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via Jennifer Liberto, CNN There’s one thing that turns some Tea Party Republicans into government-job lovers like their Democratic rivals: Their neighborhood post office. In fact, the U.S. Postal Service’s reach into every state and congressional district is a big reason why Americans shouldn’t expect Congress to make the drastic changes that the postmaster general … Continue reading
via Shira Toeplitz, Roll Call Rep. Joe Walsh may switch races to run in Illinois’ 8th district instead of against Rep. Randy Hultgren in the GOP primary next year, according to two well-placed Republican sources. Walsh met with an aspiring GOP candidate in the 8th district, DuPage County Superintendent of Education Darlene Ruscitti, this afternoon … Continue reading
via Kristen McQueary, WBEZ It’s that time of year when candidates for political office come knocking. In Illinois, people running for everything from village board to Congress need hundreds of signatures by Dec. 5 to get on the ballot. But the old-fashioned practice of going door-to-door is getting an update in the Internet age. Technology … Continue reading
via Denise Lockwood, Caledonia, Wisconsin Patch Wisconsin recall supporters outed an anonymous Facebook group called Operation Burn Notice on Tuesday as a coordinated effort designed to destroy petitions signed to force Gov. Scott Walker and other Wisconsin Republicans out of office. Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, denounced the anonymous group, in a Madison … Continue reading
via Amy Bingham, ABC News Now that the 12-member congressional “supercommittee” has announced its failure to produce an all-encompassing, deficit-reduction package before its Wednesday deadline, the full Congress faces deadlines of its own. Before lawmakers pack up for Christmas, they must first decide whether to extend the payroll tax break and long-term unemployment benefits, both … Continue reading
via Jeremy Herb and John T. Bennett, The Hill A supercommittee failure would trigger at least $500 billion in cuts to national security spending, but there is no consensus on just where they will be made. Lawmakers included the automatic cuts in the debt ceiling deal as an incentive to get Congress to agree to … Continue reading
via AP, USA TODAY Senate Democrats who back gay marriage have decided now is the time to repeal a federal law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The Democrats may satisfy their gay marriage supporters, but the bill won’t get very far. The repeal could be approved by the Senate … Continue reading
via Sabrina Tavernise and Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times The landslide vote to repeal an Ohio law that limits collective bargaining has sounded a strong note of caution for Republican governors and lawmakers across the country, raising questions about some of their legislative efforts, especially those that would weaken labor unions. But the victory, … Continue reading
via David Bailey, Reuters Wisconsin Democrats will launch a drive November 15 to force Republican Governor Scott Walker into a recall election and are confident of getting the more than 540,000 signatures needed, a party spokesman said on Tuesday. The effort to recall Walker follows an unsuccessful bid by state Democrats to take control of … Continue reading
via Michael McAuliff, The Huffington Post Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid leveled a blistering attack at Republicans Tuesday that echoed the message of Occupy Wall Street, saying the GOP wants to protect the very richest Americans at the expense of everyone else. Reid (D-Nev.) was arguing against Senate Republican resistance to a $60 billion measure … Continue reading
via Hayley Miller, The Huffington Post The Supreme Court may treat corporations like people who can spend whatever they want on elections, but the American people don’t have to accept it, said Democratic senators who proposed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to retake control of campaign spending. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), doesn’t … Continue reading
via Mark Engler, Common Dreams A month after it began with a few hundred people marching on Wall Street, the #Occupy movement has grown to include tens of thousands of participants throughout the country and has captured headlines around the world. If it has not yet succeeded beyond its wildest dreams, that’s only because its participants … Continue reading
In July, KDNuggets.com, an online newsite focused on data mining and analytics software, ran an unusual listing in its jobs section. “We are looking for Predictive Modeling/Data Mining Scientists and Analysts, at both the senior and junior level, to join our department through November 2012 at our Chicago Headquarters,” read the ad. “We are a multi-disciplinary team of … Continue reading
via Don Hazen and Colin Greer, Alternet Author and public intellectual Colin Greer tells us how we got where we are today. It’s not a pretty picture, but hope is on the way. At this moment, there are growing protests on Wall Street in Manhattan, in Boston at the Bank of America, and in cities around … Continue reading
via Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post Five months after House Republicans announced that they had set a $500,000 salary cap for the lawyer hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a revised contract shows that the pay limit has been lifted to three times that amount. According to a new contract dated Sept. 30, … Continue reading
President Barack Obama’s job-creation package effectively fell to pieces on Monday as a top Republican lawmaker said the House of Representatives will only pass portions of the $447 billion measure. As Obama continued to press lawmakers for a vote on his signature legislation, Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said that was not … Continue reading
The White House and congressional Republicans just can’t agree on the best prescription for the economy, with President Barack Obama demanding passage of his $447 billion jobs bill and the GOP pushing to cut government red tape. Both efforts, the focus of competing radio and Internet addresses Saturday, face little chance of success as all-or-nothing … Continue reading
The House on Thursday gave quick approval to a stopgap spending bill that will finance the government for the first four days of October, until lawmakers can return and vote on a more ambitious seven-week spending bill. The stopgap bill, passed Monday by the Senate, goes now to President Obama, who is expected to sign … Continue reading
Nowhere was Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh’s decision not to seek re-election in the 8th Congressional district mourned more noticeably Thursday than at a fund-raiser for his would-be successor, Democrat Tammy Duckworth. Duckworth and her supporters — including President Barack Obama’s chief political strategist David Axelrod — hoisted Walsh’s image at Fulton’s on the River … Continue reading
The surprise defeat in the House Wednesday of a special funding measure to keep the federal government functioning past Sept. 30 was a sharp rebuke of the GOP leadership that controls the chamber and a testament to the fragility of the majority itself. The rejection of the measure resurrected the specter of a government shutdown … Continue reading
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), a Tea Party leader, on Wednesday announced he will run from the new 14th congressional district in Illinois, setting up a potential primary with Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) Walsh now represents the 8th district and Hultgren the 14th. By running from the 14th, Republicans are without a well known candidate in … Continue reading
There has been no shortage of liberal discontent with the path pursued by President Barack Obama during his first few years in office. But when the discontent manifests itself (as it occasionally does) in talk of a primary challenge in 2012, the chatter usually succumbs to political reality. For all the Democratic base’s tiffs with … Continue reading
President Barack Obama is back in the good graces of progressives. For now. Hours after Obama delivered a fiery speech demanding that the wealthiest Americans “pay their fair share” in taxes as part of his $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan, MoveOn.org launched a new television ad on Monday hammering in the president’s message and ripping Republicans … Continue reading
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt called on Washington to think big about solutions for the nation’s struggling economy calling the current emphasis on cutting spending instead of new stimulus “ludicrous.” The economy would need “not just something like the jobs bill, but also significant government stimulation in terms of buying power and investment,” said Schmidt on … Continue reading
The decision by the Republican controlled House to back and pass a plan authored by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan that would turn Medicare into a voucher system is regarded by many Democrats as a strategic error of colossal proportions. And so, it was not by accident that when President Obama addressed the need to reform … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 