RUTHFULLY YOURS

Primary: June 3, 2014

To see the actual voting records of all incumbents on other issues such as Foreign Policy, Second Amendment Issues, Homeland Security, and other issues as well as their rankings by special interest groups please use the links followed by two stars (**).
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U.S. Senate

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Senator Richard Shelby (R) – Next Election 2016
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Senator Jefferson “Jeff” Sessions (R) Incumbent

http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/jeff_sessions.htm **
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
IMMIGRATION
http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressShop.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=8330412a-cb74-da9e-ca37-39e9719ef511
Sessions: President’s Immigration Plan Would ‘Hollow out a Shrinking Middle Class’
Thursday, February 6, 2014 – WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement on the need for immigration reform to be redefined to serve the interests of working Americans:
“The Administration’s aggressive defiance of congressionally enacted law is a profound obstacle in the way of any proposed immigration changes. Moreover, the Administration’s actions undermine the constitutional system that provides all residents with a hopeful future. I warned about the problem addressed today by Speaker Boehner before the Gang of Eight introduced their proposal, saying then that: ‘No comprehensive plan can pass Congress as long as this Administration continues to defy existing federal law.’
President Obama must end the immigration lawlessness.
The problem, however, is not limited to one of trust. Even if the President could be trusted, the Senate Democrat plan he embraces would deliver a hammer blow to working Americans. The President’s plan doubles the flow of immigrant workers to compete against unemployed Americans and triples the number of mostly lesser-skilled permanent immigrants granted legal residency over the next decade.
ECONOMY/JOBS/ENVIRONMENT
http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=IssueStatements.View&Issue_id=727c1134-a9e6-7be1-28dd-f09041a6b5fc
Nuclear power is the most environmentally friendly component of America’s current energy portfolio. Over 20% of United States electricity is currently produced by nuclear power plants. America can begin to end its dependence on foreign oil only by developing alternative fuels and increasing domestic oil and gas production. By spurring investment in new technologies, we can develop alternative energies here at home and bring jobs back to rural America.
HEALTHCARE
“This is just one example of what happens in this country when people in Washington take on the arrogant view that they know how to fix the health care system — one of the most massive, complex, marvelous systems the world has ever known,” Sessions said on the Senate floor.”
Unopposed
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District 1
Bradley Byrne (R) Incumbent
http://www.byrneforcongress.com/
NO VOTING HISTORY…..elected in December 2013
Mobile, AL – December 17, 2013 -Bradley Byrne, the Republican nominee for Alabama’s First Congressional District, has claimed a resounding victory over Democrat Burton LeFlore in tonight’s special election contest to replace former Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL). Byrne announced his candidacy on June 4, finishing atop a field of 9 candidates in the initial Republican primary September 24, and claiming nearly 40,000 votes in the primary runoff election November 5 that received national media coverage.
Burton LeFlore (D) Challenger
LeFlore was a 2013 Democratic candidate seeking election to the U.S. House representing the 1st Congressional District He was defeated by Bradley Byrne (R) in the general election on December 17, 2013.
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District 2
Martha Roby (R) Incumbent

http://roby.house.gov/
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Martha_Roby.htm **
Rated -2 by AAI, indicating anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
http://roby.house.gov/issue/repeal-obamacare
HEALTHCARE
“Budget gimmicks and broken promises undermine Americans’ trust in government, and public opposition to the 400,000-word health care law was a driving force behind the Republican takeover of the House in 2010. Since then, we have voted 26 times to repeal the law, block its individual provisions, or defund its programs.”- The Greenville Advocate published Rep. Roby’s editorial about the President’s health care law, March 28, 2012.
ECONOMY/JOBS/ENVIRONMENT
FEDERAL REGULATIONS
http://roby.house.gov/issue/federal-regulations
“Harsh government restrictions imposed by the health care law and strict requirements implemented by the Environment Protection Agency are a few examples of federal regulations that drive up operating costs and hinder job growth. A few good rules enacted to ensure public safety and to protect our environment are necessary. However, we must stop unreasonable and heavy-handed restrictions that hurt job growth in some of our nation’s most critical industries.” – Rep. Roby in her weekly newsletter, March 20, 2012.
IMMIGRATION
http://roby.house.gov/issue/immigration
“Though I don’t serve on the Judiciary Committee, my staff and I are closely monitoring any developments relating to immigration. There’s no question our immigration system is broken and in need of reform, but it matters how we do it. I’m against offering amnesty for illegal immigrants. I will oppose any attempt at reform that won’t truly secure the border. And, I will fight to ensure American taxpayers aren’t forced to pay for the addition of millions illegal immigrants to the rolls of our assistance programs.” – Rep. Roby on the Senate Immigration proposal

Erik Wright (I) – Challenger
http://alabama2nd-justthinkwright.nationbuilder.com/
HOT BUTTON ISSUES: http://alabama2nd-justthinkwright.nationbuilder.com/issues
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District 3
Mike Rogers (R) Incumbent
http://www.mikerogersforcongress.com/index.html
http://www.ontheissues.org/MI/Mike_Rogers.htm **
Rated -2 by AAI, indicating anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
http://www.mikerogersforcongress.com/issues.html
ECONOMY/JOBS/ENVIRONMENT
Mike Rogers believes we need to end our dependence on foreign oil. As a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Mike believes to help make that happen our nation must, first, increase our domestic production of energy. Mike Rogers supports lifting immediately the ban on environmentally safe domestic energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf. Second, because our nation will not drill its way to energy independence
IMMIGRATION
As a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, Mike Rogers has worked to help strengthen our borders and slow the flow of illegal immigrants into our country. Like the vast majority of East Alabamians, Mike opposes amnesty of any kind.
HEALTHCARE
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/republican-voices-concern-about-data-security-obamacare-website-v21703475
“The most important part of this discussion that nobody talks about,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R- Mich., said on NBC’s Meet the Press, is that “the security of this site” and its ability to safeguard health and income information “does not meet even the minimal standards of the private sector.”
He argued that Americans “should not tolerate the sheer level of incompetence securing this site. And remember how much personal information is not only there, but all of the (federal government data) sites that the (healthcare.gov) hub accesses would expose Americans’ personal information in a way that is breathtakingly bad.”
Jessie Smith (D) Challenger
https://www.facebook.com/JesseSmithforCongress
My name is Jesse T. Smith and I am a United States Army Veteran of nearly 14 years as well as more than 2 years of federal civil service. Displaying exemplary leadership skills I was thereby inducted into and voted Vice-President of the Sergeant Audey Leon Murphy Leadership Club. This highly regarded achievement is only bestowed upon the top 2% of enlisted leaders. Possessing such skillful leadership traits served me well during my Army career and afforded me an unprecedented ability to work with people to get results.
Performed several high visibility mission critical leadership positions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) I and III, the conflict in the Balkans, and the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Working in extremely tense environments has given me the unique ability to lead a charge for change in Washington D.C.
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District 4
Robert Aderholt (R) Incumbent

http://aderholt.house.gov/#dialog
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Robert_Aderholt.htm **
Rated -3 by AAI, indicating anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
http://aderholt.house.gov/legislative-initiatives
Aderholt is a member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, which has jurisdiction over funding the operation of the federal government. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, he supports greater transparency, accountability and oversight to the appropriations process. Aderholt is also a member of the Commerce, Justice and Science; and the Homeland Security Subcommittees. An advocate of fiscal responsibility, truth in budgeting and a federal government that operates within its means Aderholt brings common-sense solutions to the Committee.
Aderholt is also a member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Commission). Founded in 1976, the Helsinki Commission is comprised of 56 countries around the world that together monitors human rights in Europe and Central Asia.
Unopposed
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District 5
Mo Brooks (R) Incumbent

http://brooks.house.gov/
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Mo_Brooks.htm **
Rated -4 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
IMMIGRATION http://brooks.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=142&sectiontree=85,5,142
Congressman Brooks has the highest rating in Congress from NumbersUSA for his fight to stop illegal immigration. Last year, he introduced HR 2670, Reclaiming America’s Dignity Act, to protect states that enact immigration laws from lawsuits from the federal government.
DEFENSE http://brooks.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=10
Congressman Brooks founded and co-chairs the Army Aviation Caucus, which has the mission of assuring Army Aviation has the support needed to successfully perform current and future missions. The bi-partisan Caucus is made up of more than 40 members and meets an average of once a month. In addition to educational sessions, the Caucus has sent letters to the Administration asking for clarification on several issues and is a great avenue for community and military involvement. Congressman Brooks has also introduced legislation (HR 4125, Protecting U.S. Missile Defense Information Act) to prohibit the Administration from giving away America’s classified missile defense information, including hit-to-kill technology.
HEALTHCARE http://brooks.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=11
Congressman Brooks voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on January 19, 2011, and he also has voted numerous times to repeal various PPACA provisions. On March 22, 2012, he voted for HR 5, Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, which caps medical malpractice lawsuit awards and repeals a Medicare advisory board (IPAB) created under the PPACA.
ECONOMY/JOBS/ENVIRONMENT http://brooks.house.gov/environment/
During this Congress, the House Republican plan for creating jobs and ending destructive policies has included several prominent pieces of legislation, such as the EPA Regulatory Relief Act and the Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2011, both of which the Congressman cosponsored. Unfortunately, many of these key common-sense bills have been held up in the Senate.
Mark Bray (I) Challenger
http://brayforcongress.com/

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District 6
Representative Spencer Bachus (R) Is Retiring – Incumbent

http://www.ontheissues.org/house/spencer_bachus.htm **
PaulDeMarco(R) Challenger
http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/10/rep_paul_demarco_announces_cam.html

Mark Lester (D) Challenger

http://www.lesterforcongress.com/environment

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE

We need to talk sense about Health Care…

We need to quit making health care a partisan issue. Talking about the wholesale repeal of the Affordable Care Act doesn’t work to solve the real problems that plague our health care system. We need to talk specifics. I support:

•making health insurance available to people with pre-existing conditions;
•preventing discrimination against women in the health care industry;
•ensuring that health insurance companies spend a minimum percentage of their premiums on health care;
•allowing children to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until the age of twenty-six.

ENVIRONMENT

By being good stewards of our environment, we will strengthen our nation’s health, national security, and economy. We need to ensure that we have effective protections for our environment. Let’s face it, the science is unmistakable: our planet is experiencing climate change. Climate change not only threatens agricultural production, but it also risks more floods and droughts. We must address such developments by taking advantage of “21st Century Energy” sources.

FOREIGN POLICY

America must continue its democratic leadership role in the world. We must present Iran from obtaining the capability of producing nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them. We should continue political, military, economic, diplomatic and other efforts against Al Qaeda and ISIS. Most importantly, while we want to be fair, we need to support the State of Israel, always remembering it is a nation that shares our values of liberty, pluralism, and the rule of law.

WOMEN

For too long, women have been second-class citizens in our country, even though our society has long recognized that men and women are equal. Even today, women make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. This is not right. We need to support laws that reflect our society’s values, effectively ensuring that women get equal pay for equal work and cracking down on violent crimes against women. Women should also have access to a full range of reproductive health care options—contraception, maternity/newborn care, and safe abortion services. Finally, if we have any hope of seeing our economy work at its full capacity, we must provide greater subsidies for child care.

District 7
Terri Sewell (D) Incumbent

http://www.sewellforcongress.com/about_terri
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Terri_Sewell.htm **
Rated -2 by AAI, indicating anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
HEALTHCARE
http://sewell.house.gov/health-care/
“Every person in the 7th Congressional District, Alabama and across America deserves access to affordable, quality health care, whether you live in a city or a small town. That is why I strongly support President Obama’s health care plan and the health care reform signed in to law last March.”
http://www.sewellforcongress.com/campaign_news/press_clips?id=0142

Sewell pushes for more black federal judges
IMMIGRATION
http://yellowhammernews.com/nationalpolitics/terri-sewell-lashes-out-at-alabamas-atrocious-immigration-policy/
AUGUST 2013: On Friday following President Barack Obama’s press conference, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, attacked Alabama’s immigration law and said she hopes the U.S. House will heed the president’s calls for comprehensive immigration reform.
Sewell appeared on MSNBC’s “Martin Bashir” and accused her home state of denying citizenship to illegal immigrants while helping the economies of neighboring Georgia and Mississippi.
“I really hope that we can in the House get some sort of comprehensive immigration reform,” Sewell said. “I’m very doubtful we’ll have the kind of bill that came out of the senate which is unfortunate because I think we here in Alabama have seen what happens when a state takes upon itself to implement an atrocious immigration policy. You know, our state had HB56 in which the state of Alabama basically tried to destroy any hopes of folks getting, you know, citizenship in America.”
ECONOMY/JOBS/ENVIRONMENT
Voted For Keystone, But Also for the Waxman Amendment
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) offered an amendment that provided evidence that the reliance on oil sands crude would increase greenhouse gas emissions and that would thus prevent the bill from taking effect until these emissions are offset.
Unopposed

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/

The Obama administration, in its first and second terms, has committed strategic mistakes in the Middle East which will undermine U.S. national and security interests for many years, even under subsequent administrations after 2016.

The damage done is severe, and a remedy seems out of reach unless earth shattering changes are applied to Washington’s foreign policy-either under the incumbent’s administration or the next. The common core of U.S. strategic mistakes has been the perception of partners in the region since day one of the post-Bush presidency. While Bush’s narrative on backing pro-democracy forces was right on track, the bureaucracy’s actions betrayed the White House’s global aim. By the time the Obama administration installed itself on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2009, little had been accomplished by the Bush bureaucrats in regards to identifying these pro-democracy forces and supporting them. When the current administration replaced Bush, however, civil society groups in the Middle East were systematically abandoned-aid to their liberal forces was cut off and engagement with the radicals became priority. The mistakes of the Bush bureaucracy became the official policy of the Obama administration.

Washington’s “new beginnings” in the region moved American Mideast policy in a backward direction on two major tracks. The first derailment was to partner with the Muslim Brotherhood, not the secular NGOs, in an attempt to define the future of Arab Sunni countries. The second was to engage the Iranian regime, not its opposition, in attempt to define future relations with the Shia sphere of the region. These were strategic policy decisions planned years before the Arab Spring, not a pragmatic search for solutions as upheavals began. Choosing the Islamists over the Muslim moderates and reformers has been an academically suggested strategy adapted to potential interests-even though it represents an approach contrary to historically successful pathways. In June 2009, President Obama sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader asking for “engagement.” This move, coupled with Obama’s abandonment of the civil revolt in Iran that same month, sent a comforting message to the ruling Khomeinists: The United States is retreating from containment and will not support regime change in Iran. That undeniably emboldened Tehran to go on the offensive in the region after less than a decade of status quo.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/28/babbin-the-coming-turmoil-in-saudi-arabia/ There are so many trouble spots in the world, it is comforting to know — or at least to believe — that Saudi Arabia isn’t one of them. Until the United States surpassed the kingdom a few months ago, Saudi Arabia was the world’s biggest producer of oil, a country of enormous wealth and […]

Saturday evening, Feb. 22nd, University of Pennsylvania Law School hosted the “Eighth Annual Muslim Law Students Conference,” on the topic of “MUSLIM OBLIGATIONS IN PROMOTING JUSTICE IN AMERICA.” Our interest in Islamic law as American citizens is to learn first-hand exactly what Muslim American law students are being taught.

The fairly innocuous and well-meaning title of the program masked the true intent, which we believe is to lull the audience and our society into a false sense of complacency regarding the real aims and effects of Islamic incursion in our society – which Stephen Coughlin covers in his must-read thesis, ” To Our Great Detriment.”

We were greeted with “As-Salamu ‘ Alaykum” (Peace be upon you), upon entering the conference and by each speaker, prior to presentation. What a comforting greeting. I responded with “Aslim Taslam.”

As is typically the case, conference attendees were highly educated and polite. This is a high-end mix of people who are difficult to fault on any personal level.

The attendees, primarily American and foreign Muslim law students, as well as a few foreign lawyers, presented a mixed canvas racially, yet each person is culturally Islamic and a member of the ummah, the global body of believers. The speakers and each future American lawyer we spoke with advised us that Islam has been misinterpreted for 1,400 years. Isn’t that amazing? As if we had no ability to study the history of Islam from both Muslim and non-Muslim sources on our own.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-Fray-Watershed-event-for-Israel-advocacy-in-US-343830

Notwithstanding accumulated achievement over the past two decades, there are growing signs that a changing of the guard in America’s oldest Zionist organization is called for.

Founded in 1897, the Zionist Organization of America is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States…. ZOA is dedicated to educating the public, elected officials, media and college/high school students about the truth of the ongoing and relentless Arab war against Israel.
– ZOA website

Elections for the position of ZOA president will be held on March 9. It is difficult to overstate the potential impact the result may have.

Indeed, these elections could well prove to be a watershed event in pro-Israel advocacy in America, with far reaching implications for right-wing activism within the US – and for the interfacing with like-minded organizations within Israel. But whatever the result it seems highly probable that what was in the past, will not be in the future – at least not for long.

Why these elections are important

Why are the upcoming ZOA elections so pivotal, with implications far beyond the intra-organizational question of who will inherit, or retain, the mantle of leadership? As readers will recall, in several recent columns, I have leveled severe criticism at the performance of the Israeli Right for failing to generate any effective impact on Israel’s policy- making regarding what is arguably the most vital issue on the national agenda: The promotion/prevention of Palestinian statehood, and its necessary derivatives – the territorial dimensions of the State of Israel and the question of its delegitimization as the nationstate of the Jews.

Back to ZOA elections and their broader significance There exists – for better or for worse – a symbiotic relationship between Israel-advocacy organizations in the Diaspora, notably the US, and like-minded entities in Israel, be they political parties, ideological movements or policy-oriented institutions. Vapidity or vitality in one will inevitably induce similar qualities in the other.

Perhaps one of the most effective – albeit regrettable – examples of this mutual invigoration of co-ideologists, is that which prevails between left-wing organizations in Israel and abroad. The mutual exchange of financial resources to sustain dovish advocacy operations, on the one hand, and intellectual inputs to support the promotion of dovish ideology, on the other, have resulted in the virtual dominance of left-wing perspectives over Israeli policy making – despite their manifest failure.

Mutual nourishment on Left; mutual deprivation on Right

By contrast there is virtually no such parallel process of mutual nourishment on the Right. On the contrary, there has been, to a large measure, a condition of mutual deprivation, in which hard-line hawkish entities in Israel have been starved of financial resources and, hence, have been unable to provide powerful and persuasive intellectual inputs for ideologically compatible organizations abroad to help them garner public support overseas.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com  http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS   Type 1 diabetes treatment success.  Clinical trials of Alpha 1 Antitrypsin (AAT), developed by Dr Eli Lewis of Ben Gurion University, reduced insulin dependence in Type 1 diabetes sufferers and cured several of the disease.  Some physicians are now prescribing AAT as an off-label treatment ahead of FDA approval. […]

The Price of Progress – The Poor Will Always Be With Us   http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ “If the poor didn’t exist, we would have to invent them,” Pogue said, spooning kneaded balls of raw spinach into his mouth. Pogue was Anson’s superior though the term no longer existed in the workplaces of the Community. Pogue was the […]