Progressive Media Advocates
Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left government in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at [email protected]
Brent Budowsky: I suggest Texas Democrats put the Lone Star State at the forefront of key races in 2014 by supporting and potentially drafting State Sen. Wendy Davis to run for governor of Texas and end the arrogant, far-right and crony capitalist era of Texas GOP rule.
Brent Budowsky: Ironic that when the final legacy of President Obama is written, it will include his championing of a surveillance state of a kind that that his predecessor, President George W. Bush, established over the objection at that time of Barack Obama.
Brent Budowsky: Say what you want about any other issues, but on this matter Drudge, Paul and Sanders are on the side of Jefferson, Madison and Ben Franklin, who said we have a republic, if we can keep it.
Brent Budowsky: Kennedy fused eloquent words, visions of courage and plans of action. The power of his greatness was that he created outwardly mobile concentric circles of shared ambitions to reach for greatness. Can Obama still do that?
Brent Budowsky: Texas Republicans are using a special session of the Texas legislature to launch an aggressive attack against voting rights that will backfire and ignite a wave of Hispanic voter turnout that will propel Democrats in Texas and nationally.
Brent Budowsky: Justice in America must never again be held hostage by the hard lines of radical right Republican factions and fanatic obstruction from Republican partisans.
Brent Budowsky: Let’s escalate the effort to eliminate the backlog of benefits due to wounded warriors and disabled vets by devoting whatever resources are necessary to complete this mission, and enlisting a major business leader.
Brent Budowsky: Ryan famously tried to employ Catholic theology on behalf of his budget austerity against the poor, and was quickly forced to retreat as the absurdity of this view became obvious.
Brent Budowsky: True conservatives such as William F. Buckley and Edmund Burke must be mourning in heaven the collapse of modern conservative thought.
Brent Budowsky: Issa should cut out the public relations, cancel any further show-horse hearings, prepare an intelligent and bipartisan report, and stop wasting taxpayer money on these one-party spectacles.
Brent Budowsky: Don’t laugh. Ted Cruz is apparently thinking of bringing his ability to outrage a majority of voters and alienate a majority of his Senate Republican colleagues to a campaign to be commander in chief.
Brent Budowsky: Texas is indeed going Blue. The only question is when. If Republicans sabotage immigration reform, Texas Democrats may not have to wait for a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016.
Brent Budowsky: The Senate becomes a farce: Democrats propose, Republicans filibuster. Democrats retreat, Congress recesses. Tiny victories are hailed as great achievements. The Democratic legacy is dumbed down by the day. The voice of a generation is silenced.
Brent Budowsky: Pay equity for women could influence the political future of America. This includes turning Texas blue, especially because the entire Texas Republican delegation to the U.S. House and Senate opposes pay equity for women, while Texas Hispanic women are among those treated most unfairly.
Brent Budowsky: If a Democratic House and Senate are elected in 2014, it would re-empower Obama for one of the strongest closing two years of an eight-year presidency in modern history, which could avoid lame-duck status almost entirely with what historians would ultimately describe as “Obama’s third term.”
Brent Budowsky: Obama needs to contemplate the possibility that his legacy will be “the jobless president.” He should fight to become “the jobs president.”
Brent Budowsky: The NRA bully of extremism is on the march. The rest of Washington is in retreat. It is a pathetic sight for men and women of courage and honor to behold.
Brent Budowsky: Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have given a pass to some of those who misused justice during the Bush years. The president should now move forcefully and promptly to fill judicial vacancies and pardon any who were unfairly treated.
Brent Budowsky: Senate Republicans are on the brink of launching a filibuster against the nomination of Richard Cordray to lead the new consumer agency that will could propel Sen. Elizabeth Warren to a national stature from the Senate reminiscent of Robert F. Kennedy.
Brent Budowsky: Regarding the conservative crack-up, can you believe that CPAC honors the ubiquitous birther Donald Trump and insults the most popular national Republican, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie?
Brent Budowsky: Scalia has a right to believe voting rights are a “perpetuation of racial entitlement” for blacks and Hispanics, but should promote this repellent and biased view on conservative talk radio, not the court.
Brent Budowsky: It would be an historic mistake and profound legal wrong for an unelected court to again interfere in American elections, after many highly controversial political decisions by party-line votes from a hyper-political, hyper-activist court in which the foundations of our two elected branches are dominated by our one unelected branch.
Brent Budowsky: There was no excuse for the president to shout from the rooftops about the dangers of sequester while not doing a thing to prevent it. Americans need jobs, not spin, and leaders, not photo ops.
Brent Budowsky: Texas Democrats are buzzing with newfound energy and could elect two new House Democrats in 2014. Political players close to President Obama now see Texas as an important opportunity.
Brent Budowsky: It is time to end the banana republic farce of groups of eight and gangs of six. It is time to end the banana republic fiasco of force-fed fiscal cliffs and idiot-stupid sequester plans.
Brent Budowsky; In Washington we are witnessing the resurgence of the House Democrats. The next question is whether we witness a resurgence of Texas Democrats, which is entirely up to Texas Democrats
Brent Budowsky: Do Rick Perry, Ted Cruz and Texas Republicans believe the future of Texas should be standing up for big banks, standing against respect for women, and pushing for pollution? As Butch said to Sundance, who are these guys?
Brent Budowsky: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has reiterated his opinion that the Constitution is not a living document that should reflect the lessons of history but is, instead, a stale document that is (in his words) “dead, dead, dead.”
Brent Budowsky: Both parties in Washington continue to underestimate both the broad public disapproval and the degree of unrest among the progressive base that a continuation of the gridlocked status quo will cause.
Brent Budowsky: There will be a huge backlash from the Democratic base once liberals from outside Washington fully understand what just happened. The backlash will become severe once the Republicans renew their filibuster attacks.
Sikivu Hutchinson: Black Skeptics Los Angeles spearheaded its First in the Family Humanist Scholarship initiative, which focuses on providing resources to undocumented, foster care, homeless and LGBTQ youth who will be the first in their families to go to college.
Carl Matthes: Despite the much-heralded 2008 success of Prop 8 in California to stop same-sex marriage, that vote, and it’s subsequent ramifications, provided not only 18,000 lesbian and gay couples with legal marriages, but the accelerant for the Prop 8 case currently being decided by SCOTUS.
Randy Shaw: Obama could regain young people’s support by lowering student loan rates, enacting immigration reform and rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline, but time—and his political capital—is running out.
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