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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY

DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER

Week of March 23, 2008

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Jefferson County Democrats 

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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS

Updated on a regular basis

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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2008 Kentucky Democratic Party

Reorganization Handbook

 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

 

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Yarmuth Calls on President to Lower Gas Prices Immediately

Halting purchases for Strategic Petroleum Reserve will increase supply, lower prices at pump

 

Congressman John Yarmuth’s (KY-3) has called on President Bush to suspend shipments of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as long as the American consumers are struggling to pay for gas.  Experts, including financial analysts at Goldman Sachs, estimate the move would reduce the price of gas by 25 cents.

 

“Louisville families are working too hard to have their money siphoned away at the gas pump,” Congressman Yarmuth said.  “People shouldn’t be paying record gas prices so that we can top off a reserve that’s almost full.”

 

Yarmuth is actively supporting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act, in case the President fails to act.  The bill, H.R. 5437, requires the Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) to suspend all shipments to the SPR in 2008, or until the average price of crude oil falls below $50 a barrel.

 

Gas prices have skyrocketed more than 70 cents in the last year.  The SPR currently contains 695 million barrels and is 95 percent full.  Unlike previous decades, since 2001 the Bush administration has purchased oil for the SPR regardless of market conditions and shipments have continued despite record-high oil prices.  Last November, the DOE announced that it had contracted for an additional 12.3 million barrels of oil shipments beginning this year.  In the past, suspending SPR purchases has driven down gas prices in the short-term. 

 

The following analyses, point to the same result if action is taken in 2008:

 

·     A 2003 report by the Minority Staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs concluded that oil deposits to the SPR drove up crude oil prices by tightening supply and reducing domestic stocks.

 

·     Independent economists, including a team at Goldman Sachs, have estimated that filling the SPR has raised the cost of oil by as much as $6 per barrel and $0.25 per gallon of gasoline at the pump.

 

·     Following Hurricane Katrina, DOE offered 30 million gallons of SPR oil (only 11 million gallons were actually withdrawn) as part of a larger International Energy Agency release, helping reduce crude prices by about $5 a barrel.

 

·     In late 2000, President Bill Clinton authorized a “swap” of oil in which 30 million barrels were released from the SPR to alleviate the threat of a home heating oil crisis due to low inventories, causing prices to fall from $37 to $31 per barrel.

 

The text of the letter is below:

 

Dear Mr. President:

 

We write to urge you to direct the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to temporarily suspend purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). According to independent industry analysts, including Goldman Sachs, this action would allow more oil to remain on the market, and thus drive down gas prices for consumers by as much as $.25 a gallon. This action would provide the American economy a critical short-term stimulus, without requiring Congressional approval. It will save consumers money at the pump, give small business desperately needed relief, and help state and local government provide energy related services.

 

Our country is clearly showing indicators of a recession. Unemployment is up, retail sales are slowing, housing prices continue to slide, and consumers continue to suffer the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Average families are feeling the effects more painfully than ever as they experience the worst inflation in 17 years, largely due to rising food and fuel prices. Although the economic stimulus package recently passed by a bipartisan Congress is an important step towards reviving our lagging economy, high gas and heating oil prices threaten to smother the benefits of the stimulus rebates as families struggle to fill up their cars and pay their electricity and fuel bills.

 

Currently the SPR is 95 percent full with 695 million barrels in reserve, approximately the same level it was in August of 2005 when your Administration successfully used a temporary suspension to relieve supply and price crunches following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The situation is even more dire today for consumers, as gas prices have skyrocketed more than 70 cents in the last year alone. The price of diesel fuel has now hit $4.00 per gallon in many parts of the country, which will ripple through the price of food and goods that are transported by rail and trucks. Suspending the SPR fill could provide the type of immediate, targeted relief that we need right now.

 

Because DOE has only recently signed the contract for 12.3 million barrels of oil to be delivered to the SPR over the next six months, suspending these shipments is a simple step your Administration can take immediately to lower gas prices, put money directly into the wallets of Americans, and save taxpayer dollars. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office has found that every $10 reduction in the price of a barrel of oil has a $50 billion stimulative effect on the economy. Additionally, selling this oil on the market rather than putting it into the SPR will earn the federal government about $6 million per day, or $1 billion over the course of six months.

 

Although we recognize this action should not be taken as a means of reducing prices in the long run, at a time when the SPR is already 95 percent full, acting now can have temporary benefits that would go a long way towards helping American families who are being squeezed, and also stimulate the economy. We urge you to take this important step.

 

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GETTING TO THE MEAT OF THE PROBLEM, Posted by Jim Hightower

 

It’s ironic that people who hate government – corporate interests and right-wing ideologues –are now in charge of running it. Not surprisingly, they do a sorry job of it – either because they’re incompetent or they just don’t want government to work. Putting them in charge, however, is more than ironic – it is downright dangerous for the larger public that counts on a vigorous government.

 

The latest example comes from the agriculture department, which is supposed to assure the safety of such basics as America’s meat supply. However, under the Bushites, the lobbyist and ideologues have steadily slashed enforcement budgets, limited inspections, and punched loopholes in the rules so big slaughterhouses can cut corners on our food safety.

 

Their lackadaisical, laissez-fair approach to their job recently led to the largest beef recall in history, a third of which had already been shipped to such nutrition programs as school lunch. Well, you might think, at least the ag officials caught the perpetrators.

 

Wrong. It was the Humane Society that blew the whistle on a California slaughterhouse that was abusing cattle and putting sick cows called “downers” into America’s food supply. Downers are so sick they can’t stand up – a sign of illness that's even associated with Mad Cow disease. These lame, unhealthy cows had been banned from use as human food… until last year, when industry officials very quietly slipped a loophole into the ban, thus allowing beef processing corporations to slaughter downers and sell the meat to our families.

 

True to their corporate servility and ideological nuttiness, Bush ag officials stood with the industry, rather than the public, reaffirming their support for the downer loophole. Then they even chastised the Humane Society for going outside of official channels to inform the public.

 

“Humane Society Sues U.S. in Cattle Case,” The New York Times, February 28, 2008

“Humane Society Criticized In Meat Quality Scandal,” The New York Times, February 27, 2008

 

 

 

 

Crumbling Bridges a Sign Our Nation’s Economy in Trouble  by Mike Hall

One of the nation’s most pressing needs is the rebuilding and renewal of America’s aging and crumbling infrastructure—including roads, bridges, waterways, transits systems and the electrical grid.

Earlier this week, AFL-CIO chief economist Ron Blackwell told a Senate committee:

Public investment in infrastructure is essential for restoring strong and sustainable economic growth essential for ensuring American prosperity.

Yesterday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced legislation that could be a roadmap to rebuilding. The bill would establish a National Infrastructure Commission to set priorities and seek to achieve consensus at local and federal levels and among public, private, environmental, labor and other groups that agree on the need for revitalizing the infrastructure but are not always in agreement on the best way to go about it.

At a meeting yesterday at the Library of Congress announcing the legislation, Blumenauer said:

 

Bridges are falling down, levees are breaching, and antiquated water systems are putting both our environment and health at risk….We’ve got to address this for our economic vitality.

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the 150 representatives of various groups at the announcement:

 

As we have seen since the early days of our nation, the long-term benefits of investing in infrastructure far outweigh the costs, by strengthening our economy and creating good-paying jobs here at home. In 2008, it also relates to the national security of our country, the quality of life of the American people and the health of the planet.

Meanwhile, Houses and Senate leaders are exploring the possibility of a second economic stimulus package that includes job-creating infrastructure projects to address nation’s economic slowdown, or as some economists are saying, the recession.

 

At this week’s Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Blackwell called for a stimulus package that frontloads:

 

public investment in infrastructure to maintain our schools and repair crumbling bridges and deteriorating highways. Spending that puts people to work on projects we desperately need is more likely to stimulate the domestic economy than tax cuts that may be saved or spent largely on imported consumer goods.

 

Click here to read more from the hearing and here for AFL-CIO President John Sweeney’s recent remarks on infrastructure. There is more on the crumbling infrastructure here.

 

 

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Comments:  

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DAILY GRILL  

 

"There have been some phenomenal changes...with respect to political developments here in Iraq." -- Vice President Dick Cheney, 3/17/08

VERSUS

"A conference to reconcile Iraq's warring political groups began to unravel even before it got under way on Tuesday, with the main Sunni Muslim Arab bloc pulling out and protesting it had not been properly invited." -- Reuters, 3/18/08

 

 

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Quotes of the Day   

 

During a videoconference with U.S. military and civilian personnel yesterday, President Bush praised the troops fighting in Afghanistan, claiming he was "a little envious" of their "romantic" fight:

"I must say, I’m a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

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John Moody, Fox News’s senior vice president, says Rove was hired because “he’s probably the most quoted, talked-about political strategist of his age. I only worried that someone with his work experience might be too good at keeping secrets when he was on the air. . . . Are we getting a Republican spin? Of course. But that’s what he’s there for. There’s no attempt to conceal that.”  MORE

 

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"We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell but refuse to follow him where he actually goes," Obama said.

 

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When asked how that assessment comports with recent polls that show about two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it, Cheney replied, "So?"

 

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Recent Senate Votes 

 

Amendment to establish an earmark moratorium for FY2009 - Vote Rejected (29-71)

The Senate rejected an amendment to the 2009 budget resolution that would have placed a yearlong moratorium on earmarks, special spending requests used by members of Congress to fund projects in their districts.

Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES

Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO

 

Budget Resolution, FY2009 - Vote Agreed to (51-44, 1 Present, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate narrowly approved this budget resolution for fiscal year 2009.

Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO

Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO

 

 

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Recent House Votes 

 

Overriding the Veto of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008 - Vote Failed (225-188, 17 Not Voting)

The House fell far short of the 276 votes needed to override President Bush’s veto of this intelligence bill that would ban interrogation methods like waterboarding and mock executions.

Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO

Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES

 

Establishing within the House of Representatives an Office of Congressional Ethics - Vote Passed (229-182, 4 Present, 15 Not Voting)

The House narrowly approved a new ethics rule to create an independent office that would consider ethics complaints against House members.

Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO

Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES

 

Budget Resolution, FY2009 - Vote Passed (212-207, 12 Not Voting)

The House passed this $3 trillion budget resolution setting spending priorities for the 2009 fiscal year.

Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO

Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES

 

FISA Amendments Act of 2008 - Vote Passed (213-197, 1 Present, 20 Not Voting)

The House passed this intelligence bill that would revise U.S. surveillance laws.

Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO

Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES

 

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HUMOR       

"Interesting fact came out today on the new $5 bill. It turns out it used to be the old $10 bill." --Jay Leno

"Today, Barack Obama criticized John McCain for mistakenly saying that Iran was sending aid to al Qaeda in Iraq, which is not true. And afterwards, President Bush told McCain, 'Don't worry about it. I didn't know that either.'" --Jay Leno

"It could now be profitable for oil companies to start drilling for oil in Los Angeles again. And once again, I think President Bush doesn't really understand this issue. Like today, he announced the drawing of a contingency plan to invade the San Fernando Valley." --Jay Leno

"No, the governor said he would often meet these women at the Days Inn in Albany. Well, he knows how to charm a a lady, huh? Nothing like that free pop tart continental breakfast." --Jay Leno

"As you know, Governor Paterson is legally blind, which has gotta be an advantage when you're having an affair. This way, when your wife catches you in bed with another woman, you go, 'Honey, I thought it was you.'" --Jay Leno

"God, that's got to be depressing for women, don't you think? I mean, think about it. When even a legally blind guy has a roving eye, come on!" --Jay Leno

"That's the other big scandal on the East Coast. A male aide to former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey says the governor's wife should have known he was gay, because they all used to have three-way sex together. As he called it, a 'McThreevey.'" --Jay Leno

"So, let's see, Jim McGreevey was having three-ways. Eliot Spitzer was having sex with prostitutes. The new governor, David Paterson, was having an affair. You realize the only politician in New York not getting any sex -- Hillary Clinton." --Jay Leno

"I don't know if you folks from out of town are aware of this, but here lately we've had trouble with our governor. And now are reports that former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and his wife were having wild, crazy, three-way sexual activities with his assistant. I can't even get my assistant to make coffee." --David Letterman

"How about that John McCain, ladies and gentlemen? Do you like John McCain? John McCain recently said that he supports George Bush's Iraq policy. I said, well, sure, slice me eight more years of that, will ya?" --David Letterman

"I was thinking about this today. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and what a contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Kind of exciting, isn't it? They've got a lot in common. Hillary and Barack have a great deal in common. Both are lawyers, both are senators and neither one is sleeping with Bill Clinton." --David Letterman

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IRAQ -- ONE YEAR LATER, MARKET WHERE McCAIN STROLLED 'FREELY' IS TOO UNSAFE TO VISIT: On April 1, 2007, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) strolled through the open-air Shorja market in Baghdad in an effort to prove that Americans are "not getting the full picture" of what's going on in Iraq. In a press conference after his tour, McCain told reporters that his visit to the market was proof that people could "walk freely" in parts of Baghdad. What McCain failed to mention was that he was accompanied by "100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead." Since that trip, McCain has claimed that the situation in Iraq has improved even more. A few months ago, McCain claimed that "we've succeeded militarily" in Iraq. McCain is now back in Iraq for a "surprise visit with Iraqi and American diplomatic and military leaders." But it is unlikely he will be visiting the Shorja market again. Yesterday, CNN's John King reported that reporters tried to visit the Shorja market, but it was too unsafe and they were unable to go. "[O]ur own security advisers here in Iraq did not want us to go there," said King. "They didn't believe it was safe for an American to be in that area." King also noted that the area is now "controlled by the radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi army."

 

NO HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS: In his weekly radio address -- just one day before the government stepped in and bailed out Bear Stearns -- President Bush said, "If we were to pursue some of the sweeping government solutions that we hear about in Washington, we would make a complicated problem even worse -- and end up hurting far more homeowners than we help." In the end, the Bush administration threw out its conservative principles and saved the firm from complete collapse to protect the larger market. As recently as Sunday, Paulson was still insisting that "government intervention" for homeowners would "raise more problems and do more harm than they would do good." Center for American Progress Senior Fellow David M. Abromowitz notes the contradictions in the Bush administration's approach: "Bear Stearns is too important to allow to fail, but millions of homeowners can end up on the street when home prices plummet sharply. The Wall Street holders of overvalued mortgage pools are too important to fail, but homeowners drowning in debt are told to keep paying [no] matter what. Or consider that big oil company tax breaks are too integral to our energy plan, but relief for millions of drivers squeezed by rising gasoline prices would be bad economic policy."

 

IRAQ -- CHENEY DECLARES IRAQ WAR A 'SUCCESSFUL ENDEAVOR': Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced visit to Iraq to meet with U.S and Iraqi leaders and to reaffirm "the unwavering commitment" of the United States in Iraq. Despite the fact that numerous government reports over the last five years have conclusively proved that no relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda existed before the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Cheney said yesterday during a press conference in Iraq that it is "pretty clear that there was" a link. In fact, a Defense Department commissioned study released just this month found "no connection" between Saddam Hussein's and al Qaeda. But Cheney -- who has a solid history of making the false link -- held firm, citing a thoroughly-debunked Weekly Standard article as laying out the best case of an Iraq-al Qaeda connection. Moreover, despite a deadly suicide bombing and other violence that killed and injuring scores of Iraqis yesterday, Cheney said there has been "phenomenal" improvements in security and that the war has been a "successful endeavor." 

 

MEDIA -- IN 2007, FOX NEWS FEATURED MOST CELEBRITY COVERAGE, FEWEST STORIES ON IRAQ WAR: On Monday, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) put out its annual report on the "State of the News Media." While the 2008 presidential campaign and the debate over Iraq were overwhelmingly the top subjects of cable news, the networks still devoted a substantial amount of coverage to celebrity affairs. Of the cable networks, Fox News featured the most amount of celebrity coverage and the least amount of Iraq war coverage. The report notes, "Fox, in turn, spent less time on the war in Iraq than the others (10% vs. 18% on MSNBC and 16% on CNN). And it was more oriented to crime, celebrity and the media than its rivals (28% vs. 19% on MSNBC and 16% on CNN)." As The Progress Report highlighted in March 2007, three weeks after Anna Nicole Smith's death, Fox News and MSNBC still devoted more time to the late celebrity than to the Walter Reed scandal. Fox gave Anna Nicole roughly 12 times more coverage. Fox may not be ashamed of PEJ's latest findings. Last year, Fox News's John Gibson defended his celebrity coverage by accusing reporters -- such as CNN's Anderson Cooper -- of "news-guy snobbery." Gibson claimed that people were "a little weary" of war coverage and wanted "a little something else."
 

MEDIA -- REPORTERS LOSING INTEREST IN 'LAME DUCK' PRESIDENT BUSH: The Politico reports today that reporters on "the White House beat during these lame duck days" have become bored, with many "describ[ing] a scene where one might expect tumbleweeds lazily blowing across the finely manicured lawn on Pennsylvania Avenue." Reporters said the current presidential campaign "coupled with the minimalist agenda of an unpopular president has led to overall Bush fatigue that outranks the waning days of the Clinton administration." One correspondent said that Bush's "rhetoric is so exhausted. He rarely makes any news. It's rarely worth anyone's time to cover him like we used to." Another added, "[T]his president's long passed the point of getting any initiatives enacted." White House reporters are not the only ones tired of covering the Bush administration. Last year, the media has already started losing interest in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as well, with her traveling press corps noticeably dwindling.

 

 

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Think Fast    

 

The current economic crisis "is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war," writes former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan in the Financial Times. He also argues that "market flexibility and open competition" are "our most reliable and effective safeguards against cumulative economic failure."

 

Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) current visit to Iraq is bolstering the belief by the country's politicians that if he is elected president, "the American military would have a large presence in Iraq for a very long time." Jalaladeen Sagheer, a senior member of the leading Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, described McCain's visit as "an advertisement for the American elections."

 

Vice President Cheney made a surprise visit to Iraq today, to reaffirm "the unwavering commitment" of the United States to rebuilding Iraq. Cheney told reporters that it was "especially significant" he was in Iraq five years after the March 2003 U.S. invasion. Shortly after his arrival, "two explosions rocked Baghdad."

 

"My life has been flushed down the drain," said one Bear Stearns employee. Bear Stearns had always encouraged its 14,000 employees, "from secretaries to top executives, to be long-term holders in the company's stock, and the employees own over 30 percent of the company."

 

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) "failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in profits he made on stock sales on his annual financial disclosure forms for the past several years." Last Thursday, after inquiries by Roll Call, Dreier filed an amendment to "his 2004, 2005 and 2006 disclosure forms" listing previously undisclosed stock sales "totaling between $85,000 and $263,000 in income."

 

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell recently delivered a speech that contained a story about an historical radio conversation at sea. "This is true. It's an actual recording," McConnell said. In fact, McConnell's story was "untrue. False. Urban naval legend. Never happened."

 

Echoing his infamous declaration in 2005 that former FEMA chief Michael "Brownie" Brown was "doing a heckuva job" responding to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush thanked Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson yesterday "for working over the weekend" in response to the long-brewing economic crisis.

 

Marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, President Bush will deliver a speech today at the Pentagon defending his decision to wage war. According to excerpts, Bush will say the war's "high cost in lives and treasure" has been "necessary" and that the war's successes are "undeniable."

 

71 percent: Americans who think "U.S. spending in Iraq is a reason for the nation's poor economy." According to the new CNN poll, just 36 percent of the American public believes the "situation in Iraq was worth going to war over -- down from 68 percent in March 2003, when the war began."

 

Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, a surrogate for John McCain, told an audience that the religious right is "a serious problem." "On the Christian hard right, I live in Charlottesville now and I can't tell you I'm surrounded by it," Eagleburger said. "I must tell you we fought it there, fought hard against it. There's no question that in the Republican Party it is a serious problem."

 

 

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INTERESTING  

 

Good Jobs First ‘Claws Back’ Against Corporate Tax Subsidies by James Parks

 

When big corporations like Wal-Mart come into a town, they often do so fueled by big tax subsidies. In return, they often promise to create hundreds or thousands of good, new jobs–and then renege on that pledge. Good Jobs First, which has a long record of providing tools for community activists to challenge corporate giveaways, this week launched a new blog to bolster its efforts. 

Clawback takes its name from the steps governments take to recoup subsidies from companies that don’t deliver on job promises. But even more, the staff of Good Jobs First says in a press release: 

We also like to think of ourselves as part of a movement that is “clawing back” in a broader sense–making economic development once again serve the common good rather than narrow private interests.  

Clawback’s current posts include one by Bettina Damiani that reveals how New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration is handing over taxpayer subsidies to a long list of super-rich business enterprieses such as Major League Baseball, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and the American Stock Exchange. Damiani also points out that the city is paying more than $1 billion in city, state and federal subsidies just to build two stadiums for the New York Yankees and New York Mets, two of baseball’s richest franchises.

Or you can read how small businesses in Austin, Texas, have moved a ballot referendum that would bar the city from giving tax breaks to retailers. The group consists of about 450 locally owned businesses and wants the ban on tax breaks for new projects with retail components. The group also wants the city to stop making payments to existing projects, like the $16.5 million in property and sales tax rebate awarded to a luxury shopping center. .

Austin would not be the first city with a ban on retail subsidies. Last summer, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano signed a law prohibiting cities in the Phoenix area from providing retail subsidies. This law came after two metro-area projects were awarded a whopping $340 million in sales tax rebates.

Click here to check out the Clawback site.

  

 

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Greedy Troglodytes Attack Teachers by Tula Connell

 

What is it about teachers that reactionaries don’t like?

Maybe it’s because an educated electorate poses a threat to those who seek to control the public—”Danger: Educated Union Member” is one of our favorite phrases—and so teachers pose an easy target for the antediluvians among us. (Remember John Stossel’s ABC trash piece, “Stupid in America”?).

The success of teachers’ unions also draws particular ire from the anti-education crowd.
This week, you may have seen full-page ads in USA Today or teevee spots on CNN and Fox attacking teachers. The ads are part of a $1 million advertising assault on teachers’ unions launched days ago.

Two questions emerge.

Who would spend this amount of money trashing teachers? And who stands to make tons of money off this campaign?

The second question is the simplest to answer. The egregiously misnamed Center for Union Facts is the money-making entity pushing the campaign. The organization is another front group by sleaze propagandist Richard Berman. Among Berman’s list of hatchet jobs is a PR campaign through his American Beverage Institute to slam Mothers Against Drunk Driving on behalf of the alcohol industry. Via the Center for Consumer Freedom, Berman wielded a literally toxic campaign for the tuna industry to encourage pregnant women to eat tuna—never mind the mercury. (AFT’s NCLBlog also points out Berman’s attacks on Robert Redford here.)

Berman regularly reproduces organizations with innocuous-sounding names to perpetrate the opposite of what they seem.

As a result, Berman makes money. Lots of it. He runs five campaigns out of his offices in Washington, D.C., with backers paying “huge fees” to his lobbying firm, according to the Union Busting Network at the non-profit American Rights at Work. Citing USA Today, American Rights at Work notes Berman’s company has 28 employees and earns $10 million a year, but “only Berman and his bookkeeper wife” know how much of the $10 million ends up in their own pockets. Or as the Las Vegas Sun puts it:

[Berman] never discloses his financial backers, allowing large, mainstream companies to fund him without having to associate their brand names with his sharp-elbowed approach.

At the Conservative Leadership Conference in Nevada last October, the Las Vegas Sun notes that when Berman described the tactics behind his teacher attack campaign, he
approvingly quoted mobster Al Capone: “You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”

In Ohio, where Berman is aiming his “gun” at the Columbus Education Association, the association sums up his mission:

Not enough Columbus City teachers have been fired between the 2003–04 and 2006–07 school years to satisfy the Center For Union Facts. The anti-labor group posits that it is too easy for many Columbus City School teachers to obtain a continuing contract (known as tenure in other states) and they are therefore able to escape the accountability and scrutiny of the evaluation process.

Berman’s sights clearly are off. Columbus was one of the first National Education Association (NEA) locals to host a Peer Assistance and Review Program, winning a Saturn Award for the program and becoming a centerpiece in former NEA President Bob Chase’s concept of “New Unionism.” The program involves intensive hands-on training, conferences, evaluation and mentoring to ensure the highest skill levels among teachers. Further, as Columbus Education Association President Rhonda Johnson stated:

I find it highly ironic, that on the day that this smear campaign begins, the [Peer Assistance and Review Program] panel is meeting to consider whether to make a recommendation to the Superintendent to non-renew 4 intern teachers and to receive reports on three experienced teachers whose [Peer Assistance Review] consulting teachers have grave concerns about their classroom performance.

AFT President Ed McElroy describes Berman as “a shameless lobbyist who has shilled for pesticide, alcohol and tobacco companies.”

Berman has a record of using hidden funders to attack groups that contribute a great deal to society. Now, he is coming after teachers at a time when most Americans support education and want to make improving education a top national priority.

The groups funding Berman have lots of money to spend. As part of his teacher attack campaign, he’s inviting nominations for a contest to determine the nation’s worst unionized teachers. The “winners” will be offered $10,000 each if they permanently resign or retire from any career in education—if they sign a release agreeing to have their name and the reasons for their selection published by the group.

This leads us back to the first question: Who would spend this amount of money trashing teachers?

Behind Berman’s Center for Union Mis-Facts, are an array of organizations, such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that have an ideological and pecuniary axe to grind. They hate unions and more importantly, the workers who join together in unions to assert their rights as human beings are entitled to decent wages, affordable health coverage and retirement security.

The Las Vegas Sun puts his attack on teachers unions in perspective, saying it is “really a small front in a much bigger battle over the future of the labor movement and its role in American politics.”

It’s not clear Berman cares at all about education policy. His real target is the broader labor movement offers profiles of anti-union organizations with details on their lobbying, litigation and media outreach, as well as their connections to each other.

The Sun article goes on:

If the public doesn’t trust the teachers unions, he reasons, surely they won’t trust steel workers or other unions that don’t have such a seemingly beneficent pedigree.

Berman wants lots of money and will do what it takes to keep the feeding at the pig trough. Those paying him to do their dirty work don’t want us, as individuals, joining together to face the boss, the Big Business employer, the corporate conglomeration that profits when we don’t challenge a wage system that means we must work two and three jobs to support our families, or go without prescription medication so we can pay the rent.

Workers in unions challenge that ideological mindset every day. And that’s why Berman is being paid millions to go after us.

 

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Veterans Administration Won't Help Soldiers Register to Vote, By Steven Rosenfeld

 

The VA has thrown up roadblocks since the last presidential election.

 

For at least four years, since the 2004 presidential election when a veteran, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was the Democratic Party nominee, the Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked efforts to help U.S. soldiers register to vote at its facilities in all 50 states.

 

"This is politically motivated voter suppression," said Scott Rafferty, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who has fought the Veterans Administration (VA) in federal courts since 2004 over the right to assist veterans, including homeless vets, to register to vote at the VA campus in Menlo Park, California. "The VA is making its open campuses, even those where hundreds of homeless and aging veterans live, First Amendment-free zones."  CLICK FOR THE REST

 

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Buy American Mention of the Week                      

 

 How to Buy an American Bicycle

 

            With winter almost officially over (although it may not feel like it depending on which part of the country you live in) the thoughts of many Americans are turning to spending more time outdoors. If that outdoors time includes cycling and you want to buy American, you’re going to have to think outside the big-box and take a road less traveled to get an American-made bicycle.

 

            This means if you think you’re going to walk into a Wal-Mart, Target or Sears and find a bicycle with a “Made in USA” tag on it, you’re going to be disappointed that you wasted your time as well as your car’s gas that you’ll have to replenish at over $3.00 per gallon.

 

            It follows then that we need a Buy American strategy before we blindly head out the door hunting for American-made Huffy for under a hundred bucks. It’s not going to happen. Awareness is the key, and such a Buy American strategy should apply whether you’re looking for bicycles or Band-Aids.

 

            Two of the more-popular names in bicycles are Trek and Cannondale, but it’s difficult to find American-made bikes from these brands for under $1,000.00. I bought my American-made Trek 1200 bike used for $400.00 over 10 years ago (I don’t do a whole lot of cycling). Most of the high-end, carbon-frame bikes from Trek are made in USA, with their low-end, heavier aluminum frame bikes imported. Cannondale, which not long ago prided themselves as having their complete line handmade in USA, is now importing their lower-end, lower-priced bikes from overseas. Trek and Cannondale are usually brands that are sought after by serious bike enthusiasts. You can locate dealers for Trek bikes at www.trekbikes.com and Cannondale bikes at www.cannondale.com.

 

            But what if you’re not a super-serious bike enthusiast that wants a basic, casual, American-made bicycle for a cheaper price? Worksman Cycles (www.worksmancycles.com) have been proudly made in USA since 1898, and you can custom design your own Worksman Custom Cruiser for $299.00. Their Atlantic Coast Cruisers can be purchased for as low as $179.00. You can also find 3-wheeled tricycles for $449.00.

 

            Worksman Cycles prides themselves in the higher-quality of their bikes over the typical import, and they’re not shy in telling you about it. On their website, they tell the reader “To be perfectly frank, if you are looking for ordinary run of the mill imported cruiser bikes, shop somewhere else.”

 

            If you’re in the market for an American-made bike with more of a retro-style feel, check out Aero-Fast bicycles at www.aerofast.com. All Aero-Fast bicycles are made in Jacksonville, Florida. Their least expensive model is the Beach Bomber Econo for $449.00, with almost all of their bikes costing under $1,000.00.

 

            Bike riding is a source for recreation, relaxation and good health for many Americans. By buying an American-made bike, you can better your own health as well as the health of the U.S. economy, and that’s better for all Americans whether they ride bicycles or not.

 

 

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Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are introducing legislation "aimed at stabilizing financial markets by helping as many as 2 million homeowners avoid foreclosure."

 

 

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VIDEOS    

 

 McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book

 

Perino Defends Administration’s Intervention For Wall Street Instead Of Main Street

 

TOP     

                

 

 

CLICK HERE FOR LATEST ISSUE OF THE "FRIDAY ALERT"

 

 

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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. 

 

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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