We either get past our disappointments over Obama to help elect the best possible candidates between now and November, or cede even more power to the most destructive interests in America.

Nelnet improperly exploits a loophole in the student lending regulations for years, and then last Friday afternoon settled a $1+ billion student loan fraud case for $55 million, just as college students head back to campus. Lovely.

But I’m sure that nothing like this could happen with insurance companies and the Health Insurance reform regulations, or the Wall Street firms and the FinReg rules . . .

Welcome back to campus, everyone.

A Monsanto-friendly bill designed to prohibit the growing and sale of home-grown food is making its way through the legislature.

Seriously, who does he have nude pictures of?

According to Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown, Russ Feingold’s defiance on the so-called financial reform bill irks liberals. She even finds one liberal to say how irked he his. That’s right, one (1) and he doesn’t claim to speaks for all liberals.

Since the Republicans have managed to stand tall on their intransigence that up to 2 million unemployed Americans should lose their meager benefits, perhaps it is time to start introducing them to some of the unemployed. We have heard the Dickensian pronouncements on the Senate floor that the unemployed are lazy, that the benefits they receive are keeping them from looking for work, that it is more important in a financial crisis to cut spending (and thus cut the over all recovery off at the knees) than it is to help our fellow Americans who, through no fault of their own, are now paying the price for financial deregulation.

As long as this debate is kept in abstract terms it is easy for those Republicans who have a conscience (all three of them) to talk about how we should be burdening our children and grandchildren with debt. It is time to use the very effective method of hearings to bring the real face of the long term unemployed right into the face of the heartless and petty Republican majority.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Imagine the scene; there are the Senators all in their expensive suits, high end electronics at their sides, expensive watches at their wrists, sitting in the lovely hearing rooms at the Capital. In come the five witnesses, the laid off factory worker in his mid-forties, single mom who was an administrative assistant for a medium size company, the engineer who worked her whole life at one company and now is unlikely to find a job in her field again because of age bias, the construction worker who used to build houses and the coffee shop worker who lost her job to hours cuts.

Senator Ben Nelson (D?-NE) announced his support for the Levin/Lieberman sham repeal of DADT today, likely assuring passage. Meantime Lt Dan Choi continues to ask: “When will discharges stop, Mr President?” There’s no repeal as long as servicemembers are being discharged.

I have finally figured out how to get Obama to stop listening to all the people who are leading him down the wrong path.

There is a lot of anger and frustration in the electorate this election cycle. It is seen in the Tea Party demonstrators (who get far more press than they proportionally deserve for the actual size of their movement) ; it can be seen in the grumbling on the Left, up to and including those who are flirting with bolting from the Democratic Party. This has lead to a slew of primary challenges to long term incumbents.

I am completely in favor of primary challenges, especially to Senators. It is fitting that a group of men and women who only have to face the voters every six years be required to get the endorsement of their party members before asking for their state to return them to Washington. If nothing else it keeps these very powerful politicians aware of the voters who they need to keep their job.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Which brings us to an interesting situation this cycle; there are two long term Senators who are both facing tough primary challenges. They are Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). What is interesting about these two is the lengths they have both gone to try to appeal to their bases, and keep their jobs.

Nelson flips on financial reform when, surprise, surprise, an item that would have benefitted Warren Buffet PERSONALLY was removed.