"If you wonder why the
United States is the only country in the industrialized world not to
have a national health care program, if you're asking why we pay the
highest price in the world for prescription drugs, or why we spend more
money on the military than the rest of the world combined, you are
talking about campaign finance. You are talking about the unbelievable
power that big-money interests have over every legislative decision."Senator
Bernie Sanders (Vt)
"The imperial presidency would not exist were it not
for the Congress, which has willingly ceded authority to the executive
branch, especially on matters touching, however remotely on national
security. As the chief executive achieved supremacy, the legislative
branch no only lost clout but gradually made itself the object of
ridicule. David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Dick
Cheney, pungently described the philosophy of the Bush administration
this way: "We're going to push and push and push until some larger
force makes us stop." Even under Democratic control, the Congress has
not remotely threatened to be that large force." The
Limits of Power, the End of American Exceptionalism: Andrew J.
Bacevich
Alleged U.S. Contractor
Rape Victim Fights for Day in Court --Senate Passes Amendment to Stop Contractors From Forcing
Employees into Arbitration 07
Oct 2009 Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old young woman working her
fourth day on the job in Baghdad for contractor Halliburton/KBR in
2005, when she says she was drugged and gang-raped by seven U.S
contractors and held captive by two KBR guards in a shipping container.
But Jones is still waiting for her day in court because when she signed
her employment contract, she lost her rights to a jury trial and,
instead, was forced into having her claims decided through secret,
binding arbitration. Today, the Senate approved an amendment by a vote
of 68-30 that would prohibit "the Defense Department from contracting
with companies that require employees to resolve sexual assault
allegations and other claims through arbitration." [The thirty scumbags who voted no: Alexander
(R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr
(R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS).]
(From CLG News)
VIDEO | Keith
Olberman: Legislators for Sale (8/3/2009)
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC Countdown: "Finally tonight, as promised, a
Special Comment on Health Care Reform in this country, and in
particular,
the 'public insurance option.'"