From Across the “Pond” – Joe Biden/Senate

I ran across this quote this morning from Toby Harnden of the Telegraph in the UK:

Even in the United States Senate, that august body which each week produces enough hot air to transport 1,000 six-year-olds across America, Mr Biden – who sports hair plugs and a set of porcelain-enhanced gnashers that would blind a polar bear – is renowned for his wordiness. “Joe Biden: worrying rise of Barack Obama’s Mr Wrong:”

Got to love it!

- CC

Congratulations on the Nobel! but…

Congratulations to President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize!

But…

As I have already been reading, there are a number of folks that are already saying that he does not deserve it because he has not been in office long enough, which I have to agree with, but maybe the Nobel committee also included his early work in Chicago in helping to (re)build communities…

As you may or may not know, President Obama joins three other Presidents with this unique honor:

• President Theodore Roosevelt (R) in 1906
• President Woodrow Wilson (D) in 1919
• President Jimmy Carter (D) in 2002

And I will include Vice President Al Gore (D), who shared the prize in 2007.

What I find very interesting in this list, is that 80% of the Winners are Democrats, and the last three have been within my life time.

Personally, I think that Jimmy Carter has done far more good for the World since he left office. The man is amazing!

Anyhow, back to my thought…

With only one Republican winner on the list, what does that say about the Republican party?

Shall we review the past 45+ years?

• President Lyndon B. Johnson [D] (1963-1969)
  • Vietnam War
• President Richard Nixon [R] (1969-1974)
  • Vietnam War
• President Gerald Ford [R] (1974-1977)
  • Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I)
• President Jimmy Carter [D] (1977-1981)
  • Camp David Accords
  • Torrijos–Carter Treaties
  • Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II)
• President Ronald Reagan [R] (1981-1989)
  • Called the Soviet Union as an “evil empire”
  • Reagan Doctrine
  • Responsible for the “Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)” aka – “Star Wars”
  • Did hold “talks” with Mikhail Gorbachev (Nobel Prize winner in 1990) to end the “Cold War”;
• President George H. W. Bush [R] (1989-1993)
  • Persian Gulf War I
• President William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton [D] (1993-2001)
  • Impeachment Trial over the Lewinsky scandal
• President George W. Bush [R] (2001-2009)
  • War on Terrorism
    • War in Afghanistan
    • Invasion of Iraq
      • Persian Gulf War II        

During this time, the Republican Party has started or continued more Wars then the Democrats, which seems to continue into their Political agenda on such things as Health Care Reform.

This is not saying the Democrats are any better, but in the immortal words of Rodney King during the 1992 LA Riots “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?”.

Hopefully, President Obama will use this newly won honor to bring civility to the political bickering in Washington…

- CC

 

Additional References:

• All Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
• List of Presidents of the United States

So Who’s your Pharma?

Don’t think that Special Interests/PACs are taking over the Government?

Well check this out…

In a  joint investigation, Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics, found a much more tangled web of money they anyone original thought.

Turns out that the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is the big “winner” by taken in over $660,000 from Jan. 2007 to June 2009 from 73 different Clients and Lobbyists that represent various pharmaceutical companies.

Not to be out done or alone, you can also find Republicans topping the charts, including formal Presidentican candidate John McCain. (Do take a look at McCain’s contributor list… Looks like Wall Street made another bad decision…)

Absent from the list…

Barack Obama, but you can still find details on his campaign, and as Michael Moore incorrectly states in the movie ‘Capitalism‘, Goldman Sachs ($994,795) was NOT the biggest contributor, but number two, behind University of California ($1,591,395).

Needless to say, there is allot more money coming from the corporations then anywhere else…

If you would like to read the full report “Hidden ‘Bundles’ of Lobbyist Giving Show Full Court Press by Health Care Donors“… and be ready to cry or get really angry!

So much for “By the people”…

- CC

Handing Over the Keys

Handing Over the Keys

Current Score Card

Current Political Score Card