Ted Cruz Needs to Take a Cruise Using His Own Money - Stop Wasting Taxpayer Time and Money

When Ted Cruz talks to the empty seats in the Congress, does his noise get heard?  Regardless of who is listening (or not) he is taking up the oxygen in the room while wasting taxpayer time and money.

A fellow blogger named The Progressive Professor posted this worthy information about Strom Thurmond:

The Senate filibuster was once used, years ago, to prevent civil rights legislation, with South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond becoming infamous for the longest individual filibuster in Senate history in 1957 on that subject. Thurmond doesn't look very good in history due to his prejudiced, narrow minded stand on that topic.

Senator Rand Paul used the filibuster tactic months ago to protest drone policy on foreign soil, and a crazy fear that drones would be used against Americans on domestic soil.  (Insert Maine Writer:  Moreover, we don't know how many American lives have been saved with drone technology - read No Easy Day by pseudonym Mark Owen)

And Senator Ted Cruz is...using the filibuster to attempt to destroy ObamaCare, denying millions of Americans the opportunity to have decent health care.  (....all the while, 26 percent of his Texas constituents do not have health insurance....)

Neither Paul from months ago, and Cruz today, will change American policy, as the President will use drones only overseas, as a measure of defense and security policy against terrorists, including Americans who fight for the enemy; and ObamaCare will proceed, no matter what Cruz says or does.

(As a matter of fact, popular provisions in the Obamacare law are already operational!  We can't undo what's already in place.)

But in the process, only the loonies on the extreme right will rally to either Paul or Cruz, and the Tea Party movement may have impact in the House of Representatives and with a few Senators, but both men are self destructing before our eyes by their own words and actions! If the GOP is nuts enough to nominate either of these characters for President, they will get what they deserve, a walloping defeat in 2016!  (Here!  Here! I totally agree!)

Maine Writer- Ted Cruz needs to stop wasting tax payer money. Give him a meager severance (sell some of his Senate office furniture to pay for it) and send him on a cruise. Sail him away from those of us trying to move our nation forward with progressive policies, consistent with other civilized world nations who provide health coverage for their citizens.

Here's a Bon Voyage tune for cruising Cruz:

Sailing by Christopher Cross
"Your fight with Obamacare is... Fantasy,

(but)...it's not far back to sanity.... and soon,

we can be set free from your insanity ....Sailing..."

Bon Voyage Ted Cruz and every other Tea Party right wing extremist.  RWE-RWE's of the world must be voted into the horizon.

Senator Rand Paul's Personal Entitlement

Senator Rand Paul obviously likes to talk.  He's like a mirror attracting light, going anywhere he can find a television camera.

A 13 hour rambling filibuster, staged to underscore his objection to President Obama's nomination of John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was doomed; but he wasted everybody's time, anyway.  Of course, he succeeded in gaining the attention a 3 year old would garner by creating a tantrum.

By occupying so much wasted time, preaching to practically nobody on the US Senate floor, Senator Paul still absorbed a salary paid for by the American tax payer. In other words, Senator Paul took an entitlement, because he produced nothing in exchange for the wasted time. He filibustered about a nominee who will be approved, regardless of his tantrum. Moreover, the filibuster was supposed to be a protest against a policy on drones, about which Senator Paul has no expertise, whatsoever.

Throughout Senator Paul's attention grabbing filibuster, he didn't ask the Central Intelligence Agency to produce data about how many lives drones saved while tracking and killing terrorists.   Drones protect US military forces who are on the ground fighting terrorism.  Nevertheless, Senator Paul filibustered 13 hours in protest of Mr. Brennan's nomination, just because he could, but didn't ask any productive questions in the process.  He was paid while engaged in a meaningless filibuster.

Senator Paul wants proof that the CIA won't use drones against American citizens in our own country.  Yet, it doesn't take a George Smiley style spy to figure out there are weirdo vigilantes engaged in sedition against our own government.  I vote for drones to seek them out, before they produce another Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for bombing the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, a domestic terrorist act driven by anger at the US government.  McVeigh killed 168 people and injured hundreds more in his domestic terrorist attack. Drones can, possibly, deter terrorists like McVeigh from doing harm to our own citizens by their ability to monitor seditious movements.

Of course, Americans should ask how drones will impact our everyday lives, but their  technology could provide extra security against unforeseen threats from foreign and domestic terrorism.

Filibustering Brennan's nomination to lead the CIA, because of a nebulous administration policy, is no way to evaluate the morality of using drones.  Rather, it's an example of how one US Senator continues to receive a tax payer entitlement, in the form of his salary, for the purpose of wasting time.  

If the Occupy movement had staged a protest of this nature on the Senate floor, the Capitol security guards would have thrown them all out and into jail.  

When Tea Party activists stage protests against the government, we call them right wing extremists.  

When Senators wastes time, it's called a filibuster.

Senate Filibuster Proof 60 Votes - Democrats Must Get Those Votes

Liberal Democrats are upset with Senate President Harry Reid who didn't force a push back on the abuse of the Filibuster. They want Reid to keep on fighting.

Although requiring 60 votes to pass substantial national legislation is a daunting political task, the fact is, it's time for Democrats to throw the obstructionist Republicans out of the Senate and claim those votes for Progressive legislation.  In other words, by keeping the 60 vote super majority filibuster proof Senate rule, the Democrats could win those votes,  thus removing the obstructionist Republicans, by defeating them in the 2014 election. 

There must be a political strategy behind why Senate President Reid caved when he could have pushed for meaningful filibuster reform, thus angering liberal Democrats.  Nevertheless, rather than continuing the filibuster anger, the recourse is for Democrats to defeat the obstructionists who abuse this Senate rule. Democrats need to find some high profile candidates to run in strategic elections to create a 60 vote filibuster majority. 

Can Democrats really pull off a 60 vote Senate majority?  There was a 60 vote majority in place, briefly, when President Obama was able to pass the important Health Care Reform law, recently ruled to be Constitutional by the US Supreme Court. 

So, Democrats can win 60 Senate seats by running smart campaigns.  A segue came from Governor Bobby Jindal who says, the GOP must stop being stupid.   Logically, Jindal is saying Democrats are the smart party.

Democrats won the 2012 election by running smart campaigns, despite being outspent by super-rich-super-Political Action Committees.  Nevertheless, unfortunately, the political victory is not yet complete.  We must win a 60 vote Democratic filibuster proof majority in the US Senate in the 2014 election.  Let's begin by claiming Georgia Republican Senator Saxby's seat in in 2014, who announced he is not running.  That's 56 seats.  Four more to go.