Sunday, October 9, 2016

Not enough to denounce....?

The following is a post from The Brooding Brahmin 
I really wanted to write about issues today.  In Connecticut, the word on everyone’s lips is the economy.  Chief Executive magazine ranks the state 46th (yes, 46th!) in terms of favorability for doing business.  Crippling tax hikes, a perpetual fiscal deficit, and a shrinking labor market are driving employers away from the Nutmeg State.  While the state enjoys the 6th best education system in the country according to Education Week, economic competitiveness and the job market continue to suffer.
Against that backdrop, I wanted to write today about the inefficiencies in Hartford preventing a righting of this listing ship.
But I can’t.
What changed?  A damning audio tape from the Republican presidential candidate, in which he brags about his fame allowing him to maul women at will.  Every day I wake up and think he can’t sink any lower.  And every day, he continues to prove me wrong.  The tape reveals a candidate that is sick, disgusting, and absolutely perverted….in other words, a standard page from the playbook that we have witnessed over the past 16 months.
Here in the blue state of Connecticut, where Republicans will remind you that a Connecticut Republican is not the same as a Deep South Republican, the House minority leader, Themis Klarides (R-114), said yesterday that she wants to wait and see how Trump handles himself in the 2nd presidential debate before deciding on her level of support.
 
Read more here.
 
Editor's note: This post was shared with the New Haven Register and is the work only of The Brooding Brahmin 
 
 
 

Thursday, October 6, 2016

"Bipartisan buffoons and the 9/11 bill"

The following is a guest post from The Brooding Brahmin 

Last Wednesday, Congress finally did something.  In a rare act of unity and getting something done, both the Senate and the House voted overwhelmingly to override President Obama’s veto of the The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), known as the “9/11 Bill.”  JASTA allows 9/11 victims’ families to sue the Saudi Arabian government for their alleged support of the terrorists that carried out the attacks.
Hooray Congress!  You proved that you were more than knuckle dragging elected chimps.  You actually did something – you took a stand and said, “Damn it, we’re going to pass this bill!”  And you handed Mr. Obama his first veto override.  In definitive fashion, no less!  The Senate voted 97 to 1, the House 348 to 77.  Now that’ll show him.
I appreciate this is a very sensitive topic.  Obama’s position was to protect American service members and diplomats abroad from retaliatory action.  Anyone remember the accidental bombing of a Doctors without Borders hospital in Afghanistan last October?  We certainly wouldn’t want a lawsuit on our heads as a result.  “Wait, wait…what do you mean we don’t have sovereign immunity?”  And yet, on the other hand, 9/11 is still a wound in our national consciousness, and we ought forever to show compassion to all those affected by that day and its aftermath.
But I’m not here to litigate whether the bill was a good one or not.  I mean, it passed.  In definitive fashion.
But then, not 24 hours laterCongress had a Brexit moment.  You remember….that moment of, “Oh crap, what have we done?  Did we really do this?”  Yup, you did.
Last Wednesday, Congress finally did something.  In a rare act of unity and getting something done, both the Senate and the House voted overwhelmingly to override President Obama’s veto of the The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), known as the “9/11 Bill.”  JASTA allows 9/11 victims’ families to sue the Saudi Arabian government for their alleged support of the terrorists that carried out the attacks.
Hooray Congress!  You proved that you were more than knuckle dragging elected chimps.  You actually did something – you took a stand and said, “Damn it, we’re going to pass this bill!”  And you handed Mr. Obama his first veto override.  In definitive fashion, no less!  The Senate voted 97 to 1, the House 348 to 77.  Now that’ll show him.
I appreciate this is a very sensitive topic.  Obama’s position was to protect American service members and diplomats abroad from retaliatory action.  Anyone remember the accidental bombing of a Doctors without Borders hospital in Afghanistan last October?  We certainly wouldn’t want a lawsuit on our heads as a result.  “Wait, wait…what do you mean we don’t have sovereign immunity?”  And yet, on the other hand, 9/11 is still a wound in our national consciousness, and we ought forever to show compassion to all those affected by that day and its aftermath.
But I’m not here to litigate whether the bill was a good one or not.  I mean, it passed.  In definitive fashion.
But then, not 24 hours laterCongress had a Brexit moment.  You remember….that moment of, “Oh crap, what have we done?  Did we really do this?”  Yup, you did.

Read the rest of this post: here.


Editor's note: This post was shared with the New Haven Register and is the work only of The Brooding Brahmin