This is a big one: if he can’t stop the war, Bernie at least wants the war to be fought by the troops everyone is so proud of – not freelance mercenaries. He and Senator Jan Schakowsky introduced a bill yesterday which would severely limit the use of private contractors in war zones. In the press conference Bernie jumped to the heart of his objection to the use of these contractors:
Private contractors do not operate within the traditional military chain of command,” Sanders said. “They are not subject to the same rigorous standards of vetting and training as are members of our armed forces. Most importantly, when push comes to shove, they answer to a corporate CEO, not a uniformed commander. And let’s be clear – the function of a private corporation is to make as much money as possible, not to serve the best interests of the people of the United States or our policies.
On yesterday’s episode of CSPAN’s Washington Journal, Bernie fielded a call which sounded like it had been misdirected from a suicide hotline. The caller began his question, “I just wanted to state sir, that, I don’t know… I really…I give up.” What follows is 90 seconds of Bernie trying to talk the guy (& the country) down from the ledge of hopelessness. Bernie invokes his children and grandchildren as reasons to continue the struggle despite recent setbacks such as the Supreme Court ruling that corporations can be treated as individuals in terms of campaign contributions. “This is tough stuff. It ain’t easy but giving up is not an option.” He sounds a bit like my middle school soccer coach on a rainy fall day but sometimes improbable optimism is just what we need from those who lead us.
When Kentucky Republican senator Jim Bunning, one of the top twenty pitchers in Major League history sides with Lefty McSocialist, Bernie Sanders, people should probably ask why. Though the press is taking little notice, the issue which is galvanizing this unlikely pair is the opposition to the Senate re-confirmation of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Both claim that Bush-appointee Bernanke didn’t do enough to stop the recent mortgage crisis and blame him for not apologizing for the unregulated environment he supported. Continue reading this column... « Less
Bill Press, the liberal radio host and blogger has decided to become a mantern (a male intern older than 29 years old) for Bernie Sanders. The Huffington Post reports that Press’s decision isn’t an attempt to beef up his resume or look good on grad school applications, but rather to gain press access to Senate hearings which he has previously been denied. Continue reading this column... « Less
As movie marketers and outspoken socialist senators know, a good tagline can sometimes make all the difference. Last week Bernie introduced a bill that took a popular catch phrase of the banking collapse, “Too Big to Fail” and added a twist: “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist.” How often does a bill say everything you need to know in its title? Rachel Maddow had a segment on Bernie’s legislation on Friday where she praised the bill for being only two pages long and noted that it uses big fonts. To underline Sanders’ point about the banks robbing taxpayers she included a funny clip of a guy getting mugged in a hotel lobby. Can anyone identify what movie this scene is from? First correct answer wins a pizza bagel!
So Bernie’s new show, Senator Sanders Unfiltered, is up to its fifth episode and this week his viewer question comes from British protest rocker Billy Bragg. The question regards the war in Afghanistan: Bragg wants to know what the US policy will be for the future and notes how many British soldiers have died for the cause recently. Continue reading this column... « Less
Sure he scored big for Vermont farmers this week with his amendment to the Agriculture bill but everyone knows the real sign of success in Washington is getting your own show. Starting next week Bernie will be hosting a weekly web show called Unfiltered brought to you by Brave New Films, producers of Move On: The Movie and 2004′s Outfoxed. Continue reading this column... « Less
Bernie Sanders is becoming a bit of a modern Thomas Paine. Less than two months ago he published a pamphlet called Enough is Enough, decrying the predatory practices of the credit card industry using hundreds of first-hand stories as evidence. This week he’s released The Health Care Crisis, Letters from Vermont and America. This populist e-book begins with several tragic tales from family members of people who have died from a lack of healthcare. (The first few, strangely all from undetected colon cancer.) It goes on to tell the stories of small business owners who cannot afford to insure their staff, people who are insured but have still been bankrupted by medical bills, and doctors who have lost faith in the system. Continue reading this column... « Less
I hope that in ten years when everyone in America has health care and former HMO CEO’s are going door-to-door selling termite insurance we’ll look back at Bernie’s uncompromising fight for single payer coverage with nostalgia. While everyone else in Washington is scrambling to create a plan which includes health insurance companies, Bernie is aggressively calling for their demise. Continue reading this column... « Less
Yesterday Bernie sparred with FoxNews anchor Megyn Kelly about his plans for a single payer health care system. Kelly conducted a standard Fox-style interruptaview and argued that under Bernie’s plan quality of care will suffer like it has in third-world systems like the United Kingdom. Bernie got pretty flustered and kept repeating Megyn’s name and how much money private health insurance CEOs get paid. I think Bernie’s website might be worried that Bernie didn’t get enough of his point across between interruptions because the link to this interview was later removed in favor of a friendlier interview on MSNBC’s the ED Show.
Last week the senate voted 60-33 to kill a provision proposed by Bernie Sanders which would have capped interest rates on credit cards at 15 percent. The bill would have also required credit card companies to give 45 days’ notice before increasing an interest rate.
“When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they’re not making credit available, they’re engaged in loan-sharking,” Sanders said.
We all know how “Credit Card Joe” Biden would have weighed in on a tie vote but where do you think Obama stands? Back in 2005, Obama voted against an amendment which would have placed a 30 percent cap on credit card interest. He defended the vote in a debate with Clinton by saying he voted against the bill because the 30 percent cap was too high. Continue reading this column... « Less
Last week Bernie was busy hustling around the Senate halls trying to scare up signatures in support of an unlikely ally: bats. Yes, the Socialist Senator is concerned about the mysterious “White Nose Syndrome” which is killing hundreds of thousands of bats from Vermont to Virginia. Bernie and 24 of his colleagues have drafted a letter to the Obama administration requesting emergency funds to study the syndrome. Here is an excerpt from the letter which references both health and environmental concerns, Continue reading this column... « Less
U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) who hails from one of the whitest, most pro-Bush districts in the country, dredged up some memories of Joe McCarthy in a speech he made yesterday. According to The Birmingman News Bachus said he has “some hope” for President Barack Obama but worries that socialists in Congress may be pushing him too far to the left.
“Some of these guys I work with, the men and women in Congress, are socialists,” he said.
Bernie is irate this week over the bonuses being given to AIG CEO’s, who he calls “the Masters of the Universe,” who run “the largest unregulated gambling hall in the world.” He points out that taxpayers have bailed out AIG for 170 billion, which adds up to 600 dollars given by every single person in the country. Bernie argues that AIG was one of the major causes of our current financial crisis and that these one-last-bonus-for-old-times-sake are a slap in our countries collective face.
Along with demanding the executives give back their shameful bonuses, Bernie and some like-minded senators are asking that no bailed-out bankers be allowed to make more than the President of the US. “I know it will be hard, but I suspect they can survive on $400,000 per year when the taxpayers of this country are bailing them out. ”
What’s the “Socialist Sentator” up to this week? He’s introducing legislation to stop credit card companies from pillaging their customer’s bank accounts with interest rates that have been reaching as high as thirty percent. Sanders is introducing legislation this week to cap interest rates at 15 percent interest rate ceiling. He also plans to limit the fees banks can charge. In response to banks, which are now themselves receiving federal bailout funds, he said, “These loan sharks wear three-piece suits, but they’re not much different than those guys who break people’s knee caps.” Hopefully next week we’ll see Bernie introduce his new line of brass knuckles to fight off the bank’s henchmen…
I remember feeling pretty clever back in 1991 when I chose Bernie Sanders as my hero for an essay writing assignment. At that age he wasn’t so much my hero as he was my mom’s, whose button-covered vitamin basket and rear bumper are museums of Bernie’s campaign history. She’s been supporting Sanders since 1981, the year I was born, when Bernie was elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. He went on to serve sixteen years in the House of Representatives and in 2006 he became the first self-described “Democratic Socialist” to serve in the US Senate.
I recently learned that Bernie was born in Brooklyn and thought, what better way for Take the Handle to follow Senate politics than to follow Bernie, whose patience for beauracrats is short, whose fight for working people is tireless, and whose haircut looks like he just woke up in Brooklyn. Continue reading this column... « Less
