|
LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of May 4, 2008
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 5,500+
Jefferson County Democrats
We hope you will forward the link to your own e-mail list.
***********************************
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 .
-
McCain’s Health Care Plan: Increases Taxes, Decreases Coverage by Seth Michaels
|
|
|
Today in Tampa, Fla., Sen. John McCain gave an address his advisers claimed would “unveil” his health care proposal—but he essentially offered the same tired proposal he’s been touting for months. Most policy analysts agree this plan won’t cut costs, won’t cover more people and won’t fix the real problems in the health care system.
McCain wants to address our nation’s health care crisis by merely shifting costs around—and millions of people would pay higher health care costs as a result. McCain would tax health care benefits as income and push more people out of group insurance pools and into the often-predatory private market. In short, McCain would increase our taxes and ensure fewer of us could afford quality health care.
AFL-CIO union members in Florida were on hand as McCain spoke to ask him to change course and offer some real answers on health care.
Yesterday, McCain met with a father and son at a Florida hospital and listened to the father’s story of his struggle to pay for his son’s health care. But McCain didn’t mention that his plan would leave that nine-year-old boy without coverage. How’s that for straight talk?
Economist Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, says McCain’s health care proposal shows little comprehension of the issue. Indeed, Hickey says, the proposal is “a dangerous fraud” and based on a theory “contradicted by the facts.”
McCain’s health care plan, as it currently exists, wouldn’t lower costs or expand coverage. Instead, through changing the tax system for health benefits, it could result in many employers cutting off health benefits altogether.
The massive upheaval that would result—millions of families losing their health coverage on the job and then having to try to find an insurance company that would sell them a new policy that would cover their families—that’s not an unintended consequence of his proposal. That chaotic loss of health security is exactly what McCain intends to happen. He wants us all to buy insurance not as part of a group—like an employee group or a co-op—that can negotiate for better coverage at lower premiums, but as individuals, at the mercy of the private insurance companies.
And get this: McCain wants to abolish the regulations that currently exist in most states that require companies to insure people with pre-existing conditions, provide benefits that don’t exclude some medical conditions, and prevent them from charging huge premiums for crumby benefits.
McCain’s plan is exactly the wrong answer to give working families at a time when health care premiums have been rising 10 times as fast as income. The nearly 27,000 responses to the online AFL-CIO 2008 Health Care for America Survey earlier this year shows the problem goes beyond the millions of people who lack insurance. The more than 7,000 who took time to write comments made it clear that many more of us are at risk of losing coverage or being denied care. Working families, even those with insurance, already are paying high costs and having trouble getting the medical care they need.
Who really wins in the McCain health care plan? The insurance and pharmaceutical companies whose lobbyists fund and staff McCain’s campaign. Those special interests couldn’t have written a better plan than McCain’s, which would roll back regulations that protect consumers from denials of coverage and excessive premiums. And to top it off, his corporate tax cut proposals would give the top 10 insurance companies nearly $2 billion.
The AFL-CIO is making health care a major part of the campaign to turn around America. Unions are greeting McCain around the country this week to ask for real solutions on health care. Union members and leaders have attended meetings about the health care crisis around the country, and next month, union members will distribute more than a million fliers at worksites and set up phone banks to get the word out on the issue of health care. On May 17, thousands of union members will walk door to door to educate and mobilize working families on how they can make sure the next president makes implementing a real health care plan a top priority.
 |
||
|
Five years ago Thursday, President Bush landed on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" in front of a banner that read, "Mission Accomplished." John McCain said at that time, "it's clear that the end is very much in sight. It will be a fairly short period of time, but this happens in wars. I'm confident that once they are confident the area is no longer a threat to the Marines and to our army troops that they'll start imposing discipline. In the meantime, we'll have a short period of chaos." [ABC News, "Good Morning America," 4/9/2003] Five years, 4,000 lost lives, and at least $500 billion later -- John McCain says he supports and will continue the current policy in Iraq if elected. Instead of outlining a plan for victory and an exit strategy in Iraq, McCain is offering a long-term troop presence in Iraq similar to our presence in Germany and South Korea, an approach that he himself admits won't work. [The Charlie Rose Show, 11/27/07; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95HVxPuCTes] Of those American lives lost, Mitch McConnell said, "...remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers," and added the slander that Americans who disagree with the failed Iraq policy, "don't want us to win." [Grayson County News-Gazette, 12/07/07]
Just how out of touch is Mitch McConnell with the reality of the
situation in Iraq? L While billions of dollars continue to be spent and misspent in Iraq, McConnell has voted four times against establishing a commission to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. The special committee would consist of 7 members - four appointed by the majority party, three appointed by the minority party. The committee would hold hearings and have subpoena authority. [Vote 228, 9/14/05; Vote 259, 10/19/05; Vote 316, 11/10/05, Vote 176, 6/20/06] While just 31 percent of Americans approve of President Bush's handling of the war, McCain and McConnell continue to be the most vocal supporters of the President's failed strategy in Iraq.
John McC Please remind your friends, families and neighbors that the issues faced by Kentuckians and the entire nation are too important to leave in the hands of people like John McCain and Mitch McConnell. The issues are too important for four more years of the same failed policies. Vote Democratic this November.
Sincerely,
Jennifer A.
Moore
P.S. Help support the long campaign ahead. You can make a one-time contribution or join our new PLEDGE TO WIN program, where you can make an automatic monthly contribution using your credit or debit card. |
||
|
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. |
||
Every $1 Billion Spent on Rebuilding Infrastructure Creates 42,000 Jobs, by James Parks
Too often, the only time lawmakers think seriously about rebuilding our nation’s aging and crumbling infrastructure is after a disaster like the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis or the destruction of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Then a few months later, the issue is pushed back to make way for less-expensive priorities.
But
the ability of the United States to compete in the
global economy and continue its growth depends on our willingness to
improve our roads, bridges, waterways, transit systems and the electrical
grid, says Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D).
The price tag to rebuild is high, but we can afford it, Rendell told participants at a symposium today on “Investing in U.S. Infrastructure.” Sponsored by the Agenda for Shared Prosperity, the symposium brought together economists, policymakers and others to discuss ideas for moving America forward after 2008. Rendell told the meeting:
We always say we can’t afford to rebuild the infrastructure. But we can find the money for what we want to do. If we can afford the war in Iraq, we can fix our infrastructure.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates it will cost $1.6 trillion over five years to bring roads, rails, bridges, waterways, transit systems and other infrastructure components into “good condition.” Rendell points out that debt service on that amount is about what we spend in Iraq each year.
John Irons, research director for the Economic Policy Institute, which sponsors Agenda for Shared Prosperity events, told the symposium that infrastructure investments would provide short-term economic stimulus and build the foundation for long-term economic growth by creating new jobs and spurring investments.
Rendell estimates that every $1 billion spent on rebuilding infrastructure creates 42,000 jobs.
The AFL-CIO strongly supports an economic stimulus package that includes investing in infrastructure. Last month, AFL-CIO Chief Economist Ron Blackwell told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee the nation needs an economic 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.
A spending program that focuses on rebuilding the infrastructure not only would create jobs but also change our quality of life, Rendell says. It could make our commutes faster and improve our drinking water. It would create more opportunities for workers to build a middle class life by becoming construction workers and help build businesses that supply materials for the rebuilding.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who introduced legislation to establish a National Infrastructure Commission, told the conference:
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
If enacted, the legislation would 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.
The speakers echoed AFL-CIO President John Sweeney’s call earlier this year for organizations with diverse interests to come together behind a comprehensive plan to rebuild America. Sweeney said:
We all have a stake in this—every one of us—and we all have different motives for wanting action. For the AFL-CIO, it’s good jobs. For others, it is something different. We also depend on our infrastructure to keep our families and our communities healthy, comfortable and safe, and to keep our country moving. We should be able to put some of our parochial concerns aside and come together behind a comprehensive long-range infrastructure plan.
In convention resolutions, the AFL-CIO repeatedly has urged the nation’s political leaders to address our aging infrastructure. At its summer meeting in Chicago last year, members of the federation’s Executive Council renewed their call for Congress and the president to rebuild America. The council’s statement said:
Our government must make the significant investments needed to upgrade and maintain the nation’s infrastructure. We need to find the resources to make this happen and ensure that we take advantage of this opportunity to create good jobs for America’s workers, both in construction and production of the materials needed. This will require courage, leadership and vision, but we cannot afford not to act.
Former Employee Says KBR Promoted Camp Manager After She Was Caught Stealing
On Monday, two former employees of embattled contracting firm KBR testified that they saw coworkers regularly steal from Iraq while working there. One employee, Linda Warren, said “that some of her American colleagues doing construction work in Iraqi palaces and municipal buildings took woodcarvings, tapestries and crystal ‘and even melted down gold to make spurs for cowboy boots.’”
Warren told the Senate panel that her camp manager got “busted by the military” for looting, but still, “she was given a promotion.” Watch it: READ REST OF STORY
Comments:
None this week
DAILY GRILL
"[N]o one anticipated this insurgency [in Iraq], a lot of people were
slow to recognize it once it had started." -- Former deputy defense
secretary Paul Wolfowitz,
4/28/08
VERSUS
"The overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq
could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists
and terrorists in the region." -- Two pre-war National Intelligence Council
assessments,
January 2003
************************
We didn't invade Iraq." -- Fox News's Bill O'Reilly,
4/29/08
VERSUS
"I'll submit that most folks still have no idea why the Bush administration
invaded Iraq." -- O'Reilly, 1/28/08
Quotes of the Day
"Senator McCain's not here. He probably wanted to distance himself from me a little bit. You know, he's not alone. Jenna's moving out too. Hillary Clinton couldn't get in because of sniper fire and Senator Obama's at church." --President Bush, at the 2008 White House Correspondents' Dinner
Recent Senate Votes
Cloture
Motion; Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 - Vote Rejected
(56-42, 2 Not Voting)
The Senate fell short of the sixty votes necessary to proceed to debate on
H.R. 2831, a bill that effectively overturns a recent Supreme Court decision
concerning pay discrimination litigation.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007 - Vote Passed
(96-1, 3 Not Voting)
The Senate passed this comprehensive veterans’ benefits bill, which includes
a provision to provide a limited pension for Filipino World War II veterans.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted YES
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007 - Vote Passed
(95-0, 5 Not Voting)
The Senate unanimously agreed to a measure that would prohibit employers and
health insurance issuers from discriminating against individuals on the
basis of their genetic information.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted YES
Recent House Votes
Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008 - Vote Passed
(349-62, 20 Not Voting)
The House voted to place a year-long moratorium on the implementation of
several new Medicaid rules.
Rep. Ron Lewis voted YES
Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES
SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act - Vote Passed (368-43, 20 Not
Voting)
The House voted to reauthorize through 2010 the Small Business and
Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.
Rep. Ron Lewis voted YES
Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES
Coast Guard Authorization for 2008 - Vote Passed (395-7, 29
Not Voting)
The House approved this $8.4 billion bill authorizing Coast Guard programs
and spending.
Rep. Ron Lewis voted YES
Rep. John Yarmuth voted Not Voting
HUMOR
"Barack
Obama announced that after all the insulting comments and bitterness, he
is severing his 20-year relationship with
Reverend Wright. After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, 'Wait, you can
do that with someone?'" --Conan O'Brien
"Kind of a big brouhaha with the Republicans going on here, because (Jenna
Bush) said she wasn't sure that she was going to support McCain. She said
she's 'open to learning' about the other candidates.' … But come on, this is
kind of a treason in the Bush family. Not supporting a Democrat -- being
open to learning. That's outrageous." --Bill Maher
"Hillary
Clinton says she's willing to debate Barack Obama. This is what she
said: anytime, anywhere, and would even meet him in the back of a truck.
Yeah, which is surprising, because the 'anytime, anywhere, even in back of a
truck' offer is usually made by
Bill Clinton." --Conan O'Brien
"President
Bush announced the rebate checks for at least $600. ... The rebates were
pushed through by the president to help get the economy going. It's kind of
like when the mom of the kid nobody likes bakes everyone cupcakes so you can
pretend to like him until the cupcakes are gone, and then you go back to
giving him wedgies." --Jimmy Kimmel
"Hillary Clinton announced today she’ll appear on 'The O'Reilly Factor.'
That should be a great confrontation. On one side, a loudmouthed bully who
wants to tear apart the Democratic Party and on the other side, there's
Bill O'Reilly." --Craig Ferguson
"Tomorrow night on Fox News, Hillary Clinton is gonna be making
her first ever appearance on Bill O'Reilly's show, 'The O'Reilly Factor.'
Yeah, Hillary should do well, 'cause she has years of experience yelling
'Shut up, Bill!'" --Conan O'Brien
"Barack's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, the guy is everywhere. He's
everywhere now. In fact, next week, he's making a guest appearance on 'How I
Met Your Mother.' Did you know that? He's playing the secretary. No, he's
making speeches. He's on the radio. And Reverend Wright says he'd rather
just go home and retire, but the money Hillary is paying him is so good."
--Jay Leno
"President Bush is taking a lot of heat right now, with the economy.
President Bush has just been accused of trying to avoid questions about the
economy. Because during yesterday's press conference, he told a reporter
that she looked good in yellow and then asked about her baby. Even more
embarrassing for Bush, the reporter was Wolf Blitzer." --Conan O'Brien
"If you're following the campaign, you know
John McCain is currently on his tour of forgotten places. He's touring
what he calls forgotten places. Of course, when you're 71, the room you just
walked into is a forgotten place, isn't it? 'Why did I come in here again? I
was just here.'" --Jay Leno
"David Blaine today broke the world record for holding his breath, on
'Oprah' — 17 minutes, four seconds. Blaine has now frozen himself, he's
starved himself, he's gone without sleep for weeks, and deprived himself of
oxygen. Today,
Dick Cheney said, 'See, it's not torture. It's magic.'" --Jimmy Kimmel
"Tomorrow I go to Washington D.C. to perform at the
White House Correspondents Dinner. It’s thrown by the press corps for
the president and his staff. Everyone who works for the president will be
there. Dick Cheney will be there; Condoleezza Rice will be there; Fox News
will be there." --Craig Ferguson (Watch video of
Ferguson at the Correspondents Dinner)
"I don’t want to sit next to John McCain. I don’t want to be the one who has
to cut his meat into little pieces." --Craig Ferguson
"The president was also at the White House Correspondents Dinner this
weekend. He did a little comedy routine there, too. And, he grabbed the
baton and conducted the Marine Corps band [on screen:
video of Bush conducting the band]. The man leading that band is also
leading this country. And I think he did a better job with the band."
--Jimmy Kimmel
"Kind of a strange thing happened this weekend at a big event in Washington,
DC. President Bush, I guess he got excited, so he picked up a baton and he
started conducting the U.S. Marine Band. Yeah, unfortunately, the president
got upset because the band didn't know the song, 'The Wheels on the Bus.'
They go 'round and 'round, apparently." --Conan O'Brien
"How 'bout that John McCain, you like John McCain? I like John McCain. He
looks like a guy who goes grocery shopping and yells at the bagboy, 'Put the
eggs on top. Hey, hey junior, put the eggs on top.' He looks like a guy who
still calls the TV the 'Idiot Box.' ... He looks like a guy you take
shopping and have to yell into the changing room, 'Everything alright in
there, pop?'" --David Letterman (Read more of Letterman's jabs at
Old Man McCain)
IRAQ -- REPORT REVEALS MILLIONS OF
DOLLARS WASTED IN RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: A report released
yesterday by the
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that
millions of dollars were wasted on Iraq reconstruction contracts that
"were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other
factors." Furthermore, U.S. officials "falsely described" certain failed
projects as complete. The report found that the reconstruction effort has
cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion, and last year alone, $10 billion
paid to contractors in Iraq were "questionable or unsupported." The report
also found that instead of terminating poorly performing projects, the
government would simply modify existing contracts "to change the scope of
the work." Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight noted that
the SIGIR report "paints
a depressing picture of money being poured into failed Iraq
reconstruction projects."
ECONOMY -- ECONOMIC DOWNTURN LEAVES AMERICANS STRUGGLING FOR HEALTH CARE:
A Kaiser Family Foundation/Urban Institute study released yesterday said
that "each percentage-point rise in unemployment during the economic
downturn would swell the uninsured by 1.1 million, stoking demand for
government health coverage just as states face pressure to cut benefits."
Last month alone, the economy shed 80,000 jobs, the largest monthly job
decline in five years. The Kaiser study says "each rise in unemployment of
one percentage point would also add 600,000 children and 400,000 adults to"
government health care programs, requiring "an additional $3.4 billion for
Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, with $1.4
billion of it from the states." A poll released today found that 7 percent
of Americans marry in order to obtain health insurance through their spouse,
a trend that, though small, emphasizes the seriousness of the problem of
access to health insurance. The poll also "found that healthcare costs
outranked housing costs, rising food prices and credit card bills as a
source of concern."
BUSH CLAIMS WE'RE WINNING:
Nevertheless, Bush remains blindly optimistic. "Do
you think we're winning?" in Afghanistan, a reporter asked yesterday. "I
do, I think we're making good progress. I do, yes," Bush said. But his
leadership in Afghanistan has been anything but successful. The White House
even "acknowledged that its strategic goals are unmet in Afghanistan in its
own assessment late last year, but it has not yet implemented
any major policy shifts on the Afghanistan front," Katulis noted. For
example, according the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, "Western
countries have failed to deliver $10 billion of nonmilitary assistance
pledged to Afghanistan over the last six years and the United States, by far
the biggest donor, is
responsible for half of the shortfall." Funding for Provincial
Reconstruction Teams, which Bush "has called the
leading edge of stabilization efforts," is "ad hoc and comes from so
many sources that congressional investigators were unable to determine how
much has been spent," a House Armed Service Committee report said last week.
"[M]ilitary force, while necessary,
is not sufficient to defeat militants in Afghanistan," Lawrence Korb and
Caroline Wadhams of CAP wrote in January. Karzai has also criticized Bush's
military-centric approach, which has caused
heavy civilian casualties. "I am not happy with civilian casualties
coming down;
I want an end to civilian casualties," he said last weekend. "Overall,
42 percent of Afghans rate U.S. efforts in Afghanistan positively," down
from 68 percent in 2005 and 57 percent last year, according to a December
ABC News poll.
ETHICS -- KBR EMPLOYEES STOLE MONEY,
ARTWORK, AND GOLD FROM IRAQ: On Monday, two former KBR employees told
a Senate panel that some of their colleagues working for the contractor in
Iraq stole
weapons, artwork, and gold. Linda Warren, a former laundry foreman and
recreation director for KBR in Iraq, told the panel "that some of her
American colleagues doing construction work in Iraqi palaces and municipal
buildings took woodcarvings, tapestries and crystal 'and even melted down
gold to make spurs for cowboy boots.'" When Warren first leveled these
allegations in 2004, her supervisor "reminded her that she had signed a
confidentiality agreement and then threatened her by saying an American
woman 'wouldn't last very long on the streets of Baghdad.'" A second former
employee told the panel that "a KBR foreman tried to take military
equipment, including two rocket launchers." Just two weeks ago, the
firm won a $150 billion, 10-year contract to work with the U.S. Army in
Iraq. A dozen former KBR employees have also come forward in recent months
alleging that they were raped by coworkers while working in Iraq.
IRAQ -- FIVE YEARS AFTER 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,' WHITE HOUSE TRIES TO REWRITE HISTORY: Five years ago, on May 1, 2003, in what The New York Times that day called "a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war," President Bush landed aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and declared, "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Since that day, more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, representing more than 97 percent of total troop deaths there. Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush was "well aware" that the banner "should have been much more specific," suggesting it should have read "Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission." Last year, Perino insisted that "we did prevail" in Iraq, while former press secretary Tony Snow claimed Bush "said just the opposite" of "mission accomplished." But Bush's meaning was quite clear, considering that one month after that May 2003 declaration, he told a group of soldiers in Qatar, "America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."
Think Fast
With Americans facing record levels of credit card debt, "financial institutions have sharply raised rates for credit card customers -- even those who pay on time -- as they grapple with losses from other bad consumer loans." Banks are also imposing higher fees for late payments and ATM withdrawals to boost profits.
Oil prices "hit an all-time high near $120 a barrel" today after a refinery strike closed a British pipeline system. At the same time, U.S. retail gas prices "also hit a record for the 13th straight time" with the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded costing $3.603, according to AAA. Gas prices are up four-tenths of a cent from yesterday.
At his final White House correspondents' dinner on Saturday, President Bush poked fun at his potential successors. Explaining why none had attended the dinner, Bush said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "probably wanted to distance himself from me," adding that "Hillary Clinton couldn’t get in because of sniper fire and Senator Obama’s at church."
While some people marry for love, companionship, or even status, a poll
released today finds a new reason: health insurance. According to the Kaiser
Family Foundation survey, 7 percent of Americans say that "they or someone
in their household decided to marry in the last year so they could get
healthcare benefits via their spouse."
In remarks in Kansas City, Colin Powell said that "the military was being
stretched and a lot was being asked of the all-volunteer force at a time
when the entire country isn't committed to war," the AP reports. "I think it
would be hard to respond to another crisis if it was like these two," Powell
said.
Some lawmakers just aren’t up on the latest celebrity gossip. At the White
House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar
(D-MN) was shocked at all the screaming fans, thinking they were there to
greet politicians. "I thought, 'Wow, those are some serious political
junkies,'" she said. She soon realized that the fans were there to greet the
Jonas Brothers, not the lawmakers. "I don’t even know who they are,"
Klobuchar marveled.
Army officials yesterday said that they are "inspecting every barracks building worldwide to see whether plumbing and other problems revealed at Fort Bragg, N.C., last week are widespread." "We let our soldiers down," said Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, who is responsible for maintaining Army barracks. A video shot by the father of a soldier showed problems such as a "bathroom drain plugged with sewage."
A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq predicts today that "Iraq's oil revenue will top a record $70 billion this year, adding fuel to a congressional push to force the Iraqi government to assume more responsibility for rebuilding the country." "The cost of a barrel of Iraqi oil has increased by 250% since 2003."
Employer-based health insurance premiums have "skyrocketed at a pace that far exceeds the rate of American wage increases since 2000," according to a new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The average dollar amount employees must pay per year for family health coverage went up by 30 percent from 2001 to 2005.
Speaking after touring Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division barracks yesterday, Army Secretary Pete Geren called the poor condition of the barracks "unacceptable." Geren added that "improvements are coming, but some of the problems can't be fixed quickly."
INTERESTING
Steelworker leader calls McConnell’s TV ad ‘divide-and-conquer’, By BERRY CRAIG
PADUCAH, Ky. -- Hear the snickers? It’s Sen. Mitch McConnell and his TV commercial crew, according to Jeff Wiggins, president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO.
“Once again, Mitch McConnell has hit the campaign trail as the hero of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant,” Wiggins said in the May issue of The Western Kentucky Worker, the union group’s newsletter. “….If it were up to Mitch McConnell, there would be no union at the Paducah plant, or anywhere else. If it were up to Mitch McConnell, there would be no meaningful worker safety and health laws.”
Wiggins is a member of Steelworkers Local 9447-5 in Calvert City. Atomic plant workers belong to Steelworkers Local 5-550.
McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, is seeking a fifth term. Unions consider him one of the most anti-labor lawmakers in Washington.
McConnell has been running a TV ad which claims he championed cancer screening programs and “compensation for sick workers” made ill from exposure to radiation and other hazards during the Cold War when the plant helped produce nuclear weapons. McConnell calls the workers “patriots.”
Wiggins says the ad is a sucker play aimed at his union brothers and sisters.
“McConnell’s ad implies that the Paducah plant workers are with him,” said Wiggins, who is also on the state AFL-CIO Executive Board. “The ad represents one of the oldest anti-union tools around – divide-and-conquer.”
Wiggins said Republicans like McConnell usually try to split the union vote with hot-button social issues such as gun control, school prayer, abortion and same-sex marriage. “[Republican Gov.] Ernie Fletcher tried divide-and-conquer last year and it didn’t work. Labor – including members of the plant union – stood united behind Steve Beshear.”
McConnell’s TV spot quotes some current and former workers. "He's been the champion, he's held hearings, he's kicked open doors, he's appropriated funds, he's delivered the goods for these workers,” said David Fuller, a former president of the plant union.
Wiggins says many plant workers – past and present -- and many members of other unions don’t think McConnell is their “champion.” The senator seldom sides with unions on issues, said Wiggins, citing the AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education, which rates members of Congress.
McConnell voted right on union issues 11 percent of the time last year. His lifetime COPE score is also 11 percent, Wiggins said.
“McConnell favors anything that makes it harder for unions to organize and operate,” Wiggins said. “He opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. He favors the so-called right-to-work.
“His wife, Elaine Chao, is one of the most anti-union labor secretaries in American history. Chao hates the Employee Free Choice Act as much as her spouse. Last year, she traveled the country – on our tax dollars -- urging newspaper editorial writers to denounce the measure.”
Wiggins added, “In short, McConnell mainly ‘delivers the goods’ not for workers, but for those who, if they had their way, would turn back the clock to a time when unions were few and far between, when most workers toiled long hours at low pay in jobs that threatened lives and limbs….He has fought us tooth and nail for as long as he has been in Washington.”
Wiggins also said, “The cancer screening programs and ‘compensation for sick workers’ McConnell brags about have had strong bipartisan support in Congress. Democrats consider plant workers ‘patriots,’ too.”
A SPECIAL BREAK FOR CORPORATE CRIMINALS, Posted by Jim Hightower
If you got caught robbing a bank, chances are excellent that you'd be facing some serious time in the pokey. But what if a bank robs you?
Corporate executives and their lawyers like to claim that a corporation is a "person" with all of the rights of an actual human being. Yet, when one of these outfits goes bad and gets caught violating laws – then, the lawyers drop the pretense of personhood, insisting that while this entity might be fined, it can't be put in jail or given a death sentence, because... well, because it's a financial structure, not a human.
Embracing this game of now-you-see-us / now-you-don't, the Bushites, have devised a neat way to go soft on corporate criminals. Called "deferred prosecution agreements" – or "DPAs" – this ploy allows corporations and banks that are guilty of everything from robbery to bribery to be given a get-out-of-jail-free card. Monsanto, Merrill Lynch, and some 50 other corporations have recently been allowed to pay a relatively cheap fine and agree to certain internal reforms rather than be prosecuted for their crimes. Under this scheme, even the big mortgage hucksters who have defrauded so many home buyers and wrecked our housing market could end up writing a check and walking away.
DPAs were originally meant to help real people (usually first offenders) get a second chance, but they've become the favorite wrist-slap of Bush prosecutors and corporate violators. They argue that full prosecution could be "a corporate death sentence" with "catastrophic collateral consequences," so these criminals shouldn't be treated like mere people.
Of course, such judicial favoritism creates an incentive for criminal behavior, since corporations now know that they can likely avoid prosecution if caught. And fines are no deterrent – multibillion dollar corporations can simply absorb them as a necessary cost of doing business.
"Going Soft on Corporate Crime," New York Times, April 10, 2008.
"In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials," New York Times April 9, 2008.
Buy American Mention of the Week
American-Made Options for Washers and Dryers
One of the best slogans ever created by a retail chain was penned by BJ’s Wholesale Club a few years ago and it went like this: “When you buy something, you’re doing more than just making a purchase. You’re making an investment.”
If we’ve learned anything by watching the stock market and the larger economy over the past few years, it’s that we need to be a little more diverse in our investments when we make them. It follows then that if making a consumer purchase is also making an investment, it might do us some good as consumers and the economy as well to be a little more diverse in our consumer purchases too. I’m not necessarily talking about avoiding spending all of our dollars at Wal-Mart even though that would be a good start. I’m talking about looking at all the American-made options before us when we decide it’s time to go shopping.
I’ve often spoke in the past of supporting smaller, privately-owned American companies that make things in the USA as opposed to the larger, publicly-owned American companies that make things in the USA. Smaller companies often don’t have the “corporate horsepower,” if you will, to get into a big box store where they might more easily gain name brand recognition. Just because Wal-Mart and Target don’t certain items on their shelves doesn’t mean there aren’t other quality products out there. And since about 85% of all products sold at Wal-Mart are imported, a lot of quality American-made options are being overlooked by consumers who shop there because they don’t even know other alternatives exist.
One American-made alternative that should not be overlooked is the Staber washing machine (www.staber.com). Staber Industries has been family owned and operated since 1976 when they began re-manufacturing laundry equipment from American manufacturers like GE, Maytag and Whirlpool. I’m sure you’ve seen the newer front load tumble action washers from these and other manufacturers, but Staber has the distinction of being the only top load tumble action washer on the market. And Staber washers have been produced in Groveport, Ohio since 1993.
Staber Dryers do contain some imported parts and cannot properly be labeled “Made in USA” but you might want to look at the unique Staber Drying Cabinet which is made in America. A drying cabinet works like an accelerated clothesline and is commonly used in Scandinavian countries. And since Staber’s drying cabinet uses a 1,500 watt heating element vs. a 4,000 watt heating element for standard tumble dryers, you’ll use less energy per standard load. Since there is no wear and tear for drying cabinets like there are for tumble dryers, drying cabinets are bound to last longer as well.
If you would like to stay with a larger, more familiar American manufacturer for your washer and dryer, I would strongly suggest American-owned Whirlpool, which thankfully outbid Chinese-owned Haier in June 2005 for American-owned Maytag. Whirlpool is a company that has some of its production overseas just like all the other appliance brands, however, on May 18, 2004, it announced that close to $100 million would go towards the company’s U.S. facilities. Clearly it is better that Maytag was acquired by U.S.-based Whirlpool than Chinese-owned Haier. Even though Haier does produce some of their models in the United States, we would still be sending our American dollars to China by buying them.
Whirlpool’s $100 million American investment included a new generation of Ohio-made washers and dryers, a new line of Ohio-made dishwashers, new production lines for refrigerators at plants in Arkansas, Indiana, and Tennessee and cooking products at a Tulsa, Oklahoma plant.
Supporting American-owned companies big or small keeps them profitable so that any of our home companies that come under financial stress can be acquired by another American company rather than a foreign-owned company – or better yet, they don’t become vulnerable at all. Supporting American companies means funneling financial resources into a company that is much more likely to reinvest in existing American factories like Whirlpool did, which is better than supporting foreign-owned companies that will oftentimes strive to acquire existing American-owned factories. The end result of that scenario? A greater share of the American pie would be in danger of being transferred overseas.
Buying American is all about making choices, and we need to be aware of as many American choices as possible if we hope to continue to prosper America by making sure we keep our money right here at home where it should be.
Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism. He also writes “Buy American Mention of the Week” articles for his website www.howtobuyamerican.com and is a member of the Machinists Union and National Writers Union. Roger has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report among many other publications, and is a weekly contributor to WorldNetDaily.com.
No good news for working families this week.
VIDEOS
McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book
CLICK HERE FOR LATEST ISSUE OF THE "FRIDAY ALERT"
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
If you plan to change your e-mail address, please let me know at rcrider@louisvilledem.com
Your contributions of news, comments and/or events are invited. Please e-mail such items to
Ray Crider at rcrider@louisvilledem.com . If you know someone who would like to be on the newsletter e-mail list, please have him or her supply the following information to the same
e-mail address: Name, address, phone numbers ( home , work, fax, cell), and e-mail address.
|
TOP
Not authorized by any candidate
or candidate's committee.
Contributions or gifts to the Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Party
are not tax deductible.
About Us | Events Calendar | The Candidates | Local Clubs | Local Officials
Vote Here | Get Involved | Did You Know | Contact Us | Home
640 Barret Avenue | Louisville, KY 40204 | Tel: 502 582-1999 - Fax: 502 582-9933
Copyright ©2009 The Louisville Jefferson County Democratic Party
"Paid for and Authorized by the Louisville and Jefferson County
Democratic Party."
Charles Horton, Treasurer - Tim Longmeyer, Chairman