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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of March 3, 2009
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 7,500+
Jefferson County Democrats
We hope you will forward the link to your own e-mail list.
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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS
Updated on a regular basis
Bulletin Board:
- The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at Democratic Headquarters,
- 640 Barret Avenue .
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Paid for and authorized by the Kentucky Democratic Party PO Box 694, Frankfort KY 40602 • (502) 695-4828 • www.kydemocrat.com Contributions or gifts to the Kentucky Democratic Party are not tax deductible. |
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Fifteen
months ago, when Governor Beshear asked that I serve as the Kentucky
Democratic Party Chair, I welcomed the challenge and was
appreciative of the opportunity to work with you. Traveling from
Fulton to Pike Counties and everywhere in between, I have thoroughly
enjoyed representing the Democratic Party across the Commonwealth.
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On Saturday I succeeded Jennifer Moore as Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. While I have met so many Democrats across the state throughout the years, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself to those I have yet to meet.
I am honored that Governor Beshear asked me to accept this position. I believe strongly in the principles of our party. I believe that at this time in history when we face so many serious challenges it is once again clear that the solutions offered by Democrats are those that serve the best interests of our citizens and our nation.
It is a particular point of pride to be asked to serve by this governor. Steve Beshear and so many of our current Democratic officeholders are men and women of vision and integrity. When we consider the financial crisis we face in Kentucky, a crisis Governor Beshear inherited, we are truly blessed to have a leader with his skills and integrity at the helm. Governor Beshear has made difficult decisions while maintaining the trust and respect of the people who elected him; Kentuckians recognize that he makes decisions based not on politics or polls, but on what's in the best interest of our state.
Many of our elected Democrats are individuals I count among my friends, including Daniel Mongiardo, Jack Conway, Crit Luallen, Todd Hollenbach, Ed Worley, Greg Stumbo, John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler, as well as many others who hold office across this Commonwealth. It is clear that the leadership provided and the solutions offered by our Democratic office holders are far superior to those offered by the Republican Party.
I am pleased to work with those Democratic leaders and pleased to continue the work done by Jennifer Moore, Nathan Smith and the staff of the KDP.
Jennifer ably served the party for 21 months, as Vice Chair and then as the first Chair under the Beshear Administration. She has travelled the state throughout her term and worked to build an organization throughout the state. Of the seven special elections during her tenure, five resulted in victories for Democratic candidates. Additionally, despite the challenges Democrats faced in Kentucky as a result of the Presidential vote, we did not lose a single legislative seat last November. I thank Jennifer and Nathan for their service to the party.
When I accepted the position of Chair, Executive Director Jeremy Horton advised me that he wishes to pursue new opportunities available to him and felt this was the best time to do so. Jeremy has agreed to stay on and assist with the transition while we conduct a nationwide search to find an individual who will bring the same passion and dedication to the KDP that Jeremy demonstrated while serving the party under Jonathan Miller and Jennifer Moore.
I look forward to implementing a plan for the party which will build upon the work of the last 21 months, a plan which will increase interest and activism within the party in all 120 counties. I want to work with leaders across the state-those who lead as elected officials and those who lead through service to their communities-to identify and develop qualified individuals to run for office, to serve their communities and state, and to represent the values of the Democratic Party.
I also intend to build upon the technological infrastructure that is in place at the KDP, technology which has aided candidates, improved fundraising methods and aided in better disseminating our candidates' and party's message.
Lastly, I'm seeking your input. I'm looking forward to speaking with Democrats across the Commonwealth to determine how we may best achieve what we set out to accomplish. To begin with, I have decided to solicit recommendations from Democrats across the state to help identify candidates for the position of Vice Chair; I intend to fill this position promptly. We are seeking an individual who is committed to the work of the party, someone who will partner with me to make our plan for the party a reality-please help me this week by sharing your suggestions of individuals to fill this important role.
As a state, and as a nation, we have never faced
so many daunting challenges. As Democrats we know that our vision,
our solutions, are best to confront those challenges and improve the
quality of life for Kentuckians and all Americans. I look forward
to working with each one of you to build our party, to spread that
vision and to elect leaders who offer those solutions. |
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Paid for and authorized by the Kentucky Democratic Party PO Box 694, Frankfort KY 40602 • (502) 695-4828 • www.kydemocrat.com Contributions or gifts to the Kentucky Democratic Party are not tax deductible. |
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I
am a lifelong, active member of the Democratic Party. At the age of
18 I was elected precinct chair and have been involved with
Democratic campaigns dating back to Wendell Ford's race for Lt.
Governor.
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GOP leader gives critics $75M target, By Alexander Bolton
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
has more than $75 million worth of earmarks in the omnibus spending
bill, offering a tempting target to Democrats looking to score
political points.
The projects put McConnell (Ky.) in
something of an awkward position, as he is now the de facto leader of
the Republican Party, which has made earmarks a symbol of wasteful
spending in Washington.
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Politicians Must Change With The Times
It's too soon to tell how the difficult straits we now face are going to change voters' priorities, but change they will. by Charlie Cook
My guess is that I was not alone when I cringed late last month upon opening my 401(k) retirement plan statement for the previous quarter, nor when I winced this week as the stock market plummeted to a 12-year low. At least health club stocks should be surging. After all, a lot of us need to develop healthier habits: With our retirement savings just a fraction of what they were a year ago, we will be working years longer than we originally intended.
News
reports say that Americans lost about $3 trillion in home equity in 2008,
and about $7 trillion in shareholder wealth. The losses are still piling
up and will probably continue to do so over the next few months.
Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation," which includes my parents, is remembered for its sacrifices during World War II. But members of that generation were shaped by their experiences in the Great Depression, when frugality and self-reliance were vital. My mom and dad paid off the mortgage on their house years early to appease my grandfather, who worried constantly about their debt to the bank. My parents paid cash for all of their cars. They were shaped by their times.
The question is, how will we be shaped -- socially, culturally, and politically -- by the difficult times we now face? How will this environment affect our long-term behavior and point of view? Learning the answers will be a challenge for candidates and elected officials, for their aides and strategists, and, most of all, for their pollsters.
Our reactions may come in layers, evolving over time. One hunch is that we will shove "small" issues aside and focus on the big ones. Voters may have a greater sense of proportionality. The sheriff in Richland County, S.C., was hotly criticized for investigating whether Olympic champion Michael Phelps smoked pot while visiting the county last fall. Many observers wondered if the sheriff might not have spent his time solving burglaries, robberies, and murders rather than worrying about whether some kids puffed from a bong four months ago.
What about the authentic big-ticket issues? What impact will recent events have on talk of Social Security and other entitlement reform? Will the growing ranks of people who are economically vulnerable make Social Security even more of a "third-rail" issue, or instead provide greater motivation to stabilize essential safety-net programs and make them solvent? Will economic misfortune make voters more adult or more childlike in dealing with such difficult matters?
One might hope that the economic calamities will encourage voters to support their elected officials in grappling with these issues rather than continuing to kick them down the road. Pretending that home values would never again decline has virtually wrecked our national economy and, to a certain extent, the world economy. The meltdown has reminded us that actions have consequences. We are paying the price for many bad decisions by our top policy makers (in both parties and in many corners of the government) as well as by many average Americans who exaggerated their income and assets to qualify for homes that were way beyond their means.
Sadly, the final edition of Profiles in Courage went to the printer long ago. Courage is rarely rewarded in politics today, and thus rarely seen. One of the more insightful people to serve in Congress over the past 20 years was Republican Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, who retired in 2002. Watts was best remembered for saying, "Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking." Our problem these days is getting people to do the right thing when others are looking.
Our nation is going through a wrenching experience, one that only the oldest among us can possibly relate to. Some parts of the country are feeling the recession more than others, but it is only a matter of time before the downturn touches all Americans. I have heard little discussion of the larger consequences from such a great upheaval and loss of wealth. We have yet to determine the personal and social costs -- and the political fallout -- that will flow from this crisis.
We will surely see some important shifts in public opinion. It's a good bet that some political figures will learn from this and that others will miss the turn and pay the price.
Beware of the Big Lie Bill by Tula Connell
Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress made their Big Lie into a bill Wednesday, when Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) introduced the so-called Secret Ballot Protection Act.
Before we go further, let’s clear up the bill’s false implication right now:
The Employee Free Choice Act would not—repeat after me—would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it. The Employee Free Choice would ensure workers made the decision of whether to select a union via majority sign-up (card-check) or via ballot process. Choice is good. That’s one reason why we called it Employee Free Choice—because it would enable employees, not management, to make the decision of how to form a union.
The official goal of S. 1312 is to:
amend the National Labor Relations Act to ensure the right of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
But the real objective of the DeMint-Enzi—and, of course, the autoworker-hating senator from Tennessee, Bob Corker—crowd is to force senators to be on record in support of it before the Employee Free Choice Act is up for a vote and to get free PR for their lies.
In announcing the bill, DeMint put out this gem:
“Card check” is completely unacceptable and un-American, and we must pass the Secret Ballot Protection Act to safeguard workers’ rights for good.
Since Enzi brought up “un-American,” let’s take a look at that term. Seems actions like providing health care for low-income children, ensuring America’s workers are paid overtime and have a safe workplace where they are not paid less because of their gender or race are all-American standards. But not so for DeMint. A quick look at his Senate voting record shows:
DeMint voted at least seven times against expanding health care for children (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program).
DeMint voted three times against protecting overtime pay for millions of workers.
DeMint opposed workplace safety standards.
DeMint voted against Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps ensure workers are not paid less because of gender or race.
The same day the Big Lie bill was introduced, 39 economists, including two Nobel Prize winners, issued a statement supporting the Employee Free Choice Act as key to getting our nation’s economy back on its feet. Their statement says in part:
Indeed, from 2000 to 2007, the income of the median working-age household fell by $2,000—an unprecedented decline. In that time, virtually all of the nation’s economic growth went to a small number of wealthy Americans. An important reason for the shift from broadly shared prosperity to growing inequality is the erosion of workers’ ability to form unions and bargain collectively.
Yet as Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, says:
At a time when more Americans are hurting financially than perhaps at any other time in our history, a small group of consistently anti-worker members of Congress are introducing legislation to make it harder for workers to negotiate for better pay and health care for themselves and their families. It is unconscionable that these Congressmen with six-figure salaries and guaranteed pensions choose to kick America’s workers when they are down. This ploy is no surprise, as they have voted against raising the minimum wage, expanding children’s health insurance and ensuring worker safety.
Here’s another lie the bill’s sponsors are pushing out, this via Think Progress:
DeMint took to Fox News to describe why he thinks his firewall is necessary. Amidst the usual false rhetoric about Employee Free Choice eliminating the secret ballot, DeMint also incorrectly claimed that the act would harm small businesses:
And this is not just for big auto companies, this is for small electrical contractors, companies with 10 or 15 people. It would change the business model of the United States to the same model the U.S. auto industry has in Detroit.
As Think
Progress points out, DeMint has this all wrong. The National Labor Relations
Act (NLRA)
excludes
non-retail employers whose interstate commerce is less than $50,000 and
retail employers whose gross annual volume is less than $500,000; there are
various
other size exemptions
for all sorts of industries, from newspapers to taxicab companies. These
exemptions
would not change
under the Employee Free Choice Act.
The list of the Big Lie’s bill co-sponsors (all Republicans) reads like a
who’s who of senators who will meet the wrath of working families in coming
elections: Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Sam
Brownback (Kan.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Jim Bunning (Ky.), Tom Coburn
(Okla.), John Cornyn (Texas), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), John
McCain (Ariz.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Pat Roberts (Kan.), John Thune
(S.D.), Roger Wicker (Miss.) and David Vitter (La.).
Because this group doesn’t have enough votes to get the bill anywhere, it’s all about making noise. And spreading the Big Lie.
YOUR COMMENTS
The GOP’s true Agenda - Serving the Few through Fear, Ignorance, Doubt and Suppression of Hope:
Like the Wizard of Oz, the Wizards of the Republican Party hide behind a curtain while projecting a false image to the public. But occasionally the curtain is pulled back to reveal the true faces, not by a small dog but by the wizards themselves. It is in these moments that the GOP’s agenda of Serving the few through fear, ignorance, and suppression of hope become undeniable.
Serving the Few:
Remember President G.W. Bush’s address to a crowd at a $1000 a plate fundraiser saying, “This is an impressive crowd. The have and have mores. Some call you the elite. I call you my base." It was intended to be a joke but instead revealed the very truth of the Republican Party.
More
recently Rush Limbaugh admitted who the Republicans serve. After
acknowledging that President Obama's recent speech to congress would no
doubt cause his already high approval ratings to climb, he went on to
comment on the substantial drop in the Dow Jones as proof that the real
people who count, "People with skin in the game" who invest in
this countries future and create jobs, didn't buy what he referred to as
Obama's lies and reacted accordingly. There you have it, out of the mouth of
the $100,000,000,000 voice and De facto leader of the Republican Party, that
the only people who count in this country are the people on Wall Street. I
can just see the ditto heads who tune in every day to get their daily fix of
hate, bigotry and blame of “bleeding heart liberals” for all the nations
problems nodding their heads in agreement; and I am willing to bet that none
of them bothered to question if these Wall Street types weren't largely
responsible for the economic melt down or whether regular people who go to
work every day, assuming they still have jobs, don't count as well?
Ignorance is key:
And then there was Karl Rove who has been quoted stating “As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing”. So, Rove advises that an educated electorate threatens the GOP’s hopes to complete the looting and transfer of our collective national treasure. Yes Karl, because inherent greed can be tempered by enough education to recognize that an insatiable desire for accumulating more wealth in fewer hands and a willingness to exploit the middle and lower classes to do so is clearly unsustainable and self destructive in the long run.
Thomas Jefferson offered us the remedy to the today’s GOP and other radical unrepresentative factions in 1820 when he wrote "I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." It is interesting that Jefferson should advise education as the key to preservation of our representative democracy and Karl Rove advises that an educated electorate would be less likely to support the radical right’s agenda.
Doubt and Suppression of Hope:
The radical right has overseen the biggest transfer of wealth to the already rich in US history, while jobs became our country’s major export and the United States was in effect bankrupted. Karl Rove and friends were the wizard behind the curtain while the country was divided into opposing factions, lied into a disastrous war, constitutional rights suspended, the middle class squeezed to the breaking point, our leadership of the free world abdicated, trust in America destroyed, millions more lost health insurance, and the country itself all but lost hope. Yet these same peddlers of a discredited ideology are still front and center preaching their message of hate and spreading doubt and fear about the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the President’s proposed budget and the new priorities it represents, as well as the administration’s push for a new direction in health care. As FDR said when leading the country out of the Republican created great Depression, "We have nothing to fear but fear it self" and the self interested minority of the radical right are doing their best to instill enough fear in the general population to derail any hope of recovery. It is hard to imagine, but they are willing to destroy the countries economy and openly seek this administration’s failure in order to regain power long enough to complete their mission of turning the United States into a near feudal society.
At the heart of what separates the aspirations of a nation represented by President Obama’s “yes we can” mantra of hope and the GOP’s quest for a new feudalism in the midst of despair, fear and division is our Democratic recognition that none of us gets to where we are alone. I do not seek to discredit individual hard work or creativity, but the fact remains that the United States is conducive to the creation of great wealth thanks to a public investments made over generations. The idea that any man or woman is wholly self-made and owes nothing to society is flawed. They have benefited from an extensive infrastructure – transportation, energy, communication, etc. They have benefited from a skilled workforce secondary to public investment in public schools, community colleges, and universities. They benefited from a stable business environment that attracts investment. They have benefited from national security, law enforcement, public health promotion, government R&D, and the list of public investments goes on. It is appropriate to expect that those who have benefited the most from the advantages of being an American should be willing to continue the investment in America. This administration recognizes the need to re-instill responsibility and sustained investment as well as the consequences that our abdication of these vital investments and responsibilities has wrought over the years of GOP domination.
The key difference between the radical right and the rest of us is that we are less concerned with how much wealth the top 2% can continue to accumulate or leave their children and grandchildren, and more focused on what kind of America will be left for their children and ours.
Ronald Leach
Hardinsburg, KY
DAILY GRILL
"I don't think anyone wants anything to fail right now." -- Rep. Eric
Cantor (R-VA),
3/1/09
VERSUS
"Absolutely we hope his [Obama's] policies fail." -- Former senator Rick
Santorum,
2/29/09
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"[T]here was no attack on Rush [Limbaugh]. I was saying that there are
people out there who actually want to demonize and use him as a boogie man."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele,
3/4/09, on his criticism of Limbaugh
VERSUS
"Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is
entertainment. Yes, it's incendiary. Yes, it's ugly." -- Steele,
3/1/09
Quotes of the Day
In his CPAC speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that conservatives are more “interesting” and “fun” than liberals. Here’s his proof: “who wants to hang out with guys like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich when you can be with Rush Limbaugh?”
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In keeping with apologies to Rush Limbaugh from Georgia Republican Phil Gingrey and RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) issued the following statement:
“I’m sorry Limbaugh called for harsh sentences for drug addicts while he was a drug addict. I’m also sorry that he’s bent on seeing America fail. And I’m sorry that Limbaugh is one sorry excuse for a human being.”
Recent Senate Votes
Confirmation
of Hilda L. Solis, to be Secretary of Labor - Vote Confirmed
(80-17, 2 Not Voting)
The Senate confirmed Hilda Solis to be Secretary of Labor.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 - Vote
Passed (61-37, 1 Not Voting)
The Senate passed this bill to provide the District of Columbia a voting
seat and the State of Utah an additional seat in the House of
Representatives.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 - Vote Passed (245-178, 8
Not Voting)
The House passed this bill that would fund government programs through
September 30, 2009.
Rep. Brett Guthrie voted NO
Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES
HUMOR
"I want to thank you for coming out. It's nice to be
inside. It's brutal out there. The Dow is 30 below zero. The economy is not
looking good. Everybody's cutting back. I don't know if you heard this, but
today, the Jonas Brothers fired Nick." --Jimmy Fallon
"Here's some good news.
Barack Obama announced he's bringing home troops from Iraq. That's
right. Unfortunately, he couldn't get them direct flights home. They have a
two-year layover in Afghanistan." --Jimmy Fallon
"President Obama sent a secret letter to Russia's president last month. In
it, he promised that the U.S. would back off deploying a missile defense
system if Moscow would stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The
Russian president immediately fired back a response, saying, 'I don't
understand English.'" --Jimmy Fallon
"Finally, Meghan McCain,
John McCain's daughter, said she's tired of constantly dating guys who
are obsessed with how great her father is. Fortunately for her, she already
dated all three of them." --Jimmy Fallon
"Nice to see you all here. You're so lucky you live in
California, because there was a huge snowstorm in Washington, D.C. In fact,
they are calling it the city's biggest snow job since that stimulus
package." -Jay Leno
"Talk about the age we live in. I saw this today. They unveiled a totally
new method of snow removal. Did you hear about this? What they do, is they
put A.I.G. in charge of it and the snow just disappears." -Jay Leno
"A.I.G. announced it lost $61.7 billion in the last quarter. What did we
give them, $165 billion in that bailout thing? And they still lost $61.7
billion, which is the biggest loss by any company in U.S. history. To put it
into perspective, A.I.G. lost more in December and January than pro
basketball's L.A. Clippers.
And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is offering a pledge of $900 million
to the Palestinians in Gaza. Let's hope they don't spend it all on rocks
this time." -Jay Leno
"See, apparently, we ran out of banks in this country to bail out. So now
we're bailing out the West Bank as well." -Jay Leno
"No. This is what they said. The U.S. government guaranteed the $900 million
will go directly to the people. All the money will go directly to the
people. Why can't we get that deal in this country? Why does it go to the
banks?" -Jay Leno
"Actually, there were some optimistic words today from the Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke, who told Congress the recession might end this year.
Unfortunately, Bernanke also said pro football's Detroit Lions could win the
super Bowl and Paris Hilton could get an Oscar. So I don't know. He's a
little out of there." -Jay Leno
"I tell you, the economy is not good. Not good at all. Oh, it's bad. In
fact, on '24,' Jack Bauer tortured himself for not selling his stock last
August.
The economy is so bad, I saw
Bill Maher
in church praying, and later, I saw Warren Buffett buying lottery tickets."
-Jay Leno
"And Louisiana Gov.
Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response to President Obama's recent
speech to Congress. But Jindal did not get good reviews. I don't know if you
saw it. I don't want to say Jindal seemed awkward and off message, but his
Secret Service code name is now
Joe Biden." -Jay Leno
"And Mayor Richard Daley said that by the year 2016, there will be a
surveillance camera on every street corner in Chicago. Yeah. You know, how
about putting a camera on every politician in Chicago?" -Jay Leno
"Hey, speaking of that, it is now being reported that former Illinois Gov.
Rod
Blagojevich has signed a six-figure deal to write a book. See, it took
him a while to sign the book deal, because, like everything else in his
life, he was waiting for the highest bidder." -Jay Leno
"No, Blagojevich said plans to write a book exposing the dark and corrupt
side of politics. So, apparently, it's an autobiography." -Jay Leno
"Hey, some good news. The Obamas are getting a dog. Yes. The Obamas say
they're going to go with a Portuguese water dog. Doesn't that sound like
some kind of lame drink a guy would order to impress a woman? 'Bartender,
for the lady, white wine, and for me, a Portuguese water dog.'" -Jay Leno
"Well, how much is
Rush Limbaugh loving all his recent publicity? He is everywhere now,
since he said he wanted Obama's policies to fail. This is the greatest thing
to happen to Limbaugh since they started making that center-cut bacon." -Jay
Leno
"California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he's going to appear in the new
Sylvester Stallone movie. Schwarzenegger wants the world to know he can
still act, but I think he proved that when he said, 'I won't raise taxes.'"
-Jay Leno
"According to a new study by a Harvard Business School professor, when it
comes to online pornography, 8 of the top 10 porn-consuming states voted
Republican in 2008. Republicans watch more pornography than Democrats. So,
apparently, while they were voting for McCain, they were fantasizing about
Sarah Palin." --Jay Leno
"Cold in New York City today, where it was 24 degrees outside. Wait a
minute. I'm sorry. That was the Dow Jones Average. So cold, former New York
governor Eliot Spitzer was happy to have a burning sensation." --David
Letterman
"Over in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's buddy, Chemical Ali, has been sentenced to
death for a third time. He is so upset that he's fired his lawyers. He got
rid of Chemical Jacoby and Chemical Myers. They're gone." --David Letterman
RADICAL RIGHT -- CANTOR
TRIES TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM LIMBAUGH'S HOPE THAT OBAMA FAILS:
Yesterday,
on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked House Republican
Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) whether he subscribes to Rush Limbaugh's hope that
President Obama fails. Cantor responded, "George, absolutely not. I don't
think anyone wants anything to fail right now. We have such challenges. What
we need to do is put forth solutions to the problems that real families are
facing today." Apparently, Cantor hasn't been paying attention. Limbaugh
reiterated his hope that
Obama fails on Saturday. In fact, as ThinkProgress has documented, the
list of right-wingers who share Limbaugh's hope that Obama fails is growing.
Just this week, Rick Santorum declared, "Absolutely we hope his policies
fail." Asked whether he wants Obama to fail, former House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay responded, "Well, exactly right.
I don't want this for our nation," while Michelle Malkin said, "Yes, I
hope that
fails." On Friday, Limbaugh crowed, "The dirty little secret...is that
every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them
have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it." According to Limbaugh,
Cantor must be one of those Republicans without the guts to say what he
really feels.
CONGRESS -- KYL REQUESTED $118 MILLION FOR EARMARKS IN OMNIBUS BUT RAILED
AGAINST THEM IN STIMULUS: According to Taxpayers for Common Sense,
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) requested
$118 million in earmarks in fiscal year 2008. On Fox News Sunday this
weekend, host Chris Wallace pressed Kyl about his earmarks, saying it is an
example of how Republicans have "lost
credibility on the issue of spending restraint." "Who are you to lecture
the Democrats on spending?" asked Wallace. Kyl deflected the question,
saying that his projects weren't earmarks. "I can defend everything that I
have recommended in the budget, and I would suggest that they're not
earmarks under the definition,
because we have a specific definition." Kyl's "specific definition"
defense is ironic given his
attacks on President Obama's economic recovery plan. Though Taxpayers
for Common Sense has said that "congressional leaders had generally resisted
the urge to fill the bill with earmarks, according to
the strict definitions of the word," Kyl claimed it had "billions
of dollars of earmarks and pork." In the past, Kyl has admitted that his
earmark criticism is "symbolic"
and that he complains about "wasteful Washington spending" for political
reasons because "the consultants who look at the polls tell us that if
there's anything that drives American taxpayers crazy it's that phrase
'wasteful Washington spending.'"
IRAQ -- REP. KING INTRODUCES RESOLUTION TOUTING 'SURGE': The Washington Times reports that today Rep. Steve King (R-IA) will be introducing a "Victory in Iraq" resolution, "chronicling the success of the troop surge in Iraq and warning the new commander-in-chief that if he changes strategy, he takes ownership of whatever happens on his watch." "They've left a legacy and it's up to the new leadership to preserve and enhance the victory they’ve achieved," King said. King -- who once said that Obama would turn America into a "totalitarian dictatorship" -- said that the measure should be seen as "less of a criticism of Mr. Obama and more of an encouragement that he 'expand on the victory rather than walk away.'" However, Obama's redeployment plan is doing just that. Obama himself has acknowledged that due in part to the surge, there is now a calmer security situation in Iraq that is now an opportunity for political progress. In his speech announcing his Iraq withdrawal last week, Obama made clear that withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq is part of this opportunity. "The drawdown of our military should send a clear signal that Iraq’s future is now its own responsibility," Obama said last week. In January, King paid tribute to Bush's presidency, saying, "I'm here to say thank you to President Bush for the things that he has done...especially with our national defense.'"
Think Fast
President Obama is putting his effort to pass health-care-reform legislation into high gear this week. "The president will announce Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice to head HHS on Monday afternoon, and he may also name a new director of the White House office on health reform." Later in the week, the White House will host a summit to discuss overhauling the health care system.
The Washington Times reports that the pharmaceutical industry has
directed large sums of money to a charity that Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-UT) helped found. "The donations, $172,500 in all, came at the same time
that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) was
paying one of Mr. Hatch's sons, Scott, to be its lobbyist in Congress."
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said yesterday that "the
White House would consider using a Senate procedural tactic so that
only 50 votes would be required to pass major healthcare and energy
reforms." Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Orszag said the administration would
prefer not to use the budget reconciliation process to push the reforms
through, but added, "We
have to keep everything on the table."
President Obama's web team is struggling to work in a White House that does not have the technology to send out mass e-mails or text messages to supporters from President Obama. "Beyond the technological upgrades needed to enable text broadcasts, there are security and privacy rules to sort out involving the collection of cellphone numbers."
Yesterday, the Senate voted 61-37 to "give the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives." However, lawmakers also attached language stripping many local gun-control laws, which "complicates the D.C. vote bill's passage into law, because the legislation will have to be reconciled with a companion bill in the House with no gun provisions that is expected to be approved next week."
Just months after declaring that President Obama "would rather lose a war than lose a campaign," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he supports Obama's Iraq withdrawal plan. Asked by the Huffington Post whether he would have enacted a similar plan were he president, he replied, "Oh, I’m sure...because that’s what our military and civilian leadership has recommended."
A group of progressive bloggers "are teaming up with organized labor and MoveOn.org to form a political action committee that will seek to push the Democratic Party further to the left," recruiting candidates to challenge Blue Dog Democrats. The group, named Accountability Now, "is another step in the evolution of the blogosphere."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said he was "glad" that RNC Chairman Michael Steele apologized to Rush Limbaugh. Jindal, who has been hailed by Limbaugh as "the next Ronald Reagan," said, "I think Rush is a leader for many conservatives and says things that people are concerned about."
"One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation," a new Pew Center on the States study reports. State spending on prisons quadrupled over the last 20 years, despite the fact that crime dropped 25 percent during that time. "Criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance. ... Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending."
The fact that Rush Limbaugh has become the leader of the GOP means that Republicans missed the "unmistakable signal" of the 2008 election that “Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness," writes Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. In another shot at Limbaugh's GOP leadership, the DCCC released a website yesterday that "allows visitors to create an apology to Limbaugh"on behalf of Republicans who have crossed him.
"[K]ey party leaders are worried that the GOP has made a costly mistake" in electing Michael Steele as their party chairman. One month into the job, Politico explains that Steele is "[s]teadily becoming a dependable punch line" and "does not have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director."
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) ending cost overruns in weapons systems would create "a powerful new Pentagon position" -- director of independent cost assessments. The position would have "significant authority to obtain data from the contractor and to ensure costs are justified."
"Congressional Republicans are trying to figure out how to distance themselves from Rush Limbaugh without really distancing themselves too much from Rush Limbaugh." In interviews with Politico, leading GOP lawmakers "took a delicate, almost pained approach to explaining their party's relationship with Limbaugh," fearing that ill words would bring “the wrath of his powerful microphone and millions of listeners."
In a hate-filled screed, far right activist David Gibbs rallied North Carolinians to oppose gay marriage, claiming that it would "open the door to unusual marriage." "Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots." The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen comments, "The times they are a changin'. Rick Santorum warned us about 'man-on-dog' relations; now we have David Gibbs raising the specter on man-on-robot action."
INTERESTING
Have you seen this?
….Zoom in and check out how well focused the faces remain…..
This is a photograph of 2009 Obama Inauguration. You can see IN FOCUS the face of EACH individual in the crowd !!!
You can scan and zoom to any section of the crowd, wait a few seconds and the focus adjusts, to give you a very identifiable close- up.
The picture was taken with a robotic 1474 megapixel camera (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera).
Every one attending and within rifle range of Obama could be scanned after the event, should something have gone wrong during the event.
Cut
and past the URL below)
http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c
Steele Bows Down To Limbaugh: ‘No Attempt On My Part To Diminish His Voice Or His Leadership’
White
House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called Rush Limbaugh the “intellectual
force” of the GOP. “And whenever a Republican criticize him, they have to
run back and apologize to him, and say they were misunderstood,” he
observed. Today, ThinkProgress
first
reported that Steele dismissed Limbaugh as an “entertainer” this weekend
on CNN:
STEELE: So let’s put it into context here. Let’s put it into context here. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly.
Limbaugh fired back on his show today, sneering at Steele’s leadership of the Republican Party:
“So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine,” Limbaugh said. “Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee…and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you.
Just as Emanuel predicted, Steele has quickly backed down. Politico reports that Steele “reached out” to Limbaugh today to say that he didn’t mean what he said.
“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.” […]
“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. “It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not.”
Steele made clear that he will welcome Limbaugh into the party,” calling him a “very valuable conservative voice for our party.” “He does what he does best, which is provoke,” Steel said. “My job is to try to bring us all together.”
Steele isn’t alone. Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) and Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) have previously dared to criticize Limbaugh but then quickly backed down. To quote Rush, a lot of Republicans are being told to “bend over and grab the ankles” for him.
*****
Buy American Mention of the Week, By Roger Simmermaker
Buy American by Shopping with Roger
Have you had trouble finding and buying American-made products? Then buy what I buy! In a new section of my website I’ve simply titled “Shopping with Roger,” I’ll be demonstrating just how easy it actually is to buy American products.
No product category is left out. In the listing below you’ll see both big-ticket and small-ticket items. I’ve even listed the store I bought the items from in case you want to check up on the authenticity of the information. But I’ll give you fair warning you that if you want to go on a “gotcha” expedition, all you’re likely to discover is that you’re wasting your time.
Wondering why I’ve listed so many small ticket items? Many times when we analyze where products we’re buying are made, we tend to only look at the big ticket items, the ones that cost us more. But if you take a look at my first Shopping With Roger posting, you’ll see something else entirely. All the items I bought, when I was out-and-about on a Saturday in Orlando, were small-ticket items. All were made in USA.
And almost all were bought at a Family Dollar or Dollar General store, proving that buying American does not have to cost you more money!
When I was out shopping with my wife on Sunday, I started to expand the list to things I did not buy but noticed were made in USA, and I also began listing the price - proving once again that buying American does not have to be expensive.
I’ve always said that we really do buy American more than we think we do, and often we do without even thinking about it. Many of the things we buy in the supermarket are made in USA—and this is where we spend much of our time and possibly more of our money.
All products listed are “Made in USA” unless otherwise noted (such as “Assembled in USA” etc.)
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Saturday, February 21, 2009 |
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Clorox bleach |
Family Dollar |
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Clorox toilet bowl cleaner |
Family Dollar |
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Garden Green planting pottery |
Family Dollar |
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Armor All upholstry cleaner |
Family Dollar |
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Tide laundry detergent |
Dollar General |
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Personna razors (5 pack) |
Dollar General |
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Oral-B toothbrushes (10 pack) |
BJ’s Wholesale |
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OfficeMax printer paper |
OfficeMax |
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Sunday, February 22, 2009 |
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Truemark slingshot |
Sports Authority |
$9.99 |
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Stream Machine water launcher |
Sports Authority |
$21.99 |
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Wilton wooden dowel rods (12 pack) |
Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft |
$3.29 |
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Wilton ultimate cake caddy |
Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft |
$14.99 |
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Various Art Frames and Photo Frames (many sizes) |
Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft |
various |
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Essentials art bins (many sizes) |
Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft |
various |
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Strathmore water color paper |
Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft |
$9.99 |
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Various Artist Canvas (many sizes) |
Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft |
various |
Be sure to revisit www.howtobuyamerican.com often as I’ll be updating the Shopping With Roger section of the website periodically. Buying American at America’s retail stores is the best way to provide incentives for those same stores to continue to stock American-made goods and gives us the freedom we deserve to support American workers.
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Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for WorldNetDaily.com and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union and National Writers Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week among many other publications.
GOOD NEWS
Nothing this week
VIDEOS
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says he has reached out to Rush Limbaugh to tell him he meant no offense when he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”
“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”
CLICK HERE FOR LATEST ISSUE OF THE "FRIDAY ALERT"
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