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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of January 13, 2008
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 4,000+
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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VOTE
RS,
YOUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT
DITCH MITCH
Calendar of Events
for Democratic Party Elections
January 29 - Filing deadline for Jefferson County LD Chairs and Vice Chairs.
February 1 - Forms available from KDP for Delegate and Alternate candidates
for the National Convention.
April 5 - Precinct Conventions held at 10:00am at the usual polling place's
front door.
April 12 - Legislative District and/or County Conventions held. Also,
according to the By-Laws, delegates will be elected for the Congressional
District Convention and the State Convention from each LD and/or County.
May 15 - Filing deadline at KDP HQ in Frankfort for the Congressional
District level delegates and alternates candidates to the National
Convention. Also due are Pledge of Support forms.
May 15 - Filing deadline for the Party Leaders and Elected Officials (PLEOs),
with their Pledge of Support forms.
May 15 - Filing deadline for the At-Large delegates and alternates
candidates, with their Pledge of Support forms.
May 15 is an important deadline if you are
interested in attending the National Convention.
May 20 - Primary Election Day - polls are open from 6 to 6, local time.
May 26 - This is tricky and not something I can fully explain. Presidential
candidates provide list of approved district-level delegate and alternate
candidates, standing committee members, and PLEO’s to State Party. Primary
winners have a lot of say in who actually becomes a delegate and/or
alternate to the National Convention.
May 31 - This is the event I am not sure of. According to the KDP Delegate
Selection Plan, County and LD Caucuses will elect delegates to the
Congressional District and State Conventions. The By-Laws say this will be
done on April 12.
June 7 - Congressional District Convention and State Party Convention meet.
The State Party will provide a list of PLEO candidates, district-level
delegate and alternate candidates, and at-large delegate and alternate
candidates to the respective Presidential candidates. The Conventions will
elect delegates and alternates to the National Convention. Unpledged and
add-on delegates will also be
chosen. I do not really know what an add-on delegate is. By the end
of the day, all persons seeking to go to the National Convention will know
if they actually are or not.
There will be 31 District-Level Delegates; 10 At-Large Delegates; 6 Pledged
PLEOs; 8 Unpledged Delegates; and 8 Alternates. These 63 people will
represent Kentucky at the National Convention.
See the source. Jeff Noble's blog is a good place to keep informed about this.
Comments to the Editor:
None this issue
DAILY GRILL
"The brutal treatment of
innocent civilians in Darfur is unacceptable. ... This status quo must not
continue." -- President Bush,
4/18/07
VERSUS
"Bush's signature [to the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act] was
accompanied by a proviso known as a signing statement, in which
he said he was reserving
the authority to overrule state and local divestment decisions if they
conflicted with foreign policy." -- New York Times,
1/1/08
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"And it really is unfortunate that
Congress has not moved forward on its obligation to have hearings and to
hold votes."
-- White House Press Secretary Dana Perino,
1/2/08, on President Bush's judicial nominees
VERSUS
"Despite the Republicans' loss of control of the Senate, 40 of Bush's judges
won confirmation this year, more than in the previous three years when
Republicans held the majority." -- Los Angeles Times,
1/2/08
Quotes of the Day
Bill Stone, a Louisville Republican and friend of Fletcher's, said he does believe that a separate commission for women is part of "government silliness."
"I personally, and I think conservatives think, the Commission on Women is another wasteful government department," he said.
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Kentucky Democratic Party Chairwoman Jennifer
Moore said in a press release this afternoon that the party has more
than $700,000 cash on hand as 2007 draws to a close.
"Our goal over the next year is to provide our candidates, at every level,
with the resources they need to be victorious in their campaigns," she said
in a statement. "We will continue to build our financial reserves in order
to fulfill that goal."
Recent Senate Votes
Recent House Votes
HUMOR
The Beginning Of The End Of Bush
In Jan. 2007, Newsweek conducted a poll asking Americans if "they
wish the Bush presidency [were] simply over." Fifty-eight percent of
respondents said they did, including 59 percent of independents and 21
percent of Republicans. Today in Iowa, the final chapter of President Bush's
two terms in office will begin to unfold as
an estimated 200,000 to 240,000 voters participate in the first
nominating battle of the 2008 election. With Bush's approval rating hovering
around
33 percent -- and with roughly
67 percent of Americans believing that the country is on the "wrong
track" -- a common thread running through the campaigns of the candidates
from both parties is the need for a break from the policies and passions of
the Bush years. Last month, Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican
pollster Bill McInturff surveyed whether Americans were looking for "small
adjustments," "to turn the page," or to start "a brand new book."
Respondents preferred "a brand new book" by a margin of 17 percentage
points over "turn the page" and 22 percentage points over "small
adjustments." As the Des Moines Register editorializes today, for a country
yearning for a new beginning, participants in the Iowa caucuses have "a
more awesome responsibility this year than ever" to pick someone who can
fix the problems wrought by eight years of Bush.
ETHICS -- FOLEY SCANDAL DEBT FORCED HASTERT TO 'SHUT DOWN HIS CAMPAIGN': According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents, former House speaker Dennis Hastert "failed to disclose in early January 2007 that his 2006 reelection campaign had run up $147,000 in legal bills stemming from his connection with the Foley investigation." In order to avoid further fines, "Hastert quietly agreed last summer to shut down his campaign and pay a $1,000 penalty." The Washington Post notes that Hastert kept the information about the legal woes away from the public, not mentioning "his campaign's legal debt from the Foley scandal, or the settlement his lawyers were brokering with the FEC" when Hastert announced his intention to resign in August. Hastert and "at least three of his aides were told of allegations that then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) had improper e-mail contacts with a former House page months before the incident became public." As Mary Anne Akers of the Washington Post writes, the question is "why Hastert, who made millions of dollars off land deals while he was in Congress (including some that raised ethical questions), didn't pay his legal bills out of his own pocket rather than putting his lawyers on the campaign payroll and having his contributors foot the bill."
ADMINISTRATION -- PERINO FALSELY CLAIMED
CONGRESS HAS 'NOT MOVED FORWARD' ON BUSH'S NOMINEES: Yesterday, a
reporter asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino about President
Bush's "most important priorities" for 2008. She instead
bashed Congress for its failure to "move forward" on confirming more of
the President's nominees, saying, "It is really unfortunate that Congress
has not moved forward on its obligation to have hearings and to hold votes,
because the president has nominated very good people." In fact, as the Los
Angeles Times reported yesterday, the 110th Congress has approved 40 of
Bush's judges, "more
than in the previous three years when Republicans held the majority."
The nominees currently being blocked in the Senate are some of the most
controversial, including Steven Bradbury, acting chief of the Justice
Department's Office of Legal Counsel, who "signed
two secret memos in 2005 saying it was OK for the CIA use harsh
interrogation techniques" on detainees. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-NV) was forced to hold
"pro forma" Senate sessions over the holidays to prevent Bush from
installing his nominees through
recess appointments.
Think Fast
According to the Washington Times, President Bush "is benefiting from a Karl Rove-free White House and the lower-profile approach of his successor," Barry Jackson, who is now "the right fit for a president now reliant on Republican legislators sticking with him."
After enjoying "a good rest" at his Crawford, TX, ranch, President Bush returns to Washington with an "ambitious agenda for 2008," which includes "tackling the mortgage lending crisis," "securing more money from Congress for Iraq," and pushing Congress to "permanently revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
"Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters," according to USA Today.
Oil prices fell two cents on Monday, yet still closed out 2007 "57 percent higher than where they began."
The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute wants you to keep track of the new year with its annual "pinup calendar of conservative women." Gracing the pages are political commentator Bay Buchanan, blogger Michelle Malkin, and "author and calendar stalwart" Ann Coulter. Institute President Michelle Easton "fantasizes about a day when a conservative women's magazine competes for supermarket shelf space with Glamour and Cosmopolitan."
Supporters of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) conducted a sit-in at his Brooklyn office yesterday, calling for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. The activists want Nadler to use his position as the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution to force a hearing on the matter.
An FEC audit revealed that "Sen. Arlen Specter's 2004 re-election campaign collected more than $1 million in excessive contributions, failed to properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in receipts from political party committees and political action committees, and missed a key reporting deadline before the primary election."
Author Nora Ephron isn't happy about Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol receiving a column in The New York Times. Number five on her list of New Year's resolutions is to get Kristol "fired" from the paper. "I don't think any actual work is going to be required in this area; this will come to pass as soon as he starts writing for the paper and whoever hired him actually reads his copy," she writes.
INTERESTING
A New Year for Health Care
During the past year, you helped us fight the good fight for health care.
Together, we pushed for health care for millions of uninsured children. Unfortunately, President Bush and his right-wing allies put party politics above their obligation to America’s children and shattered a dream for millions of working families.
But health care reform will remain on the minds of most Americans—and it will be a big part of the upcoming presidential primaries, caucuses and, ultimately, on Election Day next November.
The big insurance and drug companies will continue to mobilize their armies of well-heeled lobbyists to spread half-truths to legislators and the public about health care.
The only way to fight back is to mobilize a million-strong army of health care activists to combat the misinformation campaign.
Join the fight and sign the petition for real health care reform here.
Tell others to mobilize for health care today.
We know the opponents of health care reform will work overtime to stop us by spreading confusion, and they have the money to do it. We have to inoculate every working family against the lies and false solutions that will make things worse. We have to bring the health care debate to every union workplace and every community in America.
It’s the right time for this fight. The current system isn’t working—and it’s getting worse. Today, rising, irrational health costs are crippling families, companies and communities, but insurance and drug company executives are getting obscene paychecks. Here are the facts:
- Premium costs are rising three times faster than wages or inflation;
- Exploding costs are hurting working families;
- Rising costs are hurting our employers’ ability to compete;
- As costs rise, more people are uninsured—some 47 million people in our
country have no health coverage today;
- Retirees especially are losing employer-sponsored health care;
- Today’s health care system is wasteful and inefficient;
- Insurance and drug companies are pocketing obscene profits; and
- The majority of people in America want to fix our broken health care system.
In this great country, no one should go without health care. The 2008 elections will give us the chance to show that Americans are ready for real change.
Working families can be a big force behind winning secure, high-quality health care for all by 2009 if we make the 2008 elections a mandate for health care reform.
In solidarity, Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
Huckabee Will Cross Picket Line to Appear on Leno, by Seth Michaels,
Looks like former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) will be among the first to cross the television writers’ picket line when Jay Leno goes back on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”
Huckabee, who’s seeking the Republican presidential nomination, will go ahead with a scheduled appearance when Leno returns to the air tonight. TV writers have been on strike for the past two months for a new contract that includes a fair share of revenues from Internet and electronic distribution of material they’ve written.
According to The New York Times, Huckabee today
professed his support for the striking television writers union just a few hours before he was expected to board a plane to for a taping of the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno where he will face a vocal picket line of striking writers.
Uh, sorry. Expressing support for striking workers means not crossing the picket line.
Huckabee was endorsed in the Republican primary by the Machinists (IAM), who also endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the Democratic primary. Tom Buffenbarger, president of the Machinists, had this to say:
Governor Huckabee should not cross the picket line. We have made that abundantly clear to his campaign. With such missteps, he risks losing the support his jobs and economic policies have won for him among trade unionists who will attend the GOP caucuses in Iowa or will vote in the later primaries.
David Letterman also is back on the air. But unlike Leno, his Worldwide Pants production company, which produces Letterman’s “Late Show” and Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show” (both on CBS), worked with the writers to reach interim agreements.
In the last round of bargaining early last month, as negotiators for the Writers Guild of America were preparing a counteroffer to the producers’ demand that the writers withdraw half a dozen critical proposals, the TV executives walked out of the contract negotiations Dec. 10.
Huckabee will be the second Republican presidential candidate to cross the picket line. Last month, Rep. Ronald Paul (Texas) crossed the picket line to appear on ABC’s “The View.”
Leading Democratic candidates have been supportive of the writers’ strike. They have refused to cross the picket lines, and the Democratic National Committee canceled a scheduled Dec. 10 debate on CBS to honor picket lines if a strike by CBS News writers were called.
UPDATE: It’s reported that Clinton will also appear on TV tonight - but she’ll appear on Letterman’s program and won’t cross a picket line.
Minimum Wage Workers in 14 States Get Pay Boost to Start 2008, by Mike Hall
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Minimum wage workers in 14 states will see a boost in pay starting with their first checks in 2008. The new rates took effect Jan. 1.
Workers in five states will see their hourly rates jump between 50 cents and $1.35 an hour as part of recently passed state legislation or ballot initiatives that pushed state wage floors above the federal minimum wage. Workers in nine other states with their minimum wage rates tied to the cost of living will earn an extra 10 cents to 18 cents an hour.
Thirty-one states plus the District of Columbia have set higher minimum wage standards than called for under the federal minimum wage law. Most of those states have boosted their minimum wage levels while the federal wage was stuck at $5.15 an hour for 10 years.
Since the begining of 2006, 22 states have raised their minimum wages. Together with the community group ACORN, the AFL-CIO’s America Needs a Raise campaign mobilized working families to persuade lawmakers to pass new state wage laws and voters in six states to approve ballot measures in 2006 calling for higher minimum wages. Legislatures in Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire and New Mexico passed wage increases in 2007.
Last year, after more than a decade of Republican roadblocks in Congress and Bush administration opposition to raising the pay of millions of the nation’s lowest-paid workers, Congress—with new Democratic majorities—passed and Bush signed a minimum wage bill. That increased the federal rate from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 in July, with 50-cent increases due this year on July 24 and in 2009.
New Mexico workers saw the biggest pay hike, from $5.15 an hour to $6.50 an hour. The Iowa minimum wage increased yesterday from $6.20 an hour to $7.25. California and Massachusetts minimum wage workers now earn $8 an hour following a 50-cent raise in both states, and in Delaware, the minimum wage also jumped 50 cents, to $7.15 an hour.
The 10 states where the minimum wage is indexed against the cost of living, offering some protection against raising costs, are Arizona (15 cents to $6.90), Colorado (17 cents to $7.02) ), Florida (12 cents to $6.79), Missouri (15 cents to $6.65), Montana (10 cents to $6.25), Ohio (15 cents to $7), Oregon (15 cents to $7.95), Vermont (15 cents to $7.68) and Washington (14 cents to $8.07
VIDEOS
Oil Reaches $100 A Barrel And, Mitch McConnell, George Bush And Dick Cheney, Are In The Money
NEED COMPUTER ASSISTANCE??
Democrat Activist Mike Bailey is now providing “Professional Computer Support.” He can be contacted at 502-558-4026, or mikebailey2000@usa.net.
Notice to our Readers & 2008 Primary Election Candidates:
This newsletter will carry, in this space, any Democratic candidates' notice of events or communications (250 words or less) to our readers that the candidate provides to the editor at rcrider@insightbb.com
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