Eye on Congress

For a president who once said the U.S. shouldn't get in dumb wars, it's insane for Obama to engage in saber rattling over the international controversy involving a motion picture company, although he does seem to have walked it back some according to recent news reports.  Why did the motion picture company make the particular stupid movie that started the controversy in the first place, thereby provoking a nation with nuclear weapons?  Why is Obama defending a company whose executives insulted him because of his race behind closed doors, and probably insults a host of other people of African descent?   It's not even clear who started the cyber attacks on this company, and besides, this motion picture company, that's not even an American company, should  have to stew in their own problems and messes, which appear to have been created by their own arrogance.  The government shouldn't get involved in this matter at all other than if there were or are cr

Reliability:  Main campaign site for Mark Greene's 2014 run for Congress Commoner:  Progress, Tradition, Ecology Eye on Congress:  Rep. Adam Smith's Congressional Voting Record and Other Political News Party of Commons' Twitter site:  Notes about American Politics from "Commons's" Perspective Not affiliated w/"Commons," but interesting:  Vote Them Out 2014  

Rarely have I been more surprised about Rep. Adam Smith's mediocre record in Congress than when I learned that he was trying to cut the cost of living adjustment payments to the pensions of retired military veterans under the age of 62.  By the way, he's the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, believe it or not.  I had to verify a couple of stories before I could even believe all of this was true.  As a veteran myself, although not one who served long enough to get a pension, and therefore not affected by these shenanigans, I am dismayed and disappointed by Smith (D) and Rep. Paul Ryan's (R) attempts to balance budgets on the backs of veterans.  If I'm elected instead of Smith in the 9th CD this year, I will definitely support veterans' pensions in Congress as they have been established over the past several decades, including rightful cost of living increases to veteran pensioners. Although, the military does need reductions by not involving our

Rep. Adam Smith Endorses a Card-Carrying Republican   People who don't ordinarily follow Newcastle, Washington politics aren't going to know this, pretty much, but Representative Adam Smith, Democrat from Washington state, actually endorsed a card-carrying Republican, John Drescher, for Newcastle City Council.  Drescher supported George W. Bush and John McCain, respectively, in two recent presidential elections (2004 & 2008).  Smith is the same rightist Democrat (the kind of Democrats also known as "Blue Dogs") who benefitted from the other curious election of 2004, though unwittingly. Smith's voting record is like a dream to America's far right wing, shown here as follows: Congressman Adam Smith has voted for the following (pretty much not in accordance with his district): the national defense authorization act proviso that ends Habeas Corpus (judicial review for persons who are jailed), even for American citizens, though clearly un

This is Not "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" by Any Stretch of the Imagination Despite a recent council campaign, I have plenty of energy to continue a different campaign for U.S. representative that will bring the people's constitutional rights to the forefront, among other matters.  The rightist Democrat, Adam Smith, will soon have to explain the stolen election of '04 (even as an unwitting beneficiary, he likely knows something), his votes for keeping the status quo of an overreaching, intrusive N.S.A. that is clamping down on the Bill of Rights instead of ensuring the checks and balances he has sworn an oath to do, his vote for doing away with habeas corpus (our right to judicial review if we are jailed) through the National Defense Authorization Act, his willingness to keep America in interventionist mode, his so-called free trade mantra that has kept America under the yoke of internationalist regimes and a great many of our citizens suffering from

The 2004 stolen primary election, regarding the 9th District Congress race, that has never been discussed by the mainline media nor addressed by Rep. Adam Smith, is still waiting to come out into the broad open, and thus to stop Smith's steady progression of becoming yet another congressman-for-life in Washington, D.C.  The rightist Democrat was the beneficiary of the election that year as a result of him facing the wrong and misapplied challenger in the '04 general election.  I actually won the G.O.P. '04 primary, but the victory was snatched from me as a result of the incompetency of then Director Dean Logan and his King County Elections Dept., which never investigated their audit log problem properly or at all.  Public officials in various places all over Washington state are aware of the '04 primary malfeasance by the Elections Dept. (not properly attending to finding out what happened to missing audit logs), and in regards to an outsider or outsider