Hold Fast

A Blog by Matt Browner Hamlin

Hold Fast - a blog by Matt Browner Hamlin

Entries Tagged as 'Congress'

Against corruption

November 18th, 2011 · 2 Comments

I actually agree with this: We need equality under the law. From now on, laws that apply to the private sector must apply to Congress, including whistleblower, conflict-of-interest and insider-trading laws. Trading on nonpublic government information should be illegal both for those who pass on the information and those who trade on it. (This should [...]

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Tags: #OccupyWallStreet · Congress

Chris Hedges on the #Occupy movement and politics in America

October 12th, 2011 · Comments Off

To call Hedges’ analysis of how elites control power in America damning would be to soft peddle his critique. This is powerful stuff.

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Tags: Congress · Economy · Foreign Relations

Dem Sen. Kerry stops fundraising while on Super Congress

September 13th, 2011 · Comments Off

Originally posted at AMERICAblog A rare moment of political integrity emerges from the Super Congress process, thanks to Senator John Kerry: “I’m not meeting with a lot of lobbyists; I’m meeting with people I choose to meet with, who can inform me, assist in the process of crunching numbers and dealing with consequences, and so [...]

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Tags: Congress · Democrats

A Republican insider takes on both parties

September 6th, 2011 · Comments Off

Via John Aravosis, this piece at Truthout by Mike Lofgren, a thirty year veteran Republican staffer, is an interesting read. Lofgren claims he resigned recently after watching the GOP get taken over by lunatics (his word) like Michele Bachmann, Allen West, Patrick McHenry and Steve King. This passage stands out: A couple of years ago, [...]

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Tags: Congress · Republicans

Government isn’t broken

August 29th, 2011 · 1 Comment

In an op-ed in the Nashua Telegraph, Daniel Weeks writes: Our problem today is not a broken government but a beholden one: government is more beholden to special-interest shareholders who fund campaigns than it is to ordinary voters. Like any sound investor, the funders seek nothing more and nothing less than a handsome return – [...]

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Tags: Congress · Economy

Doom Loop, or Political Elites Missing the Point

August 9th, 2011 · Comments Off

Paul Krugman describes what he calls the Doom Loop – the process wherein political elites are radically (and potentially deliberately) misinterpreting signals from financial markets to enact destructive policies. 1. US debt is downgraded, sparking demands for more ill-advised fiscal austerity 2. Fears that this austerity will depress the economy send stocks down 3. Politicians [...]

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Tags: Barack Obama · Congress · Economy

Ari Melber on Super Congress

August 4th, 2011 · Comments Off

This is going up shortly at AMERICAblog Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Above is a rant by Ari Melber on the Super Congress that’s a big piece of the deficit deal that passed earlier this week. Here’s a snippet of the transcript: I think that brings us to [...]

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Tags: Congress · Economy

Home Rule for DC

April 11th, 2011 · Comments Off

I’ve lived in Washington, DC for almost two and a half years, but only this past weekend, as Congress approved a budget which included a ban for the District to use its own funding to pay for abortion services for poor women, did the absurdity and cruelty of DC’s status become clear. The budget bill [...]

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Tags: Congress · Human Rights

Senate Rules Reform

January 27th, 2011 · Comments Off

Not terribly surprising, but there won’t be major Senate rules reform, let alone filibuster reform, this session. David Dayen has a post up about the deal, which can only be viewed as an early sign of the sort of fecklessness we’ll see from Democrats in the 112th Congress. Sen. Reid thanked his colleagues in the [...]

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Tags: Congress

Honest Men in Washington

December 16th, 2010 · Comments Off

Matt Taibbi’s post yesterday praising the honest and conviction of Senator Bernie Sanders is a great reminder that these are characteristics politicians are capable of possessing in genuine ways. Taibbi writes: I can live with the president fighting for something and failing; what I can’t stand is a politician who changes his mind for the [...]

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Tags: Congress