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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of November 14, 2008
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 7,500+
Jefferson County Democrats
We hope you will forward the link to your own e-mail list.
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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS
Updated on a regular basis
Bulletin Board:
- The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at Democratic Headquarters,
- 640 Barret Avenue .
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- Minneapolis radio hosts Chris Baker and Langdon Perry suggested that "Magic [Johnson] faked AIDS."
- Pittsburgh's Jim Quinn called NOW the "National Organization for Whores."
- Atlanta's Neal Boortz called Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans "basically a parasite class totally dependent on government for their existence."
Statement of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies:
Tickets to the 56th Inaugural Ceremonies will be provided free of charge and distributed through Members of the 111th Congress. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies does not provide tickets to the public. Members of the public interested in attending the Inaugural Ceremonies should contact their Member of Congress or U.S. Senators to request tickets.
Senator Mitch McConnell
502-582-6304
Senator Jim Bunning
502-582.5341
Congressman John Yarmuth
502-582-5129
The public should also be aware that no website or other ticket outlet actually has inaugural swearing-in tickets to sell, regardless of what they may claim. Tickets will not be distributed to Congressional offices until the week before the inauguration and will require in-person pick-up.
"Any website or ticket broker claiming that they have inaugural tickets is simply not telling the truth," said Howard Gantman, Staff Director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. "Tickets for the swearing-in of President-elect are all provided through members of Congress, and the President-elect and Vice President-elect through the Presidential Inaugural Committee. We urge the public to view any offers of tickets for sale with great skepticism."
The Change Must Come From Within Us, Jim Hightower
Now is our time!
I don't mean a time to gloat about Barack Obama's sweeping electoral triumph, or a time to savor the demise of the Bush ideologues, as sweet as that is. No, no — this is the time for everyone who holds progressive values (economic fairness, social justice, the common good ... things like that) to be on watch and do the work of democracy. If Tuesday's vote for change is to mean anything substantive, We the People have to be the implementers. And the job begins now.
Waaaittt,
you moan. I'm dog-tired from the long, long, long campaign slog. I want to
bask in the Obama glow, wallow in the historic significance, sip some cool
ones and sing "Kumbaya" — can't this wait?
OK, take a day or two, but no more. Like fresh-poured concrete, the shape of Obama's presidency is going to set up quickly, and we can't be lulled into thinking that casting a ballot is all that democracy requires of us. People who really want change can't just crank back in their La-Z-Boys, trusting Obama to do the heavy lifting for us.
Wall Street, the war machine, corporate chieftains, Republican Congress-critters, right-wing yackety-yackers, weak-kneed Democrats and other powerful forces of business-as-usual policies will be all over him. They are the insiders and intend to shape him in their mold.
We have to be the counterforce — an aggressive and vociferous Loyal Opposition pushing insistently and persistently from the outside. Obama was the candidate of change, but he'll be the president of change only if we buck him up and back him up.
Obviously, the great majority of Americans are longing for Jan. 20, when Bush and his buddy Buckshot Cheney depart the White House. People in San Francisco are even celebrating the exact instant of transition with a citywide synchronized flush of toilets on that day at 12 noon on the dot — fwooosh, they're gone!
But it's not enough to flush Bush and Buckshot.
This election was about much more than just ending their miserable, reprehensible regime. It was a national cry to start anew, to build something big, to reach the America that can be.
So now is our time. We must be the ones to hold Obama's administration to such boldness, pushing it toward progressive principles, policies and possibilities. We must stand up and speak out on every move the insiders make; we must propose and propel progressive ideas and ideals; and we must certainly expose and vigorously oppose any capitulations he will be pressured to make to the corporate powers.
If his presidency is to be worthy of the enormous effort that so many put into it, worthy of the deep potential of this political moment in American history, you and I have to step up.
From the start, I've felt that the most significant thing about the "Obama Phenomenon" was not Obama, but the phenomenon — the fact that millions of ordinary Americans (especially young people) were not merely enthusiastic but were engaged, organizing and mobilizing, taking possession of their democracy and doing the grunt work that is the essence of self-government.
The right wing tried to mock this outpouring as just so much "ObamaMania," but they badly misjudged its depth and determination. People really do want change — not as a political buzzword, but as a fundamental matter of national direction and policy.
In fact, for some time, folks have been shouting: CHANGE! Get our troops and America's reputation out of Iraq, provide good health care for all, reign in greed-headed CEOs and corporate lobbyists, end "tinkle down" economics, reinvest in America's infrastructure, rebuild middle-class opportunities, deal with global climate change, no more torture, get serious about green energy, restore our stolen liberties, stop polluters ... and generally reinstate the Common Good as America's governing ethic.
As Obama himself often said on the campaign trail, he is not that change. We are. Through him, we opened the White House door to the possibility of change last Tuesday. Now, we must see it through.
Right-wing Republicans love Buick Guys, By BERRY CRAIG
I passed the old clunker on the way home from school the day before the election.
The 80s-vintage Buick compact was more primer than paint. The driver’s clothes looked bargain basement, not Brooks Brothers.
Yet a “McCain-Palin” sticker clung resolutely to the rust bucket’s rear bumper.
Based on his wheels and his threads, Buick Guy is one of what the Good Book calls “the least among us.”
Yet he was apparently voting
for a millionaire who believes that rich people and big corporations – not
Buick Guys -- ought to get more tax breaks. John McCain also thinks bosses
shouldn’t be bothered by strong unions and by government regulations that
protect the safety and health of workers, including Buick Guy, on the job.
I’ve never understood Buick Guys. Kentucky – not one of the wealthiest states – is full of them. While Barack Obama won in a landslide nationally, the Bluegrass State went big for McCain, as it did twice for Bush.
Meanwhile, Buick Guys in Kentucky and elsewhere continue to vote for candidates who aim to make the rich richer and keep Buick Guys driving heaps.
Maybe President-elect Obama’s skin color prevented Buick Guy from voting for him. Like Pap in Huckleberry Finn, Buick Guys don’t get it. Poverty transcends race. “The issue is not black and white – it’s green,” said the Rev. W.G. Harvey, the first African American city commissioner in Paducah, where I teach in the community college.
Buick Guys are really elitists, said David Nickell, who teaches sociology at the same community college. He wasn’t kidding.
“They are the least secure group in society,” Nickell added. “They are right on the edge of the poverty line. They’re a paycheck away from losing everything.”
So Buick Guys look down on people poorer than they are, Nickell said. “And they readily accept the ideology of the real elite.”
Buick Guys oppose most government aid for people who need it, even thought that aid also benefits them. “They see redistributing the wealth as taking from them and giving to those below them. They don’t see it as taking from billionaires and helping them, too.”
Getting people like Buick Guy to vote their own interests is probably tougher in the United States than in any other industrial democracy. Never mind that among these countries, the gap between rich and poor is broadest in the U.S., reports the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Forget that, according to the OECD, the gap rapidly widened during the Bush years. (My guess is Buick Guy voted for Bush, too.)
While income inequality is greatest in the United States, class consciousness is weakest. The U.S. is the only industrial democracy that doesn’t have a significant, working-class-based democratic socialist or social democratic party. As much as Republican rightists disdain Democrats – and call Obama a “socialist,” which he’s not – they hate and fear real socialists more.
Republican conservatives want working people to keep believing that because they happen to own a home, however humble, or a car, even a rattletrap old Buick, their interests are the same as millionaires with mansions and fleets of luxury cars and an executive jet or two.
Millionaires vote their class interests. They get behind candidates like McCain who will do their bidding.
McCain and his soul mates are scared stiff that working class people – who are a lot more numerous than rich people – will unite at the ballot box and vote their interests. So divide-and-conquer is the Republican right’s strategy. They also use social issues like abortion and gay rights and appeals to white racial and ethnic prejudice, however subtle, to split the working class vote.
So when candidates like Obama want to help the working class by supporting unions and by suggesting that we ought to share the wealth with a tax plan under which rich people pay more and working people pay less, candidates like McCain accuse them of waging “class warfare.”
Nickell recalled hearing the first President Bush level the “class warfare” charge against Bill Clinton in 1992. “I saw it on TV,” he said. “Senior Bush was standing on the bow of his yacht at Kennebunkport.”
Nickell suggested that when Republicans cry “class warfare” they are afraid that a bunch of working class voters might not be falling for their old what’s-good-for-rich-people-is-good-for-you-too scam or for the GOP’s social issues and thinly-disguised “white-folks-r-us” hustle. Despite Buick Guy, a lot fewer were suckered this presidential election.
This union-card-carrying, working class teacher is hoping that Barack Obama, the guy I voted for, has resurrected the kind of working class solidarity that helped build Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition and keep it going for so long.
FDR was the first truly pro-union president. That was another reason union-hating Republican conservatives also called him a “socialist.” He wasn’t.
Roosevelt replied to his critics – he called them “economic royalists” -- by paraphrasing the words of another famous president: "The legitimate object of Government is to do for the people what needs to be done but which they cannot by individual effort do at all, or do so well, for themselves.”
The president FDR was talking about used the might of the federal government to save our republic when it was most in peril. "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital,” that president also declared. “Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
I suspect the McCain faithful – probably Buick Guy, too – would have dissed him as a “socialist.” He wasn’t a socialist either. He wasn’t even a Democrat.
He was Abraham Lincoln, the savior of the Union, the vanquisher of slavery, a champion of the working class and the first Republican president.
It's not just Limbaugh and Hannity
Beyond the echelon of widely known conservative radio hosts with national audiences lies a vast network of lesser-known syndicated and regional radio hosts who have become key components of an echo chamber for conservative talking points and falsehoods. Like their better-known counterparts, these syndicated and regional radio hosts have played active roles this election season in promoting falsehoods and smears in an all-out effort to foment hate and distrust among their listeners for President-elect Barack Obama. While the hosts vary in the degree of vitriol they spew and in their ratio of rebuttable falsehoods to unbridled smears, Media Matters for America and Colorado Media Matters have identified common themes that many, if not all, have promoted over the past year. READ MORE
Join the fight against local radio hate
Every day, more than 100 million Americans are exposed to some of the most vitriolic hate speech you can find in the public arena. According to a 2007 analysis by the Center for American Progress and the Free Press, right-wing radio dominates the airwaves. Their "analysis of all of the news/talk stations in the top 10 radio markets" found that "76 percent of the programming in these markets is conservative and 24 percent is progressive, although programming is more balanced in markets such as New York and Chicago." Despite all the talk of a supposed "liberal bias" in the media, the reality is that conservatives rule talk radio.
Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck may be some of the best-known hosts, but such nationally recognized names are just the tip of the iceberg. Each of these conservative firebrands started out as local radio hosts, sparking controversy and pushing right-wing talking points to local listeners. Just like them, the next generation of conservative talkers spends hours each day delivering conservative misinformation and launching offensive tirades against anyone who disagrees with them. These right-wing voices may be spread throughout the country, but together they form a conservative echo chamber that repeats conservative myths and falsehoods to millions of people.
Find out more about some of the up-and-coming right-wing radio hosts around the country.
Here are just a few examples:
To successfully combat conservative misinformation, we must fight it at every level. As part of a new campaign to expose the conservative smears being pushed by local radio hosts and stop them from spreading, Media Matters for America has released a new report on some of the most controversial hosts and their less-than-sparkling repertoire. You can join the fight by signing on to our Radio Action Team. As a member, you will receive information on local radio hosts, updates on their latest commentary, and the opportunity to make your voice heard. Join the team.
I look forward to working with you on this important project.
Erin Hofteig
Director, New Media
Media Matters for America
Bill Cunningham - "Obama wants to gas the Jews." Read more
Chris Baker - "I don't think homeless people should vote"; "I'm not that excited about women voting." Read more
Neal Boortz - "Let's ask Obama how many prayer rugs he has." Read more
Dan Caplis - On photo of Obama in African attire: "the kind of garb you often see Osama bin Laden in" Read more
Mark Levin - "[F]or now on, it's the National Organization of Really Ugly Women" Read more
G. Gordon Liddy - "Obama is counting on the urban elites and the welfare class to win the state for him. But he's putting on a show for the rest of Pennsylvania." Read more
"Gunny" Bob Newman - On Obama: "You're a far-left, terrorist-hugging politician, not the bad-boy gangsta you want people to believe you are." Read more
Michael Savage - "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." Read more
Trumka’s Straight Talk on Race
Helped Win Blue Collar Union Vote
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It’s always rewarding when some of the fantastic work the union movement has done to get out the vote gets acknowledged. At Daily Kos yesterday, one of our own, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, got a big shout out by mojave mike, and we want to share it with you here.
Just a few weeks ago, John McCain was gushing and full of praise for his newfound friend, role model and source of inspiration. No, I’m not talking about Sarah Palin. Besides, by the time Joe the Plumber came into McCain’s life, Palin was already old news. McCain, having solidified his base with the Palin pick, needed to reach out to Joe Lunch-Bucket and Rust-Belt Rosie. McCain’s road to victory was seen as winding through the hardscrabble hamlets of industrial Ohio and Pennsylvania, known for closed factories and boarded-up businesses on Main Street. Many of the hard-working citizens of these communities became labeled as the so-called “Reagan Democrats” nearly three decades ago.
By holding Joe the Plumber up as a prop and counterpoint to the educated elitists that, in McCain’s mind at least, were somehow responsible for the economic collapse, McCain sought to drive a wedge into the Democratic-labor coalitions that have thrived in Pennsylvania and Ohio for decades. And perhaps on a much more subtle level, McCain may have been trolling for the “white pride” sentiment. But to McCain’s dismay, the Joe the Plumber ruse was unsuccessful. Something to do with authenticity perhaps?
More than likely, the real reason that neither Pennsylvania nor Ohio went into the McCain column is that many of his would-be supporters in these areas happen to be union members who have an uncommon tendency to vote in their best interests. But this election presented these folks with a conundrum of sorts. The Democratic candidate, for the first time in history, was black.
Granted, this is not the South where in-grained bigotry still inhibits social interaction between whites and blacks; heaven forbid casting a vote for an African American candidate. In the North, it is, for the most part, a matter of unease and uncertainty, and in some cases, a sense of cultural resentment similar to that alluded to by James Webb in Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.
Recognizing this, Richard Trumka, former Mine Workers president and current secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, reached out to union and nonunion workers alike to address the issue of race in this election. Through a series of compelling speeches, Trumka implored those listening to overlook their misgivings about Obama’s race and to vote for someone who had their best interests at heart.
Three weeks ago, after listening to Trumka being interviewed on NPR, I viewed his speech to the national convention of the United Steelworkers and was sufficiently moved to post a diary entitled “Richard Trumka For Secretary For Labor.”
Everyone that I encouraged to view the speech was equally affected and immediately recognized the potential positive impact of Trumka’s message. I like to think that Trumka’s inspiration and outreach to workers played some small role in Obama’s rout of McCain in Pennsylvania and Ohio. If that is indeed the case, then it is entirely possibly that Trumka has called the Reagan Democrats home. Richard Trumka deserves our appreciation and our gratitude.
Wal-Mart: Discounted Workers’ Rights
Want to understand why so many of America’s workers find it so hard to organize unions in their workplaces? Look no further than Wal-Mart, says Carol Pier of Human Rights Watch who says
Wal-Mart is a case study of the abysmal workers’ rights regime we have here in the United States.
Pier
is a senior researcher on labor rights and trade for Human Rights Watch, an
independent, nongovernmental organization that investigates human rights
violations around the world.
In a recent speech at the University of Minnesota, she described her two-and-one-half-year study of Wal-Mart’s labor-management record, which culminated in a 210-page report, issued in 2007, titled Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart’s Violation of U.S. Workers’ Right to Freedom of Association.
The report found that while many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus. Many of its anti-union tactics are lawful in the United States, though they combine to undermine workers’ rights. Others run afoul of soft U.S. laws.
Pier told the University of Minnesota Law School audience:
I like to think about it as a “death by small cuts.” And the effect is devastating.
In the course of her research, Pier interviewed dozens of current and former Wal-Mart “associates” (the term the company uses for its employees) and supervisors in six states and pored through thousands of pages of material from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that enforces U.S. labor law.
Wal-Mart uses a subtle form of union-busting that starts with new employee orientation, where training includes watching an anti-union video, Pier said. The corporation has a 24-hour hotline for managers to report any signs of union organizing activity and a “labor relations team” is quickly dispatched to assess the situation.
Depending on the level of union activity, workers may be subjected to mandatory “captive audience” meetings ,where they are lectured on the evils of unionism. In some stores, Wal-Mart has crossed the line from subtle to heavy-handed by conducting surveillance on employees, disciplining and firing some.
When those actions are taken—clearly in violation of U.S. labor law—the failings of the system become clear, Pier said. Wal-Mart takes advantage of the exceedingly slow NLRB process to draw out cases for years. When a worker finally wins a case, the company faces no penalty—other than the requirement to reinstate the worker with back pay (minus anything he or she earned in other employment) and to post a notice saying “they won’t do it again.”
With nearly 1 million employees in the United States, Wal-Mart is the country’s largest private employer. Yet none of these workers belongs to a union. Employees at two stores in Quebec, Canada, finally won union representation, but both stores have been closed, the second one last month.
Pier said the International Labor Organization (ILO) has cited the lack of penalties—and the fact that workers can be “permanently replaced” if they strike—as reasons that U.S. labor law fails to meet international human rights standards.
The proposed Employee Free Choice Act—supported by President-elect Barack Obama and many congressional Democrats—would address some of the shortcomings in U.S. labor law by imposing monetary fines of up to $20,000 for each violation and permitting workers to choose union representation by signing cards, bypassing the drawn-out NLRB election process during which many employer violations occur.
Still, Pier worries the new law would not be effective without a broader campaign to improve people’s knowledge of unions. Companies like Wal-Mart still could continue the kind of early union-busting—such as showing videos during employee orientation—that create a chilling climate for organizing.
Pier said of the proposed legislation:
The Employee Choice Act will help. The Employee Free Choice Act is necessary.
Pier’s talk was sponsored by the Institute for Global Studies and the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program and co-sponsored by the Labor Education Service, publisher of Workday Minnesota.
You can read Pier’s report, Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart’s Violation of U.S. Workers’ Right to Freedom of Association here.
Comments:
DAILY GRILL
"I don't think this was a victory for a progressive, or a liberal
victory." -- Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN),
11/09/08
VERSUS
"51 percent said government should do more to solve problems, the first time
even a narrow majority said so since exit pollsters started asking the
question in 1994." -- AP,
11/08/08, on presidential election exit polls
Quotes of the Day
Recent Senate Votes
NOT IN SESSION
Recent House Votes
NOT IN SESSION
HUMOR
"There was a little confusion at the meeting there at the White House
when
President Bush was told that
Obama was coming. He said 'Oh, you mean we caught him?'" --David
Letterman
"Sarah
Palin is all over the news lately. She told Matt Lauer on the 'Today'
show that, yes, the rumors were true, on election night she did want to
deliver her own concession speech and she was disappointed that she
couldn't. Well, she shouldn't feel bad. Wait till 2012. Deliver it then."
--Jay Leno
"This is true, according to a new report, I was reading this today in the
paper, thousands of pregnant mothers in this country are planning to name
their baby Barack. That's true. Yeah, after hearing this, Sarah Palin told
Bristol, 'Don't even think about it.'" --Conan O'Brien
"You know the Secret Service that follows the candidates around and stuff?
They have nicknames for the people that they work with. Like Barack Obama,
his nickname, the Secret Service called him 'Renegade.'
John McCain, I think they called him 'Maverick.' President Bush's Secret
Service nickname is 'Occupant.'" --David Letterman
"Alaska seems to have re-elected Senator
Ted Stevens, who is 84 and going to prison. What is up with Alaska? I
have a feeling, when a moose gets shot up there, his last thought is, 'I
can't believe I'm losing to these a**holes'" --Bill Maher
"Well, according to a new post-election survey, people want Sarah Palin to
run for president in 2012. It says she's been getting thousands of calls
from people pleading with her to run, all Democrats." --Jay Leno
"There's a new rumor that
Hillary Clinton may end up Secretary of State, which means she would
have to spend the next four years traveling all around the world. To which
Bill said, 'Yes!'" --Jay Leno
"Barack Obama is being very deferential to President Bush. Obama said last
week, 'The United States can only have one president.' To which Bush said,
'Hey, that's not what
Cheney told me." --Jay Leno
"Eearlier today, Barack Obama met with President Bush at the White House. So
you had the president-elect and the president-inept, so they were there
togethe … Meanwhile, John McCain, don't forget about John McCain. While all
of this was going on, John McCain was waiting for his name to be called at
IHOP." --David Letterman
"I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say things are not going well
for the Republicans. Two years ago they controlled both the White House and
the Congress. Soon, they'll be controlling both the Coke machine and the fry
station." --Stephen Colbert
ADMINISTRATION -- PUBLISHERS HAVE LITTLE
INTEREST IN PUBLISHING BUSH'S MEMOIR: President Bush has reportedly
expressed interest in writing a memoir of his White House years soon after
he leaves office. However, the Associated Press
reported yesterday that a number of publishers have a suggestion for
Bush: "Take your time." "If I were advising President Bush, given how the
public feels about him right now, I think
patience would probably be something that I would encourage," said Paul
Bogaards, executive director of publicity for Alfred A. Knopf, which
released Bill Clinton's "My Life" in 2004. "Certainly the longer he waits,
the better," says Marji Ross, president and publisher of the conservative
Regnery Publishing. When Bush finally gets a book deal, other publishes say
that he will probably not see the amount of money past presidents have
received. "I don't think Bush can get the kind of money Clinton did if only
because the foreign rights interest
will be considerably less," says Jonathan Karp, of Hachette Book Group
USA.
Bush Rolls Back Regulations
Having promised to "sprint to the finish" of his second term and "to remain focused on the goals ahead," President Bush is "working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules" aimed at protecting workers, consumers and the environment, the Washington Post reports. "The administration wants to leave a legacy," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, "but across the board it means less protection for the public." Indeed, the Bush administration is implementing over 90 new regulations which "would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo." The wide array of new regulations includes proposals to undercut outpatient Medicaid services, weaken the Endangered Species Act, and allow increased emissions from older power plants. In some instances, the administration has allowed federal agencies to circumvent public feedback methods by limiting the period for public comment, "not allowing e-mailed or faxed comments or scheduling public hearings." Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama, meanwhile, "have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies." The kind of regulations they are looking at are those imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget.
CUTTING BACK MEDICAID: On Friday, the very same
day that the Department of Labor announced that the U.S. unemployment rate
is at a
14-year high of 6.5 percent, Bush "narrowed
the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under
Medicaid's outpatient hospital benefit."
GUTTING ENDANGERED SPECIES: In what would be the biggest change to Endangered Species Act since 1998, the Bush administration wants to allow federal agencies "to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants." Currently, federal agencies are required to consult with an independent agency -- the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or the National Marine Fisheries Service -- to determine whether a project would harm an endangered species. As Baltimore Sun points out, "[T]aking wildlife experts out of the equation eliminates the checks and balances that have kept the [Chesapeake] bay's bald eagles, shortnose sturgeon, Delmarva fox squirrels, piping plovers and other rare creatures from disappearing" and would only encourage agencies to "revert to pre-Endangered Species Act tactics of cutting big projects into a series of small ones that fall under the radar." The draft rules also would also "bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats," the AP reports.
INCREASING POLLUTION: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working on regulations that would allow increased emissions from older power plants while also rolling back existing air quality regulations for national parks and wilderness areas. While "the Clean Air Act requires older plants that have their lives extended with new equipment to install pollution-control technology if their emissions increase," Bush's proposed rule would "allow plants to measure emissions on an hourly basis, rather than their total yearly output. This way, plants could run for more hours and increase overall emissions without exceeding the threshold that would require additional pollution controls," McClatchy reports. The industry-friendly rule -- which the administration tried to implement in 2003, before it "was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in July"-- is now being opposed by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and Robert Meyers, the assistant administrator in charge of air issues. According to McClatchy, "the EPA official said that concerns in the agency were that the analysis justifying the rule change was weak and the administration didn't plan to make the analysis public for a comment period, as is customary." Three computer models, released by the EPA, have also shown that the proposed rule "would increase carbon dioxide emissions by 74 million tons annually," "roughly equivalent to the total annual CO2 emissions of about 14 average coal-fired power plants."
ADMINISTRATION -- OBAMA TO REVERSE MANY BUSH
EXECUTIVE ORDERS: "President-elect Barack Obama is poised to move
swiftly to
reverse actions that President Bush took using executive authority, and
his transition team is reviewing limits on stem cell research and the
expansion of oil and gas drilling, among other issues, members of the team
said Sunday," the New York Times reports. On his first day in office, for
example, Bush issued "the so-called global gag rule...which prohibited
taxpayer dollars from being given to international family planning groups
that perform abortions and provide abortion counseling." Obama is set to
reverse this policy, said Susan Wood, co-chairman of Obama's advisory
committee for women's health. "We have been going in the wrong direction and
we need to turn it around and be
promoting prevention and family-planning services and strengthening
public health," Wood said. "There's a lot that the president can do using
his executive authority
without waiting for Congressional action, and I think we'll see the
president do that," John Podesta, Obama's transition head, said Sunday. With
less than three months left in office, Bush is poised to change more than 90
executive rules "[o]n issues ranging from
water and air quality to family planning and civil liberties," allowing
him "to achieve with the stroke of a bureaucratic pen what they could not
get from Congress or the voters."
RADICAL RIGHT -- GUN INDUSTRY PROFITS OFF NRA'S FEARMONGERING ABOUT OBAMA GUN POLICIES: Gun stores across the nation are reporting a surge in gun sales since the election of Barack Obama, as customers seem convinced that the next president either seeks to limit or revoke entirely Americans' right to bear arms. As the Chicago Tribune reported, "Some say they are worried that the incoming Obama administration will attempt to reimpose the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Others fear the loss of their right to own handguns. A few say they are preparing to protect themselves in the event of a race war." News outlets from NPR to Fox News have produced reports documenting the gun buying binge. What the major media outlets have overlooked is that the boom appears to be the result of a multi-million dollar effort launched by the National Rifle Association (NRA) last summer to mislead voters about Obama's gun policy proposals. The NRA said that "never in NRA's history have we faced a presidential candidate...with such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms." As FactCheck noted, however, the NRA's campaign was based almost entirely on falsehoods.
ECONOMY -- FIRMS RECEIVING FEDERAL FUNDS
STILL PREPARED TO GIVE OUT HUGE BONUSES: A new report by Johnson and
Associates, an executive compensation consulting firm, find that Wall Street
firms will
continue to distribute millions of dollars in bonus checks this
December, even those that are participating in the Treasury bailout. Though
the bonuses will likely be smaller than last year's, there will still be
"thousands of people who make millions of dollars," Alan Johnson of Johnson
and Associates said. The report found that "thanks in part to the financial
bailouts and mergers we've seen recently, the decline in incentive payments
won't be as drastic as first thought." For example, Goldman Sachs and Morgan
Stanley are accepting $20 billion in taxpayer dollars under the bailout plan
but have set aside a combined $11 billion for bonuses. One former investment
banker told ABC News that "it was like putting taxpayer money in your left
pocket and paying bonuses from your right pocket." Though congressional
leaders had promised that
limits on executive compensation would be a priority in the bailout
bill, ABC News points out the $700 billion rescue plan only addresses the
compensation of a firm's top five executives and
doesn't even put limits on that pay. Rather, the bill "states that any
salary above $500,000 for these five executives will not be tax deductible
for the company," a move seen as "largely symbolic."
Think Fast
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) "is pushing his party's leadership to expel Sen. Ted Stevens from the Senate during this month's 'lame duck' session." DeMint, "one of the most conservative members of the Senate, is said to be angry with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for tolerating a convicted felon in the GOP caucus."
"The word most used to label George W. Bush's presidency will be 'incompetent,' historians say." "Right now there is not a lot of good will among historians. Most see him as a combination of many negative factors," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton. More »
Just days after right-wing blogger John Hinderaker counseled Barack Obama to be as careful with his words as George W. Bush, the President said he "regrets saying some things I shouldn't have said." Bush added, "My wife reminded me that, hey, as president of the United States, be careful what you say." More »
Sweet nibblets! Malia and Sasha Obama may get the chance to appear on "Hannah Montana." The stars of the popular Disney show, Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley, have made it clear that there is an open invitation to the girls to appear as guests whenever they would like. The two Obama girls have expressed interest in entering showbiz one day, and Cyrus has said that they are "kind of like me before I started my own career. You are kind of put in it because [of] their dad and because of my dad."
INTERESTING
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger is calling for quick government action to help the auto industry, its workers and retirees.
Gettelfinger and the CEOs of the nation’s major auto companies met yesterday on Capitol Hill with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss ways to revive the auto industry, which lost 39,000 jobs in August.
Says
Gettelfinger:
There is an urgent need for federal assistance—not just for our members, but for millions of workers and retirees and for thousands of companies who depend on the auto industry for jobs, retirement benefits and revenue.
It is essential that the federal government act to prevent further damage to a critical industry ,which supports billions of dollars worth of economic activity in cities and towns all across the country.
He called for the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve to take steps to provide liquidity to auto manufacturers so they can get through the difficulties caused by an across-the-board decline in auto sales.
The sales drop, Gettelfinger says, is driven by consumer reaction to tough economic times and a lack of affordable credit for big purchases. As if to underscore Gettelfinger’s analysis, Ford announced today that it lost $129 million last quarter and will cut about 2,260 more nonunion white-collar employees in North America.
Congress also should act immediately, said Gettelfinger, to provide an additional $25 billion in loans so that auto companies can meet their health care obligations to more than 780,000 retirees and dependents.
Strategic assistance to a critical manufacturing industry makes sense for U.S. taxpayers. The alternative is lost jobs, business failures and a shortfall in pension and health care obligations—all of which will cost far more in the future than the assistance we are requesting now.
Buy American Mention of the Week, By Roger Simmermaker
Support American-made products and spend less
Never before has a presidential campaign addressed buying American so directly. In the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain talked about creating jobs by selling American-made products into foreign markets, and Barack Obama started a “Buy American – Vote Obama” campaign in August.
Governor Sarah Palin said “We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers” while Senator Joe Biden says he wants “to pull up to the gas pump in an American flex fuel car, and buy a gallon of biodiesel or E85 made in America, grown by farmers…in Iowa.”
All candidates realized this American economy is going to be a tough for American consumers for at least the rest of the year and probably most of the next. One simple way to support American jobs is by shifting your American purchasing dollars to American-made goods. But how do you do that in the wake of an unstable, unpredictable, and uncertain economy without breaking your budget?
The good news is that there are ways you buy American this Christmas and beyond and spend less money, too. Simply visit any of the websites listed below and type in special code “HTBA” to get 10 percent off your entire purchase. I’ve mentioned some of these companies before in past articles, but I feel they are worth mentioning again to let patriotic consumers know that they can save money and keep their dollars in American where it should be at the same time
At All American Clothing Company (www.AllAmericanClothing.com) you can not only get 10 percent off all of your purchases, but you can now also get free shipping with an order of $99.00 or more.
All the apparel sold at the All American Clothing Company website carries the “Made in USA” with the exception of one brand in some instances. Carhartt products are made both in Mexico and the United States, but All American Clothing does not carry the imported products on their site. The tag or label of the American-made Carhartt jeans has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to say “Made in USA,” but these tags can also say “Made in USA of Mexican components” since some of the denim for the American-made Carhartt jeans is sourced from south of the border (approximately 22 percent).
So why does All American Clothing Company still offer the American-made variety of Carhartt products? Because they want to help keep the USA division of Carhartt in the USA so the American workers making these products can keep their jobs.
It’s great to be able to support companies that make 100 percent of their products in America, but the reality is that the list of these types of companies is a very short one, so we must also strive to support companies that still make a significant percentage of their products in the USA as well, or they may be forced to eliminate more of the American workforce they still employ.
For example, since New Balance makes only about 30 percent of their shoes in the U.S., should we avoid their products and risk losing their six American factories (up from four just a few years ago) just because they don’t make all of their shoes here? Of course not, especially when major competitors like Nike and German-owned Adidas and Reebok make none of their shoes in the United States (Adidas acquired Reebok in 2005). You can see all the American-made New Balance shoes available here http://www.nbwebexpress.com/madeinusa_nb.htm (the 10 percent HTBA discount does not apply on this website).
Another way to get 10 percent off your American-made purchases using the HTBA code is to visit the USA Coffee Company at www.USACoffeeCompany.com (make sure you hit the “apply” button after entering the code). Only American workers and American jobs are involved when you buy any of the many types of coffee from the USA Coffee Company, which grows all of its coffee in the great state of Hawaii. From the growers & pickers and packers & shippers to the freight & delivery and packaging & materials, the USA Coffee Company is true red, white and blue from tree to cup.
Only American workers and American jobs are involved when you buy any of the many types of coffee from the USA Coffee Company, which grows all of its coffee in the great state of Hawaii. From the growers & pickers and packers & shippers to the freight & delivery and packaging & materials, the USA Coffee Company is true red, white and blue from their trees to your cup.
If you aren’t sure if your current coffee mug is made in USA, then you might look into one of USA Coffee’s acrylic or ceramic American-made coffee mugs. And you can sweeten your Hawaiian coffee with genuine Maui sugar.
You can also save 10 percent using the HTBA discount code on a wide variety of American-made goods at www.MadeinUSAForever.com where they’re proud to say they’re “doing something real for our economy.” Truth be told, we’ve been too much about idealism and not enough about independence in this country for too long. One way to secure that independence we all celebrate once a year on July 4th is to secure the American market for the American producer by supporting American-made products.
We can no longer claim to be an independent country if we continue to have our manufactured goods supplied by foreign producers. There is a distinct connection between independence and manufacturing, and we cannot claim to be able to keep one while we abandon the other. In 1809, Thomas Jefferson said “The spirit of manufacture has taken deep root among us, and its foundations are laid in too great expense to be abandoned.” And now, maintaining that “spirit of manufacture” Jefferson once spoke about by patronizing the right kinds of producers who choose to stay in America and employ American workers just got easier and cheaper.
*************************************************************************
Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for WorldNetDaily.com and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union and National Writers Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week among many other publications.
GOOD NEWS
Nothing this week
VIDEOS
'Beck- Conservatives voted for McCain hoping he’d die in office so Palin could take over.'
Radical right-wing blog Red State launched “Project Leper,” an attempt to professionally punish McCain staffers whom Red State’s Erick Erickson perceives to have wronged Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK).
Erikson told Glenn Beck today, “Palin was the best thing that happened to” the McCain campaign. To which, Beck agreed, saying many conservatives told him they supported McCain in hopes he would die in office: SOURCE
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