Mario Piperni dot Com

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The President fires back…

With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington–while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That’s why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.

Good luck. Two words that don’t work in the same sentence – “bipartisan” and “Congress”.

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You’ve no doubt been dying to know who the top 25 wealthiest members of Congress might be. Just for you.

1	Darrell Issa (R-Calif)	$251,025,020
2	Jane Harman (D-Calif)	$244,796,667
3	Herb Kohl (D-Wis)	$214,570,011
4	Mark Warner (D-Va)	$209,700,598
5	John Kerry (D-Mass)	$208,801,275
6	Jared Polis (D-Colo)	$158,173,566
7	Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla)	$142,432,692
8	Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)	$94,306,010
9	Frank R Lautenberg (D-NJ)	$74,744,094
10	Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif)	$72,380,637
11	Michael McCaul (R-Texas)	$69,619,248
12	Alan Grayson (D-Fla)	$54,451,020
13	James E Risch (R-Idaho)	$53,325,524
14	Bob Corker (R-Tenn)	$52,345,517
15	Cynthia Marie Lummis (R-Wyo)	$48,288,514
16	Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass)	$44,917,518
17	Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)	$40,898,090
18	Carolyn B Maloney (D-NY)	$36,751,045
19	Gary Miller (R-Calif)	$36,719,525
20	Nita M Lowey (D-NY)	$33,835,578
21	Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif)	$31,378,542
22	Denny Rehberg (R-Mont)	$31,372,505
23	Yvette D Clarke (D-NY)	$30,000,001
24	Olympia J Snowe (R-Maine)	$28,542,526
25	Kenny Marchant (R-Texas)	$27,363,295

For what it’s worth, 8 of the top 10 are tree-hugging, commie, love-a-government-handout liberals.  Also, 44% of Congress are millionaires.

HatTip: Foolocracy

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Bush, Cheney and Barney - We can dream, can't we?

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has proposed setting up a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate potential crimes of the Bush administration.

Leahy said, “I think the Senate and the Congress as a whole has an oversight responsibility that has to be carried out here anyway. Now it is much easier with the cooperation of the administration. A lot of things with the subpoenas I issued the past few years, we got a lot of information but a lot of it was held back.”

For his part, President Obama has shown a reluctance to give his blessing to the proposal.  While not offering an opinion he did say his preference would be to look forward and not backwards.

I don’t think the Leahy proposal will go anywhere but a case can be made that Congress does have Constitutional authority to investigate.  For many, in both the US and the world, an investigation into the Bush administration’s crimes would be a form of closure.

One can only imagine the uproar Republicans would raise if Congress did go ahead with an investigation.  As we all know, Reps are more concerned with BJs in the oval office than actual war crimes.

Congress dithers in an economic crisis

Another 600,000 jobs lost in January…

unemployment is at 7.6%…

13% of Americans owe more than the costs of their homes…

…and the members of Congress yell at each other as the economic plight of Americans and the world worsens.

How sad is that?