Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #217
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
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Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured
Articles Opportunities Petitions Communication to Our Members Commentaries from Our Members Amelia Kroeger: Tell Stupak to Accept Senate Language Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Sander Levin Replaces Charles Rangel Rage Ranges from Tea Partiers to Hate Groups State and Local Links
to the Beef What Our Legislators Are Doing to Our Schools King Co. Democrats LAC Budget News Needed Debates: Suzan DelBene and Tom Cramer Suzan DelBene: Why I’m Opposing Dave Reichert Nation and World Links to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: Emily’s List Jim Hightower Identifies Conservative Think Tanks* Beginning of Chinese Political Parties?* Our Liberal Spirit Acting to Force Republicans to React Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs · Federal Funding for Health and Education · Substituting
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week The possibilities are
numerous once we decide to act and not react. George Bernard Shaw
Calendar of Events
Wednesday, March 17 at 8 AM
- 1:30 PM at Bertha
Knight Landes Room, Seattle City Hall (600 4th Avenue) -- Waste
to Profit Workshop and Networking
Saturday, April 30 - May 2
at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle - Wellstone Action Campaign Management
Fundamentals, including:
· Activist track: For people interested in citizen lobbying,
issue advocacy, and community organizing, this track provides skills in how to
win on issues.
· Campaign track: This track focuses on how to be an effective staff or
volunteer member of a winning progressive campaign.
· Candidate track: This is for people who have made the decision to run
for office.
Varying cost. To
register.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Obtain
a free ‘Corporations Are Not People’ bumper sticker.
Petitions
Tell
your representative to support health care reform because it benefits children
in many ways.
Tell
President Obama and congress to ratify UN Convention on Protecting Rights of
the Child.
Tell
U.N. leaders to continue to protect elephants from poachers by barring ivory
sales.
Communication
to Our Members
Please Give Me Feedback
I would appreciate your feedback
concerning which parts of our newsletter you are least likely to read and which
parts you are most likely to read. On a
scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being least likely and 10 being most likely to read, do
you read?
·
Communication to
our members
·
Commentaries from
our members
·
Liberals and
Democrats
·
State and local
·
Nation and world
·
Links to the beef
(other Commentaries)
·
Liberal Spirit
·
Recommended Books
Do you sign any of the petitions? Just email
me with your reply. Thank you.
Commentaries
from Our Members
Amelia Kroeger: Tell Bart Stupak to accept Senate language
Even
though I do not think the Senate version of healthcare reform is what we need,
I also think we need something, no matter how watered-down, to begin addressing
healthcare. A group of Representatives, led by Bart Stupak, is
standing in the way. Today I am emailing, writing, and phoning Bart's offices
(in Michigan and DC) to ask him to vote 'yes' for the living and the
unborn - the Senate language also prohibits taxpayer dollars for
abortions. Analysis of the House & Senate language is copied below,
as well as all contact information for U.S. Representative Bart Stupak. Amelia
Kroeger
Differences in
legislative language
The dispute involves a subtle
difference in language between the version of healthcare reform passed by the
House and the version passed by the Senate.
In the House bill, insurance
firms would be prohibited from offering coverage for abortion, except in
isolated instances, to people who receive federal subsidies that help them buy
coverage. If a woman wanted abortion coverage, she would have to buy a separate
policy with her own money.
In the Senate bill, insurance
firms would be able to offer policies that include abortion coverage to people
helped by federal subsidies. However, none of Uncle Sam’s cash could be used to
pay for the abortion-related portion of that insurance. A woman would have to
write a separate check, with her own money, to pay for it.
In sum, when it comes to
coverage for abortions, in the House version you’d need two different policies.
In the Senate version you’d just need to write two checks – and anti-abortion
House members think that’s getting awfully close to federal funding for the
procedure.
Bart Stupak DC & Michigan
offices – email form: http://www.house.gov/stupak/contact0507.shtml,
2268 Rayburn House Office
Building, Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225
4735 (202) 225 4744 – Fax Toll free #s
to DC: 1-800-270-0309, 1-866-220-0044
Liberals
and Democrats
Health Care Reform
Republicans are
continually warning Democrats that if they pass health care reform, voters will
punish them. Be wary of advice from your
opponents. Republicans are not trying to
help Democrats with this advice. Republicans
are instead afraid that Democrats will pass health care reform and be rewarded
by voters. If
health care reform fails, those who favor health care reform are less likely to
vote this fall.
Republicans
also continually accuse Democrats of being in such a rush to pass health care
reform that they aren’t transparent. But
if Republicans hadn’t continually wasted time, Democrats could much more easily
take some time to be more transparent.
To assuage
concerns by house Democrats that the Senate won’t pass a health care reform
reconciliation proposal, President
Obama would sign both the Senate measure and the reconciliation measure on the
same day. The house ratification of
the senate bill wouldn’t go into effect unless the senate passes a
reconciliation bill.
The reconciliation
measure could include a public option.
It could allow people under age 65 to buy into Medicare. But it probably won’t.
Michigan
Democratic Representative Bart Stupak says prospects
are good that a dispute over abortion can be resolved such that he and 11
other representatives will vote for reconciliation. This might be enough.
Health and
Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius seeks to confront private health insurers. President
Obama will reward bounty hunters who identify Medicare and Medicaid fraud and
waste. Labor
leaders threaten to oppose reelection of Democratic congress members who vote
against health care reform.
41
senators have indicated support
for reconciliation. 9 more are
needed, with Vice President Joe Biden breaking a 50-50 tie.
If health care
reform isn’t passed by the end of next week before the congress recesses, it
may not pass at all. Failure will also
demonstrate that Organizing
for America has little ability to pressure Democratic congress members who
resist health care reform.
Job Creation
Democrats
are proposing various jobs bills. For more.
Regulating Wall Street
Published on Friday, March 5, 2010 by Corporate Crime
Reporter
Ninety-five percent of criminologists study blue collar crime.
Five percent study white collar crime. Of the tiny minority who study white
collar crime, ninety five percent focus on the individuals who rip off the
corporation.
We are left with a small handful of criminologists – think Edwin
Sutherland, John Braithwaite, Gil Geis – who have studied or are studying –
corporate crime. That would be crime by the corporation. Bill Black is one of
the most prominent of those living corporate criminologists. His specialty –
control fraud. Control fraud is when the CEO of a company uses the corporation
as a weapon to commit fraud. Bill Black is a lawyer and former federal bank
regulator. He’s the author of the corporate crime classic – The Best Way to Rob
a Bank is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the
S&L Industry (University of Texas Press, 2005.) Black says there are steps
we can take as a society to control corporate crime – in particular financial
crime. In an interview with Corporate Crime Reporter last week, Black laid out
his top ten.
Number ten: Hire
1,000 FBI agents.
Pass legislation (HR 3995) introduced by Congresswoman Marcy
Kaptur that would fund the hiring of 1,000 FBI agents to investigate white
collar crime.
Number nine:
Appoint a chief criminologist at each of the financial regulatory agencies.
“Each agency needs someone who understands white collar crime,”
Black said. “If you don’t understand fraud schemes, if you don’t understand how
accounting is used to run these scams, you will always have a disaster in the
making.”
Number eight:
Fix executive compensation.
Black would tie executive bonuses to long term corporate
performance.
Number seven:
Target the top 100 corporate criminals.
“We need to do a top 100 priority list – the way it was done in
the savings and loan crisis,” Black said. “The FBI, the Justice Department and
the regulatory agencies got together and put together a list of top 100
companies to target. There was recognition that these were control frauds. The
top executives were using seemingly legitimate savings and loans as their
weapons of fraud. And that is why any serious look will tell you the same thing
about this most recent crisis as well. The criminal justice referral process
has collapsed at the agencies.”
Number six:
Regulate first.
“When you desupervise or deregulate an industry, in fact you are
decriminalizing control fraud. The regulators are the ones who make the bulk of
these cases. I’m not saying they can do it alone. In the current crisis, the
FBI had no meaningful support from the regulators. You have regulators denying
they were regulators and saying that there could be no fraud because the rating
agencies were handing out high ratings. That kind of naïveté is ideologically
driven. You will not have effective prosecution with that kind of regulatory regime.”
Number five:
Bust up the FBI partnership with the Mortgage Bankers Association.
“Now we have the FBI standing with what it calls its partners –
the Mortgage Bankers Association,” Black said. “But the Mortgage Bankers
Association – that’s the trade association of the perps. So, the FBI is
partnering with the perps.” “The result is – we have seen zero prosecutions of
the specialty non-prime lenders that caused the crisis,” Black said. “The
mortgage bankers are going to position themselves as the victims. This has been
so successful that the FBI now has a mantra. They are saying there are two
kinds of mortgage fraud. Fraud for profit and fraud for housing. And neither of
them is control fraud. They have effectively said – control fraud is
impossible. Even though it was the entire story behind the savings and loan
crisis, the Enron wave, and the creation of the most recent housing bubble.”
Number four:
Get rid of Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed. Replace him with Nobel prize
winner Joseph Stiglitz. “Ben Bernanke should not have been reappointed as head
of the Fed,” Black said. “He was the most senior regulator. And he was an utter
failure. Under President Bush, he was President of the Council of Economic
Advisors. So, he was a failure as a regulator. And he was a failure as an
economist.”
Number three:
Get rid of too big to fail.
There are about 20 banks that have assets of $100 billion or more.
They are considered too big to fail. “You do three things,” Black says. “First,
you stop them from growing. Second, you shrink them (to below $20 billion in
assets.) You create the tax and regulatory incentives where they have to shrink
below the level where they pose a systemic risk. And third, you regulate them
much more intensively while they are in the process of moving from a
systemically dangerous institution to a leaner, smaller, more efficient, less
dangerous institution.”
Number two: Create
a consumer financial protection agency headed by Harvard Law School professor
Elizabeth Warren. “The sine qua non for success as a regulator is
independence,” Black says. “So, it’s a very bad sign that Congress is moving
away from an independent regulator.” “As we speak, news is breaking that they
are moving away from housing the regulator at the Treasury Department. Now they
are talking about putting it at the Federal Reserve. The Fed is an independent
regulator. Unfortunately, it’s an independent anti-regulator. I called putting
it at the Treasury a sick joke. Putting it at the Fed is also a sick joke. They
are both recipes for failure.”
Number one:
Fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Office of Thrift Supervision chief
John Bowman, Fed chief regulator Patrick Parkinson, and Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency Chief John Dugan.
“Tim Geithner was testifying before Congress a couple of years ago,” Black
said. “And in response to a question from Ron Paul (R-Texas), Geithner said –
‘I have to stop you right there – I’ve never been a regulator.’ Well, that’s
true. But you are not supposed to admit it.” “Can you imagine. This is the
President of the New York Fed, testifying about the greatest failure in banking
in the history of the nation. And he is so completely out of it – the mindset
of capture is so complete, that he says – I’ve never been a regulator. This is
the ultimate capture. You don’t even think of yourself as a regulator.”
“Ben Bernanke in October 2009 appointed Patrick Parkinson as the
top supervisor at the Fed,” Black said. “He’s the guy who, under Alan
Greenspan, led the Fed charge against Brooksley Born when she wanted to
regulate credit default swaps.” “Patrick Parkinson, on behalf of the Fed,
testified that credit default swaps should be left completely deregulated.” “The
reasons? If we regulate them, they will flee to the city of London. We should
be so lucky, of course.” “And two, fraud can’t happen in credit default swaps,
because the participants are so sophisticated. This is the most astonishingly
naive model of white collar crime by people who know nothing about white collar
crime and don’t study it at all.”
“John Dugan’s sole priority and all of his passion as OCC director
has been pre-empting state efforts to protect us from predatory lenders,” Black
said. “And John Bowman should be fired,” Black said. “The OTS got in bed with
the industry most openly.” Thanks to
Amelia Kroeger for sending me this.
Another call
for a financial
transactions tax and for allowing bankruptcy judges to reduce mortgage amounts
and payments. But due to delay, Wall
Street speculators have perhaps successfully lobbied against effective
regulatory reforms. For
more.
Fiscal Responsibility
Imposition of a
transaction fee to deter Wall Street speculation and increase revenue to offset
spending for job creation has been mentioned, but not embraced by the Obama
Administration. Nor has the Obama
administration proposed raising revenue by taxing
Wall Street and other high income people in other ways. Nor has it proposed eliminating wasteful
military and other spending. The Obama
Administration thus leaves itself vulnerable to charges of fiscal
irresponsibility.
If the Obama
Administration embraced the above proposals, Republicans would charge that they
are harming high income earners who invest to create jobs. But the Obama Administration could then
refute this claim, indicating that high income earners instead consume luxury
goods, many imported from abroad, and speculate. It could demand that Republicans prove their
claim that high income earners invest to create jobs, which the Republicans
could not do. The Obama Administration
could then rightfully claim that the Republicans are favoring Wall Street over
Main Street and are fiscally irresponsible.
The public
might find it difficult to decide whether the Obama Administration or the
Republicans are right. But the Obama
Administration would have a better chance of convincing some of the public that
the Republicans are wrong.
Sander Levin Replaces Charles Rangel
To avoid
distracting attention from Obama Administration proposals, Charles Rangel who
has been charged with several ethics violations has resigned
as chair of the house Ways and Means Committee. For
more. Instead of Representative Pete
Stark, Charles
Rangel has been replaced by Representative Sander Levin.
Rage Ranges from Tea Partiers to Hate Groups
The radical right caught fire last year,
as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in
America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the
nation.
Hate groups stayed at
record levels -- almost 1,000 -- despite the total collapse of the second
largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups
soared by nearly 80 percent, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most
remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot"
groups -- militias and other organizations that see the federal
government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving
Americans -- came roaring back after years out of the limelight.
The anger seething across the American
political landscape -- over racial changes in the population, soaring public
debt and the terrible economy, the bailouts of bankers and other elites, and an
array of initiatives by the relatively liberal Obama Administration that are
seen as "socialist" or even "fascist" -- goes beyond the
radical right. The "tea parties" and similar groups that have sprung
up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are
shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism.
“We are in the midst of one of the most
significant right-wing populist rebellions in United States history,” Chip
Berlet, a veteran analyst of the American radical right, wrote earlier this
year. "We see around us a series of overlapping social and political
movements populated by people [who are] angry, resentful, and full of anxiety.
They are raging against the machinery of the federal bureaucracy and liberal
government programs and policies including health care, reform of immigration
and labor laws, abortion, and gay marriage."
That is cause for grave concern.
Individuals associated with the Patriot movement during its 1990s heyday
produced an enormous amount of violence; most dramatically the Oklahoma City
bombing that left 168 people dead. Already there are signs of similar violence
emanating from the radical right. Since the installation of Barack Obama,
right-wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers. Racist skinheads and
others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the nation’s first
black president. One man from Brockton, Mass. — who told police he had learned
on white supremacist websites that a genocide was under way against whites — is
charged with murdering two black people and planning to kill as many Jews as
possible on the day after Obama’s inauguration. Most recently, a rash of
individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested
in a series of bomb cases.
As the movement has exploded, so has the
reach of its ideas, aided and abetted by commentators and politicians in the
ostensible mainstream. While in the 1990s, the movement got good reviews from a
few lawmakers and talk-radio hosts, some of its central ideas today are being
plugged by people with far larger audiences like FOX News’ Glenn Beck and Minnesota
Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Beck, for instance, re-popularized a
key Patriot conspiracy theory -- the charge that FEMA is secretly running
concentration camps -- before finally “debunking” it. For
more. Thanks to Ray McBain for noting this commentary.
Here’s the Beef
Both
Democrats and some Republicans may support regulating use of corporate money
for lobbying.
Ten
suggested measures to maintain manufacturing jobs.
Senator
Robert Byrd confirms that reconciliation process is justified.
Will
abortion rights derail health care reform?
The
more our unemployment, the more we need health care reform to reduce health
care spending.
President
Obama is considering promotion of immigration reform this year.
Mitt
Romney makes untrue criticisms of President Obama’s foreign policy.
President Obama’s popularity may have hit bottom and begin to increase.
State and
Local
What Our Legislators Are Doing to Our Schools
The following email
concerning our Bellevue School District suggests what our legislators are doing
to our schools generally:
I’m
writing to you because you’ve been involved in the Bellevue School
District. The State and thus the School District have reached a financial
crisis. If you’ve read this far I’m asking for your feedback as I’ve been
selected along with 19 other members of our community to advise the
Superintendent on how we should move forward. This committee is called
the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC). The School Board will be making
the final decision. As a member of the committee I am providing you with
some information on the upcoming 2010-2011 school year budget. We know that the
current uncertainty in education budgets is hard on students, parents, and the
rest of the entire community who aren’t certain the programs and services they
value will be offered in the coming school year. It’s also hard on district
staff who are worried about their colleagues and futures and about the
continuation of programs and supports available for students. At the
moment, we don’t know the exact size of our budget next year for several
reasons. The current levy renewal election passed but we won’t know how much of
the authorized local levy we can collect until the state settles on potential
changes in the calculation of the local levy. Although we must wait until a
budget is passed and signed, we do have a preliminary estimate of the decrease
in state funding next year presented below. Finally, following the inflow of
ARRA or fiscal stimulus funds last year, we expect a fall off in the amount of
federal funding. Combined with expected cost increases we anticipate facing a
significant reduction in operating resources in 2010-11 compared with
2009-2010.
Cuts
are almost certain for the coming school year and these cuts will be difficult.
The impact of Governor’s Proposed Changes to School Funding on Bellevue:
Loss of K-4 Class Size Funding -$2.14 million
Loss of I-728 – class size and teacher development -$1.64 million
Loss of 1 teacher training/ LID Day -$0.29 million
Loss of Highly Capable & Middle School Vocational -$0.22 million
TOTAL: -$4.29 million -- this equates to approximately 50
teaching staff at current salaries.
Budget
Process
When
the state finalizes its education budget, we will have limited time to
construct a balanced budget. Therefore, we are beginning our budget process
now. Our budget discussions and decisions will be driven by the district’s
mission and vision and guided by school and local community input. Our goal is
to put together a budget that reflects our strategic priorities; we do not plan
to make across-the-board cuts. I’m asking for your input in several ways:
1.
We are asking for your ideas on possible cost savings or revenue
generation.
2.
After we have put together a list of potential cost savings and revenue
generating options, we will be asking for you to provide input through a
survey.
3.
We will be holding community information sessions.
4.
We have convened the aforementioned Fiscal Advisory Committee which will
provide recommendations to the superintendent.
What
can you do now?
You
can use the budget website at www.bsd405.org/2010-11Budget
to do the following:
·
Submit ideas on possible cost savings or revenue generation,
·
Learn more about the Fiscal Advisory Committee, and
·
Learn more about the budget and the budget process.
We
acknowledge that Bellevue has already made budget cuts over the last several
years and that this is hard on all of us. However, I hope that with your input
we can put together a budget that best supports students we serve and that
provides fiscal stability for the district next year and beyond.
Important
time lines are listed below. Please pay particular attention
to the three COMMUNITY INFORMATION SESSIONS mentioned. Because budget
reductions will impact our entire school system, plan to attend one of three
community budget meetings to hear an overview of our current financial
situation; learn where Bellevue stands compared to other school districts in
terms of staffing and spending patterns; and have an opportunity to identify
your priorities from among various cost savings and revenue-generation
strategies.
|
Date |
Details |
|
March
6 or 8 |
Budget
Survey Opens |
|
March
11 |
Community
Information Session, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m., Newport High School Library |
|
March
18 |
Community
Information Session, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m., Sammamish High School Library |
|
March
24 |
Community
Information Session, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m., Interlake High School Library |
|
March
25 |
Budget
Survey Closes |
|
April
1 |
Fiscal
Advisory Committee deliberates and ranks Potential Budget Savings and Revenue
Generation options |
|
April
13 |
Board
Budget Study Session |
|
April
27 |
Superintendent
presents preliminary budget recommendations to the School Board |
It‘s
o.k. to pay no attention to this information. IT IS NOT O.K. to rant and
rave about what is decided should you elect silence. Feel free to pass this
information to anyone you please. I’m open to questions & your very
important input via email or telephone. Sincerely, Dennis Gerlitz
King Co. Democrats LAC Budget News
WA Governor approves
suspension of anti-tax law Feb 24, 2010 - Seattle
Times
"A measure to temporarily
suspend the tax-limiting constraints placed on lawmakers by a voter-approved
initiative was signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday.
Gregoire
signed the bill just days after the Legislature approved the measure. The
measure takes effect immediately.
The bill
spurred two weeks of heated debate in both the House and Senate. Initiative 960
makes it harder for lawmakers to raise taxes or to close tax exemptions, which
is why the Democratic majority needed the suspension. ..." The bill to suspend I-960 was a key component of
passing this year's budget. Thank you are needed to Governor Gregoire and
State Legislators who voted to suspend I-960. You can check out the vote by
going to SB 6130
Wash. Senate passes $890
million tax package March 7, 2010 - from the
Seattle Times
"After
two days of contentious debate, the state Senate on Sunday approved an $890
million tax package that is centered on a temporary three-tenths-of-a-cent
sales tax increase. The main $804 million measure passed on a 25-23
vote, with six Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against it. A bill to add
an extra $1-per-pack cigarette tax, bringing the state an extra $86 million,
passed on a 29-19 vote. Once the House passes its proposed revenue plan, both
chambers will go into final budget negotiations ..."
Senate proposal: Add
income tax on wealthy to cut sales tax for everyone ,
March 19, 2010 from the Seattle
Times
"Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown wants to send voters an income-tax proposal that would hit the wealthy and give everyone a sales-tax break. The fall ballot measure would put an income tax of 4.5 percent on income over $200,000 for individuals, $300,000 for heads of households, and $400,000 for married couples. It would not apply to corporations. The pot sweetener: Voters would get to bring the state sales tax down by a penny. A tax on high earners would "bring more fairness and stability to our sales-tax-dependent tax structure," Brown said on her blog Thursday."
Vote on special Tax
exemptions every 2 years by John Burbank,
Economic Opportunity Institute, special to the Everett Herald March 3, 2010
Exemptions to Ax - Sins
to Tax $2.2 billion in new revenue to
stimulate Washington's economy and remodel its tax structure. Briefing
paper by Economic Opportunities Institute
updated Feb 17,
2010
Creating Jobs and
Boosting Our Economy - An Action Plan for Washington's 2010 Legislature
by Marilyn Watkins, PhD, Economic Opportunity Institute
Needed Debates: Suzan DelBene and Tom Cramer
Tom Cramer has asked
Suzan DelBene to debate. She has not
responded. The 8th
Congressional District Democrats, various Legislative District Democrats and
other are apparently going to endorse Suzan DelBene without debates. They may be sorry if Dave Reichert defeats
Suzan DelBene as he defeated Darcy Burner twice, partly because she hadn’t even
voted before running for congress. In
addition, Suzan DelBene’s emphasis upon listening may indicate that she is
willing to adopt Conservative principles in order to cater to Conservative
rural voters. I see nothing to lose and
everything to be gained from debates, no matter which candidate is
endorsed. Dave Thomas
Suzan DelBene: Why I’m Opposing Dave Reichert
Dear Dave, Just last week Congress Reichert
turned his back on Washington’s working families by voting NO on a bill that
will create new jobs. He’s said NO to investing in transportation, NO to
extending unemployment benefits and NO to providing health insurance to
Washington workers. That's why I'm running for Congress in the 8th
Congressional District.
The politics of inaction is exactly what’s
wrong with Washington today. We can take a big step towards fixing it this
November by unseating Congressman Dave Reichert! Please support me today with a
contribution of $25.
I have a history of getting things done, right here in our
Washington. I’ve turned bright ideas into small businesses and jobs and
have worked one-on-one with families trying to get back on their
feet. I’ve got the right background to challenge Congressman Reichert in
this tough election year. That’s
why today my campaign was one of 13 included in the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) highly competitive Red-to-Blue
program!
Making the Red-to-Blue program is a huge win for the campaign. It shows that
the DCCC knows we can win in November. As one of only 13 candidates
selected, my campaign will also get national attention and strong
support. We’ve got a lot of momentum - including a recent endorsement from
EMILY’s List and the early support of the Washington State Democrats - but a
major fundraising deadline is approaching at the end of the month, and I need
your help to keep the momentum going.
It’s clearer than ever that Congressman Reichert has to GO. Please consider a $25 donation today.
Together, this will be the year that we unseat Congressman Reichert. Sincerely,
Suzan DelBene, 8th Congressional
District candidate
Here’s the Beef
Nation
and World
Featured Advocacy Group
------------------------------------ EMILY’S List ---------------------------------------
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EMILY's List is committed
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·
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EMILY's List will win
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At the same time, It is
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cultivate resources so that it can bring more women into politics and elected
office. Only then can it build a progressive majority and construct a society
built around equal opportunity for all, civil rights, diversity, and
compassion.
It carries out its mission — to
elect pro-choice Democratic women to office — through a variety of programs,
including:
Campaign Services and Training
Political Opportunity Program (POP)
These programs are funded by a powerful grassroots
network of more than 100,000 members from across the country who are committed
to building a progressive America by empowering women as candidates, campaign
professionals, and voters. By working together, it can make
a difference — and change the face of American politics.
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Jim Hightower Identifies Conservative Think Tanks
Koch Industries funds the
following Conservative think tanks, which promote Conservative ideas and
framing:
·
George Mason University Foundation,
Inc.: $25,808,987
·
Cato Institute: $13,349,240
·
Citizens for a Sound
Economy/Freedomworks: $12,906,712
·
Mercatus Center: $8,024,000
·
Institute for Humane Studies:
$4,668,957
·
The Heritage Foundation: $3,272,000
·
Americans for Prosperity Foundation:
$3,176,500
·
Institute for Justice: $2,615,000
·
Reason Foundation: $2,354,212
·
Federalist Society for Law and
Public Policy Studies: $2,002,700
·
Bill of Rights Institute: $1,667,000
·
Foundation for Research on Economics
and the Environment (FREE) : $1,305,000
·
Pacific Research Institute for
Public Policy: $1,160,800
·
Manhattan Institute for Policy
Research, Inc.: $1,125,000
·
Washington Legal Foundation:
$1,105,000
·
Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education, Inc.: $850,000
·
Intercollegiate Studies Institute:
$706,250
·
Competitive Enterprise Institute:
$666,420
·
Capital Research Center: $605,000
·
National Center for Policy Analysis:
$600,000
·
American Enterprise Institute:
$500,000
·
Tax Foundation: $475,000
·
American Legislative Exchange
Council: $465,000
·
Pioneer Institute for Public Policy
Research: $300,000
·
Center for Equal Opportunity:
$240,000
·
Acton Institute for the Study of
Religion and Liberty: $297,500
·
Texas Policy Foundation: $296,516
·
Philanthropy Roundtable: $263,700
·
Institute for Energy Research:
$237,000
·
Property and Environment Research
Center: $219,500
Beginning of Chinese Political Parties?
Chinese leaders can be distinguished as Tuanpai who champion vulnerable
groups such as farmers, migrant workers and urban poor and Princelings who
champion the interests of the emerging middle class. Most leaders have been Tuanpai, but
Princelings are increasing in numbers and influence. These can now be considered factions, but if
their members were chosen by election, they would be considered political
parties. For
more.
Here’s the Beef
Wall
Street and large financial companies are committing massive fraud.
People
keeping money in large banks are supporting their abusers.
Higher
estate tax will increase revenue to reduce Federal deficit.
China
is creating safety net, including health care, which will reduce Chinese
savings.
The
Taliban are losing influence in Afghanistan.
Allawi is more secular. Maliki offers continuity. Either
may successfully lead Iraq.
Israel continues to value
West Bank settlements more highly than peace.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Acting to Force Republicans to React
Democrats are finally calling
Republican bluffs. Republicans have
repeatedly accused Democrats of siding with Wall Street against Main Street,
even though Republicans are the ones who depend upon Wall Street money to get
elected. Now Democrats are proposing
jobs bills, which Republicans can oppose to display their true affiliations or
to hide these affiliations, they can support them, which allows them to pass. One small jobs bill has received enough
Republican support to pass. Democrats
are preparing to propose more and larger ones.
To whatever extent that our
freedoms and opportunities are limited, we need to deal with our opponents who
have limited them. To do this, we must understand them, their goals and strategies. We must then respond in ways to limit or ruin
their successes. In our present situation, our Republican opponents seek to
portray us as favoring Wall Street over Main Street and being fiscally
irresponsible.
We can respond by proposing
measures that harm Wall Street speculators and help Main Street and measures
that increase revenues from Wall Street and other wealthy people to offset
expenditures for Main Street job creation and health care reform. Doing this reveals Republican affiliations or
forces them to join us in favoring Main Street and fiscal responsibility.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
James Galbraith, 2008, The Predator State. How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why
Liberals Should Too
This book demonstrates that
free markets seldom exist. Their
participants attempt to become monopolies such that free markets are
destroyed. Conservatives accept markets
that are not free due to the development of oligopolies.
Liberals are still enamored
with the idea of free markets. Liberals
should instead copy Conservatives in rejecting the idea of free markets. But unlike Conservatives, Liberals should
advocate regulation to prevent oligopolies from having the ability to abuse
people.