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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY

DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER

Week of July 27, 2008

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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 .

 


   

Yarmuth Praises Senate Subcommittee Approval of  VA Hospital Funding

 

The Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs approved $75 Million for a new VA hospital in Louisville.

 

“This is great news,” Congressman Yarmuth said.  “I was happy to have secured funding in the House for a new VA hospital in Louisville, and with the Senate now on board, we can confidently say that Louisville’s veterans will have a new, state-of-the-art hospital very soon.  I thank the Senate for working with me to make sure that the veterans in our community get the care and treatment they deserve.”

 

 


 

I don't know. I'll get back to you.

 
John McCain certainly doesn't seem to know much. I can't count how many times I've heard him say 'I don't know', 'I'll get back to you', 'I wish I knew' or 'I don't know that much about ______' - all of that in addition to how many times he just says things that don't make sense. Actually, lets give it a shot.

John McCain doesn't know whether or not Barack Obama is a socialist. Which means, coincidentally, that John McCain doesn't know what a socialist is. (
link)

John McCain doesn't know much about insurance companies refusing to cover birth control in the same way they cover Viagra (
link)

John McCain doesn't know much about the economy (
link)

John McCain doesn't know that he said he doesn't know much about the economy, or that 'being there for the Reagan Revolution' isn't an economic credential for being President (
link)

John McCain doesn't know that Czechoslovakia hasn't done much of anything since 1992, especially enter into a treaty with the United States (
link)

John McCain doesn't know how he feels about federal emissions standards (
link)

Unfortunately for John McCain, but fortunately enough for Democrats, John McCain doesn't seem to know much of anything. But apparently, if you give them enough time, his staff can answer any questions that you might have about McCain's supposedly ground-breaking, maverick policies. So, just in case you were still wondering, John McCain has a YouTube problem.

 


 

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are rushing to "push through" a rule before President Bush leaves office that would make it "tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins." Workplace-safety advocates, unions and Democrats say that the Bush administration is "working secretly to give industry a parting gift that will help it delay or block safety regulations."

 


 

WHAS84'S STAR IN THE 9-12 PM TIME SLOT

 

On July 16, the No. 3 syndicated radio talk show host in the country, Michael Savage, made the following statement on autism:

 

"Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism? ... A fraud, a racket."

 

Savage went on to say:

 

Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.

 

What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, "Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."

 

Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst thing he said -- "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have.

 

During the same broadcast, Savage also attacked those in "the minority community" who suffer from asthma. He stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." ' See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."

Michael Savage's mean-spirited comments are disgusting and are an affront to basic decency.

 

Find your local Savage Station, log into our calling tool and tell your Savage station manager what you think of Savage's tirade. 84WHAS Business Office, Phone:  (502) 479-2222

 

The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

 

UPDATE:

 

Responding to ring wing radio host Michael Savage’s recent comments that autism is “a fraud” where “99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” insurance giant Aflac announced that it will no longer advertise on his nationally syndicated show:

 

aflacweb2.jpg“Aflac has a strong commitment to helping children through the Aflac Cancer Center and Aflac Foundation,” said a rep. “We understand that radio hosts pick on any number of targets however we found his recent comments about autistic children to be both inappropriate and insensitive.

 

This isn’t the first time an advertiser had ditched Savage’s show. Nearly 20 companies pulled their ads after the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched a campaign last year urging radio listeners to express their concerns about Savage’s hate-fueled remarks. His program reaches nearly 8 million listeners each week.

 

MORE:

 

Last week, Media Matters caught right-wing radio talker Michael Savage claiming that autism is a “fraud” and “a racket” where “99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” Parents of autistic children are outraged, saying Savage’s comments were “way, way, way over the line and cruel.” But Savage refuses to apologize. On Larry King Live last night, he told guest host Glenn Beck that he had simply been “taken out of context” by “men who specialize in hating families and children, namely Media Matters.”

 

Though Beck said he was sympathetic to someone being taken out of context, he told Savage that “as a dad with a child with special needs,” his baseless attack on autistic children “cuts right.”

 


 

 

 

Unions Equal Economic Strength, by Mike Hall

 

The nation’s labor movement is “more relevant today than ever,” but unions need to help the general public “connect the dots” between a strong and growing union movement and improving their lives, says Phil Dine, veteran St. Louis Post-Dispatch labor reporter.

 

Dine, author of State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence, spoke to a lunch-time crowd at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C., today.

 

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka introduced Dine, who has spent more than 20 years covering unions and workers, and is one of the few remaining labor reporters in the mainstream media. Trumka gave Dine high praise, describing him as

not some Beltway pundit but a grassroots labor reporter.

 

Dine told the crowd that far too many people do not see the connection between union strength and their economic security. He says people tell him unions may have been needed once—a long time ago, when employers held the upper hand and workers were fighting to win fair pay, health care and safe workplaces. But with employer-provided health care vanishing, wages declining and many workplaces getting less safe, Dine asks:

 

Tell me, which of those don’t pertain to today?

 

In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when unions represented more than a third of the nation’s workers, unions used their strength and clout to improve the lives of all workers, union and nonunion.

 

But today, as millions of union jobs are being shipped out of the country and employers are waging increasingly aggressive battles against workers trying to form unions—aided by a National Labor Relations Board that is far more pro-employer than worker—union influence is not as strong as it once was.

 

It’s not a coincidence that the economic security and political strength of all workers has declined as labor has declined. People aren’t leaving unions, union jobs are leaving the country….63 percent of workers say the would join unions today if they could. Workers are playing by the rules, trying to form a union, but what happens? They get fired or the company drags the appeals on and on, and sometimes their votes aren’t even counted….I talked to moderate legal scholars, and they told me there is no country in the Western world where it is as hard to form union.

 

Dine also says that if unions are to grow and reclaim influence and strength, they must do a better of job of communicating their message to the public and stress important economic issues as values.

 

You have to help Americans connect the dots that a strong labor movement is good for the nation’s economic and national security….The union movement is more relevant than ever, conventional wisdom notwithstanding.  

 


 

Comments:  

 

Dear Ray,

 

Tom FitzGerald, environmentalist, lobbyist and lawyer, addressed our meeting of America 2000 on Tuesday, as you knew would happen. 

 

He was enthralling, as always, with his recounting of his work over the years in behalf of our environment and those who are disadvantaged by those who pollute or injure it. 

 

You also know of his "distressed shoes," I am sure*.  When Tom recounted in detail what had transpired in this most recent legislative session and his assessment that there was such success in this most recent session of the Kentucky Legislature that he polished his famous shoes for only the third time in all the years that he has had them, I snapped this photo. 

 

I hope you might want to post it. 

 

Hope you are well.  Best, Olivia Anne

 


 

DAILY GRILL

 

"The responsibility for making the decision for California [tailpipe emissions standards] rests with me and solely with me. ... I made the decision. It was my decision." -- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, 1/24/08

VERSUS

"[F]ormer EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett...testified before the committee that Johnson had concluded that California's request was legally justified -- until White House officials ordered him to reverse the decision." -- Washington Post, 7/23/08

 

*****************

 

"Sir, perhaps the best that can be said is that the vice president belongs neither to the executive nor to the legislative branch, but is attached by the constitution to the latter."  -- Vice President Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, 6/26/08

VERSUS

"It's my own belief that the Vice President is a member of the executive branch."  -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey, 7/23/08

 


 

Quotes of the Day   

 

Conservatives still like to mock renewable power. "I'm not entirely convinced," said Rep. John E. Peterson (R-PA) said of Pickens's push for wind power. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said disparagingly, "You can't run the most heavily industrialized nation in the world on windmills." Last week, Rush Limbaugh claimed it was "very, very sad" that Americans "have bought into this whole notion that alternatives are somehow pristine, clean and pure." These conservatives ignore the fact that, as Gore pointed out, "enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to...meet 100 percent of US electricity demand." 

 


TOP     

 

Recent Senate Votes 

 

Veto Override; Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act - Vote Passed (70-26, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate overrode the President's veto of a bill that cancels a scheduled 10.6 percent cut in Medicare physician payments.

Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO

 

 

U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act - Vote Passed (80-16, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate passed this bill to triple spending for President Bush's program to treat and prevent AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in foreign countries.

Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO

  •  

  •  

    Recent House Votes 

     

    Veto Override; Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act - Vote Passed (383-41, 11 Not Voting)

    The House overrode the President's veto of a bill that cancels a scheduled 10.6 percent cut in Medicare physician payments.

    Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO

    Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES

     

     

    Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act - Vote Failed (244-173, 18 Not Voting)

    The House failed to attain the necessary two-thirds margin needed to pass this bill that would have required energy companies to drill for oil and gas in areas where licenses have already been acquired.

    Rep. Ron Lewis voted NO

    Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES

     

    TOP

    HUMOR    

     

    "Barack Obama was in Israel today. Did you see Barack wearing the traditional Jewish yarmulke? He looked very Jewish. Yeah. In fact, Jesse Jackson said, I'd like to circumcise him." --Jay Leno

    "NBC News defended their coverage of Barack Obama. They've been accused of giving him more favorable treatment than John McCain. And today NBC News denied it. They said, 'That's ridiculous, we've never even heard of John McCain.'" --Jay Leno

    "Now, you know, I don't want to say McCain is running a lackluster campaign, but his Secret Service code name is 'Bob Dole.' That's not good." --Jay Leno

    "Did you realize that Osama bin Laden had a driver? They caught the guy and they arrested him, and he's now on trial and his name is Salim Hamdan. And here's the thing about this guy. He was a devoted employee. I mean, he loved working for Osama bin Laden. And maybe you saw him at airports. He would always show up at airports waiting for Osama bin Laden. He was the guy holding the sign that read, 'Fanatical Whackjob.'" --David Letterman

    "Like so many other relationships, everything was great for a long time, and then it went sour, and finally Osama bin Laden fired the guy. And the problem was, he always had trouble finding him after award shows." --David Letterman

    "Barack Obama is behaving very presidentially now. He's in the Middle East, and he met today with the leaders of Israel and Jordan. And not to be outdone, earlier today, John McCain was in the park playing checkers with Ed Koch." --David Letterman

    "But people in the Middle East, you know, they love this Barack Obama, and I think the reason that they love the guy is because finally, [there's] a guy who can pronounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." --David Letterman

    "Barack Obama is in the Middle East. He's in Israel today. While poor John McCain was stuck in a supermarket in Pennsylvania.  I think he's in the cold cuts section. Excuse me, senator, can I get the Kraft singles for a second?" --Jimmy Kimmel

    "Things are not going particularly well for John McCain. He's way behind in the polls and there's news that Barack Obama's merchandise is outselling John McCain by four to one. McCain has a strong lead when it comes to sales of the McClapper and the McDiaper, which I wore ... during the Super Bowl. They're excellent." --Jimmy Kimmel
     


    TOP

     

           
     

    ADMINISTRATION -- ROVE DEFIES SUBPEONA, FLEES TO YALTA: Earlier this month, Karl Rove refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about the politicization of the Justice Department, despite a Congressional subpeona. While Rove justified his absence citing executive privlege, the House Judiciary Committee voted 7-1 that such claims were "invalid." During the hearing, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) revealed that Rove had skipped the country "on trip scheduled long before the subpoena was sent." Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) said Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, "never mentioned" the trip to the Committee. Yesterday, Newsweek reported that Rove had fled to Yalta, "the historic Black Sea resort in Ukraine." "There Rove, who generally charges a reported $40,000 per talk, appeared on a premier panel...on the upcoming U.S. election." Luskin didn't see a problem with Rove's international adventure, asking Newsweek, "[W]hat was he supposed to do, sit at home with his lights off?" Congress, however, may hold Rove in contempt of Congress.

     

    Tuesday, Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens will testify on "Energy Security" before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. A lifelong oilman, Pickens is in the process of building the world's largest wind farm in Texas, "a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself." The power from the 4,000 megawatt farm is set to go online by 2011, just three years from now. (By contrast, oil produced through new offshore drilling -- conservatives' panacea to the energy crisis -- would take close to 10 years to reach the market.) "I have the same feelings about wind, as I had about the best oil field I ever found," Pickens told the New York Times. Earlier this month, Pickens released the "Pickens Plan," which advocates expanding wind power and the use of natural gas. "It's our crisis," Pickens says at the end of his first TV spot promoting his plan, "and we can solve it." John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, praised Pickens' plan: "It is time to believe in America's ability to solve problems again. With clean energy, we can finally break our dependence on oil."
     

    CONGRESS -- REID MOVING 'COBURN OMNIBUS' TO SENATE FLOOR: Roll Call reported yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "will begin the process of moving the 'Coburn Omnibus,' a set of bills that have broad bipartisan support but have been held up" because of Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) objections.  Coburn has earned the reputation of "a fly in the soup," abusing the Senate's hold privilege -- a technique which allows senators to "object to bringing a bill or nomination to the floor for consideration" -- to prevent the leadership from bringing matters to a vote. Some of these measures include funding for stroke prevention legislation, lateral sclerosis legislation, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act, the Emmitt Till Unsolved Crimes Act, and the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment Act. Currently, Coburn has a hold on nearly 100 non-controversial and bipartisan bills simply because they are "bills that he just doesn't like." Roll Call notes, "Debate on the bill could begin Friday, and Coburn has raised the possibility of using the chamber's arcane rules to grind the Senate to a halt."

     

    ENVIRONMENT -- BUSH CRONIES TRIED TO REDEFINE 'CARBON DIOXCIDE' TO SAVE POWER PLANTS FROM EMISSIONS REGULATIONS: Earlier this month, former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official Jason Burnett wrote to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) with explosive revelations on how the White House has censored and distorted climate change science to protect corporate interests. In a Senate hearing yesterday, Burnett provided further details, revealing that Office of Management and Budget officials sought ways to define carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants as different from CO2 from automobiles, in order to shield industrial power plants from required by the landmark Supreme Court decision Massacuhussets v. EPA. "I must say that it was sometimes somewhat embarrassing," Burnett admitted, "for me to return to EPA and ask for my colleagues to explain yet again that CO2 is a molecule and there is no scientific way of differentiating between CO2 from car and a power plant." Burnett's revelations are particularly surprising as he is remembered by fellow EPA officials as "an administration loyalist who repeatedly sided with the White House while at the agency and gave no hint he was dissatisfied with Bush's approach to global warming." One anonymous EPA official explained to the Washington Post, "Jason, all of a sudden, has found his voice. ... When he was at EPA he did not have the conscience he's expressing now, this green conscience."
     

     


     

    Think Fast  

      

    A new study, by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law finds that "poorly designed ballots continue to plague U.S. elections, even after Congress set aside $3 billion to overhaul voting systems." Since 2000, various problems have "led thousands of voters to skip over key races or make mistakes that invalidated their votes."

     

    "The principal source of funding for highway projects will soon hit a big financial pothole" due to rising fuel prices. With motorists cutting back on driving and buying more fuel-efficient cars, "the government is taking in less money from the federal gasoline tax,"” which means that "the federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more next year."

     

    Jenna Bush's ex moves into the White House. Despite being a college dropout, Blake Gottesman, 28, returns to the White House today as deputy chief of staff. Gottesman had worked as Bush's personal aide for four years, and had dated Jenna Bush in high school. 

     

    Though Big Oil companies "insist they're trying to find new oil" to help bring down gas prices, more than half of the money from their record profits is being spent on stock buybacks and dividends rather than exploration. While spending on stock buybacks and dividends has increased 25 percent since 2000, the percentage spent to find new deposits of fossil fuels "has remained flat for years, in the mid-single digits."

     

    According to IRS data, "the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades" and "possibly the highest since 1929.” Meanwhile, "the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years."

     

    President George H.W. Bush's former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft warned the current president to stop threatening Iran. He said yesterday "that by mentioning that threat, 'we legitimize the use of force...and may tempt the Israelis' to carry out such a mission. He said he thinks that negotiations must continue."

     

    Pentagon auditors "were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on major defense contractors to make them look more favorable instead of exposing wrongdoing and charges of overbilling," a new Government Accountability Office report found. Supervisors at the auditing agency "attempted to intimidate auditors, prevented them from speaking with GAO investigators and created a ‘generally abusive work environment,' the report said."

     


    TOP  

    INTERESTING     

     

    GOP Is Losing Ground

    Republicans no longer have a realistic chance of holding their own in this year's Senate contests. by Charlie Cook

     

    One of the less pleasant aspects of writing a political column when one party is having a particularly grim year is that the story gets so repetitive. Some years, the Democrats are in the political toilet. This year, the Republicans are in that unenviable position.

     

    In the presidential race, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is behind but still very competitive. For the GOP, that is the bright spot on the horizon. In the House and Senate contests, the debate is about how many seats the Republicans will lose; they no longer have a realistic chance of holding their own.

     

    So, even though a nonpartisan analyst naturally desires to be balanced, in a year like this I can place very little good news on the Republican side of the scale.

     

    In the Senate races, the outlook for the GOP is bad and getting worse. Few Republicans think that they have any real hope of holding retiring Sen. John Warner's seat in Virginia. Former Gov. Mark Warner, who is a Democrat, appears to have a lock on that contest, which The Cook Political Report rates as "Likely Democratic." In New Mexico, where Republican Sen. Pete Domenici is retiring, GOP Rep. Steve Pearce is the underdog, trailing Democratic Rep. Tom Udall in a contest that we moved this week from the "Toss-Up" column to "Leans Democratic."

     

    In Oregon, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith faces an increasingly difficult challenge from Democratic state House Speaker Jeff Merkley. The Cook Political Report this week shifted that race from "Leans Republican" to "Toss-Up." The GOP's problem isn't so much that Merkley is an especially formidable challenger; it's just that the political climate has effectively erased the natural advantages that Smith brings to the race.

     

    Smith's contest joins five others involving Republican-held seats that we had already rated as "Toss-Ups"--those of incumbents Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and appointed Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, as well as the open seat in Colorado where Wayne Allard is retiring. Sununu's situation is looking increasingly ominous; Coleman's stock has risen, although not quite enough to warrant a move to the "Leans Republican" category.

     

    In North Carolina, Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole's challenge from Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan is getting increasingly competitive, warranting a shift from the "Likely Republican" column, effectively a watch list, to "Leans Republican," signaling that the outcome is now in doubt. This is not yet a "Toss-Up" and may not get there, but it is now a real race. Dole joins GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, whose contest has been in the "Leans Republican" column since April 2007.

     

    Democrats have targeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in a race that we have now moved from the "Solid Republican" category to "Likely Republican." Even though McConnell has raised an impressive $15.2 million for the cycle and is expected to run a flawless campaign, wealthy Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford has made a $2.5 million down payment on his race, shifting the contest to the watch list.

     

    Democrats also contend that they are making progress against GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Pat Roberts of Kansas, but those boasts are not particularly convincing at this stage.

     

    On the other side of the Senate equation, just one Democratic seat remains in jeopardy, that of incumbent Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Poll results in her race against state Treasurer John Kennedy, a Democrat-turned-Republican, are contradictory. What is clear is that the state is trending Republican and that Kennedy is a far more formidable rival than Landrieu faced in her two previous elections. Landrieu has a much stronger record of accomplishments this time, however, and she is running a better campaign than in the past. She should have another tight race.

     

    Jennifer Duffy, The Cook Political Report's Senate editor, says the bottom line is that Democrats are poised to pick up five to seven seats. Holding that pickup to four would be a moral victory for Republicans. The possibility that Democrats will net eight or nine seats remains unlikely, but it isn't as laughable a scenario as it was six months ago.

     


     

    Netroots Nation: A Social Democratic Moment? by Seth Michaels

     

    In 2009, a new president and many new members of Congress will come into office—and they’ll face both big problems and powerful resistance to solve them. How can we pass good policy and improve the lives of working families?

     

    At “The Coming Social Democratic Moment,” a session at the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, panelists agreed that no matter who wins this fall’s election, there’s an opportunity to really turn around the country and a need for progressives to organize and fight hard to ensure that we fix what’s wrong.

     

    Elizabeth Jacobs is a sociologist who studies attitudes toward the economy and social programs. She notes that the last few years have seen rapid deterioration of objective circumstances around the issues that are at the heart of the progressive movement—a broken health care system, an economy that’s failing most people, a collapsing housing market and unsustainable energy prices.

     

    Jacobs says people are unhappy with their day-to-day lives and unhappy to see that political leaders aren’t providing the relief  they could and have in the past. Public opinion, to a certain extent, is ahead of where political leaders and the media are.

     

    Jacobs compares the current moment to the era immediately before the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s. New Deal programs weren’t an easy sell; to the contrary, Roosevelt exercised real political leadership, reaching out to different constituencies and forging coalitions, while groups outside the government mobilized to support these programs.

     

    Ben Brandzel, an online activist who has worked with Move On and John Edwards’ presidential campaign, says that over the past decade, progressives have created and strengthened institutions in opposition to Bush politics. However, if a pro-working family president and Congress are in place in 2009, he says, these institutions will need to adapt to a new climate—working to pass progressive policy, not just block bad Bush-style policies.

     

    Brandzel notes that the political climate that produced grassroots movement-building converged with a technological revolution in the way activism is carried out. Blogs and e-mail allow mobilization to happen quickly and on a large scale.

     

    Elections make sense as an organizing goal, Brandzel says, but they’re short-term: Movements need to keep going beyond elections. It’s been easy to organize people around opposing bad policy, he says, but organizing people around actually solving real-world problems is harder and more slow-going.

     

    Chris Hayes, Washington editor for The Nation, says rebuilding the energy economy and reforming the health care system are the two fundamental changes that need to be made under a new administration. Standing in the way are Big Oil and the insurance industry, which have held enormous sway in the political process. Hayes says that a vigorous progressive movement, outside of political parties and elected officials, will need to counterbalance entrenched big-money interests.

     

    Under the Bush administration, Hayes says, the basic social contract has been undermined, and public policy is being run for the benefit of a tiny segment of the population, with most people left behind.

     

    It almost boggles the mind how few people are benefiting. The concentration of how intensely upwardly redistributive conservative government has been shows what the project is.

     

    In particular, Hayes hopes that progressives remember how dangerously close Bush came to destroying Social Security through privatization.  Bush, often accompanied by John McCain, traveled around the country, going directly into congressional districts, and put political muscle behind undermining Social Security. It was only through the large-scale cooperation of progressives inside and outside of government that the project was thwarted and Social Security was protected.

     

    Progressives, long out of power, need to be this aggressive in fighting for legislation to improve the lives of working people as they were in fighting Social Security privatization. Hayes says there needs to be an independent movement, outside of politicians and parties, which can be an actor in political fights. Governments, he says, aren’t going to magically hold themselves accountable.

     

    Blogger Ezra Klein says that to make the best use of the political moment, progressives need to quickly pass policies that build political strength for working people. In particular, he points to the Employee Free Choice Act as what he describes as a “reinforcing legislation.” If passed, the Employee Free Choice Act would create more engaged progressive voters, increase the constituency for pro-working family policies and strengthen the ability of working people to mobilize politically.

     

    This panel is an appropriate way to sum up Netroots Nation. With a clear sense of what’s wrong in America and what needs to happen to fix it, bloggers and activists will, along with unions, civil rights groups and community organizations, take the lead in defining a new agenda and holding leaders accountable for passing it.

     



     

    Buy American Mention of the Week            

     

      None this week.

     


     

    GOOD NEWS

    On Friday, the Senate plans to begin debating the "Coburn Omnibus," a set of bills "that have broad bipartisan support but have been held up" by Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) objections, including stroke prevention legislation, lateral sclerosis legislation, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act, and the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment Act.

     


     

    VIDEOS  

     

    O’Reilly Claims ‘MoveOn Is The New Klan’ And Its Supporters Are ‘Koolaid Drinking, Zombie Followers’

     

     

    McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book

     

     

     www.meetobama08.org

     

    What You Should Know About America's Next President
     

     

     

     


     

     

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    LOUISVILLE , KY 40204

     


     

    Notice to our Readers &  2008 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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    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.  

     

     

     

    Publication of
    Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Party
    Tim Longmeyer, Chairman
    Ray Crider, Editor
    640 Barret Ave
    Louisville, Ky  40202
    502-582-1999
     
    Paid for by the
    Louisville/Jefferson Co Democratic Party
    Charlie Horton, Treasurer
    Produced & Printed In-House

     

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    Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

    Contributions or gifts to the Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Party

    are not tax deductible.