Posts from — April 2008

Peter Roskam appeared yesterday (4/29) on WIND’s loathsome John and Cisco in the Morning show. He came on ostensibly to talk about his plan to allow his constituents a crack at suggesting legislation (more on that later) but the conversation veered off into the topic of Obama’s present difficulties and Hillary’s chances. It was a group effort, but what Roskam essentially suggested, with John and Cisco;’s help, is that Bill and Hillary Clinton have dirt on the superdelegates and will use it if necessary to turn the tide Hillary’s way. The audio is at the above site. I have recorded it lest it disappear. Will put up a transcript when I have a little time. The comment appears in the second half of the clip.

I hate it that this slimy creep is, as he likes to put it, “my voice in Congress.”

So here’s the transcript of the exchange:

Cisco: “So Jeremiah Wright on the PR offensive… your guy John McCain must be… must be pretty happy with Reverend Wright’s PR offensive.”

Roskam: “You know its amazing… Politics 101 is when your opponents are melting down, get out of the way and… um… I think that… that is what is happening… um… and this drama and saga on the Democratic side of the aisle continues to amaze me and continues to defy logic.”

Cisco: “When you see this battle back and forth with the Dems and the fact that most everyone who’s looked at the numbers says Hillary really… really can’t win…there’s not really a shot of her becoming the nominee, short of a major meltdown… do you think she’s at a point where she realizes that but maybe its a scorched earth idea where het, if I can damage Obama enough so that McCain wins then I can run again in four years?”

Roskam: (with feigned indignation) “Oh Cisco, that is a very dark world view of the Clintons. What is it that animates that?”

Cisco: (laughing) “I know… where did that come from?”

Roskam: (laughs) You know I… there is a… I am one of these people that still thinks that there is a possibility that she comes up with the brass ring at the end of it all. And the pressure that’s on these superdelegates… can you imagine a superdelegate right now with a little bit of dirt under their finger nails… can you imagine what their life is like?

Cisco: Yeah, just some random elected official in Wisconsin or Iowa one whois mostly under the radar but could become nationally known if a certain tidbit is made public…

John: “Well the Clintons have a manila folder on every superdelegate, you know that. Some are thicker than others but they’re going to roll that stuff out as needed. Its soming sooner rather than later, to quote Bill Clinton himself.

Roskam: “Yeah these guys are used to winning and they’re not going to lose quietly, that’s for sure.”

The kind of tactic Roskam suggests is right out of the Republican playbook and just because Roskam is happy to use sleaze in his own campaigns doesn’t mean the Clintons will.

It is clear that Roskam won’t be wanting for work after he is defeated this fall. He clearly has an aptitude for the kind of right wing smear radio that John and Cisco produce.

Thanks to the blog That’s My Congress for letting us know how Peter Roskam is spending his time in Congress while the country collapses into recession.

Roskam and several of his fellow idiots have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 5821, Military Honor and Decency Act, a typically masterful piece of Roskam legislation designed to deprive our troops of that which might give healthy young people finding themselves far away from home some small degree of comfort and…er…relief.

The text of the bill is short and, I think, hilarious, so here it is:

A BILL

To amend title 10, United States Code, to close loopholes in the prohibition on the sale or rental of sexually explicit material on military installations.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Military Honor and Decency Act’.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION OF PROHIBITION ON SALE OR RENTAL OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL ON MILITARY INSTALLATIONS.

Section 2495b of title 10, United States Code, is amended–

(1) by re-designating subsections (c) and (d) as (d) and (e), respectively;

(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new subsection:

`(c) Annual Review of Materials- At least annually, the Secretary of Defense shall review material that is not deemed to be sexually explicit to determine if such material should be deemed sexually explicit and thus prohibited by this section.’;

(3) in subsection (e) (as re-designated)–

(A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:

`(1) The term `sexually explicit material’ means–

`(A) an audio recording, a film or video recording, or a print publication with visual depictions, produced in any medium, the principal theme of which depicts or describes nudity or sexual or excretory activities in a lascivious way; or

`(B) if the print publication is a periodical, it regularly features or gives prominence to nudity or sexual or excretory activities.’; and

(B) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:

`(3) The term `principal theme’ means a theme that is primary in importance, influence, attraction, or degree but not necessarily dominant relative to other themes in the material.

`(4) The term `lascivious’ means lewd or indecent and intended, designed, or given to elicit a sexual response.

`(5) The term `nudity’ means human genitals, pubic area, anus, anal cleft, or any part of the female breast below a horizontal line across the top of the areola with less than an opaque covering but does not include the exposure of the cleavage of the female breast exhibited by a dress, blouse, bathing suit, or other apparel.’.

The bill is stupid and offensive to our troops, who having put themselves in harms way to protect our sorry asses, should be trusted to make there own decisions in this regard.

I am rather fond of the idea of the Secretary of Defense being required to review all of this material. If we keep his mind on reading Penthouse letters, maybe it will forestall Bush’s next obscene war against Iran.

“Throughout my life, I have been a consistent voice for preserving and promoting the environment. We all have to live and breathe the same air and drink the same water. We all want open space, vibrant wildlife and a healthy ecosystem. My dedication to the environment dates back to the 1980’s when my wife and I organized a curbside recycling program in my hometown of Wheaton, one that continues to this day.”

Peter Roskam, from his campaign website

Curbside recycling to protect the vibrant wildlife and healthy ecosystem of Wheaton. Isn’t that special.

Peter Roskam is fond of portraying himself as an environmentalist, but a close look at his record since coming to Congress paints a different picture.

The League of Conservation Voters last month released its 2007 National Environmental Scorecard. The scorecard, which has been produced every year since 1970, assesses members of Congress based upon their voting records on legislation related to the environment, clean energy, and global warming.

One would think that Roskam, with his “dedication to the environment” would have scored pretty high.

In fact, he did not. Truth is, Roskam’s score was was quite poor, a miserable 15%.

How did Roskam score so low? Essentially by doing what he always does - voting according to the wishes of the oil companies and other big corporations that fund his campaigns and whose interests he places above anything else. The full list of Roskam’s votes scored by the League is here.

Most notably, perhaps, Roskam voted against the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, H.R. 6, on 12/6/2007 . This bill raised Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles to 35 mpg by 2020, increased fuel efficiency standards for a variety of household appliances and industrial equipment, and promoted the production of clean renewable fuels. Roskam and other Republicans opposed the bill because of Democratic efforts to make it budget neutral by reimposing taxes on big oil companies previously cut by the Bush administration and also because it imposed a renewable sources requirement of 15% for utilities in power generation. It later passed and was signed into law with these provisions stripped out. Roskam has received substantial campaign contributions during the present cycle from both the electric utilities and oil and gas industries.

We are facing environmental catastrophe in the coming century and we cannot afford to retain legislators who resist efforts to promote change out of concern for corporate profits. Roskam must be shown the door this fall. Curbside recycling in Wheaton isn’t going to save this planet for our children.

John H. Armstrong, a Christian author, editor and adjunct professor at Wheaton College writes a blog that I happen upon occasionally when it touches on matters related to the district. John is polite and thoughtful in his writing (accusations that could never be leveled successfully against me) and I enjoy the blog when I visit though I do not generally share his viewpoints.

Earlier this month John wrote a piece about enjoying Peter Roskam’s hospitality in Washington and being helped out by Roskam’s staff when his American Airlines flight was cancelled. Five words from that piece have been nagging at me ever since: “Congressman Roskam is a serious Christian.”

Reading those words I felt a visceral reaction and compelled to respond but at the same felt myself to have no real standing to do so. I no longer profess to be a Christian. I was raised in a Protestant community and ministered for a time within the Catholic church. I became disenchanted with the church and found that, once I removed myself from it’s influence , many of its claims of certainty to be pretty dubious.

I do retain a deep appreciation for the Judeo-Christian scriptures and the teachings of Jesus and it is based on my understanding and appreciation of that scripture that I have to say that I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how Evangelicals who ally themselves with the political right can reconcile the policies of these leaders that they so revere because they are “serious Christians’ when those policies are so devastating to the poor and the powerless with whom Jesus cast his lot:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has annointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

and to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

-Luke 4:18-19

How can anyone listen to the Jesus of the Gospels and profess to be his follower and then turn a blind eye to the kind of carnage being inflicted on trade unionists and indigenous people in Colombia in order to promote U.S. Corporate interests?

How can one hear his words and turn around to insist that workers should not be required to receive subsistence level wages for full time work while no restrictions may be applied to the huge compensation paid to corporate executives for success that is based on the labor of those workers?

How can listen to the teaching regarding hospitality to strangers and turn around and lay grievous burdens on the backs of migrant workers who come among us and provide us with needed services while providing themselves and their families with the means to a better life?

Pardon me John, and Peter. I don’t pretend to know what is in men’s hearts. But as I observe the self-congratulatory, triumphalistic, pharistical belief system that is accepted as “serious Christianity” by many on the right, I see little in it that relates too or even acknowledges the teachings and commandments of Jesus. I see this right wing public Christianity as having two main functions:

• -Relieving those with wealth and power from the actual necessity of observing the Gospel commandments

-Distracting those who might otherwise act on those commandments with an obsessive focus on sexual morality and other peripheral matters

The end of these being to maintain the status quo. To permit an unjust state of affairs where power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very few while countless millions suffer from poverty and hunger and illiteracy and disease and violence.

Shouldn’t “serious Christianity” mean getting serious about tackling economic injustice and ending violence against and oppression of the poor?

I’ve been too busy with work the past couple of weeks to spend much time on the web. I see tonight for the first time that Jill Morgenthaler’s campaign website is up and running. The site looks good and I am certainly excited that she appears to be ready now to take Peter Roskam on in earnest. She has some issues pages up and, while they don’t have a lot of depth and aren’t every progressive’s wet dream, they do begin to position her as a real alternative to the catastrophic failed policies of Bush and Roskam and company. It looks like Jill intends to speak to the ordinary folk who make up the bulk of this district and who are really beginning to feel the pain inflicted by 8 years of Bush, and not so much to the super rich and corporate elite to whom Bush and Roskam cater. I wish her success.

And thanks Jill for actually taking the trouble to make a case for yourself. I find Peter’s “I grew up in the district, I live in the district, my dog lives in the district, I have my car washed in the district, I sometimes order pizza in the district…” litany to be somewhat unpersuasive.

The United States Chamber of Commerce recently honored Peter Roskam for proving in his first term to be “an effective ally to the business community”.

Sounds great until you realize what exactly “being an effective ally to the business community” means.

Put simply, it means consistently voting against the interests of the majority of citizens in your district and giving big business exactly what it demands.

It means means Roskam voting against reducing the dependence on fossil fuels that is threatening our national security and destroying our environment by requiring minimum standards for the percentage of electricity generated using renewable sources of energy.

It means Roskam voting against tax incentives for energy conservation and development of clean, renewable energy sources because they are funded by the repeal of tax breaks to big oil companies now enjoying huge profits at our expense every time we fill up our tanks.

It means Roskam voting against the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 which would have insured that Illinois’ uninsured children receive the kind of health care that Roskam’s own kids get at taxpayer expense.

It means Roskam standing up for the interests of big drug companies rather than allowing the Medicare program to negotiate for better prices on prescription drugs.

It means Roskam voting against protection of his constituents right to equal pay for equal work. And their right to organize.

And it means Roskam voting against protecting middle class taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax.

So congratulations on your big award, Peter, and thanks for nothing. Its time we had a new Representative in Congress who works for us and not for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.