abbott, the state's former attorney general and a former Texas Supreme Court justice. "Instead of applying laws as written, it embarrassingly strains to rewrite laws like Obamacare."
The nine proposed amendments include:
·         Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs in one state
·         Require Congress to balance its budget.
·         Prohibit administrative agencies from creating law
·         Prohibit administrative agencies from pre-empting state law
·         Allow a two-thirds majority of the states of override a Supreme Court decision
·         Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law
·         Restore balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution
·         Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds
·         Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law regulation.
Texas has been named as a defendant in major cases before the Supreme Court. The court will hear oral arguments over the state’s abortion crackdown in March. The restrictions would leave the state with fewer than 10 abortion providers, down from 40 in 2012.
Abbott unveiled his plan to a friendly audience of conservative policymakers in Austin, but outside, others called the prospect of a convention far-fetched.
"There is no remote possibility that is going to take place," said Lino Graglia, a conservative professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas at Austin. "Just to get any constitutional amendment is virtually impossible."
Abbott’s opponents were quickly dismissive about his plan. Texas Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Manny Garcia said the governor’s priorities were misguided.
“America added 292,000 new jobs in December. But under Abbott, Texas fell to sixth in job creation, remains the uninsured capitol of the nation, wages and incomes remain far too low for hardworking families, our neighborhood schools are still underfunded, and college education is slipping out of reach,” Garcia said in a statement. “Texas families deserve serious solutions, not Tea Party nonsense.”
The American Civil Liberties Union also urged Abbott to not “mess with the Constitution.”
Over the last 40 years, 27 states have endorsed the idea of an assembly at one time or another, including Texas at a time when the state was run by Democrats. Convention proposals were also introduced or discussed in about three dozen legislatures last year. An assembly needs approval from 34 legislatures.
Shortly after Abbott took office last year, the Texas Legislature failed to endorse a more narrowly focused convention on conservative ideals. Some Republicans blamed the defeat on fears of a "runaway" convention that would take on myriad issues. Abbott said he wants Texas lawmakers to give their support next time around in 2017.
Earlier this week, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said if elected president he will advocate for the states to call a constitutional convention to impose term limits on members of Congress. He says creating term limits must come from a grassroots movement because members of Congress will never do it themselves.
The United States has not held a constitutional convention since George Washington himself led the original proceedings in Philadelphia in 1787.

Sanders calls Bill Clinton's affair 'totally disgraceful and unacceptable'


Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Friday night that former President Bill Clinton, now stumping on the campaign trail for wife Hillary Clinton, committed a “totally disgraceful” act in having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Sanders’ remark was in response to a question at an Iowa town hall meeting, not part of a speech.
However, the Vermont senator had until this point in the primary season largely avoided saying anything negative related to the front-running Hillary Clinton, expect to attack her on policy issues.
“Look, Hillary Clinton is not Bill Clinton," Sanders said Friday. “What Bill Clinton did, I think we can all acknowledge, was totally, totally, totally disgraceful and unacceptable. But I am running against Hillary Clinton. I’m not running against Bill Clinton.”
But Sanders continues to trail Clinton by roughly 20 percentage points in national polls and needs to at least compete with her in first-in-the-nation primary state Iowa, which votes Feb.1 and where he once led Clinton. And he needs a solid showing in New Hampshire, which votes Feb. 9 and where he now trails by about 4 points.
Front-running 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and others have increasingly criticized Bill Clinton’s extra-marital past since his wife announced last month that he would stump for her starting in January. The Trump campaign has argued that its attacks are in response to the Clinton campaign accusing Trump of being sexist.
In Iowa, where Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist, trails Clinton by rough 13 points, he nevertheless stuck Friday to his campaign strategy of distinguishing himself from Clinton and Republicans on the issues of income inequality and the so-called “disappearing middle class.”
“So what I am doing is contrasting my record with Hillary Clinton’s record, and they are very, very different records,” he said. “But I am not going to get into the personal stuff. … I’ve never run a negative TV ad in my life.”

'Occam’s Razor': NY Rep. Israel's retirement explanation smells like a truth


“Occam’s Razor” isn’t some teenage slasher flick from the “Halloween” or “Scream” genre. It’s a philosophical, mathematical and scientific tenet that asserts that the simplest, most-obvious explanation of events is often the correct one.
Named after Middle Ages philosopher and Franciscan friar William of Ockham (despite the spelling difference), most people who toil on Capitol Hill probably wouldn’t recognize Occam’s Razor if it sliced a gaping wound in their forearm.
But that’s the nature of politics. Often the reasons for various Washington political phenomena are stacked with intrigue, Machiavellian skullduggery and conspiracy.
One can only imagine the torrent of political theories that filtered through the Capitol this week when Rep. Steve Israel -- a New York Democrat,  top lieutenant to House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi and potential candidate to succeed her or House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer down the road -- unexpectedly announced his retirement from Congress.
“It has been an incredibly humbling opportunity to serve my community,” Israel declared in a statement. “I will miss this place and the people I have had the privilege to serve.”
That’s the customary, bathos, boilerplate that accompanies many congressional departures.
But he also spoke of an opportunity to write a “second novel.” His previous book, “The Global War on Morris,” mocked the extremes of government surveillance. In a brief chat, Israel joked about replacing Daniel Murphy (who just signed with the Washington Nationals) at second base for his beloved New York Mets. Still, Israel says he’s fed up with fundraising and “call time.”
This is a peculiar but essential political liturgy in which lawmakers carve out wide swaths of their day to hunch over a telephone and dial for dollars. The ritual is necessary -- especially in a possible swing district like Israel’s in an expensive media market -- just to stay competitive.
There is no practice that lawmakers abhor more than call time. Members of Congress sometimes grouse about the enhanced interrogation methods that the United States uses on detainees at Guantanamo Bay. But call time is so brutal it surely rivals waterboarding as inhumane treatment under the Geneva Convention.
Israel took to the New York Times to pen an Op-Ed about the practice. He wrote that talking to customer service with a cable company is a more enjoyable version of call time than what members of Congress have to deal with.
But Israel’s station in Congress was a little different from most. Surely something more was afoot than call time when he announced he was quitting.
Israel was believed to have an inside track on navigating the House Democratic Caucus leadership ladder -- perhaps after the eventual retirement of Pelosi, California, and/or Hoyer, Maryland.
In 2009, Israel was just hours away from announcing a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Then-New York Gov. David Paterson, also a Democrat, appointed Gillibrand to succeed Hillary Clinton who became secretary of State.
Fox was told at the time that Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer, N.Y., and Bob Menendez, N.J., asked President Obama to intervene to clear the field for Gillibrand in the primary.
Israel never ran against Gillibrand.
As a result, Israel settled back into the House. In late 2010, Pelosi tapped him to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the national organization charged with getting Democrats elected and reelected to the House.
After Democrats failed to win back the House in 2012, Pelosi told Democrats she would only stay on as leader if Israel would serve another term as DCCC chairman.
Much has been documented over the years about a rivalry between Pelosi and Hoyer -- two native Marylanders vying to lead Democrats in the House. When Pelosi became speaker, she contrived a position for another lawmaker from Maryland, Rep. Chris Van Hollen.
Pelosi made Van Hollen “assistant to the speaker.” Some viewed Pelosi’s move as a rebuke to Hoyer. And over the years, political observers estimated that she might have been engineering a course for Van Hollen to succeed her in the Democratic ranks, potentially leapfrogging Hoyer.
But that talk waned once Van Hollen decided to run for the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
And much like Pelosi designing a special position for Van Hollen, she concocted a unique leadership post for Israel to hone the Democrat’s messaging.
Israel is 57. Pelosi is 75. Hoyer is 77.
With Van Hollen out of the picture, Pelosi’s maneuver seemingly gave Israel a special place in the Democratic ranks. Here was a roadway for Israel to perhaps succeed Pelosi or at least matriculate in leadership should vacancies eventually occur.
That’s what made Israel’s retirement announcement so vexing.
In a presidential year in New York, an incumbent Democrat like Israel would still have a decent shot to his seat this fall -- even though he underperformed Obama by nine points on the 2012 ballot. The 2018 midterm is another story.
Plus, it’s a real challenge for the Democrats to regain the majority in the House until after the 2020 census.
Israel’s abrupt retirement announcement Tuesday evening just as lawmakers jetted back into Washington for the first time this year launched shockwaves throughout the Capitol.
“I’m very surprised,” said House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Rep. Joe Crowley, New York.
“It was unexpected,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra, California. “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”
About the only member of the House Democratic leadership who wasn’t taken aback was Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina.
“I’ve been watching his demeanor change the past few weeks,” Clyburn said. “I’m a very observant guy.”
It’s not unprecedented for lawmakers to return to Washington after the holidays and time with family and decide to cash it in, though Israel is said to have mulled this decision for months.
Just this week, two other senior lawmakers announced their retirements in addition to Israel: Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga. But that post-holiday factor didn’t halt the congressional rumor mill from spinning into a frenzy to explain Israel’s decision.
Surely there was something more.
Some theories which reverberated through the building late Tuesday:
Was there scandal?
Maybe it’s his health.
Israel fell out of favor with Pelosi and needs the money from the book contract, suggested one senior aide.
Israel’s retirement means Pelosi is leaving.
Israel's retirement means Pelosi isn’t leaving.
There was no shortage of conjecture.
Not a lot is aboveboard on Capitol Hill. That’s why everyone in Congress goes all Grassy Knoll when an announcement like Israel’s explodes like a bombshell.
Or, in the case of Steve Israel, perhaps one can apply Occam’s Razor.
The simplest, most-obvious explanation is often the most accurate.
Maybe it just about the call time. The desire to write another book. And that’s that. Occam’s Razor doesn’t score a lot of credibility in a conniving joint like Capitol Hill.
Sure there could be a tough re-election in 2018 to say nothing of 2016. And maybe the fact that Pelosi and Hoyer don’t appear to be departing anytime soon amplifies the decision.

In State of Union, Obama to leave empty seat to honor gun victims, underscore gun control effort


President Obama will keep an empty seat next to the first lady on Tuesday when he gives his State of the Union address, to represent victims of gun violence, according to the White House.
Obama, who is trying to reduce gun violence by issuing a series of executive orders to tighten federal gun laws, announced the symbolic gesture Friday when talking on the phone with fellow supporters of more stringent gun-ownership laws.
A White House official said the president told the supporters the open seat in first lady Michelle Obama’s viewing box was for “the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice -- because they need the rest of us to speak for them.”
Presidents have long invited prominent individuals and average Americans to sit with the first lady, often as a way to underscore a theme.
Obama, in his final 11 months of office, says he’s using his White House powers to change gun laws because Congress has failed to act.
The State of the Union addresses are given in the House chambers. And as an apparent attempt to express his dissatisfaction with Congress, Obama also said the open seat should serve to “remind every single one of our representatives that it’s their responsibility to do something about this,” the official said.
Obama intends to tighten the guns laws with a 10-point plan that side-steps Congress and focuses on requiring small-scaler sellers to get a federal license and submit background checks on potential buyers.
His tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to pass comprehensive legislation to tighten gun-control laws in the wake of the 2012 shooting massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school, in Newtown, Conn.
And his new effort is also facing strong opposition from Republicans, the National Rifle Association and even some Democrats who say it's up to Congress to enact new policies on firearms.
The other parts of Obama’s executive action include having the FBI hire 230 more employees to process background checks. He’s also directing federal agencies to research smart gun technology to reduce accidental shootings and asking Congress for $500 million for mental health care.
Obama also want to better track lost guns and prevent trusts or corporations from buying dangerous weapons without background checks.

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