Pelosi and Maloney talk plastic

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

This morning at a press conference on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed the public on the H1N1 flu and the 'Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights that is being voted on today.

Pelosi said the recent outbreaks of the swine flu are a high concern and advised people to use common sense.

“Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands,” said Pelosi.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) also attended the conference and spoke about the 'Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009”
saying that it will provide consumers protection from consumer fraud and deception.

Maloney said that the bill will help level the playing field between credit card issuers and consumers and will ban some abuses like raising interest rates on existing balances and double cycle billing where they are charging interest rates or balances that have already been paid.

“This bill will provide 45 days notice if they’re going to raise an interest rate going forward so consumers can move on to another card, putting more competition into the system. It stops many of the tricks and traps of changing the terms and changing the due dates that trap consumers and very importantly, it stops the any time, any reason, the unrelated activity which they then say cause a rate increase and it will help many many consumers,” said Maloney.

Maloney called Molly Gordy, a working mom who lives in Manhattan and has two credit cards, a model consumer.

Gordy who has always paid her credit card bills on time recently received a notice from her card company that the interest rate on her card would increase from 13 percent to 19 percent on her existing balance along with new purchases.

“I called and yelled at the company and asked them ‘Why are they doing this? This is not what I signed up for!’ The customer service representative told me ‘Its because of the tough economy.’ That made me really mad because when I lost my job a few years back they didn’t
lower my rate.”

A week later Gordy says she received another letter from a different division from the same company offering her a new credit card with a zero percent interest on balanced transfers for the next 16 months.

“I had to laugh, well one part of the company is telling me there is no money to lend to me, as an existing customer, another party is offering me free lending as a new customer. In my world we call that bait and switch.... If I make a contract with someone they should not be able to change it just because they can.,” said Gordy.

Specter’s Spectacle

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Senator Arlen Specter
Photo by Michael Ruhl

Senator Arlen Specter (Penn.) says that he left the Republican Party because they had stuck their nose into party affairs to the point of breeding extremism. Ironically the Democrats are doing the exact same thing to their newest member. Micromanaging from the highest level doesn’t seem to be exclusive to the Republicans.

Yesterday Specter walked away from the party he has been with for nearly four decades, because he felt they were ignoring moderate voice. Specter announced his decision to defect to the Democratic Party, only the twenty-first time that a Senator has done such a thing since 1890.

President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have both said they will fully support Specter in his 2010 election, but Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) was not sure that the party establishment should be backing Specter in this way.

“If decisions and candidates are being chosen in Washington, you may just reemphasize that divisive barrier that’s between the parties,” Sestak said. “I think we cannot afford to have a decision that is so important to Pennsylvanians be decided by the party establishment,” and that the voters should be the ones to choose their candidate.

Sestak is rumored to be considering running for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, and would come up against Specter in the Democratic primary. When asked directly, Sestak said he had not decided yet whether or not he would run. Another contender, Representative Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) said today that she would not run for the seat.

The republican response has ranged from anger to confusion. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steel likened Specter to Benedict Arnold.

“Clearly, this was an act based on political expediency by a craven politician desperate to keep his Washington power base - not the act of a statesman,” Steel said. “Arlen Specter handed Barack Obama and his band of radical leftists nearly absolute power in the United States Senate.”

Specter responded, “I have not represented the Republican Party, I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.” He was referencing the fact that in the past months there has been an exodus from the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, where over 100,000 individuals changed their party registration from Republican to Democrat.

Specter is defending his position as being one of riding with the tides of his constituency, instead of bowing to the will of a national political party. Critics see it as a survival move of a desperate politician.

Speaking today with President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, Specter said that staying in the Senate would allow him to carry forward important initiatives for his constituents, speaking specifically about expanding medical research.

Specter would prove to be the 60 Democrat in the Senate, provided that comedian Al Franken prevails in his court case for the Minnesota Senate. Sixty votes, called a supermajority, is enough to override a Republican filibuster. Specter said previously, though, that he was not going to simply back the Democrats automatically, and President Obama acknowledged that, saying, “I don’t expect Arlen to be a rubber stamp.” According to Obama, he and Specter agree in the areas of health care, education, medical research

Bridging The Cultural Divide To Fight Terrorists

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

General David Petraeus
Photo By Michael Ruhl

According to General David Petraeus, an educated American soldier that can bridge the cultural divide with the Muslim world can more effectively fight the War on Terror. This soldier would understand the social context they are operating within, and would understand the broad implications and consequences of military action.

General Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Central Command, discussed U.S. military strategy in the Middle East and South Asia while testifying today before Congress.

“While additional military forces clearly are necessary (in Afghanistan), they will not by themselves be sufficient to achieve our objective,” said the General. America’s objective, he said, is to make sure extremists do not have a haven from which to plan and execute another attack on the level of the 9-11 attacks.

A smarter military can better understand the necessary social infrastructure to facilitate lasting peace within a region. This combined with intelligent military action, international cooperation, the building of infrastructure and a swath of other initiatives will help America secure the region, according to Petraeus. “You cannot kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency,” the General said.

"We also need to expand just the basic knowledge of Afghanistan among our forces," Petraeus said. He continued that greater knowledge will lead to a "nuanced and granular understanding" that will enable the Army to undertake the kind of sophisticated reconciliation processes in Afghanistan that were important in Iraq.

Congressman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) agreed that soldiers should be educated, and brought attention to the U.S. Army’s Homestead Program. Dicks said this program involves an Officer taking a year off from active service to live in a country, learn the language, and understand the culture. Retired Army General John Abizaid did a program similar to this. Abizaid was former Commander of U.S. Central Command.

The U.S. Army could not be reached for comment on the current funding of the program, but Dicks expressed concern on the small number of individuals enrolled in it.

The necessary approach to success involves placing security in the hands of the Afghans, Petraeus said, which means helping them collectively realize that the biggest security threat in the region comes from dissident extremist elements within the country, most notably Al-Qaeda. He emphasized that America’s presence in Afghanistan is not permanent, and that Afghanistan’s government and economy must be encouraged by its citizens.

Boehner Gives Obama Poor Grade For First 100 Days

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service
Summing up President Obama’s first 100 days in office as “spending, taxing, borrowing, and ducking the hard choices,” Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (OH) said that in his eyes “the grade would not be very good.”

Boehner gave a news conference before his meeting later today President Obama and House and Senate leaders from both parties.

“The American people want us to work together, Democrats and Republicans, to deal with the issues that their confronting everyday,” he said, adding that Democrats are working strictly on their own agenda, and that “behind closed doors, they’re continuing to put their finishing touches on their budget.”

Boehner said that this Sunday marks “Debt Day,” in which the federal government revenue for this fiscal year will be gone. Boehner said that any money spent by the government after Sunday April 26th through Sep. 30th, has not been budgeted and will increase the national debt.

The money “is going to have to be borrowed from our kids and grandkids,” Boehner said.“This is the earliest debt day in history. It’s some four and a half months earlier than it was last year when it was August the 5th.”

Considering Democrats took control of both houses of Congress in the midst of the economic crisis “they clearly had a lot on their plate,” said Boehner.

“You’ll continue to see us (Republicans) try to be the party of better solutions,” said Boehner. “The stimulus bill was supposed to be about jobs, and it turned into “spending, spending, and more spending.”

After Democrats released memos last week outlining torture techniques used by the Bush administration, Boehner said “I’m hopeful that Americans will begin to understand there is a bigger story here about what happened, what was done to keep America safe.”

Boehner said that both parties were briefed on the interrogation methods, “and not a word was raised at the time.”

Although he supports the President’s plan for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Boehner questions the bigger picture of what the administration is doing to keep America safe.

The world “didn’t suddenly become safer in January of 2009,” Boehner said Democrats have “decided to close the detainee base down in Cuba without having any plan for what they’re going to do with those terrorists who are hell bent on killing Americans.”

Pelosi Paints the Capital Green

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

To mark Earth Day, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi introduced a plan to paint green the marble columns of the Capitol with energy efficiency and environmental initiatives. She calls it the “Green the Capitol Initiative.”

Pelosi’s plan involves 15 distinct steps to conserve energy and reduce waste, and is aimed specifically at congressional offices. Among Pelosi’s 15 measures are the use of compact florescent light bulbs, recycling used office items, and conserving electricity by powering off lights and computers while not in use. Additionally, Speaker Pelosi is encouraging the use of public transportation and the conservation of basic office supplies.

“The Capitol, which has always served as a beacon of freedom, is now a shining example of sustainability.” Pelosi said. She continued that the House has reduced its carbon emissions by 72 percent recently. She continued that if all Congressional offices adopt this plan, it will result in a savings of $1 million in energy costs and will cut energy consumption in the Capitol by nearly 10 percent.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oreg.), who Pelosi called “the main instigator” of the green plan, believes that Congress is setting a good example for the rest of the country. He said, “If we model the behavior we want the rest of America to follow, it has a profound effect.”

Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) said that one of the first things he did when coming into Congress was institute a recycling program in his offices. He grinned at the savings

“Just during the transition from the 110th to 111th Congress, Congress saved over 60,000 pounds of paper. Lujan joked with the Speaker, “I was going to bring an example of that, but I couldn’t forklift it in, just to give an example of what we’ve truly saved.”

Pelosi called it the moral responsibility of Congress. Her office is encouraging all members to adopt these “green” plans. “I think most members of the Congress are doing some of this,” but she could not give exact numbers on who has implemented all of these recommendations. “The Speakers office is doing all of this,” Pelosi said proudly of the recommendations.