The air is rife with the stench of poli-tricks, and sometimes I prefer to read things on my own rather than allow a news broadcaster to inform me of HOW I should feel about a situation rather than providing me details of the situation. The Republicans are beating down political progress by voting against nearly every bill that makes its way into the Senate. The links to some bills are included, so feel free to read at your own leisure and come to your own conclusion.

Deader than a door nail: The Veteran’s Job Bills was kept from passing through the Republican led Senate. In a vote of 58-40 the Senate killed a plan that was intended to get 20,000 out of work veterans into new jobs through Federal money spent on training our former military to enter their community workforce as police, park rangers and emergency respondents. The fund was to be financed by money gained through the pursuit of child support payments and Medicare costs paid to defrauders. 

1. Five Republicans voted with the Democrats but they did’t have enough to pass it: these Reps are Senators Scott Brown, Massachusetts; Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, Maine; Dean Heller, Nevada; and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska.
2. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oka.) went so far as to call the bill “crap” on the “Morning Joe Show.” This is the same senator who had the chutzpah to rail against the bill on the Senate floor, shouting indignantly, “Where is our honor? Where is our valor? Where is our sacrifice?”
3.  Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is the chief sponsor of the bill, explained the unemployment problem will only grow “as we draw down in Afghanistan, just like we have already drawn down in Iraq.”

The Senate also killed the Cyber Security Bill S. 3414 in a 52-46 vote against it because the language of the bill “imposed regulation on private corporations and allowed back door access to consumer files”. The intent of the bill was to assist corporations and the government in keeping out cyber hacker attacks by establishing a shared best practices, research, standard and information process across government and private owned security platforms.

1. James Lewis, technology program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said, ‘‘Nobody in Congress denies that we need to do something, but between business pressures and electoral pressures there’s no way they’re going to get to anything useful. The game now will be each side blames the other.”
2.  The Senate’s Republican leadership, the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups said the voluntary infrastructure standards would be a back door to government regulation.
3. Republicans said the measure would lead to excessive government regulations.

The Disclose Act of 2012 fell flat by a vote of 51-44: A Campaign Disclosure Bill that would force election campaigns and PACs to reveal the identity of anonymous finances of damaging, misleading and false campaign ads.

1. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the act a waste of time and said Democrats should instead try to remedy the ailing U.S. economy.
2. The bill was drafted amid an outcry that political organizations were exploiting a tax law provision allowing certain “social welfare” groups meant to educate the public to collect unlimited contributions without disclosing their donors.
3.  The centerpiece of the legislation would force tax-exempt “501(c)” groups, which include labor unions and chambers of commerce, to publicly report any donor giving $10,000 or more to the Federal Election Commission.

Places to read stuff:

Look up the voting record of any politician from two places.

Find out how politicians vote per issue.

Follow the money by looking up corporate donation amounts or by using issue specific campaign donations as a criteria.

Non-partisan think tank collection of statistics and analysis across demographics.

New from foreign news sources: Al Jazeera, Watching America, and Global Issues.

Now when someone says something regarding politics you have something to say beyond how someone on television told you how they ‘felt’ about an issue that has nothing to do with them. When you overhear nonsense spat from the lips of a Republican OR a Democrat you can use your nifty research tools above to set the record straight. You can’t expect people to think for you, nor to do what is in your best interest.

There is a concept in politics called ‘elitist politics’ which basically means the smarter and/or more well connected people get to make decisions for you because you are too stupid to do so. I hated hearing that, but what I hate more is watching people look towards an image they hope to obtain rather than note who they are at the present moment.

As a female, minority with a political science education, and a writer specializing in international relations, intellectual property law and contract litigation, this fact did not go unnoticed by all of the land use law firms (kill the Earth with a smile), corporate restructure (eat the little guy) and urban development (gentrification celebration) jobs that came my way upon graduation.

Most of the firms were located in either Texas or New York City and were well over a hundred years old, with very pale male faces looking desperately in need of some young color to convey an air of contemporary acceptance to the masses. Those Federal tax breaks they would get for hiring me weren’t so bad, either, I’m sure. It’s a win/win situation but for my dam need to not become a tool of ‘da Man’.

Be mindful that shit rolls downhill, and American politics is quite funky. I realize that I work directly for the 1% and I know what’s in my best interest when it comes to politics but the question is….do you?