What has happened is the House of Representatives has passed H Con Res 21, which passed with only Reps. Kucinich and Paul voting against it. What this resolution does is pressure the UN to bring Iranian president Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on Genocide and the United Nations charter. Something that has never happened. That's right folks, we're punishing a man for making a statement that he never said. What he did say was:
this occupation regime over Jerusalem" to "vanish from the page of time.'
This hardly qualifies as genocide (especially with regard to how Americans are slaughtering Iraqis and IDF forces are killing Palestinians), and would more likely be tantamount to suicide, since Israel has nuclear weapons and Iran has yet to be proved to have them. What this is in reality is part of the Likudnik party's "A Clean Break", which calls for breaking up all Arab states in the region into smaller pieces (like we're doing in Iraq, since the Neocons are so chummy with the Likudniks)for the security of Israel. This is also a ramping up of rhetoric against Iran in preparation for a US strike against them using tactical nuclear weapons, which will likely kill a lot of Iranian civilians, but in no way can that be construed as genocide.
While all this is happening, the US is committing war crimes, violation UN resolutions and the Geneva conventions, but that's okay (not really). And Israel stands in violation of numerous UN resolutions itself.
So with the conitnuing slump in housing sales, the health care crisis, global warming trends, outsourcing of jobs, and lack of support for the wars overseas, it's nice to know that Congress could get together on one thing totally irrelevant and unnecessary to the American people. Good job!
(Well, they also came together on a pay raise for themselves, after all, ignoring the American people is hard work.)
10 comments:
Excellent post and you are right. What have either party done, to deserve the lavish wages they already make, muchless decide they deserve more.
At the very least, they deserve the increase of our scorn.
Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, the only two sane ones left. Sad.
While I fully back Kucinich on nearly every single issue (and he makes my N.E. Ohio heart proud) I cannot-- no matter how right he is on the war-- toss ANY support Ron Paul's way. His stance on women's rights is appalling, and his recent appearance with 3 other Republican 2008 presidential candidates (Romney, Brownback, Duncan Hunter) addressing the annual Natl Right to Life Convention in Kansas City, Missouri merely solidifies his anti-female position.
The People Who Vote For You And Pay Your Wages?
Which are now...what...$4400 above what they were a week ago. I could use a raise like that.
kudos to Kucinich and Paul. (i think Paul's economic policies are authoritarian)
At the very least, they deserve the increase of our scorn. DITTO!
Tell me again, why has the corporate media declared Kucinich fringe and unelectable?
They got a 4% COLA adjustment I believe, kvatch, bringing their salary to $170,000 a year.
Wish everyone got a COLA increase! Must be nice.
I agree with larry, they deserve an increase in scorn!
I'm a NYC public school teacher. In the last few contracts, my union gave back time (extra half hour a day), days (an additional 3 days of work), seniority protections (transfers no longer based on seniority; has become impossible for any teacher with more than 10 years in the system to transfer to another school as a result - schools don't want to pick up the higher salaries when they can just hire a McTeacher out of Teach For America or some like program), grievance protections (teachers can no longer grieve when complaint letters are placed in their file), and additional duties around the school (bathroom duty, lunch room duty, etc.)
Wanna know what salary increase we received for all these givebacks? 14% over 3 years - less than a COLA for the NYC area. We were told my Mayor Moneybags Bloomberg that cost of living adjustments could not be given w/out "productivity givebacks." The pattern was set - in order to get a COLA, workers have to give something back to bosses. In the case of our last contract, we gave back 7 things.
And yet, the Congress votes itself a 4% COLA without any givebacks, companies continue to squeeze workers while raking in record profits (Capital One announced 2000 layoffs last week, the stock soared on the news), CEO's make 450% what everybody else in their companies make (regardless of company performace - apparently accountabilty is only for school teachers and the like), and the top 1% have become ever so much richer while the rest of us have to work harder, longer, and more to make less than what we used to make (adjusted for food/energy inflation.)
And you know what I learned on CNBC last week? Now that Dems are back in power, they have declared "War on the Wealthy". Apparently because Dems want to tax the billions hedge fund managers make as income and not capital gains, they have declared war on the wealthy. Ha!
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