National ID Card Included In Democratic Immigration Bill

The only way that illegal immigration will be stopped is by prosecuting those people that continue to hire them. Put the employers in jail and fine their companies per each instance of an illegal employee. When money is going to be taken away from these people that do the hiring, and jail time assessed, then there will be no illegals. Those jobs will actually go to Americans and at a living wage. The onus has to be on the employers.
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Hawaii Civil Union Bill Passes Legislature

The arguments are still the same. Marriage is a contract between two people. All governments approve contracts and dissolve contracts. It has nothing to do with religion. Governments sanction marriage, religion sanctifies it. You do not have to be married in a church to be married. Justice of the Peace, clerk of the court or whatever the local authority prove can perform the marriage. Religion only has YOUR god bless the ceremony. Religions can't even dissolve a marriage only the courts (government) can do that.



So stop the petty B.S. Allow two people to marry whom they wish, whether it is a heterosexual relationship of a homosexual relationship.
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Upper Big Branch Miners' Families Offered $3 Million Settlement By Massey Energy

The risk/rewards that they calculated was $33 million plus lost income from a closed mine for X number of days minus the increase in coal prices while the mine was shut down.



At some point they will cross the threshold and actually start loosing money. That might take eight months of lost production
About Energy
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'Drill, Baby, Drill' Champions Silent On Gulf Oil Spill

At the very least, Palin, Steele, et al could defend their position. They could say something like this is only one event, the oil industry is safe, BP uses green colors in their logo, anything. But for them to remain silent show how hollow their arguments are beyond talking points. They do not even try to help their cause. Just sick their heads in the sand and the problem will eventually go away.
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'Drill, Baby, Drill' Champions Silent On Gulf Oil Spill

Obama's executive order to sell leases off shore could be rescinded at any time. Further, exploratory wells are not production wells and those could be drilling for years before they hit oil. As for Deepwater Horizon, "The Deepwater Horizon rig, built in 2001, is 120 metres long and 78 metres wide. The site known as the Macondo prospect, is in 1,500 metres of water". From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-fire
About Sarah Palin
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Medicare Advantage Quality Study: Seniors Not Signing Up For The Best Plans

What a surprise. I imagine that the most heavily advertised plans are the one that rate lower. It is about time that the government starts using this kind of open analysis to keep business honest. What could possibly be next, a public option to keep health insurers honest?
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Quincy Tea Party Protest Draws Police In Riot Gear During Obama Speech (VIDEO)

This was probably overk1ll. The response was not justified. When threatened, you do not need to go into nuclear mode. Maybe, when the Secret Service was disregarded, the police could have tried regular officers first. Of course, they could have just set up protest pens like the Republicans did to stifle Democrat's protests when Bush was president.
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Louisiana Oil Spill Gets Worse: New Leak Increases Estimated Spill By Five Times

This is more than just an oil spill. It is going to impact the Shrimp & fishing industry in the Gulf. It is also going to impact the the incubator areas of mangroves along the coast that fish, turtles, etc use to raise their young. And finally, it will impact tourism, not only in Louisiana, but also in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. Will BP pay for that as well? How about their insurance, does it cover this kind of economic disaster? And when will we find out about the safety violations that they have as well as the other oil rigs? Is this the next Massey? Bet on it
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Can Europe Save Itself?

When all government s get together and decide that they want to take their countries back, they will end this ridiculous speculation in the banking industry. Derivatives have killed the goose, there will be no more golden eggs. Speculation does not get the government any more money for their debt, but causes them to expend more money to "keep from defaulting". It may be time that banks get nationalized, new rules get promulgated without lobbying from vested interests, and then sell the banks off.
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Oil Rig, Deepwater Horizon, Leaking Into Gulf Of Mexico

I am so glad that we have decided that drilling for oil is so safe. Florida, Virginia to the Carolinas, nod western Alaska can expect the same type of safe operation. This spill is dumping 42,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf. That is contaminating more than 1.3 million gallons of suffice water. The slick is over 20 X 20 miles and growing. Bad weather in the Gulf will disperse this slick even further while this rig is spilling ore oil.



Drilling for oil is not safe. In opening these areas to drilling, we are increasing the risk of oil spills on more of our coasts, threatening our fisheries. We would have been better off investing in wind power of the coasts like they have in Denmark. Free energy once the cost of the tower is paid for. We would be better off investing in molten sodium solar technology, guarantying electricity 24/7 from the sun.
About Energy
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Democrats Hold The Line Against Wall Street Derivatives Lobbying

I agree with just binging back Glass-Steagall. However, it did not cover derivative trading and does not truly cover speculative trading. What would have to be added would be to regulate derivatives by putting them through a clearing house and you could end speculative trading by having a transaction tax. Yes this tax will hit Americans that trade on-line, but big banks and hedge funds trade in hundreds of millions and only need a small movement in order to make a profit. Further, change the capital gains tax so that those that hold investments longer pay lower taxes than those that flip investments.
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Robert Gates: WikiLeaks' Iraq War Video Out Of Context

Gates is wrong. The actions speak for themselves. There was no battle going on, it is clear in the video that there were not 20 insurgents on the ground (as the pilots initially reported) there was only one weapon to be seen, and they shot people not only with 30mm rounds, but shot again at one man tried to crawl away severely wounded.



When we do something wrong, the individuals involved must be prosecuted. This was clearly a violation of the Rules of Engagement. Leaks are what brings these violations to light. We need people with strong moral courage to right these wrongs. It is not seeing the war through a straw. It is looking at the situation that was presented and being able to make a reasonable determination. These pilots were not under stress, nor were they in the "fog of war". Do your job Mr. Secretary and re-investigate this case and make the results public.
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Arizona Immigration Law Passes: SB 1070 Directs Cops To Determine Immigration Status

"In 2006 the state passed a law that would dissolve companies with a pattern of hiring illegal immigrants"



Te federal government has as part of it immigration laws fines and jail sentences for those that hire illegals. However, they only issues fines to the corporation. When the government decides that it wants to be serious about illegal immigration, they will prosecute the corporations and their officers and not only assigning fines, but jail time as well. When the corporations, large and small, get the message that hiring illegal immigrants could land them in jail, they will stop the practice. This in turn will force them to pay real wages for these jobs, attracting Americans would taken them if they could live on what was paid for the work.
About Immigration
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Mitch McConnell Goes To War For Wall Street: 'We Must Not Pass The Financial Reform Bill'

Rather than try to do their job of legislating, the Republicans, behind McConnell, will just say NO. This bill is coming to the floor of the Senate where they will have an opportunity to submit amendments to make the changes that they want. There are parts of this bill that many Democrats don't like that Dodd put in it. Do your freaking job. nIf all you want to do is to stall, stop or denigrate anything the Democrats try to do, you have wasted your constituents vote.
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Miners Found Dead: Four Missing Miners Found Dead At Upper Big Branch Coal Mine

Massey Energy is despicable in how it treats its employees. They have constantly been sited for violations, even during Bush's term. Not only should the Congress investigate, there needs to be an internal investigation at the Bureau of Mines to find out why they have not been shut down and why they do not force Maseey to pay their fines. Finally, it is time that Trumpka organize the entire ALF-CIO and Burger at Change to Win organize the mine again. Maybe a work stoppage or slowdown on the rails would get the mine companies to the table.
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Alan Grayson Confronts GOP For Spying On Democratic Gathering (VIDEO)

We have come to the point where people no longer have any sense of propriety. In order to make themselves feel like they have some great knowledge that they surreptitiously acquired, they labeled the effort sneaking, which was equated with spying. Both are misrepresentations. Grayson was doing neither. He openly confronted the Republicans and he was not there to learn about their tactics, just if they approved of them, nothing more.



The fact that the Republican have no idea how to network is amazing. "It is so simple, you all will wonder how we could have missed it," wrote Janssen. We should be doing what the Republicans have been doing for some time, and what Grayson has done: confront them. The Republicans can do no more than shout speaking points without any substance to back it up. Speaking points have no substance. Most Democrats, everyone that I know, can talk in depth about a subject without having their blood pressure go up 30 points and get flustered. Here, Grayson just read from an e-mail that was forwarded to him and the get apoplectic.
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Florida GOP Staffer, Melanie Phister, Had $1.3 Million In Credit Card Charges

What, you expect the Republicans to regulate themselves?? They don't even want to regulate business to protect their voters and donors from harm. Why would they want to regulate themselves? This is even more reason why campaign finance reform is necessary. The backlash in Florida is going to be huge. Donors will start to look for other organizations to donate to, the Party could collapse (I'm not cryin').



The Democrats, both in Florida and Nationally, had better be doing some fast auditing to be sure that they do not get blind sided with their own financial scandal.
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Credit Checks For New Employees Called Into Question: Some States Pass New Laws Limiting Role

Pushing the use of credit checks is just a way to make money. Credit reporting agencies make no effort to ensure that the information that they report is accurate. You have to contest anything that is on your report and prove the inaccuracy. Somehow it does not seem like the American way. Essentially, these companies are accusing us of doing something wrong, especially in cases of stolen identities, and we have to prove our innocence. The system is backwards, credit agencies, scores and how they function need to be regulated. Employers should not be able to run credit checks nor collect Social Security Numbers (until you are offered the job).
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