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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week
of December 5, 2008
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SPREAD THE WEALTH, REBUILD AMERICA,
Posted by Jim Hightower
When Barack Obama said, "I think when you spread the wealth around,
it's good for everybody," John McCain and his right-wing chorus blew
a gasket and threw a hissy fit. He's a socialist, a Marxist, a
"redistributionist" they screeched!
Obviously, they were more upset than the electorate was. Indeed, I
think your average working stiffs perked up, high-fived one another,
and said, "Oh, yeah – it's time to spread the wealth." After all, for
the past three decades, Washington has been busily redistributing our
wealth upward to the richest one percent of Americans.
Using everything from tax giveaways to trade scams, they've shoved
practically all of the economic gains that everyone helped produce up
to those at the top. Now, the top-heavy "tinkle-down" economy they
created is crashing, bringing down the housing market, Wall Street
banks, and a host of industries.
Of course, Washington reacted by rushing to bailout the bankers
and the speculators who caused the crash. That hasn't seemed to
benefit anyone but – surprise! – the elites. So, yeah, let's spread
the wealth into the grassroots economy, so ordinary workaday folks
can lift our country up.
One way to do this is with a massive, nationwide "Rebuild America"
program, similar to what Obama has proposed, only bigger and bolder.
Let's enlist millions of Americans to repair our deteriorating roads,
bridges, schools, parks, etc. – while also developing conservation
programs, solar and wind power, plug-in hybrid cars, high-speed
trains, and other essentials for a new green economy.
Yes, this will be costly, but – unlike the gabillion dollar
giveaway to Wall Street hucksters – this is a sensible investment
that'll produce tangible results for every American and restore our
nation's economic strength. Think about it: Money is like manure – it
only works if you spread it around.
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
Inauguration Ticket Request
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."
Sarah Palin: The New and 'Explosive' Leader of
the GOP
A standup comic once joked about his inner monologue while rubbernecking
through the scene of a car accident. First the serious reaction: "Oh! How
horrifying! How awful!" Then the morbidly gleeful: "Cool! Is that an arm?"
Watching the Republican Party implosion and subsequent bloody flailing has
become my favorite spectator sport. "Wow, the Republican Party is really,
really horribly mangled," then, "Cool! Palin's making an ass of herself on TV
again!"

Why the excitement? Well, it appears as if she's being christened as the
de facto leader of the Republican Party. Wednesday, for example, instead of
attributing his victory to the well-known Republican majority in Georgia,
Saxby Chambliss credited his expected victory to Sarah Palin's
stump speeches:
"...when she walks in a room, folks just explode."
Explode? Smart choice of words, Senator. Sarah Palin makes Republicans
explode. Perfect.
If Palin, in fact, becomes the leader of the Republican Party, exploding
is precisely what will happen -- and not in the weirdly excited-slash-sexual
way Chambliss seemed to imply. Specifically, Sarah Palin is a walking,
talking psychobomb, and elevating her to anything beyond a near-term novelty
will be disastrous -- in a word, "explosive" -- for the Republican Party.
And it'll be almost too much fun to watch.
As of right now, we have several contenders for this post. There's "Sister
Sarah" (a nickname I don't quite understand). There's the twice divorced
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. There's Bobby Jindal, the far-right
governor of Louisiana. And Tuesday, we learned that Jeb Bush might be running
for Senate and thus throwing his gigantic hat into the fight for the future
of the party.
How screwed are the Republicans right now? Put it this way: the sanest
contender in the above list is named "Bush." Yes, Bush: a name that proved to
be even less popular this year than the name "Hussein." Yet there he is front
and center.
Now, it's important to clarify the schadenfreude and why the
aforementioned Republican contenders are so much fun, and, more importantly,
why many fellow liberals are rooting for them to keep talking.
Simply put, Palin and the others, will serve to more or less confine the
Republican Party to the deep South where there are enough white
fundamentalist hoopleheads to provide the GOP with a respectable electoral
showing, but not enough support to seriously compete nationally. In other
words, the Republicans are inexplicably pushing names that will do much more
harm than good. And that's just fine and dandy.
For instance, apart from her unserious pageant walking and clueless
turkey geeking, it's practically impossible for Sarah Palin, with her
far-right ideology and divisive politics, to expand a Republican electorate
that's already suffering from, well, shrinkage. Her appeal is so
laser-focused on a rabidly fanboy-ish chunk of the GOP base that many more
Americans who would otherwise vote Republican will surely continue to snap to
other options. Meanwhile, the Palin base -- the fanboys who are "exploding"
over Sarah Palin -- are a mélange of Bush dead-enders, disgruntled former
Bush loyalists who haven't yet realized that the only difference between
Palin and Bush is, well, lipstick, and, of course, way too many disturbingly
pervy older men. Outside of this narrow demographic, everyone else thinks
she's more or less an earnest yet embarrassing joke.
Anecdotally speaking, while working the polls on Election Day, I overheard
more than one relatively uninformed, uneducated Republican -- I mean, guys
who probably think "peeance
freeance" is an actual foreign policy term -- turn to their buddy and say
(paraphrasing), "Palin's kind of an idiot. And she probably don't know what
peeance freeance means neither."
The only possibilities for the resuscitation of the Republican Party are
either, 1) a failed Obama presidency or, 2) an as-of-yet unannounced
transformative and inspirational Republican figure.
There's nothing to really indicate the former, but there's always the
freak possibility that a random cascade of uncontrollable events could swing
the White House into turmoil. It happened to President Carter.
As for the latter, I really can't think of a Republican answer to Barack
Obama. Once again, however, the Republicans are betting on either Sarah Palin
or Bobby Jindal to be the knock-off Bizarro Obama. Palin aside, the notion
that Jindal is the
"Republican Obama" amplifies how truly ridiculous and desperate the
Republicans are.
They're making a huge mistake in assuming that just because Jindal is
young and of unusual ethnic origins that he's the equivalent of Barack Obama
-- in the same way they mistakenly calculated that Sarah Palin would attract
female voters just because she's a woman, even though she possessed none of
the positive qualities of Senator Clinton. It's totally shallow and vaguely
racist. A party which has so often dealt in identity politics and racial
divisiveness to suddenly go, "Hey, look over here! We have an ethnic, too!"
seems weird and awful to me.
Additionally, Jindal's religious extremism won't manufacture any new
Republican voters from the middle -- he's anti-choice without exceptions, he
supports teaching creationism as a science in public schools and, yes,
he once performed an exorcism on a friend who he believed was possessed
by a demon. Yeah, if there's one thing the Republican Party needs more of,
it's religious zealotry.
So we have an exorcist, a Bush, a turkey geeker who makes people explode,
and Newt, who, by the way, wrote a book imagining if the South had won the
Civil War. If these cable reality show misfits represent the future of the
Republican Party, it's going to be a seriously entertaining four years.
BobCesca.com
source
Fla. GOP refuses to seat white supremacist
WEST
PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A 19-year-old white supremacist says he'll sue a
Florida county's
Republican Party
for refusing to seat him on its executive committee.
Derek
Black, who won an election for the party post after campaigning around West
Palm Beach, Fla., says Palm Beach County GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein is
trying to block his rightful spot on the committee because he did not sign
a party loyalty oath, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported Monday.
Black
is the son of Don Black, a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan, and is supported by another former KKK grand wizard, former
Louisiana legislator
David Duke.
"We're
going to fight," Duke said. "I know Derek Black is going to fight for his
constitutional liberties. That's why I'm here, because I want to assist
Derek." When asked if he thought voters knew who they were voting for when
they cast ballots for Black, Duke said, "Irrelevant question. He got the
votes. He won election."
"(Black) participates in white supremacist activities," Dinerstein told the
Post. "We're the party of Lincoln. We're the party that says we don't judge
anybody by the color of their skin."
Activists, or
those who want to get active, can contact Kathryn Hargraves if they want to
participate in a letter-writing group for our new president. The address is
KMHDem@insightbb.com.
President-Elect Obama has asked for our support in bringing change to
America. One way we can support him is by writing letters to the editor.
We've already witnessed the pre-election whisper campaign, and the months to
come may well bring an escalation in the misinformation war.
If you would
be interested in working together on supportive letters to the editor (the
more of us writing letters, the more likely at least one of them will be
published), please contact me at
KMHDem@insightbb.com.
In the
meantime, be sure to sign up for news about the transition at
http://www.change.gov.
I look forward to hearing from you!

Labor Department Lies
by
Tula Connell
The Bush
administration hasn’t even packed its bags, and already we hear the first of
what undoubtedly will be an ongoing string of revelations about how U.S.
workers and taxpayers have been deceived over the past eight years by the
Bush Labor Department.
A Government
Accountability Office (GAO) report released yesterday finds the Labor
Department gave Congress false numbers on cost savings it supposedly was
incurring by hiring outside contractors.
As TobyWollin
at Firedoglake
writes:
President George W. Bush’s Labor Department misled Congress
in an effort to prove outsourcing jobs to private companies was more
efficient than assigning the jobs to government employees, according to a
Government Accountability Office report released Monday.
This
from today’s
Washington
Post:
“DOL’s savings reports are not reliable: A sample of three
reports contained inaccuracies, and others used projections when actual
numbers were available, which sometimes resulted in overstated savings,” the
GAO report said. “Because of these and other weaknesses, DOL is hindered in
its ability to determine if services are being provided more efficiently as
a result of competitive sourcing.”
Kudos to Sen.
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), chairmen of the Senate and
House appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over the Labor
Department, who asked for the report. According to the
Post,
Harkin and Obey urged Congress not to fund the competition program until the
GAO provided the answers. Here’s what they had to say in a statement
yesterday:
“Under the direction of this White House, the Department of
Labor has increasingly attempted to move work performed by Federal employees
to private contractors” and, in so doing, hurt workers’ morale and “grossly
overstated savings,” they wrote. “We look forward to working with the Obama
Administration to strengthen the Department of Labor as it undertakes the
critical missions of making sure our workplaces are safe; protecting
employee pensions, health benefits and rights; and providing workers with
the skills they need to compete successfully in the 21st century economy.
So do we.
Conservatives Fear Progressives Will Shift Power ‘Back In
Favor Of Unions’
For some time, The Wonk Room has been making the case that income
inequality is a
real problem that is caused by stagnating wages and declining union
numbers. This week, the
International Labor Office (ILO) released its
Global Wage Report for 2008/9, which shows that wages in the United
States and around the world are declining, as are rates of unionization and
collective bargaining. This is leadin
g
to more widespread income inequality, and all of its associated adverse
effects.
The ILO found that between 1995 and 2007, real wage growth in the United
States was
essentially 0 percent, and in 2009 wages will “decline
by 0.5 percent in industrial countries and grow by no more than 1.1 per
cent globally.” The Center for American Progress Action Fund has found that
weekly wages were actually
0.3 percent lower in June 2008 than they were in March 2001.
This stagnation — which occurred at the same time that
CEO pay steadily increased — has led to severe income inequality. The
ILO found that the U.S. is one of the countries in which “the gap between
top and bottom wages has
increased most rapidly.” Indeed, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported recently that “in the United
States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of US$93,000 — the
highest level in the OECD. The poorest 10 percent earn an average of
US$5,800 — about 20 percent lower than the OECD average.”
As the ILO pointed out, income inequity has
serious economic consequences:
There are also many economic costs
associated with higher inequality, such as higher crime rates, higher
expenditures on private and public security, worse public health outcomes
and lower average educational achievements. A growing body of
studies also highlights the importance of reducing inequality to achieve
poverty reduction.
Furthermore, as the Center for American Progress’ Sabina Dewan explained,
“declining wages means a decrease in purchasing power and a slowing down of
global consumption at a time when the wheels of the world’s economic engine
are
already grinding to a halt.”
To alter the downward trajectory of wages, the ILO makes two suggestions:
better designed and managed minimum wage laws and
stronger collective bargaining for workers. A step that could be taken
here in the U.S. to make stronger bargaining possible is passing the
Employee Free Choice Act, which would help to ease the
path toward unionization — and thus higher wages and better benefits —
for America’s workers.
Bush issues order denying
bargaining rights to fed employees, by
SusanG
Ah, the carnage of the
the long goodbye:
President Bush issued an executive order on Monday that denies
collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work
in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for
national security.
Mr. Bush said it would be inconsistent with "national security
requirements" to allow those employees to engage in collective
bargaining with respect to the conditions of their employment.
Among those affected are 5,000 employees of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is now part of the Justice
Department.
The text of the executive order can be found
here.
Because nothing ensures our national security quite like people who
aren't allowed to organize for decent pay and working conditions. Seems to
me these are exactly the types of employees you would want to keep off the
"disgruntled worker" list.
****************
ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH STRIPS COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING RIGHTS FROM FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: President Bush issued an
executive order "that denies collective bargaining rights to about
8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and
other agencies responsible for national security," the New York Times
reports today. Nine hundred of the employees affected were
already represented by collective bargaining units. Colleen Kelley,
president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that employees
"had their collective bargaining rights stripped away for
no justifiable reason." The executive order is just one of Bush's
many last-minute regulations, orders, and proposed rule changes, many of
which reduce the power of organized labor. New rules make it
harder for employees to take time off, require labor unions to
file extensive financial reports, and make it harder to
regulate toxic substances on the job. For more on Bush's 11th hour
rules, check out The Progress Report's report: "Bush's
Backward Sprint To The Finish."
Comments:
Have your comments printed here. Send them to
LJCDP@louisvilledem.com
DAILY GRILL
"This may be much more of a financial problem, that is, one sector, while
the rest of the economy is doing rather well." -- George Will,
11/30/08
VERSUS
"The nation's unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in
October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, far worse than economists expected
and stark proof the economy is deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace."
-- AP,
11/7/08
*********************
"[T]here are accusations of mistreatment at Guantanamo, but there's
certainly no proof that ever happened." -- Bill O'Reilly,
12/1/08
VERSUS
"Captives at Guantánamo Bay were chained hand and foot in a fetal position
to the floor for 18 hours or more, urinating and defecating on themselves,
an FBI report has revealed." -- The Guardian,
1/3/07
Quotes
of the Day
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
accepted an honorary degree
from
Harvard University.
"I have often been called a liberal, and it usually was not meant to be a
compliment," he said. "But I remember what my brother said about liberalism
shortly before he was elected president. "He said if by a liberal they mean
someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas
without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the
people...If that is what they mean by liberal,
I am proud to be a liberal,"
Kennedy said.
************************
Says Limbaugh: "You know the old phrase, 'You keep your
friends close and your enemies closer?' How can she run for president in
2012? She'd have to run against the incumbent and be critical of him _ the
one who made her secretary of state."
TOP
Recent Senate Votes
The Senate is adjourned but will convene
pro forma sessions Dec. 2 and Dec. 5.
Recent House Votes
The House is in recess, subject to the
call of the chair.
-
TOP
HUMOR
"In a speech this morning,
Barack Obama said, 'This isn't about big government or small government.
It's about building a smarter government.' When he heard this,
President Bush said, 'I get it. I get it. I'm leaving.'" --Conan O'Brien
"Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama announced his new economic team.
You know what he should do? Hire those people who were in charge of his
fundraising campaign. We can pay this thing off in like a week." --Jay Leno
"Earlier today,
John McCain was in the news. John McCain gave his first press conference
since the election. And he said, 'For a lot of people,
Sarah Palin was an energizing factor during the campaign.' Unfortunately
for McCain, those people are called Democrats." --Conan O'Brien
"Well, it doesn't look as if the
U.S. automakers are going to get their
bailout money. Congress said yesterday they were concerned about giving
the Big Three automakers money just to keep making the same stupid mistakes.
And, believe me, when it comes to making the same stupid mistakes, Congress
knows what it's talking about." --Jay Leno
"A lot of people have forgotten about President Bush, but this
transitional period is a busy time for President Bush as well. He's busy
granting pardons. Today, he pardoned Sarah Palin for her
interview with Katie Couric." --David Letterman
"I guess Sarah Palin is back in Alaska, where she
pardoned some turkeys for Thanksgiving. So she pardons them and then
right behind her, someone kills some turkeys, and it was gruesome. I
honestly haven't seen a slaughter like that since November 4." --David
Letterman
"Alaska Governor Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey, though she said she was
amazed to find out that, besides being a bird, Turkey is also a country. Did
you see that all over the internet today? While Sarah Palin was pardoning a
turkey, right behind her was a guy
slaughtering turkeys. ... But, see, like most internet stories, a little
half-true. Turns out that, after a couple of minutes listening to Sarah
Palin's voice, the turkeys said 'Kill
us now.'" --Jay Leno
"Hillary
Clinton is going to be secretary of State in the Obama administration.
Well, political insiders are now saying that Barack and Hillary actually
have a good working relationship, but they don't have a close personal
relationship. No, wait a minute, that's Hill and Bill." --David Letterman
"In political news, it looks like Hillary Clinton accepted Barack Obama's
offer to be secretary of state. Very exciting. She accepted after Barack
Obama's vetting process could not find any link between her and
Bill Clinton." --Jay Leno
"That Obama is a smart, hard-working guy. And he has promised now to
stabilize the economy, going to rebuild the infrastructure, create millions
of new jobs, catch bin Laden. President Bush said, 'Uh, you can do that?'"
--David Letterman
"Finally we got some good news about the economy. Barack Obama got $800
billion to rescue the economy. All I can say is, 'Thank you, Oprah.'"
--David Letterman
"A New York elementary school became the first school in the country to be
named after Barack Obama. Yeah, that's very nice. Yeah, unfortunately, no
one likes their team's new nickname, the Fighting Husseins." --Conan O'Brien
"Well you know what's really strange? If she gets this job, she would be the
first official to take the job overseeing homeland security working for a
guy, if he wasn't president, whose name would probably be on the no-fly
list. 'Barack Hussein Obama? Yeah, step off to the side, please. Thank
you.'" --Jay Leno
"You folks feeling the
economic pinch? Are you a little fed up with the economic news? It's
bad. The department stores, this holiday season, no Santa Claus. They're
laying off department-store Santa Clauses. So more bad news for John
McCain." --David Letterman
"According to some statistics the government released yesterday, Mexican
immigration to the United States has dropped 42 percent over the last two
years. And you have to hand it to President Bush, he knew that the way to
stop people from sneaking into the country, it's not to build a fence or a
wall, it's to make this country very undesirable. Most illegal immigrants
come here to make money, but now we don't have any money anymore. That's
Number 43 for you, always thinking ahead." --Jimmy Kimmel
TOP
HEALTH CARE -- NEW MEDICAID RULE FORCES
STRUGGLING AMERICANS TO PAY MORE FOR CARE: Last Tuesday, the Bush
administration
issued a new federal rule that would allow states to "deny
care or coverage to Medicaid beneficiaries who do not pay their premiums
or their share of the cost for a particular item or service." In what the
New York Times describes as a "sea change" in Medicaid, states will now
"charge premiums and higher co-payments for doctors' services, hospital care
and prescription drugs provided
to low-income people under Medicaid." According to the Congressional
Budget Office, 13 million low-income people -- about a fifth of Medicaid
recipients -- will face new or higher co-payments and "some individuals may
choose to delay or forgo care rather than pay their cost-sharing
obligations." The rule has elicited criticism from "the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the National Association for Home Care and AARP, among other
groups," who said that higher co-payments would make it
more difficult for low-income children, homebound people, and older
Americans to get care.
ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH'S LAST-MINUTE RULE
GUTTING WORKER PROTECTIONS MAY VIOLATE HIS OWN GUIDELINES: The
Labor Department -- which has been "widely criticized for
walking away from its regulatory function across a range of issues,
including wage and hour law and workplace safety" -- is attempting to
complete a rule making it more difficult to
regulate toxic substances and chemicals that affect workers on the
job. Public health officials and labor unions say the rule, which has
strong support from business groups and is opposed by President-elect
Barack Obama, "would delay needed protections for workers, resulting in
additional deaths and illnesses." The New York Times noted that this
proposal "appears to
violate a memorandum issued in early May by Joshua B. Bolten, the
White House chief of staff." "Except in extraordinary circumstances," Mr.
Bolten wrote, "regulations to be finalized in this administration should
be proposed no later than June 1, 2008, and final regulations should be
issued no later than Nov. 1, 2008." The proposal is "one of about
20 highly contentious rules the Bush administration is planning to
issue" in its
final weeks.
MEDIA -- FOX'S CHRIS WALLACE DEFENDS BUSH
ON ABUSE OF POWER: Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace
defended President Bush yesterday against criticism from filmmaker Ron
Howard that Bush had abused the office of the presidency in way similar to
President Richard Nixon. "Richard Nixon's crimes were committed purely in
the interest of his own political gain," Wallace told Howard before an
audience after viewing the filmmaker's new film "Frost/Nixon." "I think to
compare what Nixon did, and the abuses of power for pure political self
preservation, to George W. Bush trying to protect this country -- even if
you disagree with rendition or waterboarding -- it seems to me is both a
gross misreading of history both then and now," Wallace said. But
Wallace ignores the fact that many of the Bush administration's abuses of
power were, in fact, political in nature -- such as the
outing of Valerie Plame Wilson and the
firing of nine U.S. attorneys. Bush's abuses of power in the name of
protecting the country have had disastrous consequences. Bush's
torture policies has not only undermined American prestige around the
world and violated domestic and international law, but a former Special
Operations interrogator recently noted that it "is fair to say" that they
have cost the
same number of American lives as those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks.
ADMINISTRATION -- ROVE IS ORCHESTRATING THE
'BUSH LEGACY PROJECT': President Bush's interview with ABC's Charlie
Gibson this week was the "first
of several planned 'exit interviews.'" According to
White House press secretary Dana Perino, Bush's next interview will be
with ABC's Cynthia McFadden on the topic of the faith-based initiative,
which will air on Nightline next week. If the
first interview with Gibson provides any clue as to what we can expect
from these interviews, Bush will paint a rosy picture of his legacy and "refuse
to take responsibility for a single thing that went wrong on his watch,"
as the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin observed. On CNN yesterday, the Weekly
Standard's Stephen Hayes revealed that former Bush adviser
Karl Rove is currently orchestrating the Bush legacy project. "There's
an ongoing Bush legacy project that's been meeting in the White House,
really, with senior advisers, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes has been involved,
current senior Bush administration advisers," said Hayes. "They are looking
at how to sort of roll out the President's legacy." Rove has previously been
reported to be
advising the George W. Bush Presidential
Library Foundation and is
said to be spearheading the conservative Institute for Democracy
think tank that will accompany the future Bush library at Southern Methodist
University.
ADMINISTRATION -- WHITE HOUSE DECIDES
AGAINST HANGING 'IMPEACH BUSH' ORNAMENT: When First Lady Laura Bush
asked members of Congress to pick local artists to decorate the White House
Christmas tree, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) turned to a local arts
organization who assigned the task to Deborah Lawrence. The Seattle-based
artist said, "I was at first nauseated,
then realized it was an opportunity to highlight Jim McDermott because
he's a hero of mine." So Lawrence, who frequently combines
politics and satire in her work, covered a nine-inch ball "with swirly
red and white stripes -- and, in tiny glued-on text, salutes the Democratic
congressman's support for
a resolution to impeach President Bush." But unfortunately for Lawrence,
Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for Laura Bush, reported yesterday afternoon
that the ornament
would not be displayed. "It's inappropriate and it's not being hung. ...
We reviewed the ornament along with all
the [other] ornaments, and Mrs. Bush deemed it inappropriate for the holiday
tree," McDonough said. Lawrence responded, "Oh, dear. This doesn't
really surprise me. But it's disappointing that I won't get to see it on the
tree." While Lawrence's ornament was deemed "inappropriate" for public
display on the tree, Lawrence was
still allowed to attend "the White House reception for the artists
yesterday ('They let us in') but didn't get a chance to chat with the
hostess."
Think Fast
The 110th Congress passed only about 3.3 percent of all the bills
introduced, the lowest success rate since 1976. A full
32 percent "did nothing more than rename a federal building," up from
the 25 percent of legislation representing ceremonial bills from the 109th
Congress.
Jonathan Lifschutz, a Long Island supporter of Barack Obama, says he has
been forced to hide his OBAMA vanity license plates inside
his car because people keep trying to steal them. He said "would-be thieves
tried prying off the plates and
he even caught one man red-handed. He jokes the Empire State plates one
day will be a collector's item -- in someone else's house. So he's taken
them off his car and put his old plates back on."
An independent and bipartisan congressionally-mandated task force
has concluded that the "odds that terrorists will soon strike a
major city with weapons of mass destruction are now better than even."
The report "singled
out Pakistan as a grave concern because of its terrorist networks,
history of instability and arsenal of several dozen nuclear warheads."
Bush administration lawyers will appear in court at 10 am PST today "to
convince a federal judge to let stand a law granting retroactive
legal immunity to the nation's telecoms, which are accused of
transmitting Americans' private communications to the National Security
Agency without warrants."
4,207: The number of U.S. troops
who have died in Iraq as of yesterday. U.S. combat casualties in Iraq
fell to their
lowest level last month.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Tina Fey talks about the
discomfort of playing Gov. Sarah Palin (R) in Palin's presence. "I
just didn't want to have to do the impression at the same time with her,"
she said. "One, it would shine a light on the inaccuracies of the
impression, and, two, it's just always...the only word I can think of is
'sweaty.' It just always feels sweaty." Commenting on her impressions of
Palin, Fey said, "I feel clean about it.
All these jokes were fair hits."
Former Gov.
Jeb Bush (R-FL) told Politico, "I am considering" a run for
Senate, after Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) announced yesterday he would
retire in 2010. "A lot of people are calling him and contacting him and
encouraging him to look seriously at this," a source close to Bush said.
In an e-mail to ABC's The Note, Bush wrote, "I
am going to think about it for the next month or so."
Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson "was awarded
a $4 million bonus in 2008" and was granted 225,000 shares of restricted
stock. He will also receive a 10 percent increase in his annual salary in
2009, raising his base salary to $2.06 million.
Yesterday, federal prosecutors expanded the corruption indictment
against former NYC police commissioner Bernie Kerik. "The main
charges -- that Kerik accepted free apartment renovations from a would-be
city contractor,
lied to the White House and filed false income tax returns -- remain,"
but the indictment adds new details regarding Kerik's lies about his
finances.
Yesterday, the White House approved "one
of the most contentious" regulations officials are trying to push
through in Bush's
final weeks in office, making it "easier for coal companies to
dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby
streams and valleys." Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen
Johnson claimed that the new rule would "protect fish, wildlife and
streams."
More »
Although District and federal officials expect approximately
four million people to descend upon the nation’s capital for Barack
Obama’s inauguration, many Republican staffers are planning to
"surrender the town for warmer weather and, in some cases, a nice
profit." GOP lobbyist Jason Roe said, "I am hoping to capitalize on the
enthusiasm by renting my house for $2,000 a night and spending it in the
Virgin Islands." Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) aide Gregory Keeley said he would
unfortunately likely stay in town for work. "It's not going to be my
favorite place to be, put it that way," Keeley said. "If
there's a horse out of Dodge, I'd like to be on it."
TOP
INTERESTING
Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs
Controversy
Stunning Break with Last Eight Years
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama
has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through
his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty
Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick,
which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually
every time he opened his mouth.
But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public
pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight
years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.
According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of
Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who
speaks English as if it were his first language.
"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement,"
says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding
like an elitist."
The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in
his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate,
subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."
The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has
already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah
Palin of Alaska.
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that
ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do
there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are
needing also," she said.
PRICING FANS OUT OF THE
GAME, Posted by Jim Hightower
Generations of Americans have enjoyed whiling away an afternoon or
evening with friends and family at the ballpark, joining in the old sports
tune, "Take me out to the ballgame." But if you’re an average Joe or Jill
today, you’ve been taken out of the ballgame by corporate owners who now
cater to upscale customers, pricing the experience beyond the reach of
regular folks.
Look
at the new Yankee Stadium. It will only have half as many bleacher
seats as the venerable old stadium next door. The old ballpark, now being
bulldozed, was known as "The House That Ruth Built,” because The Babe drew
thousands of working class fans to each game, filling those bleachers.
But the new edifice is reaching for a much higher-end demographic than
Joe Sixpack, boasting more than three times as many luxury skyboxes as its
more egalitarian predecessor. The draw is no longer to the game itself,
but to the scene – a chance for Wall Streeters, corporate chieftains,
politicians, and other suits to see and be seen, to schmooze with each
other in the splendid isolation of the pricey boxes.
Team owners have also come up with a new financial gimmick that shuts
out average fans. Even to get a chance to buy season tickets for the games
in such new football stadiums as the one the New York Jets will soon use,
a gamer must first purchase a PSL – personal seat license. These go for
$5,000 or more. This doesn’t get you an actual seat at the games, just the
“license” to buy tickets – which sell for roughly $120 per seat, per game.
So a family of four wanting season tickets to root for their team must pay
$20,000 for PSLs, then shell out $500 for four tickets to each game. And
that doesn’t count gas, parking, hot dogs, a cold beer, and souvenirs.
Forget “Take me out to the ballgame” – regular folks are just plain
getting taken.
“The changing face of the sports fan,”
www.cnn.com, October 8, 2008.
Buy American Mention of
the Week,
By Roger Simmermaker
American-made presents under an
American-made tree
With
Christmas Day about a month away, many
patriotic Americans are thinking about what kind of American-made gifts they
can find to put under their Christmas trees.
These same patriotic Americans may want to get an American-made,
artificial Christmas tree to decorate and
display as a gathering place for all those great and thoughtful gifts for
friends and loved ones as well, but the problem is many consumers don't know
where to go to get one.
If you're planning on
heading out to the stores to find an American-made artificial tree, you're
probably going to end up wasting your time. By ordering from
www.uschristmastree.com you can save time, avoid the headaches of
dealing with all that traffic, and support American workers at the same
time.
It's no secret that many
Americans are losing their jobs in today's unstable and uncertain economy,
and you can help make both the economy and the lives of more Americans more
stable and more certain by buying an American-made artificial tree instead
of that cheap, Chinese-made tree you might have seen at the mall.
The prices at
www.uschristmastree.com start at $27.99 for a three-foot tree and start
as low as $99.00 for a 6.5-foot tree. But if you type in the special code
HTBA just before checkout, you'll save a full 10 percent off of your
purchase price. Your tree will be made in New York where it will be shipped
just a few days after your order. And in keeping with the Christmas spirit,
you'll know you've given one of the best gifts you could ever give - the
prospect that another American will be able to keep their job and be able to
buy Christmas gifts of their loved ones.
You can choose from some
of the most popular types of artificial trees including Alberta Pine,
Columbia Fir, White Pine, Aberdeen Pine and
Douglas Fir.
If you have any
questions about any of the trees at
www.uschristmastree.com, they'll be happy to answer them at their
American-based customer service center by calling
1-877-437-1225. You can even ask them about their 110
percent money-back guaranteee. That's how sure
they are you'll be satisfied with their 100 percent American-crafted U.S.
Christmas trees!
One of the hardest areas
to buy American these days is in the apparel category, but that's not
a problem if you visit
www.theunionshop.org, where you'll find union-made, American-made
clothing of all kinds for men, women, kids, and even pets. You'll also find
American-made accessories like aprons, tote bags, fleece blankets and more.
And for something surprisingly special this Christmas, check out their
impressive collection of custom-carved glass. And now you can save 10
percent when you type in the special HTBA code before checkout.
With all the talk about
how best to stimulate the economy these days, the folks at
www.theunionshop.org know that the best
economic stimulus can be achieved by buying U.S.-made products, and
that's exactly what they offer.
Something I'm looking at
right now to order from
www.theunionshop.org is at least a couple of pairs of casual pants,
which are available in navy or khaki color. I have plenty of American-made
denim jeans, but it's more difficult to buy American-made, non-denim casual
pants. I definitely want to support the companies that make these clothes in
the USA so the demand will be there for them to keep making them in the USA.
Have you found it
difficult to buy American made for your kids, including toddlers and
infants? The Union Shop probably has what you've been looking for but
couldn't find.
The selection of
American-made apparel at
www.theunionshop.org includes all the traditional shirts, sweaters,
pants, shorts and jackets you would expect, but they also carry specific
kinds of work clothing, firefighter apparel and tall sizes. For the women,
you'll find intimates and sleepwear choices.
You can also choose from
hundreds of custom-designed logos including military and patriotic.
Everything done by the union members at the Union Shop is done right here in
America, whether it's embroidery, screen printing, graphic design, sales,
or marketing.
You won't find foreign
labels or foreign products at
www.uschristmastree.com or
www.theunionshop.org, so browse American and buy American at either of
these sites before the end of the year and use the special HTBA code to get
an additional 10 percent off your American-made purchase. And remember, by
buying American and saving American jobs, you can not only help make it a
better Christmas for more Americans this
year, but you can also make it a better economy for more Americans next year
as well.
*************************************************************************
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 much good happening to Working Families this week.
VIDEOS
Hannity: ‘If You Don’t Listen To Talk Radio, If You Don’t
Watch Fox News,’ You’re Misinformed
(CLICK TO VIEW)
Fox’s
Hannity & Colmes hosted John Ziegler, author of a
push poll attempting to prove that voters who supported Barack Obama
were misinformed. Hannity used Ziegler’s study to complain that Obama
supporters didn’t know about “really significant issues” like Bill Ayers and
Obama’s views on coal. He insisted that only those who watched Fox News
understood the real issues:
HANNITY: If you don’t listen to talk radio, if you don’t watch
the FOX News Channel, you’re not anywhere nearly as informed as
people that are just hearing the bumper stickers, the slogans, the
snippets of the commercials of the media. So, journalism died in 2008, and
it influenced a lot of people on the way out.
ZIEGLER: That’s exactly right
Studies have
consistently shown Fox viewers to be among the most misinformed
Americans. A 2008
Pew study ranked Fox News dead last in the number of “high knowledge”
viewers, with only 19 percent of Fox viewers able to correctly identify
the majority party in Congress (Democrats), the name of the U.S. Secretary
of State (Condoleezza Rice), and name of British Prime Minister (Gordon
Brown).
Fox viewers are particularly misinformed about the Iraq war. A 2003
study
found three common misperceptions about the war held by many Americans:
first, that US troops found evidence of close pre-war links between Iraq
and al-Qaeda; second, that troops found weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq; and third, that world public opinion favored Washington’s going to
war with Iraq.
Fox
viewers were the most likely to believe these falsehoods:
Eighty percent of Fox viewers were found to hold at least one
misperception, compared to 23 percent of NPR/PBS consumers. All the
other media fell in between. … As to the number of
misconceptions held by their audiences, Fox far outscored all of its
rivals. A whopping 45 percent of its viewers believed all three
misperceptions, while the other commercial networks scored
between 12 percent and 16 percent. Only nine percent of [print media]
readers believed all three, while only four percent of the NPR/PBS
audience did.
Yet Hannity and Ziegler were convinced that media malfeasance was the
only reason for Obama’s victory. Ziegler even claimed, “Bush would have
won 65-35 with fair coverage in 2004.”
Editor: John Ziegler is a former WHAS84 (9:00
- Noon) Talk Show Host
TOP
CLICK HERE FOR LATEST ISSUE OF THE "FRIDAY ALERT"
Whitley man demands proof of Obama's U.S. birth
By Bill Estep -
bestep@herald-leader.com
Kentucky is
a red state with no shortage of conspiracy theorists and unusual politics,
so it's no surprise that what might be the first post-election court
challenge to Barack Obama's qualifications to be president comes from a
Whitley County truck driver.
Daniel
John Essek, 47, filed a demand last week that Obama prove he is a
natural-born U.S. citizen — one of the few requirements to run for
president.
Essek wants
Obama to provide a copy of his birth certificate to a federal judge in
London for verification.
He knows
some people might find his request odd, especially after the election, but
says he would tell them it's never too late to do the right thing.
"I may very
well be chasing windmills thinking they're monsters," he acknowledged.
Essek lost
by more than 100,000 votes when he tried to unseat longtime Republican U.S.
Sen Mitch McConnell in the primary election this year. He later said on a
Web site "maybe I got a little carried away, like my wife said."
The charge
that Obama wasn't born in the United States came up often during the
presidential campaign. Obama's campaign said that was ridiculous, posting a
copy of his birth certificate on the Internet to prove he was born in
Hawaii.
A
Pennsylvania judge threw out a pre-election court challenge to Obama's
birth qualification, saying its arguments were frivolous.
But Essek
still has doubts.
Essek said
he'll be satisfied if U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove receives
documents from Obama and rules Obama is qualified to serve as president.
What Essek
filed was actually a request for permission to file the court case without
having to pay a fee.
"I also
affirm, owing to my poverty, having not the money, request all fees of this
filing and service be waived," he wrote, citing his income in the last year
as $15,000.
Essek said
in the motion that he is founder of the Society for Liberty and Prosperity.
Last week he said the society had no members but had scheduled an
organizational meeting Saturday night at his home just north of the
Tennessee line, has set up a Web site and is seeking members and donors.
Essek is
president of the group. His wife, Donna, is treasurer.
Essek wants
to use the society to teach citizenship and correct what he considers
Americans' woeful lack of civic education and awareness. Some people can't
identify the president, vice president and secretary of state, he said.
"I'm seeing
a level of ignorance out there like you wouldn't believe," Essek said.
There are
other objectives, too, according to the society's Web site, including
defending rights, opposing tax increases and (in the exact words) to
"eschew barbarism, collectivism, Communism, conformitism, despitism,,
fachism, favoritism, imperialism, institutionalism, liberalism, Nazism,
nepitism, progressivism, racism, sexism and Socialism."
Essek's
Senate race Web site said he endorsed Ron Paul, a Republican congressman
from Texas who leans strongly libertarian, for president this year. In
November, he voted for John McCain because of Sarah Palin, he said.
But Essek
said politics isn't the reason he's questioning Obama's qualifications.
"This is
patriotism," he said.


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