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Iowa state Rep. Abdul-Samad to undergo brain surgery

admin — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:58:54 +0000

State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad is having surgery for a brain tumor on Wednesday, he wrote on his Facebook page Monday evening.

Rep. Abdul-Samad

Abdul-Samad (D-Des Moines) is an assistant minority leader in the Iowa House and also founder and CEO of Creative Visions. He has represented the state’s 66th House District since 2007.

“Peace be upon all, to all my friends who I consider my family,” he wrote. “We are all connected in one way or another. I am having surgery on a brain tumor Wednesday. Thank you all for your prayers.

“Now to matters at hand, the school board is drawing district lines for the board, are you involved? School has started, have we kept up with the children’s school work? My fathers are you involved with your child or children? Give your child or children a hug and say I love you at the same time. Peace.”

Abdul-Samad did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday morning.

NRLC Crashes Press Call as Debate Over Free Speech and Abortion Claims Heats Up

Jesse Zwick — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:11:19 +0000

With a U.S. District Court slated to rule today on the Susan B. Anthony List’s lawsuit over an Ohio law outlawing “false claims” in campaign ads, tensions are boiling among religious groups on both sides of the political aisle. The case centers around an ad launched by SBA List attacking a number of anti-abortion House Democrats for allegedly violating their principles by voting for health care reform bill, which the ad claims funded abortions.

The Catholic organization Catholics United hosted a conference call today to draw attention to the controversy and point out that the SBA List’s offending language in an Ohio ad — a billboard that read, “Shame on Steve Driehaus! Driehaus voted FOR taxpayer-funded abortion” — was also up on billboards attacking Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D) in Pennsylvania’s Third District. But the conversation with reporters was interrupted by National Right to Life Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, who disputed the claim that the ads were in fact untruthful and started a heated debate that at times got personal.

“Are you familiar with the 23-page sworn affidavit where we enumerate section by section the parts of the [health care reform] bill that allow federal funding of abortion?” Johnson asked Chris Korzen, Executive Director of Catholics United. “It’s online and available to anyone who wants to look at it.”

Johnson was responding in part to Korzen’s earlier remark that “in SBA’s lawsuit, the substance of their claims [against Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio)] is not addressed. The group effectively wants the right to spread false information and lie in order to influence campaigns.”

“Do you believe that I was lying when I signed the NRLC’s sworn affidavit to the Ohio Elections Commission?” Johnson later pressed.

At this point, a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter admonished Johnson for crashing the call and suggested he host his own call at a later juncture, saying Johnson “came with an agenda and not a question.”

“I write for the National Right to Life News with a readership of over 300,000. What’s your readership?” Johnson shot back at the reporter.

“That’s really not the issue,” an unidentified reporter on the call replied.

Reached for comment, Johnson explained, “I waited to the point when there were no more questions from anyone else, and at that point wanted to make it clear about where they could go for our view.” Johnson said he “signed a document which I swore to … and that to the best of my knowledge is accurate and truthful. So the statement by [Pax Christi USA Executive Director David] Robinson that no independent authority agrees that the enacted law contains provisions for abortion is ludicrous.”

Johnson called Rep. Driehaus’ complaint against SBA List to the Ohio Elections Commission “Nixonian.” “You have an office holder using a government agency and criminal enforcement mechanism to attack his opponents,” he said.

David Robinson of Pax Christi USA took an opposing different view of the case, arguing, “I don’t think that the risk for free speech is as great as the risk to our democracy if we allow lies to be held up on the same level of truths in our political discourse.”

Campaigns Prioritize Energy, But Offer Few Policy Specifics

Andrew Restuccia — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:09:43 +0000

The New York Times published this morning an analysis of the top campaign issues discussed on the websites of members of the House that are in close reelection races.

While health care emerged as the top issue on the sites, energy was mentioned as a key issue on 72 percent of both Democrats’ and Republicans’ sites. For Democrats, health care was mentioned on 79 percent of the lawmakers’ sites; energy tied jobs, education and gun rights for second place.

For Republicans, energy was also mentioned on 72 percent of sites, right behind health care and deficits spending. (Interestingly, gun rights was mentioned on 66 percent on Republican websites, 8 percent fewer than the Democrats’ sites.)

But Nate Silver, whose FiveThirtyEight.com was recently acquired by the Times, notes that Democrats are “having trouble articulating a clear set of policy goals,” particularly on energy, where some moderate House Democrats don’t want to draw undue attention to the cap-and-trade program they passed last year.

On energy, the Democrats do have a clearer policy proposal: their bill to introduce a cap-and-trade system, which passed the House last year but not the Senate. Many of the Democrats, however, spoke about “energy independence” in much vaguer terms (as did many Republicans). And a few – like Mike Oliverio, a conservative Democrat in West Virginia — noted their opposition to the cap-and-trade proposal.

House Dems Push Back on Obama Signing Statement

Matthew DeLong — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:14:37 +0000

The Associated Press reports that a group of senior House Democrats are concerned that a recent “signing statement” issued by President Obama is reminiscent of his predecessor’s reliance on the statements to undermine the will of Congress.

In a letter to the president, four Democrats including House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey said [they] were “surprised” and “chagrined” by Obama’s signing statement that accompanied a war spending bill.

[President George W.] Bush had relied on such statements to ignore laws he thought put unconstitutional limits on his executive power. Obama criticized Bush for frequently doing so but said he’d use them if authorized by the attorney general.

Obama’s signing statement said he wouldn’t allow provisions regarding international financial institutions to interfere with his ability to conduct foreign diplomacy.

‘Cramdown’ Bill Could Move This Week

Mike Lillis — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:12:54 +0000

House Democrats introduced legislation yesterday designed to stem the foreclosure crisis, including a provision empowering bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of primary mortgages — an option homeowners don’t have under current law.

The move comes less than a week after President Barack Obama unveiled his own sweeping plan to tackle the housing market collapse, which also featured support for the bankruptcy, or “cramdown,” provision — a move the finance and mortgage lending industries have fervently opposed.

The Hill points out, however, that there are some nuanced differences between the White House approach to cramdown and that of congressional Democrats:

When he unveiled his plan last week to help the housing sector, President Obama voiced support for allowing bankruptcy judges to alter mortgages, but emphasized that courts should be seen as a last resort. Loan modifications should be worked through between homeowners and the owner of the mortgage before homeowners turn to judges, he said.

The House bill says that a homeowner must have “attempted” to contact the lender or servicer before heading to a bankruptcy proceeding, but it does not require that the lender has received all the information. The bill also does not appear to limit the value of a mortgage that a judge can write down, which the financial services industry says opens the process up to far too many homeowners.

The House could bring the proposal to the floor as soon as Thursday,

As If We Didn’t Know That Bush and Oil Are One

Mike Lillis — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:05:42 +0000

No shocker here.

President George W. Bush announced today that he will release oil from the country’s emergency reserves in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. The reason? Because an oil company asked, of course.

From Reuters:

“Last night we got a request from a company doing business here in Louisiana and we met that request,” Bush told reporters, referring to a request by Citgo Petroleum Corp, which is owned by the Venezuelan state oil company.

“Oil was released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and we will continue to do that upon request by companies,” Bush said after being briefed on recovery efforts in Louisiana.

For months, House Democrats have been calling (to no avail) on the Bush administration to tap part of the petroleum reserves to ease fuel prices at the pump. Following Wednesday’s announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had some choice words for a president more receptive to oil companies than to Congress:

By ignoring the needs of consumers but responding to the request of oil companies, it is clear that the Bush-Cheney-McCain energy decisions are made with only one thing in mind — Big Oil.

Not that Pelosi’s plan to use the U.S. emergency cache is anything but a band-aid on a larger problem. But GOP criticism that the resource should be saved for emergencies only rings hollow considering that scores of Republican have spent the last month in Washington screaming from the rafters about the dire need to address the issue with an offshore drilling vote.

What do you call a debate in which neither side has a leg to stand on?