Filibuster procedure explained by Former U.S. Senator "Fritz" Hollings (D.-S.C.)

"Filibuster Solved

" Sen. Fritz Hollings.Former South Carolina Senator
Posted: February 26, 2010 02:33 PM
" The filibuster problem was solved in the Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974. Apparently, the House Rules Committee amended the requirement of sixty-seven Senators' votes to terminate debate and replaced it with twenty hours of debate. Thirty-five years ago, House members then were tired of passing bills only to have them blocked in the Senate by a filibuster. Today House Members are more than frustrated, having passed two hundred seventy-one measures to the Senate with no Senate vote. Everyone is charging Congress with doing nothing. House Members are working their heads off while it is the Senate that is doing nothing. Today the measure of time to deliberate should be changed as in reconciliation to so-many hours.
"Action in the Congress thirty-five years ago was overwhelmingly bi-partisan. On March 22, 1974, the Senate approved the reconciliation rule by a vote of 80-0. And the Conference Report was approved on June 21, 1974, by a vote of 75-0. And no amendment to the reconciliation rule has been suggested in thirty-five years.
"Senator Robert Byrd (D-WVa) tells the story of Jefferson reporting to Washington at Mount Vernon one morning telling Washington that the Convention had decided on a bicameral system. Washington asked: "Why two Houses?" Jefferson replied: "In the House of Representatives the members are close to the people and are full of passion on the issues. As you are cooling your tea in that saucer, we need the Senate to cool the passions of the House, have time to deliberate and decide." Thus, today's requirement of sixty votes to cut off debate.
"Extended debate or filibuster was never intended to block majority rule. The intention was to provide time for news to travel, authorities to be consulted, and the Senators to check his or her state's opinion. Today, news travels fast. Pros and cons of an issue are delivered in the home by the media and a public opinion poll is furnished by the end of the week. But with filibuster after filibuster or threats of a filibuster last year and this year, we have ended up with minority rule.
"Our trouble is with the free press. It has become so partisan or fearful of being partisan that the public receives a distorted opinion of reconciliation. Democracy operates on a majority vote, which is guaranteed by the twenty hour reconciliation rule. But news coverage would have most people thinking that the use of reconciliation was a dirty trick. President George W. Bush used reconciliation for his devastating tax cuts, and there was no charge then that the measures were being "rammed down our throats."
"But this is the description of reconciliation today. One hundred individuals have become members of the Senate not by being rammed down anyone's throat, but by a majority vote. When Senators objected to the use of the reconciliation procedure to limit debate in 2005, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chairman of the Budget Committee, insisted that the twenty-hour reconciliation was a rule of the Senate to protect majority rule. The reconciliation twenty-hour limitation has been employed twenty-two times in thirty-five years -- sixteen by Republicans.
"The United States Senate can regain the confidence and respect of the people by changing the sixty-vote requirement to terminate debate and replace it with a twenty, thirty, or forty hour limitation."
"Fritz" Hollings was a great Democratic United States Senator and a great Democratic Governor of South Carolina. Elect More Democrats to help stop the Republican misuse of the filibuster. Vote for Kenneth Stepp for U.S. House KY-05!

Let's get the troops out of Afghanistan.

"Killing Enthusiasm: President Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Turns Off Young Voters
Robert Greenwald, 02.26.2010
"President Obama should rethink the Afghanistan war for lots of reasons. The war isn't making us more secure. It's costing us billions (soon to be trillions) of dollars. It's costing us jobs. The war causes massive human suffering for both Afghans and Americans. We can now add another reason for the president to rethink the Afghanistan war: it's hurting his party's re-election efforts among a key constituency.
"On February 18, 2010, Pew Research published a study titled "Democrats' Edge Among Millenials Slipping." The report warns that among voters born after 1980, Democrats lost more than half of their lead in party identification over Republicans during 2009. In 2008, Millennials favored Democrats over Republicans by a huge 32-percent margin (62 percent to 30 percent). That margin has now shrunk to 14 percent.
"This sharp change in such a short period could be a major problem for Democrats heading into the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. Pew previously reported how important these voters were to Democratic victories in 2008:
"[In 2008], 66% of those under age 30 voted for Barack Obama making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.
"...[Y]oung people provided not only their votes but also many enthusiastic campaign volunteers. Some may have helped persuade parents and older relatives to consider Obama's candidacy. And far more young people than older voters reported attending a campaign event while nearly one-in-ten donated money to a presidential candidate.
"One of the major reasons cited by Pew for Millennials' sharp loss of enthusiasm for Democrats was young voter opposition to President Obama's policies in Afghanistan.
"According to the report:
"Only about a third of Millennials (34%) approved of his handling of the situation in Afghanistan while 50% disapproved. ...That represented a sharp reversal from July, when a majority of those younger than 30 (51%) approved of Obama's performance on Afghanistan."
"Why the sharp reversal? Millennials strongly disapproved of the President's December 2009 decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. And, Millenials are rapidly souring on militant foreign policy in general, with only 38 percent agreeing with the statement that "peace is best achieved through military strength."
"Democrats can't afford to hang on to the dead weight of a brutal foreign policy in Afghanistan. When a war has killed thousands of children, almost a thousand American troops and cost us almost a trillion dollars, electoral peril isn't the only reason the President should rethink his policy. But it is a good reason."
Your best chance of getting the U.S. troops out of Afghanistan is to elect more Democrats. Vote for Stepp for Congress,KY-05!

Broken Government: By the Numbers

Broken Government: By the Numbers
December 10, 2008
Forty ways in which the federal government failed to perform under the administration of George W. Bush, 2001-2008:

• 45 million Americans without health care
• 60 percent of EPA scientists report political interference with their work
• 1,273 whistleblower complaints filed from 2002-2008; 1,256 were dismissed
• 190,000 U.S.-supplied weapons missing in Iraq
• $212.3 million in overcharges by Halliburton for Iraq oil reconstruction work
• $455 billion deficit for fiscal year 2008; estimated to reach up to $1 trillion in 2009
• $9.91 billion for government secrecy in 2007 — a record
• 809 government laptops with sensitive information lost by FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• 30 million pounds of beef recalled in 2007
• $300 billion over budget for Department of Defense weapons acquisitions
• Less than 3 percent of U.S. electricity needs met by alternative energy
• 2,145 troops killed and 21,000 injured in Iraq from March 2003 through November 1, 2008, by IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and other explosives — many while awaiting body armor. Additionally, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the conflict
• 34.8 percent of oil used in America imported during Nixon administration; 42.2 percent during first Gulf War; 59.9 percent in 2006
• $100 million for failed FBI computer network
• $100 billion in federal tax revenues lost annually to corporations using off-shore tax shelters
• 163 million airline passengers delayed 320 million hours; cost to U.S. economy: more than $41 billion in 2007
• $60 billion stolen in Medicare fraud each year
• 2.5 million toxic toys recalled in summer of 2007
• $12.5 billion for defective National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System
• $4 billion to upgrade National Security Agency computers that often crash, have trouble talking to each other, and lose key intelligence
• 60,000 flights made by 46 Southwest Airline jets in violation of FAA safety directives due to lax FAA enforcement
• 12.8 percent job turnover at Department of Homeland Security in 2006 — double that of any other cabinet-level agency
• 730,000 backlogged patent applications
• 148,000 troops not enough to secure Iraq, enabling insurgency to take root
• $1 billion, six-year “Reading First” program called ineffective by Department of Education Inspector General
• 20,000 U.S. deaths annually from lack of pollution controls on diesel vehicles and power plants
• 60,000 newborns a year at risk for neurological problems due to mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants
• Two-thirds fewer clean ups of EPA Superfund toxic waste sites during 2001-2006 than in previous six years
• 935 demonstrably false statements in lead-up to Iraq war by President Bush and seven members of his administration
• At least $500 million for FEMA trailers contaminated by formaldehyde occupied by thousands displaced after Hurricane Katrina
• 558 detainees at Guantanamo detention facility reduced to 255 after court-ordered case reviews
• 26 percent of corporations holding at least $250 million in assets audited in 2006; percent audited in 1990: more than 70 percent. IRS audit staff slashed by 30 percent
• $431.5 billion spent on Medicare in 2007, double amount in 2001
• 47 dead in mining accidents in 2006 blamed on lax oversight
• $9 billion in federal oil and gas royalties mismanaged by agency linked to drug-and-sex scandal
• 275 largest U.S. corporations pay, on average, about 17 percent in taxes in 2007, half the standard corporate tax rate
• $45 trillion in credit-default swaps, without federal oversight, in 2007
• 760,800 disability claims backlogged, awaiting hearings at Social Security Administration as of October 2008
• 806,000 Veterans Affairs disability claims in 2006, up 39 percent since 2000; backlog reached 400,000 claims by February 2007
• 2,640 days Osama bin Laden at large since September 11, 2001 (as of December 10, 2008)"
IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE FROM THE G.W.BUSH ERA! ELECT STEPP TO U.S. HOUSE KY-05!

4,525 Lobbyists Swarm Capitol To Influence Health Reform

"Lobbyists Swarm Capitol To Influence Health Reform
"Tally of 4,525 Means Eight Lobbyists for Each Member of Congress
"By Joe Eaton and M.B. Pell | February 23, 2010
"When President Barack Obama meets with Congressional leadership on Thursday to jump start stalled health reform efforts, industry lobbyists will not be in the room. But if the successful 2009 lobbying effort to influence health reform legislation is any indication, special interests will be well represented.
"A Center for Public Integrity analysis of Senate lobbying disclosure forms shows that more than 1,750 companies and organizations hired about 4,525 lobbyists — eight for each member of Congress — to influence health reform bills in 2009.
"The list of companies and organizations that worked to put their imprint on legislation is diverse, ranging from health care interests and advocacy groups to giant corporations, small businesses, American Indian tribes, religious groups, and universities.
"Among industries, 207 hospitals lined up to lobby, followed by 105 insurance companies and 85 manufacturing companies. Trade, advocacy, and professional organizations trumped them all with 745 registered groups that lobbied on health reform bills, illustrating the common Washington strategy of special interests banding together to pool money and increase their influence.
* * *
"Among the most visible organizations in the halls of Congress, AARP deployed 56 in-house lobbyists and two from outside firms to work the issue on behalf of its members. The pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce deployed 47 lobbyists, all but eight from outside firms. The corporate titans who direct the Business Roundtable deployed 40, five from outside firms, and the American Medical Association had 33, 11 from outside firms. The data also revealed that the roster of groups trying to mold legislation went far beyond corporate and health care interests to include such unlikely entities as Americans for the Arts, and the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
"Despite the recession, 2009 was a boom year for influence peddling overall with business and advocacy groups shelling out $3.47 billion for lobbyists to represent them on all kinds of issues, according to the nonprofit group Center for Responsive Politics.
"Much of that money went to fight the health reform battle, according to Center for Public Integrity data. Businesses and organizations that lobbied on health reform spent more than $1.2 billion on their overall lobby efforts. The exact amount they spent on health reform is difficult to quantify because most health care lobbyists also worked on other issues, and lobby disclosure rules do not require businesses to report how much they paid on each issue.
"From an industry perspective, it was money well spent. A close look at the health reform bills that passed the House and Senate show lobbyists were apparently effective at blocking provisions like a robust government-run insurance program, and blunting the effect of cost-cutting measures on health care companies.
"An Effective Group
"The lobbying details come as President Obama prepares to meet with Republicans on health reform. Obama’s own blueprint, released on Monday, combines elements of both the House and Senate bills. To pass, any bill would need to attract Republican support or use budget reconciliation rules to avoid filibuster in the Senate.
"Health Lobbyists Doubled by End of 2009
"The number of lobbyists working Congress on health reform more than doubled throughout 2009 from more than 1,400 in the first three months of the year to nearly 3,700 in the final quarter, when attention focused on the Senate bill.
“They cut it. They chopped it. They reconstructed it,” Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University professor of public affairs, said about health reform lobbying. “They didn’t bury it. I don’t think they wanted to.”
"The lack of serious cost controls in House and Senate bills are a direct result of health industry lobbying efforts, Zelizer said.
* * *
Aaron Mehta, Dan Ettinger, Naseem Miller, and Caitlin Ginley contributed to this report."
The Lobbyists have Hal Rogers as their candidate, and he already has half a million dollars in his campaign fund. Will you vote for the Lobbyists' candidate Hal Rogers for U.S. House KY-5? Most people vote for whoever has the most advertising, which is Hal Rogers the Lobbyists' candidate. Do you want the Lobbyists to control the Federal Government? Will you vote for whoever has the most advertisments? If you do, then you deserve to have GOVERNMENT BY THE LOBBYISTS, FOR THE LOBBYISTS, AND OF THE LOBBYISTS. Return Government to the People, Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House KY-05!

CRIMINALIZE TORTURE!

"Rep. Reyes Introduces a Measure Re-Criminalizing Torture
"By Spencer Ackerman 2/25/10 2:33 PM
"Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), the chairman of the House intelligence committee, introduced an amendment to the 2010 intelligence authorization bill imposing a 15-year criminal sentence on any “officer or employee of the intelligence community” who tortures a detainee. (Twenty years if the torture involves an “act of medical malfeasance”; life if the detainee dies.)
"Specifically, the proposed Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Interrogations Prohibition Act proscribes “forcing the individual to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner” — a la Abu Ghraib — “beatings, electrical shock, burns, or inflicting physical pain; waterboarding; using military working dogs; inducing hypothermia” — it happened at Guantanamo to Mohammed al-Qatani — sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, denial of medical care, “using force or the threat of force”; “mock executions;” religious desecration in an intelligence context; “sensory deprivation”; “prolonged isolation”; “placing hoods or sacks over the heads of the individual;” “exploiting the phobias of the individual” and more. Basically, it clarifies that the entire parade of outside-the-Army-Field-Manual-on-Interrogation horrors during the Bush administration are criminal acts. We’ll see if this ever actually makes it to President Obama’s desk.
The CIA declined to comment on pending legislation."
I had noticed that all of the pictures of the Guantanamo Bay detainees showed them with hoods covering their heads; that practice would be outlawed under Repr. Reyes' bill. If I am your Congressman, I'll vote for Repr. Reyes' bill to criminalize torture; I'm sure your Congressman Hal Rogers would vote against Repr. Reyes' bill. VOTE AGAINST TORTURE! VOTE FOR STEPP FOR U.S. HOUSE KY-05!

Who's gonna take your guns?

"Whose Gonna Take Your Guns??
"by: RDemocrat
"Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 20:00:56 PM EST
* * *
"In the meantime, gun control advocates say, Mr. Obama has failed to deliver on campaign promises to close a loophole that allows unlicensed dealers at gun shows to sell firearms without background checks; to revive the assault weapons ban; and to push states to release data about guns used in crimes.
He also signed bills last year allowing guns to be carried in national parks and in luggage on Amtrak trains."

The Republican efforts to demonize the President just don't hold water. What goes around comes around. It's time to Elect More Democrats!

Council for Peace!

Last weekend Voters for Peace sponsored a unique event in anti-war movement history. They brought together people from across the political spectrum who oppose war, militarism, and American Empire.
The purpose of the meeting of about 40 people was to determine whether it was possible for people who disagree on a wide range of issues but oppose militarism can work together to end war. The signs are very positive that such a working relationship is possible and desirable. They are now exploring next steps which they will announce.
But let me give you some sense of the event through excerpts from the biographies of some of the people present: a Robert A. Taft Fellow at the American Conservative Defense Alliance; a Special Assistant to Ronald Reagan; the founder of the New Left Journal; the author of the Encyclopedia of the American Left; the President of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society; a writer who covers national security for Rolling Stone; the President of Veterans for Peace; an editor of Black Agenda Report; a national affairs correspondent for The Nation; an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School; an executive editor of The American Conservative; a communications coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign; press secretary for Nader for President; a legislative aide for the armed services for Senator Robert Taft, Jr.; a military advisor to Senator Gary Hart; a former chairman of the Rockford Institute; an editor of Progressive Review; an editor of The Nation; the managing editor of Reason; a member of Students for Democratic Society at University of Maryland at College Park; a member of Young Americans for Liberty; and the chairperson of Boston Area Physicians for Social Responsibility.
As you can see, it was a politically diverse group. They had one thing in common - opposition to the bloated U.S. military and American Empire. Those who represent red or blue congressional districts need to know that they have constituents from across the political spectrum who vote and who oppose U.S. militarism. Conservatives who question the current wars and the overly generous military budget need to know they are not alone and there is a long history of anti-war conservatism. Liberals remember the Gene McCarthy liberal anti-war campaign of the Presidential primary season of 1968, and the George McGovern anti-war campaign of 1972. Why can't we be friends. The pro-war left and the pro-war right are united in funding the current wars, whether with Democratic or Republican votes. Hal Rogers voted to "stay the course" on the current wars during the Republican majority. It is time to stop funding both wars. Congress controls the purse strings and can stop both wars now, by snapping shut the purse of taxpayers' money used to fund the current wars.
"This week the U.S. had its 1,000th service member die in Afghanistan. Earlier in the week, two dozen more civilians were killed when the U.S. ordered aerial bombardment of three busses. The devastation caused by American militarism is shown in these stark realities. The issues of weapons and war are so serious that we need to put aside other differences and create a broad-based coalition that pulls in Americans from across the political spectrum.
We seek to create anti-war advocacy that reflects America - its wide range of political views and its widespread opposition to war. Currently, those views are excluded from the political discussion. We aim to change that: http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=4048 "
Kenneth Stepp, a Democrat for Peace, Candidate for U.S. House KY-05.

If elected, I plan to subpoena Mr. Yoo about this.

"Torture Lover John Yoo Excoriates Obama For Banning Torture

by Ali Frick
"John Yoo, infamous author of the Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of torture on suspected terrorists, slams President Obama for banning torture in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, gravely warning that Obama “may have opened the door to further terrorist acts on U.S. soil.”
"Throughout the article, Yoo insists that torture is America’s most effective weapon against terrorists and warns that without it, the U.S. will be incapable of intelligence-gathering:
"Eliminating the Bush system will mean that we will get no more information from captured al Qaeda terrorists. Every prisoner will have the right to a lawyer (which they will surely demand), the right to remain silent, and the right to a speedy trial. [...]
"Relying on the civilian justice system not only robs us of the most effective intelligence tool to avert future attacks, it provides an opportunity for our enemies to obtain intelligence on us.
"Considering the Bush administration repeatedly insisted its use of coercive techniques was “limited,” it would be a far stretch even for loyal Bushies to suggest that torture is not the one and only method to obtaining information. And as ThinkProgress has made clear again and again, numerous intelligence experts and real interrogators agree that, far from being “the most effective intelligence tool,” torture simply doesn’t work.
"Yoo continues his screed by making up facts about Obama’s ban:
"The CIA must now conduct interrogations according to the rules of the Army Field Manual, which prohibits coercive techniques, threats and promises, and the good-cop bad-cop routines used in police stations throughout America. … His new order amounts to requiring — on penalty of prosecution — that CIA interrogators be polite.
"Yoo has no idea what he’s talking about. Nothing requires anyone to “be polite” — although the rapport building method has often proved to be interrogators’ most effective technique. And the notion that good-cop/bad-cop would be banned is simply false, Media Matters pointed out earlier this week:
"In fact, the Army Field Manual explicitly permits good cop-bad cop interrogations under the name of “Mutt and Jeff” interrogations, which involve two interrogators “display[ing] opposing personalities and attitudes toward the source.” The Field Manual says the “goal of this technique is to make the source identify with one of the interrogators and thereby establish[ing] rapport and cooperation.”
"It’s no secret that Yoo is an ardent torture enthusiast: He famously said that only those techniques that inflict pain equivalent to “death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in a loss of significant body functions” constitute torture, and last year refused to agree that the president could not order a detainee buried alive. With Obama signaling a clean break from the Bush administration’s terrorism policies, it’s no wonder Yoo is desperate to restore his crumbling torture regime.
"Update Yoo also makes it perfectly clear that Bush himself directly and explicitly ordered torture, including the waterboarding of at least three detainees:
What is needed are the tools to gain vital intelligence, which is why, under President George W. Bush, the CIA could hold and interrogate high-value al Qaeda leaders. On the advice of his intelligence advisers, the president could have authorized coercive interrogation methods like those used by Israel and Great Britain in their antiterrorism campaigns. (He could even authorize waterboarding, which he did three times in the years after 9/11.)"

I would co-sign a bill to censure (not impeach)former President G.W.Bush and subpoena Mr. Yoo as a witness, regarding torture policies of President G.W.Bush. Elect Kenneth Stepp for U.S. House, KY-05 in the Democratic Primary and in November. Of the three Democratic candidates for U.S. House KY-05, Kenneth Stepp is the only one that has ever subpoenaed anyone. Kenneth Stepp has subpoenaed over a hundred people and is familiar with the subpoena process.

If elected, I plan to subpoena Yoo about this.

"Those CTC Lawyers Lying to OLC
"The Mock Burial in the OPR Report

By: emptywheel
Thursday February 25, 2010 6:29 am
"CIA’s torturers asked DOJ to let them use mock burials. But DOJ said no.
"PDF page 42 of the OPR Report (searchable copy here) includes a list of the torture techniques that Mitchell and Jessen recommended be used with Abu Zubaydah. Whereas the Bybee Two Techniques memo approves ten techniques, Mitchell and Jessen recommended twelve. In other words, Mitchell and Jessen asked for two techniques to be approved that did not get specific approval.
"One of these (technique 10) is diapering. We know they used diapers anyway as it was a critical element of their sleep deprivation and stress position techniques.
"Technique 12 remains redacted in this report. But as I pointed out last week, PDF page 178 of the First Draft includes an unredacted reference to the technique.
"Goldsmith viewed the Yoo Memo itself as a “blank check” that could be used to justify additional EITs without further DOJ review. Although Yoo told us that he had concluded that the mock burial technique would violate the torture statute, he nevertheless told the client, according to Fredman and Rizzo, that he would “need more time” if they wanted it approved. [my emphasis]
"The twelfth technique–which Mitchell and Jessen wanted approved but which Yoo excluded because of the rush to approve waterboarding–is mock burial.
"There must have been significant discussion about the decision to exclude mock burial from the Bybee Two memo, because the reference to its exclusion in the report itself (PDF page 60 in the Final Report) includes a page and a half of redactions following the discussion of leaving it out.
"That redaction almost certainly includes a discussion of why mock burial was so important to include in the memo: Because we know that James Mitchell threatened to use it in May 2002. And after Mitchell did threaten to use it, Ali Soufan called it “borderline torture.” After he told FBI’s Counterterrorism Assistant Director Pasquale D’Amuro about the technique, D’Amuro instructed him to leave the black site. As follow-up to this meeting, a bunch of DOJ bigwigs–including Michael Chertoff–had a meeting about Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation. At about the same time, Chertoff refused to give the CIA advance declination of prosecution for torture.
"Curiously, the DOJ’s IG Report on torture says the CIA asked for 10 torture techniques to be included in its OLC memo, not 12.
"Now, it’s not clear whether Mitchell and Jessen ever did use mock burial with Abu Zubaydah. Zubdaydah didn’t mention it in the narrative he gave to the ICRC of his treatment.
"But there are two more reasons why Yoo’s refusal to approve mock burial is dangerous for the CIA. First, an FBI agent told CIA and DOJ that the technique was borderline torture. Nevertheless, the CIA asked to have the technique available to it.
"Also, any legal discussion of why mock burial would be a problem would focus on how torture statutes prohibit the threat of imminent death. Yet after mock burial was specifically excluded as a torture technique, CIA torturers went on to threaten detainees with a power drill and a gun. In other words, someone at that CIA had already been told, specifically, that they could not use the threat of imminent death on detainees. But on at least two occasions, they did so anyway."
"Mock Burials"? So they would stage fake burials in the prison grounds, so prisoners would think other prisoners were tortured to death? So they think making prisoners think their deaths are imminent in this manner would make the prisoners want to talk to their interrogators? Isn't this a form of terrorism, trying to terrorize someone? Who are the terrorists? The Bad Guys or the Good Guys? Anyway, if elected as your Congressman, I plan to subpoena Mr. Yoo and see what he has to say about "mock burials" and the list of practices he was requested to approve, and whether they were forms of torture or not. Mr. Yoo, as a lawyer, should remember that a lawyer is always trustworthy, loyal, cheerful, obedient, thrifty, and a good example for others to follow. Kenneth Stepp--the only Democratic candidate for U.S. House KY-05 who has ever subpoenaed anyone.

Senate Race KY

"Poll: Rand Paul Easily Leads in Senate Race
By David Weigel 2/24/10 11:05 AM
"For some reason, Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul never gets called the “frontrunner” in that race. Secretary of State Trey Grayson, seen as the favorite of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), still receives that title. But it’s another day and another poll — this one from Magellan Strategies — showing Paul crushing Grayson. He has a nearly 2-1 lead, 44 percent to Grayson’s 23 percent, and a whopping 31-point net favorable rating to Grayson’s 11-point net favorable rating.
"The secret to Paul’s success? He’s not seen as a fringe candidate, but as an embodiment of the Tea Parties — which have a 67 percent favorable rating among GOP primary voters. And he’s aided by the endorsement of Sarah Palin. Twenty-eight percent of Kentucky Republicans favor Palin in a hypothetical 2012 primary to only 4percent who favor Paul’s father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
"The younger Paul has been running a pitch-perfect campaign. One example: his rapid-fire response to an ad in which Grayson accused Paul of supporting “Obama’s war on coal.” Another example is this closing answer at a debate in Paducah. Watch how Paul trains his focus on the parts of hardcore libertarianism most popular with Republican voters."
It looks like the Republicans aren't organized very well.

Now it's Obama 56%, "Mitch" McConnell 18% national approval ratings!

"Daily Kos Weekly State of the Nation Poll
Research 2000, Adults MoE 2%, Feb 15, 2010 - Feb 18, 2010 (last week's results in parentheses)
Full Crosstabs FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON'T KNOW NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA 56 (56) 40 (41) 4 (3) 1

PELOSI: 39 (39) 51 (52) 10 (9) 1
REID: 24 (25) 66 (65) 10 (10) -2
McCONNELL: 18 (19) 64 (63) 18 (18) -2
BOEHNER: 18 (19) 63 (61) 19 (20) -3

CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 38 (39) 59 (58) 3 (3) -2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 18 (20) 66 (65) 16 (15) -3

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 39 (40) 55 (55) 6 (5) -1
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 30 (31) 61 (60) 9 (9) -2"

Keep up with the times. Dump Hal. Elect more Democrats!

BLEAK! BLEAK! BLEAK!

"Kaul: Situation in Washington beyond bleak 2010-02-23
By Donald Kaul
The Obama administration did a brave thing, always a refreshing move for any administration. It issued a budget that had some resemblance to reality. That was the good news.
The bad news is that our reality is bleak. The government foresees budget deficits for the next few years. And for the next few years after that. And for decades without number after that.
The projected budget shortfall this year will peak at $1.6 trillion and "fall" next year to $1.3 trillion, or about 9 percent of our gross domestic product.
This, economists say, is sustainable on a short-term basis (we've endured deficits like that before, during times of war) but over the long term-absolutely not. You'd like to keep deficits at 3 percent.
According to Obama's projections, the deficit will approach that percentage in the next 10 years but then, ominously, begin to rise again, threatening to usher in the Chinese Century.
Did I mention that this is an optimistic projection? It envisions a cooperation between Democrats and Republicans that's as likely as a reunion of the Beatles.
To prove my point, here is Senator Mitch McConnell's response to the budget: "More spending, more taxes, and more debt."
(McConnell, the leader of Republicans in the Senate, has become a windup doll. Turn his crank and he shakes his head "no" and says: "More spending, more taxes, and more debt.")
Just how ungovernable our country has become was illustrated last month, when the Senate tried to set up a bipartisan commission that would propose a plan to deal with the deficit. Congress would be required to vote on the plan without amending it.
It went nowhere. Republicans were afraid the commission would suggest new taxes; Democrats, that pet programs would be cut.
They were both right, of course. Therein lies the heart of the problem: Everyone wants a solution to our problems, but no one wants to pay a price.
For example, pretty much everyone agrees that if Social Security and Medicare costs continue to explode, as they seem likely to do, they will swamp our economy and, indeed, our society. All of our energy (and money) will go toward taking care of old people, none to opening up opportunities for the young to succeed. This is perilously close to the case now.
But let the president suggest reining in Social Security costs and Republicans cry: "He's balancing the budget on the backs of the elderly."
Try reducing unnecessary or inefficient treatments and they shout: "Rationing of health care is not the answer."
And don't get me started on "death panels."
What is the Republican answer then? "Malpractice reform."
Sticking it to lawyers is never a bad idea. But it alone won't get the job done.
Nobody wants government bailouts of financial institutions, but nobody wants to take responsibility for letting them fail.
Everybody wants job growth, but not at the price of a stimulus package big enough to stimulate job growth.
I don't blame the politicians as much as you might imagine. They're just trying to keep their jobs, by hook or by crook. It's what politicians do.
It's the American voter who's to blame for putting this collection of empty suits, yahoos, and tin-foil collectors in office.
The New York Times recently published the results of a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press that says something frightening about our political literacy.
It found that only 26 percent of the public realizes that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to break a filibuster and that only 32 percent is aware that not a single Republican voted for the recent health care bill.
If you don't know that, what do you know? How can you form an intelligent opinion on what's happening in Washington when you don't know the names of the players or the game they're playing?
Did I say the situation looked bleak? This makes bleak look like the good old days.
Kaul writes for Minuteman Media and is an occasional guest columnist for this newspaper."
The Problem: with Republicans blocking effective change in Congress, everything looks pretty bleak for America. The Solutions: Elect More Democrats, and elect Stepp to the U.S. House KY-05!

Kenneth Stepp speaks at Louisville Rally.

Brady Center Gives Obama "F"

Brady Center Gives Obama "F" . . .
by Angry Mouse
Tue Feb 23, 2010 at 07:00:04 AM PST
Last month, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence issued a report card [PDF] for President Obama's first year in office. The report called Obama's prevention of gun violence "an abject failure."
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence report states:
"In just one year, Barack Obama has signed into law more repeals of federal gun policies than in President George W. Bush’s eight years in office. From the repeal of Reagan Era rules keeping loaded guns out of national parks to the repeal of post-9/11 policies to safeguard Amtrak from armed terrorist attacks, President Obama’s stance on guns has endangered our communities and threatened our national security."

So the Gun-Grabbers in the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence don't like President Obama, eh? Well,I'm a Second Amendment Democrat and proud of the Democratic Party.

Bring the U.S. Troops Home from Iraq and Afghanistan Now!

Social Security News.

NOSSCR is "very pleased to report that H.R. 4532, the "Social Security Disability Applicants' Access to Professional Representation Act of 2010" has passed both Houses of Congress and is headed to the President's desk for his signature, at which time it will be enacted into law. We expect this to occur by the end of this week.
"H.R. 4532 has two provisions. It makes permanent (1) direct payment of fees in SSI cases and (2) the program by which certain nonattorneys become eligible for direct payment of fees. The bill was passed in the Senate late yesterday, February 22, by unanimous consent. The House of Representatives had already passed the bill by a vote of 412-6 earlier this month. We fully expect the President to sign H.R. 4532 into law prior to the March 1 "sunset" date. We will inform you as soon as H.R. 4532 is signed into law by the President."
I knew of an attorney that only handled regular Social Security cases and not SSI cases, because there was no guarantee a winning attorney would get paid in an SSI case. Now, we have more "equal rights" in Social Security law, as a winning attorney in an SSI case enjoys the same guarantee to get paid as the winning attorney in a regular Social Security Disability case has. This should result in more SSI applicants being able to hire attorneys on a contingency basis to represent them in getting the government to pay their claims. Kenneth Stepp.

KY SOLDIER KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN MOURNED!

Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010
Ky. soldier killed in Afghanistan mourned
The Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. --
"A U.S. Army soldier from Louisville who was killed this month in Afghanistan was remembered Saturday as a caring son, brother and friend.
Sgt. Adam J. Ray, 23, was buried in Evergreen Cemetery after a two-hour funeral held at Okolona Christian Church.
He died Feb. 9 from wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated in southern Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. He was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
The Courier-Journal reported that Ray wrote on his MySpace page that while it was nice to be called a hero because of his military service, he thought the real compliment was when he was compared to his father, who attended West Point and was now a minister.
Despite his accomplishments as a soldier, family and friends spent more time recalling the everyday gifts he gave to those around him, like running to the store to satisfy his pregnant sister's cravings for chocolate ice cream.
His parents no longer live in Louisville, but the family spent a decade there and much of his extended family still lives in the area.
The Army posthumously promoted Ray from a specialist to a sergeant and he also earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
Gen. Jon Miller served with Ray's father, Jim, while at West Point 32 years ago.
Miller said Jim Ray told him that his son "was a young man who always stood up in the face of aggression," and who had always wanted to be a soldier.
A letter from his sister, Amanda, was read during the service. She wrote that he supported her through "broken hearts, bad boyfriends, bad friends and bad choices."
Sgt. David Jones said he was with Ray the day he was wounded in Afghanistan. He said he never expected it would be the last time he would see his friend alive.
Ray was chatty and joking even though he was hurt, Jones said, and he gave a thumbs-up as he was loaded into a helicopter.
"To Adam, hopefully I'll live my life correctly, one way or another, and get to see you again," Jones said.
Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com"
Enought Amierican heroes' lives have been lost in Afghanistan. Let's bring the troops home now. Hal Rogers (R-KY-5, U.S. HOUSE)kept voting to "stay the course" in Iraq and Afghanistan and voting to keep those wars going during the Bush Administration. Kenneth Stepp promises to vote to defund the U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to bring the U.S. Troops home! VOTE FOR PEACE! VOTE FOR STEPP!

Click here to help with the Kenneth Stepp for Congress Campaign.

"Mitch" McConnell continues to slide downhill in national approval rating.

"Daily Kos Weekly State of the Nation Poll
Research 2000, Adults MoE 2%, Feb 15, 2010 - Feb 18, 2010 (last week's results in parentheses)
Full Crosstabs FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON'T KNOW NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA 56 (56) 40 (41) 4 (3) 1

PELOSI: 39 (39) 51 (52) 10 (9) 1
REID: 24 (25) 66 (65) 10 (10) -2
McCONNELL: 18 (19) 64 (63) 18 (18) -2
BOEHNER: 18 (19) 63 (61) 19 (20) -3

CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 38 (39) 59 (58) 3 (3) -2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 18 (20) 66 (65) 16 (15) -3

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 39 (40) 55 (55) 6 (5) -1
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 30 (31) 61 (60) 9 (9) -2"
It's time for us to Elect More Democrats!

The London (England) Times Editorial on Iraq.

The following editorial was published in The Times in London, England, concerning the continuing American and British military occupation of Iraq:
"The Sunday Times - Comment
'The Sunday Times
"October 15, 2006
"A simple-minded general stirs internet mutiny in the ranks
"Simon Jenkins
"Who dares speak truth to power? The answer last week was General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff and head of the army. Like every top soldier he knows that his job is about hand shaking, desk hopping, point scoring, fence mending and spinning. This is normally done in secret.
When Dannatt summoned the Daily Mail, of all papers, for an in-depth interview on Iraq he was either daringly brave or totally naive. Opinion is divided on which. Dannatt is a moralistic man, deeply Christian and without guile, who has pondered swapping his uniform for the pulpit.
NI_MPU('middle');
In recent months the service chiefs have taken a pounding from their oldest enemy, their retired predecessors, for not backing the army in Whitehall. Opposition to the Iraq war has fed through into poor support for the troops, while a service-oriented ministry under a succession of weak chiefs of the defence staff has biased spending towards costly ships and planes.
Dannatt clearly had had enough. On taking over the army last month he found soldiers ill-paid, recruitment declining and e-mails and service blogs awash in reports of logistical cock-ups. Worse still, Dannatt realised that he would have to oversee, if not a military defeat, at least an ignominious withdrawal from Iraq and possibly Afghanistan. He then had to listen to Tony Blair’s bombast to his party conference that such a withdrawal would be “a craven act of surrender that will put our future security in the gravest peril”.
Dannatt shares the overwhelming view among defence experts that British lives are still being sacrificed in Iraq because Blair lacks the guts to stand up to George Bush. Staying another five years would be counter-productive and serve no British interest. Yet Blair kept saying he would remain “until the job is done”. What job? There can be no progress without security and Iraq outside Kurdistan has become, under coalition supervision, a worse bloodbath than under Saddam Hussein, whether or not 500 people are dying each day as recently reported. For Blair to imply that things are getting better is a lie.
Worse, as Dannatt points out, “our presence exacerbates the security problem”. We were not invited — “we kicked the door in” — and as occupiers we are no longer welcome. The British are not even policing Iraq, merely guarding bases and venturing on occasional patrols that offer target practice for passing mujaheddin.
This does no more than echo what American field generals were reporting as long ago as September 2003, six months after the invasion. According to Bob Woodward’s book State of Denial (see Culture and News Review), they demanded an immediate transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis. Swift withdrawal, they said, “would enhance the security situation because the Iraqis don’t like occupation”. Staying would become a focus for insurgency. Never did soldiers speak truer words.
Yet Dannatt’s rectitude is not the immediate point. A modern, highly politicised war requires absolute trust between politicians and soldiers, the so-called “military covenant”.
I recall last year watching General Sir Mike Jackson, the last army chief, personally seeing off an Irish Guards patrol from Basra camp. The patrol was highly likely to see action and take casualties. He shook each man by the hand and told him how vital was the job for which he was being asked to risk his life. Despite widespread scepticism among the troops, there had to be this momentary bond of trust for discipline to operate. Jackson was good at it.
I do not see how Dannatt can now do what Jackson did. Soldiers sent to die need not assent to a war, but they do need faith that those commanding them think it wise, as do their families. After the 1982 Argentine invasion of the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher went to war to recapture the islands against the private reservations of John Nott, her defence secretary, and her chiefs of staff. It is probable that had they all assembled on the first night, when the first sea lord put the fleet to sea, they would have stopped her. But the mission was legal and once begun was loyally executed.
Victory against the odds was achieved. There were no recriminations over formerly expressed doubts, because doubts made judgment better informed. The political conduct of the Falklands war was near impeccable.
For Dannatt publicly to question the wisdom of what his soldiers are doing is a breach of constitutional discipline — if not an invitation to weblog mutiny. So far the army’s leaked mutterings against Blair have concerned the lack of armour, poor vehicles and radios and too few helicopters. While Americans drive round in Bradleys, the British are in soft-tops. The Helmand expedition is desperately short of air support, yet journalists can find any number of helicopters idle in Somerset.
In the past month Dannatt has fought for and obtained tax relief for his soldiers at the front at a cost of £60m. He won assurances that injured servicemen will not go to state hospitals where Patricia Hewitt’s staff order them to remove their uniforms. In both cases the army made shrewd use of the press.
Dannatt’s interviews have gone far beyond these matters. Reporting army dissatisfaction in Monday’s Guardian, Max Hastings wrote that “no one seriously suggests that serving officers should be permitted publicly to question the usefulness of staying in Iraq”. Dannatt has given himself just that permission. He broke the “omerta” under which British officers have laboured ever since Bush trapped Blair at Crawford back in April 2002. They have had to fight a proxy war for the Pentagon over which they had no control or even influence. They have seen their hearts-and-minds work in the south ruined by the ineptitude of US troops and officials in the north. Policy had been ruled by America’s political timetable, the next event being the congressional election on November 7.
The debate on Iraq is approaching the point it should have reached in 2003: how best to extend partition from Kurdistan to the Sunnis and Shi’ites and thus minimise civil conflict. The constitution provides for it, offering Blair a crucial exit strategy later this year. In May in Baghdad, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, told Blair that he wanted British forces out of the south by the end of the year. Frightened of what Bush would say if he took Maliki at his word, Blair refused this gift horse.
Offered a chance for a dignified military withdrawal and a handover to an elected Iraqi government, he parroted Bush’s line about craven surrender to terrorism and “finishing the job”.
Dannatt might sensibly have taken this debate forward, rather than publicly questioning the wisdom of the war as such. He is anyway vulnerable to double standards, given his enthusiasm for the war in Afghanistan. Here a decision to send an under-manned ill-equipped expedition with hopeless objectives was made without army protest. Like Iraq it had no relevance to any military threat to Britain and was entirely political: to show that Britain could play a lead role in a newly expanded Nato.
Afghanistan has since proved a carbon copy of Iraq, with lack of security vitiating the winning of local hearts and minds. There is no way that 5,000 British troops, or even 100,000, can protect southern Afghanistan from the mujaheddin. Occupation is the rallying point for insurgency and a stimulus to anarchy — as Dannatt points out in Iraq. If he wants withdrawal from Iraq, why not from Helmand? As head of the army Dannatt enjoys closer access to the prime minister than any public service professional. He may be angry at Blair’s stubbornness but he has privileged conduits for that anger. In going public he has clearly become a hero of exasperated soldiers in the field, as well as of the anti-war lobby at home (and possibly of the pusillanimous cabinet).
Ninety per cent of the army appear from media and internet evidence to support him, which must render him unsackable. But in so clearly undermining the case for the war in Iraq Dannatt has opened Pandora’s box. He must now demand that the government pick up Maliki’s request for a British withdrawal this year or his position will become untenable. He has destabilised the military covenant and must urgently win his argument against Blair or resign. In the pulpit, controversy comes wrapped in cotton wool. Not so in the fire."
The British general is right. The American and British military occupation of Iraq is untenable. Vote to pull American troops out. Vote for Kenneth Stepp for U.S. House, KY-5, the Democratic candidate.

Porkbarrelling and "Mitch" McConnell!

The Democratic Stimulus has worked!

The Democratic Stimulus has worked! Let's elect more Democrats to the U.S. Congress!

RAISE THE $50,000 LIFE INSURANCE EMPLOYEE TAX EXEMPTION!

The U.S. Internal Revenue Code Publ. 15-B provides: "Exclusion from wages. You can generally exclude the cost of up to $50,000 of group-term life insurance from the wages of an insured employee. You can exclude the same amount from the employee's wages when figuring social security and Medicare taxes. In addition, you do not have to withhold federal income tax or pay FUTA tax on any group-term life insurance you provide to an employee."
That sounds pretty good, but when I was in law school taking my Federal Income Tax course from Ira Shephard c. 1975, he told us then that the Federal Tax Exemption allowed for employee's fringe benefits life insurance was $50,000. That was $50,000 in 1975 dollars. That seemed like a lot of money back then. Now-a-days, if a worker dies with a $50,000 policy, that could set up his widow and kids in a mobile home, without much else. The American Worker deserves a cost of living increase on employee fringe benefits exemptions. If elected your U.S. House Representative, I plan to introduce legislation to raise the Federal Tax Exemption allowed to employee's fringe benefits for life insurance to $100,000. Kenneth Stepp.

YOU ONLY HAVE 59 SENATORS! COME IN WITH YOUR HANDS UP!

Let's Replace Hal Rogers.

My Response to the McCreary County newspaper.

Name: KENNETH STEPP
Address (including a phone number where you can be
reached):KENNETH STEPP
CANDIDATE FOR U.S. HOUSE, KENTUCKY-05
P. O. BOX 1271
MANCHESTER, KENTUCKY 40962
Phone or Fax: (606) 596-0360
Email: kenneth_stepp@yahoo.com
web site: http://www.steppforcongress.blogspot.com

Background (Family, Achievements, Qualifications, etc.):

Was the 2006 Democratic nominee for U.S. House; was defeated in the general election by Hal Rogers (R-Ky5). Unsuccessful 2008 run for U.S. Senate seat held by "Mitch" McConnell R-Ky; defeated in Democratic Primary by Bruce Lunsford who lost to "Mitch" McConnell in the general election.

Married to Wilma Smith Stepp, and our two children Carson Stepp and Conrad Stepp live with us in Clay County, Kentucky in the Burning Springs Community.

Attorney at Law, member of the Kentucky Bar since 1991, sole member of the law firm of KENNETH S. STEPP, PSC with office in Clay County, Kentucky. Law Degree from University of Georgia School of Law; Masters Degree in Management from the United States Naval Postgraduate School of Monterey, California; Bachelor of Science Degree from Clemson University in Industrial Management with a minor in Economics.

Veteran, United States Navy from 1968 through 1973; entered as a Seaman and departed as a Lieutenant (junior grade) on resignation to attend Law School. Served aboard USS Blakely (Destroyer Escort No. 1072) as Gunnery Assistant and Second Division Officer. Stationed at Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range as Assistant Inner Range Officer (Naval Gunfire Support) and Assistant Underwater Range Officer (testing submarines, torpedoes, and anti-submarine rockets).

What are your priorities for the 5th Congressional District? My first priority is additional funding for educational programs in the 5th Congressional Districts. We need more Pell Grants, more other educational grants, and more educational loan money made available. Educational loan requirements should be made providing for loan forgiveness for doctors and other professional people who practice in impoverished rural areas, and who practice in the 5th Congressional District, and who give public service.

For McCreary County? My first priority is additional funding for educational programs in McCreary County. We need more Pell Grants, more other educational grants, and more educational loan money made available. Educational loan requirements should be made providing for loan forgiveness for doctors and other professional people who practice in impoverished rural areas, and who practice in McCreary County, and who give public service.

What are your views on the health care debate? I favor advancing Medicaid, Medicare, and Veterans Administration health care coverage, and advancing existing programs. It looks like the present national legislation will not be enacted because the Senate plan and the House plan are too different from each other. I prefer the House of Representatives plan and would support it.

What are your views on education? Education does not cost, it pays. Education is an area of government expenditure that actually generates revenue, sometimes for thirty years after the education expenditure. Education gives us better national defense, and better production of goods and services. The best economic policy for the Fifth District and for the United States is to improve education.

Our national economy? Our free enterprise economy has served America well for over two hundred years. Due to the spending binge by the last Republican Administration assisted by our Republican Congressman, the bubble burst and now we have 12 per cent unemployment and 12 per cent of the people seriously behind on their mortgage payments. Right now, we are on an upswing on the business cycle. There was a panic, people quit buying and businessmen sought to reduce their inventories. The panic is not over, but the inventories of durable goods have been reduced, and businesses are now ordering more production to keep their inventories from shrinking further. That puts people back to work. If we keep on the current Democratic policies, production should continue to expand and we will be approaching the relative full employment, expanding economy that we used to have during the Clinton Administration.

The War on Terror? The War on Terror is being won. We need to keep pressure on terrorists, to be sure that people get the message that "Terrorism does not pay!" We should not cancel our Bill of Rights because the terrorists want us to; they should have jury trials and then, if found guilty, be sentenced under Federal sentencing procedures. The 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; none of them were from Iraq and we should pull our troops out of Iraq because our military occupation of Iraq has not advanced the War on Terror, has not improved the situation in the Middle East, and has costed approx. 4,000 U.S. service personnel lives.

Kenneth Stepp.

It's time to investigate the Bush-Cheney-Hal Rogers War!

"Biden Admits the Obvious, Should Go Further
by: RDemocrat
Sun Feb 14, 2010 at 10:59:57 AM EST
"Many of us here were opposed to the Iraq War from the start. I simply did not ever understand why being attacked by a group and leader of that group supposedly centered in Afghanistan meant that we needed to go into Iraq. Despite many long years and thousands upon thousands of lives lost, not to mention the hundreds upon hundreds of billion dollars wasted we are still mired in that country. Now, the Vice-President is admitting how much of a huge mistake it was to go into that country. However he, and the administration should take it one step further.
RDemocrat :: Biden Admits the Obvious, Should Go Further
Biden today is stating the obvious facts that most Americans who aren't blinded by tea-bag idiocy have realized for a long time. The Iraq War was a huge mistake that has cost America on more than one front:
"Vice President Joe Biden says the Iraq war hasn't been worth its "horrible price."
He says the war was mishandled from the outset and that the U.S. took its eye off the ball. As a result, he says the U.S. was left in a more dangerous position in Afghanistan, where al-Qaida hatched the Sept 11 attacks.
"Biden tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that the war also has cost the United States support from other nations.
"http://www.kentucky.com/517/st...
"However, despite the dire numbers which tell the full magnitude of the mistake, Biden remained hopeful that some progress has been made in that unjust war and predicted that 90,000 American troops may return home soon from that theatre:
"Still, Biden predicts Iraq will have successful parliamentary elections next month and he says the U.S. is likely to bring home some 90,000 combat troops by the end of the summer.
"More than 4,370 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since former President George W. Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been wounded or killed.
"While all this is very nice to hear, I think that this Administration should take it one step further. We have seen how well over 4000 of our young folks have been killed, and hundreds of thousands of people all totaled have either died, or had their lives destroyed by this fiasco. While the human loss is bad enough, it is compounded by over a trillion dollars of wasted American treasure that is desperately needed back here at home for our own land and people now.
"It is time we got to the bottom of how all this happened and brought criminal charges against those who perpetrated this great costly and murderous hoax. Most Americans realize now that they were lied to by the previous administration in a ploy to get an illegal war in a country that did not attack us and to ram what would have been widely unpopular measures such as the Patriot Act and FISA law down our throats.
"A criminal investigation needs to be launched into the former administrations actions after 9-11 that led up to the fiasco known as the Iraq War. The fact that we were lied to for a political agenda and thousands of people have now died should be a wake-up call to all Americans that they must demand justice. If we allow the Bush Administration to get away with all they did in launching a propoganda campaign against our country causing much death and sadness then we not only deny justice to our own dead but to the world as well.
"Added to that, if we allow these criminals to go unpunished, we set a very dangerous precedent for our country and future generations. If Presidents and people in government know that they face little repercussions for illegal activity and lying to the American people then future administrations will realize if they are not getting their way all they have to do is cook up a crisis and hit the American people with a huge propoganda blitz to get what they want. They will be safe in knowing they will face little consequences for doing so as long as they hide behind the veil of "National Security".
"Lies are lies no matter who tells them. When they are lies that murder, and waste American treasure under the pretext of lies they should be prosecuted to the fullest. Since attempts at bi-partisanship are stalling miserably in Washington it is time to start a partisan war and expose the Republicans for what they are. Lying, greedy little people who cared little for life or justice as long as they got the failed agenda they sought and were able to finally steal the Constitutional freedoms from the American people they long held in scorn. We should expose the truth not only for justice, but to insure that such a thing never happens again.
Biden Admits the Obvious, Should Go Further | 1 comments
comment The people that represent us
rail about individual accountability and then they whine when we, the citizens, attempt to hold them accountable. I suggest we are in a time when those that represent us think we work for them and Corporate America, when in fact they are supposed to be working for us. . . ."
Elect More Democrats, Folks. If elected Kenneth Stepp pledges to vote against funding the undeclared war in Iraq, and the undeclared war in Afghanistan.

Recession? Not for big health insurance companies!

Share | Recession? Not For These Folks. Record Profits For Health Care Insurance Companies.
by: Hillbilly
Fri Feb 12, 2010 at 23:42:21 PM EST

Health Care Now
The five largest U.S. health insurance companies sailed through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression to set new industry profit records in 2009, a feat accomplished by leaving behind 2.7 million americans who had been inprivate health plans. For customers who kept their benefits, the insurers raised rates and cost-sharing,and cut the share of premiums spent on medical care. Executives and shareholders of the five biggest for-profit health insurers, UnitedHealthGroup inc., WellPoint inc., Aetna Inc., Humana Inc., and Cigna Corp., enjoyed combined profit of $12.2 billion in 2009, up 56 percent from the previous year. It was the best year ever for Big Insurance.
The 2009 financial reports from the nation’s five largest insurance companies reveal that:
The firms made $12.2 billion, an increase of $4.4 billion, or 56 percent, from 2008.
Four out of the five companies saw earnings increases, with CIGNA’s profits jumping 346 percent.
The companies provided private insurance coverage to 2.7 million fewer people than the year before.
Four out of the five companies insured fewer people through private coverage. UnitedHealth alone insured 1.7 million fewer people through employer-based or individual coverage.
All but one of the five companies increased the number of people they covered through public insurance programs (Medicaid, CHIP and Medicare). UnitedHealth added 680,000 people in public plans.
The proportion of premium dollars spent on health care expenses went down for three of the five firms, with higher proportions going to administrative expenses and profits. Read more.
Hillbilly :: Recession? Not For These Folks. Record Profits For Health Care Insurance Companies.

Tags: WellPoint, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealth, Health Care, Greed, (All Tags)

Click here to see Kenneth Stepp's appearance on KET!

http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=kelec+002007

See the KET appearance by Kenneth Stepp, candidate for U.S. House KY-05.

http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=kelec+002007

Rand Paul and Hal Rogers!

"Rand Paul: Not afraid to lose
February 10, 2010 - 5:31 PM | by: Steve Brown
"Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky Rand Paul insists he was not calling Hal Rogers an "errand boy" Monday night.
"It was at the McCreary County GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner where Dr. Paul (eye surgeon) took aim at wasteful Washington spending...and pronounced it a bi-partisan disease which has led to record federal debt.
""The system of pork barrel spending is what got us into this mess," said Paul. There was stirring among the Republicans gathered...but no applause.
"Paul continued: "We have legislators we sent to Washington who think their job is to be an errand boy or an errand girl for us...and grab as much federal money as they can get and bring it back."
"Sitting at the table closest to the podium was Hal Rogers...CONGRESSMAN Hal Rogers. The 5th District Republican who went to Washington the same year Ronald Reagan did...1981. Rogers is a prolific procurer of federal dollars (aka 'pork'). Last year alone...according to Citizens Against Government Waste...Rogers hauled home $80-million dollars in pork.
"So was Rand Paul CALLING OUT Rogers?...in Rogers' own district?...within shouting distance of the Hal Rogers Parkway?...fingering Rogers for being part of the spend-aholic DC crowd?...with Rogers SITTING RIGHT THERE?
""No," says Paul, "I try not to refer to individuals in particular...but...if...if...they...if the message is coming to 'em...they should be listening..."
"I ask, "If the shoe fits..."
"Paul responds, "Yup."
"THIS is the tenor of the Paul campaign. Vowing not to be afraid to lose...Paul is running a call-it-as-he-sees-it offensive on Republicans who've strayed from fiscal conservatism. He is anti-waste...anti-tax...anti-bailout...anti-TARP...anti-Stimulus. He gets that from his dad. Paul is the son of the nation's most famous Libertarian...Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
"The younger Paul has tapped into a chord of discontent...call it an anti-establishment vibe in voters...especially among Tea Party members. Not surprisingly...Tea Partiers are pretty fond of Paul.
""The bail-outs? Half the Republicans voted for the bail-outs. We don't need more Repulicans. We need more Conservatives," says Mica Sims...mother...blogger and Lexington Tea Party organizer. After talking with all the GOP candidates for Senate...she decided to back Paul.
""I KNOW he's a fiscal conservative," says Sims.
"Getting back to McCreary County...after Paul all but called Hal Rogers an un-repentant part of Washington's budget woes...Trey Grayson stepped to the mic.
* * *
"Grayson refered to "one of my opponents"...but it was clear this one was lobbed at Paul:
"When he's calling out career politicians...he's calling out Hal Rogers and Mitch McConnell...and let me tell you one thing. Hal Rogers and Mitch McConnell are part of the solution in Washington. They are not part of the problem!"
"A standing ovation followed.
"The only Republican more popular than Hal Rogers in Kentucky's 5th district...might be Mitch McConnell. It was an apt move by Grayson. Rogers and McConnell can mobilize a lot of votes come primary day...and Grayson seems likely to get their help.
"Rand Paul doesn't care. He's calling them as he sees them...no matter which Republican's feathers get ruffled.
""If we don't believe in bailing out private businesses...we shouldn't be voting for it. If we don't believe in government ownership of banks...we should be voting for it," says Paul.
"Meanwhile in McCreary County...where Rogers and McConnell are legends...and Grayson is very well liked...a curious thing has settle in to the area...that anti-establishment feeling among folks.
"Tim Gorder...chairman of the McCreary County GOP says,"They're tired of the ones that's already been in office. It's gonna be close between Rand and Trey...I figure...as of right now."
Sick and Tired of being sick and tired? Elect More Democrats! Kenneth Stepp.

Now it's Obama 56%, "Mitch" McConnell 20% national approval ratings!

"Daily Kos Weekly State of the Nation Poll
Research 2000, Adults MoE 2%, Feb 01, 2010 - Feb 04, 2010 (last week's results in parentheses)
Full Crosstabs FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON'T KNOW NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA 56 (55) 42 (43) 2 (2) 2

PELOSI: 40 (39) 51 (51) 9 (10) 1
REID: 26 (27) 64 (63) 10 (10) -2
McCONNELL: 20 (21) 62 (61) 18 (18) -2
BOEHNER: 20 (20) 62 (61) 18 (19) -1

CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 38 (37) 58 (59) 4 (4) 2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 20 (21) 64 (63) 16 (16) -2

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 39 (38) 56 (57) 5 (5) 2
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 32 (33) 59 (59) 9 (8) -1"
Now it's Obama 56%, "Mitch" McConnell 20% national approval ratings! I'll bet "Mitch" McConnell is really glad that he did not have to run in a nationwide election against President Obama last time, or "Mitch" would have been voted out of office!

"Mitch" McConnell favors further trampling on your Bill of Rights!

"The Politics of Fear
The New York Times online
Published: February 9, 2010
"An election is coming, so the Republicans are trying to scare Americans by making it appear as if the Democrats don’t care about catching or punishing terrorists.
"It’s nonsense, of course, but effective. The be-very-afraid approach helped former President George W. Bush ram laws through Congress that chipped away at Americans’ rights. He used it to get re-elected in 2004. Now the Republicans are playing the fear card for the fall elections.
"The most recent target is the Obama administration’s handling of the failed Christmas Day bomber, particularly its decision (an absolutely correct one) to have the F.B.I. arrest and interrogate the suspect and file federal terrorism charges rather than throw him into a military prison where the Republicans seem to expect that he would be given no rights, questioned and held without charges.
"Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, suggested — without any evidence — that vital intelligence was lost by that approach. Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, told Politico that he wants to block financing for civilian trials of terrorism suspects so Republicans can brag about it this fall. He said “the core question is whether the attorney general of the United States ought to be in charge of the war on terror.”

As Mr. McConnell should know perfectly well, that is not the question at all, core or otherwise. The Obama administration has embraced the idea of using military tribunals for some terrorism suspects. The Christmas bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was arrested in the United States. The American justice system does not allow people arrested in the United States for serious offenses to be detained and held without access to an attorney.

It is good that the administration is pushing back.

In a five-page letter to Mr. McConnell, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said that the handling of Mr. Abdulmutallab followed the sensible practices of presidents of both parties. Although Mr. Abdulmutallab stopped talking at one point, he has since begun cooperating, according to administration officials. Law enforcement agents know that many defendants talk after being told of their right to remain silent, Mr. Holder noted.

Republicans like to say that Mr. Obama is giving new rights to terrorists. But Mr. Holder’s letter noted that the Bush administration prosecuted more than 300 people on terrorism-related charges in federal courts without a whiff of complaint from those same Republicans. He said those included Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber; Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks; the man charged with plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge; and another who schemed to bomb the Los Angeles airport.

The Republican propaganda is a distraction from the real issue: that the counterterrorism system is malfunctioning more than eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks. Like many of the nation’s other problems, Mr. Obama inherited this one. For eight years, Congress failed in its legal duty to oversee the intelligence community and the basic operational tasks of the Department of Homeland Security and correct the abusive system of detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere that made our country more vulnerable, not less.

Congress should be helping the president fix those problems, not piling up sound bites for November and trying to bring that shameful detention system home."
Let's Ditch Mitch.

Rand Paul not welcome at Pulaski County event

"Paul not welcome at Pulaski County event
by Joe Arnold
Posted on February 8, 2010 at 12:06 AM
Updated yesterday at 10:42 AM
"No offense to my friends in Spencer County, but I was wondering why Rand Paul decided to speak at the Spencer County Lincoln Day dinner on Friday night, as opposed to the Pulaski County Lincoln Day dinner that same night. Pulaski County has six times as many registered Republicans as Spencer County (28,137 in Pulaski vs. 4,427 in Spencer).
"As it turns out, Paul was not invited to speak by the Pulaski County GOP after a speech at the Pulaski GOP picnic last fall, at which Paul railed against incumbent Congressmen, calling them "people (who) trade their votes to get pork barrel projects for their district."
"U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) was on the dais during the nine minute speech, and was reportedly upset by Paul's insinuations. Rogers has been in Congress since 1981 and has been villified over the years for pork barrel spending in his own district. The Lexington Herald-Leader has called him the "Prince of Pork," and a number of national publications have similarly criticized him.
"In the October speech, Paul said long time Congressmen "need to come back to our state and live like we do."
"Paul campaign manager David Adams confirms the snub by the Pulaski County GOP, and a connection to the speech last fall. Adams appeared at the Pulaski County dinner, while Paul -- trailed by CNN cameras -- spoke in Spencer County."

Of course Rand Paul in unwelcome in Hal Rogers territory. Rand Paul favors withdrawing the U.S. troops from Iraq; Hal Rogers says "Stay the Course". Rand Paul rails against pork barrel spending; Hal Rogers is "Mr. Pork Barrel". It would be nice if the Republican Party would revert to the policies that Kenneth Stepp supports. If you want to end the war, elect more Democrats. If you want to reduce national pork barrel spending and see a higher portion of Federal spending done in the national interest rather than for local pork barrel projects, then elect more Democrats. If Rand Paul is opposed to outright looting of the national treasury by the pork barrel interests, then it is no surprise that he was unwelcome at the Pulaski County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner. Elect More Democrats. Vote Stepp for U.S. House.

Free James Burmeister!

My first car.

I'm on the left. My brother Jim is on the right. He had just sold me my first car. It was a 1963 Plymouth Belvedere, and had a push-button gear shift. I took it across country and sold it to a Greek Naval Officer in California for five hundred dollars. I understand he was going to ship it to Greece and drive it several more years. They have a lot of respect for vintage automobiles in Greece, I understand. That was back a few years, in 1968, I believe. Kenneth Stepp.

Kenneth Stepp's Dad and Mom, a few years back.

I miss Dad. Mom is ninety two, and we went to visit her a few weeks ago. Kenneth Stepp.

The Founding Fathers and Hal Rogers!

Imagine that Hal Rogers visited with our founding fathers Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Boone in heaven.
HAL ROGERS: "You-uns would be proud of what we have done to your Republic during the time I have been in Congress. Why, we have American troops occupying Iraq--which was cobbled from the three easternmost provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Also, we have American troops leading the foreign occupation of Afghanistan, and we convinced sixty of our allies to have troops there, also. Furthermore, we have an American base at Guantanamo Bay, which is attached to Communist Cuba, and we operate a prison there that has been deemed to be outside the jurisdiction of U.S. Courts, and where we can keep the prisoners blindfolded,and do whatever we want to do with them, and hold them indefinitely without giving them a trial, or even bringing any charges against them.
THE FOUNDING FATHERS: "Get away from us! We don't know you!"
Kenneth Stepp.

Pork! Pork! Pork!

Pork or Progress? Vote for Progress! Vote for Stepp for Congress!

Hal Rogers, a National Disgrace!

May 17, 2006
Hal Rogers: A Congressional Disgrace
National Review Online: Kentucky Congressman Abuses His Power
[The National Security Agency collected the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans, and angry members of Congress say they want an investigation. Bill Plante reports.]
"Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky. (AP)
".(National Review Online) This column was written by the editors.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Harold Rogers, the smooth-talking Republican congressman from Kentucky, has emerged in recent weeks as an exemplary figure of congressional disgrace. Private companies have courted his favor with political donations, golf excursions, and exotic vacations — and he, in turn, has channeled millions of taxpayer dollars in their direction. From his powerful position as chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, he has plied constituents and corporations alike with funds from the national treasury. It is the work of the likes of Hal Rogers that has driven Congress' approval rating to 22 percent — and if more people knew of him, that number would only sink lower.
"As the man in charge of Congress’s homeland-security budget, Rogers’s abuse of federal funds is not just a financial scandal — it is a matter of national security. Instead of directing his budget with the sole aim of providing for the public defense, he has turned the power of his position to his benefit — and, by extension, to the benefit of the companies who finance him and the local constituents who keep him in office.
"As The New York Times recently recounted, lawmakers decided in 2002 to implement a standardized, tamper-proof, biometric ID card that would be issued to transportation workers nationwide. Rogers took this as an opportunity, inserting language into appropriations bills requiring that the new ID card rely on old technology that was produced at a plant in his district. Frustrated Homeland Security officials had to endure a lengthy delay and pay $4 million for a comparison study to show that the technology they preferred was superior to the one required by Rogers.
"As the new ID card was developed and tested, Rogers kept up his meddling. He required that the new-technology production sites be relocated in Kentucky, and he helped award millions of dollars in contracts to various Kentucky companies that had together donated around $100,000 to his political campaigns. One of these companies employed Rogers' son as a computer-systems administrator.
"When Homeland Security officials decided that transportation workers would have to undergo background checks before being issued their new ID cards, Rogers again sprang into action. He stuck an earmark into an appropriations bill, mandating that a no-bid contract be given to the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) to handle the background-check operation at a price of tens of millions of dollars.
"The Times reports that since 2000, the AAAE has paid for trips for Rogers and his wife totaling more than $75,000, "including six visits to Hawaii, four to California, and one to Ireland." In addition, the group has donated around $18,000 to Rogers' political campaigns in the last four years, and, in 2002, it honored him with its Congressional Leadership Award.
"Rogers and his staff maintain that the earmark for the AAAE was motivated purely by considerations of speed and convenience. But since when have those things mattered to Rogers? His interference in this matter has only delayed the implementation of the new ID cards.
"A public outcry has caused the AAAE's no-bid deal to be rescinded. Various companies will now have a chance to bid on the contract, which we hope will be awarded on the basis of merit.
"But Rogers' disgrace cannot be rescinded, and it stands as a reminder of the need for congressional earmark reform. The House leadership deserves credit for already pushing one such reform, but there is still a long way to go. The power of lawmakers to direct public funds to private recipients with little oversight is a great facilitator of corruption. If anyone wonders why many conservatives recoil in disgust from the current Congress, look no further than Chairman Rogers."
Haven't you HAD ENOUGH? Elect More Democrats. Elect Stepp for U.S. House KY-05!

Rolling Stone's 10 worst Congressmen:of 10 9. BIN LADEN'S BEST FRIEND

Rolling Stone Magazine's Ten Worst Congressmen:
of 10 9. BIN LADEN'S BEST FRIEND
HAL ROGERS (R-KY.)






of 10 9. BIN LADEN'S BEST FRIEND
HAL ROGERS (R-KY.)

No congressman has single-handedly put America at greater risk than Rogers. As chairman of the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security, he has placed the interests of his own district ahead of defending the nation from Al Qaeda, prompting even the archconservative National Review to call him a "congressional disgrace."

Since the 9/11 attacks, Rogers has abused his position to steer production of a system designed to enhance airport security to a factory in Corbin, Kentucky. The trouble is, the factory wasn't equipped to produce the tamperproof biometric ID cards favored by security experts. So Rogers forced the government to spend $4 million to test the factory's technology -- steering some of the work to a tiny company that hired his son. When the factory flunked the test, Rogers delayed the process again, demanding that prototypes for new cards be built in Kentucky.

Rogers also steered a no-bid contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a trade group with no relevant experience in airport security -- after the group paid for Rogers to take six trips to Hawaii and one to Ireland. "It's as if he grabbed people off the street and said, 'Hey, would you manage a critical homeland-security program? No experience required,' ?says Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste.

Complaints by experienced contractors ultimately forced Rogers to open the project to competitive bidding -- further delaying the improvements to airport security until next year at the earliest."

I'm Taking My Country Back!

It's time to take our country back from the Republicans! Elect More Democrats! Vote Stepp for U.S. House KY-5!

Poll of 2003 Republicans nationwide.

"Bruce Bartlett on "why I am not a Republican":

I can only conclude from this new poll of 2003 self-identified Republicans nationwide that between 20% and 50% of the party is either insane or mind-numbingly stupid."

That's why I keep saying, Elect More Democrats!

Favorable Performance Ratings, Obama 55%, "Mitch" McConnell 21%

"Daily Kos Weekly State of the Nation Poll
Research 2000, Adults MoE 2%, Jan 25, 2010 - Jan 28, 2010 (last week's results in parentheses)
Full Crosstabs FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON'T KNOW NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA 55 (54) 43 (44) 2 (2) 2

PELOSI: 39 (40) 51 (50) 10 (10) -2
REID: 27 (28) 63 (62) 10 (10) -2
McCONNELL: 21 (22) 61 (61) 18 (17) -1
BOEHNER: 20 (21) 61 (60) 19 (19) -2

CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 37 (38) 59 (58) 4 (4) -2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 21 (21) 63 (62) 16 (17) -1

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 38 (39) 57 (56) 5 (5) -2
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 33 (34) 59 (58) 8 (8) -2"
Let's elect more Democrats.

The Candidate's Wife is a Photo Prize Winner!

Above is a timed photo taken by the candidate's wife, Wilma Stepp, who took most of the photos on this web site. She is shown holding her prize-winning photo she took of Mr. Gray Squirrel on the Bird Feeder, and is wearing the bronze medallion that she was awarded for that photo, and is sitting behind the silver bowl that she was awarded for that picture. Pictured are Wilma Stepp, Kenneth Stepp, Conrad Stepp and Carson Stepp, in Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky.

Famous Republicans!

Stepp's Pikeville Speech Lays out Platform

STEPP'S PIKEVILLE SPEECH LAYS OUT PLATFORM. On Saturday, April 22, 2006, Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives for the Fifth Kentucky District, Kenneth Stepp gave a speech to the people attending the annual Hillbilly Day at the Pike County Courthouse in Pikeville, Kentucky. Stepp said that as a Democratic Congressman, he would vote for expanding programs such as SSI and Medicaid which benefit poor people. He added, we should use the American tax dollars for rebuilding the American economic infrastructure, and not in military adventures abroad. He stated, we need to spend a higher portion of our federal budget on education and roads, and revenue sharing grants to the State governments. He explained that he would like to see improved education qualify the people of the Fifth District and Kentucky for the high-paying jobs of the future. The Democrat added, the Federal government can help with edcational revenue sharing grants and Pell grants to upgrade the educational systems in Kentucky and the Fifth District so that people here can get a good education here, and remain in their home towns with high-paying, healthy jobs.
Concerning education, candidate Stepp explained that the key to prosperity, individual or national, is through education. Education improves the national defense, and as such is a proper area for federal funding through increased Pell grants, and revenue sharing. The Federal government should give special tax credits to classroom teachers, and help Americans get better educations.
Concerning health care, the Democrat said he favors more generosity in the Federal health care programs for children, veterans, Medicaid beneficiaries, and senior citizens, but that he does not favor increasing governmental mandatory spending requirements on independent businessmen.
On the War on Terror, Stepp said that he would like to see Osama bin Laden captured, and brought to the crime scene at New York City for a jury trial. He added that he is sure a New York City jury would see that that terrorist gets what he deserves. He added that the effort to bring democracy to Iraq seems doomed. Stepp concluded, "We have shown the people of the Middle East that they should not mess with the United States and we should withdraw our troops from that area, now that our point has been made."

Stepp for Congress

I am Kenneth Stepp, a candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, Fifth District, Kentucky, and a Democrat.
As far as my background, I am married to the former Wilma Smith, who was born at Red Bird in Clay County, Kentucky. We have two children together, Carson Stepp and Conrad Stepp. I have one son, Brian Stepp by a previous (deceased) wife, and he lives with his wife Janean in South Carolina.
I am a Baptist, and am a member of Macedonia Baptist Church in Burning Springs, Kentucky. I also attend regularly the Indian Graves Branch United Baptist Church of Bright Shade, Kentucky. Denomination is not important to me, as I have been a Methodist, and I have been a Presbyterian.
Professionally, I am a lawyer in Manchester, Kentucky, where I have worked since June 2004.
Why do I wish to serve the 5th Congressional District?
Traditionally, the Democratic Party has been the party of poor people and the working poor, while the Republican Party has been the champion of
the wealthy. The 5th District has some of the poorest counties in the country; yet the 5th District has a Republican Congressman. As a Democratic Congressman for the 5th District, I would vote for expanding programs such as SSI and Medicaid which benefit poor people. Wars are often termed “Rich man’s fight, poor man’s war” meaning that rich people get all the benefits from war, but poor people do more than their share of suffering and dying when America goes off to war; I would not vote for a “war powers resolution” and if a nation is unworthy of a declaration of war, we should not invade it. We should use the American tax dollars for rebuilding the American economic infrastructure, and not in military adventures abroad.
What are my priorities in the federal budget?
I favor reducing subsidies to corporations or “corporate welfare” and reducing sending money overseas. We should bring most of our troops home. People in the Fifth District of Kentucky are not threatened by dissidents in Iraq, and we should bring home any Kentucky soldiers fighting in Iraq. We have too many troops stationed overseas. The Soviet Union has collapsed and NATO now includes most of the Central European former Warsaw Pact Nations and Central European former parts of the Soviet Union. We need to spend a higher portion of our federal budget on education, and roads, and revenue sharing grants to the State governments.
What is my vision for the 5th District? For Kentucky?
I would like to see improved education qualify the people of the 5th District and Kentucky for the high-paying jobs of the future. Coal extraction has been our chief occupation, but it is dangerous work that ruins people’s lungs. Increased automation in coal mining has resulted in a massive outflow of people from Eastern Kentucky. Other Southern states have been able to attract high-paying factories and industries, and Kentucky should do the same. The Federal Government can help with educational revenue sharing grants and Pell grants to upgrade the educational systems in Kentucky and the 5th District so that people here can get a good education here, and remain in their home towns with high-paying, healthy jobs.
Would I call “partisan politics” a problem in Washington, DC?
Yes.
If so, how can I change it?
Although a Democrat, I know personally one Congressman, Republican Cliff Stearns. As a Congressman, I will try to make friends with Congressmen on both sides of the political aisle. I will study each bill and base my vote on my independent opinion of whether the bill is best for the 5th District and for America. I will try to be kind to everyone in Congress, and to be unfriendly to no one. Name-calling and petty bickering are unnecessary in Congress and should be avoided. I will be the Congressman of all of the people of the 5th District, and not just of a particular faction or group.
What are my views on education?
The key to prosperity, individual or national, is through education. Education improves the national defense, and as such is a proper area for federal funding through increased Pell grants, and revenue sharing. The federal government should give special tax credits to classroom teachers, and help Americans get better educations.
What are my views on health care?
Americans already spend approx. fifteen per cent of our Gross Domestic Product on health care, which is almost twice as much as Britain or Japan spend on health care. I favor more generosity in the Federal health care programs for children, veterans, Medicaid beneficiaries, and senior citizens, but I do not favor increasing governmental mandatory spending requirements on independent businessmen.
What are my views on The War on Terror?
The War on Terror began on 9/11 and has resulted in American armed forces militarily occupying Afghanistan and Iraq and searching the hamlets of
Central Asia for Osama bin Laden, who seems to be hiding in a cave somewhere. I would like to see Osama bin Laden captured, and brought to the crime scene at New York City for a jury trial. I am sure a New York City jury would see that he gets what he deserves. The effort to bring democracy to Iraq seems doomed. We have shown the people of the Middle East that they should not mess with the United States, and we should withdraw our troops from that area, now that our point has been made.
KENNETH STEPP
CANDIDATE FOR U.S.HOUSE, KY FIFTH DIST.

Email: kenneth_stepp@yahoo.com
web site: http://www.steppforcongress.blogspot.com