BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White 

The media is all abuzz about the new deal on the suggested repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Finally, after years of whining that the president -- who has no authority to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military -- hasn't done anything to end DADT, Congress is stepping up to the change plate. But there's another, perhaps less sexy, story today about Congress complaining about President Obama not doing their job for them, only this time it's about who's holding the purse strings.

Obama has requested expanded authority to reduce the deficit by cutting specific items out of spending bills. The powers -- called expanded rescission authority -- would be similar to, but not as grandiose as President Clinton's line-item veto power, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998. 

If you were to read this highly-biased FOX News "report," you'd be led to believe that not only does the president already have this power, but that George W. Bush was a fiscal conservative.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

Everything America is suffering today is a direct result of:

...George H.W. and George W. Bush caused or contributed to: Deregulation of corporations, union-busting, tax cuts for the wealthy, a shrinking middle class, lost manufacturing jobs, unprecedented federal debt, unbridled Wall Street greed, bubble-and-bust cycles, the worst recession since the Great Depression, two unfinished wars, erosion of civil liberties, environmental degradation, and a continued dependence on fossil fuels, especially foreign oil.

If American voters aren't smart enough to figure it out, these two demagogue oil men are Repuglicans, and the Repuglican ideology hasn't changed, isn't about to change, and if allowed to continue by your votes, things in America will get even worse!

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White 

Hidden at the end of a New York Times article about financial lobbying this Sunday was a fascinating tidbit about life as an elected official. The piece fleshed out the results of a study by the D.C. watchdogs at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (emphasis mine):

The group’s analysis found that the 14 freshmen who serve on the House Financial Services Committee raised 56 percent more in campaign contributions than other freshmen. And most freshmen on the panel, the analysis found, are now in competitive re-election fights.

“It’s definitely not accidental,” said Melanie Sloan, the director of the ethics group. “It appears that Congressional leaders are deliberately placing vulnerable freshmen on the Financial Services Committee to increase their ability to raise money.”

Take Representative John Adler, Democrat of New Jersey. Mr. Adler is a freshman in Congress with no real national profile, yet he has managed to raise more than $2 million for his re-election, more than any other freshman, the analysis found.

That is due in large part, political analysts say, to his spot on the Financial Services Committee. 

You read that right; Democrats are putting people on the financial committee who need money, because that's where all the lobbying action is taking place.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

Repuglicans can no longer claim racism a thing of the past!

Unity In Kentucky As GOPers Rally 'Round Rand

Now that we know what Rand Paul really thinks about Civil Rights, and now that we know the GOPers are rallying round their candidate, we can be sure that the Civil Rights thing is mutual for Paul and the GOPers. Having tried for several years to skirt and skinny around the discrimination label, the GOP is finally admitting they are bigots, something that most of us have known for a very long time!  The GOP doesn't care about the American people, their entire existence has been for corporations and the richest of the rich as a way to acquire personal wealth!

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with grade to reason
-- Robert Frost, Reluctance, 1913 

BuzzFlash,

Hear ye. Hear ye. Sale's on! All the used goods that has been sold to the American people for years, is being recycled and sold again, and the weird thing is that some Americans are buying it again. 

How do I know this? The signs are everywhere. Take Rand Paul (please), and his coded messages to the public. Let me introduce you.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

Democrats want criminal inquiry into BP

And while they're at it, how about investigating Dick Cheney and his "secret energy task force" that put the kibosh on those $500,000 remote control shut offs that would have prevented the disaster in the Gulf? It would have been a lot cheaper -- and more importantly, it might have saved some lives!

GEORGE LAKOFF FOR BUZZFLASH

The Obama Administration’s move to the right is about to give conservatives a victory they could not have anticipated, even under Bush. HUD, under Obama, submitted legislation called PETRA to Congress that would result in the privatization of all public housing in America.

The new owners would charge ten percent above market rates to impoverished tenants, money that would be mostly paid by the US government (you and me, the taxpayers). To maintain the property, the new owners would take out a mortgage for building repair and maintenance (like a home equity loan), with no cap on interest rates.

With rents set above market rates, the mortgage risk would be attractive to banks. Either they make a huge profit on the mortgages paid for by the government. Or if the government lowers what it will pay for rents, the property goes into foreclosure. The banks get it and can sell it off to developers.

BUZZFLASH DISCUSSION 

As of today, the United States does not have an official overseeing the 17 federal security and intelligence offices. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair tendered his resignation, apparently at President Obama's request on Thursday. This comes after some pretty intense criticism of the office's apparent inability to "connect the dots" and intercept attacks from terrorists such as the so-called Christmas Day bomber.

Speculation abounds not only over who the president will choose to fill Blair's shoes, but over the office itself. Formed in the wake of the failure to stop the 9/11 attacks, the Office of National Intelligence was supposed to end the turf wars and information hoarding between the various intelligence communities, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

What do you think? Does a name come to mind of someone who could eliminate the infighting between the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies? Or should Obama consider asking Congress to eliminate this heretofore unsuccessful agency as a relic of the knee jerk reactions of the Bush Administration following 9/11?

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN)

Welcome back to GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

After years of fear mongering about condoms, we might finally figure out what exactly it was about rubbers that freaked out Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). We haven't confirmed this, but it's beginning to look like they reminded him of all that extramarital sex he was having with his aide.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

• Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare they have become the tools of corrupt interests, which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.
  • "The Progressive Covenant With The People" speech (August 1912)
• We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices.