independentsforkerry.org

The latest poll shows Democrat Tom Perriello in a statistical dead heat.

A September poll of likely 2010 general election voters shows the two candidates for Virginia’s 5th Congressional seat in a statistical tie.     The Benenson Strategy Group poll is the second poll this month that shows Perriello and his opponent statistically tied, with the results within the margin of error.

Click to see a PDF of the poll results.

Thank You for all your hard work and please keep it up.    There is a little over a month before we celebrate Toms re-election.   

Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

Republican women from Kane County seeking financial assistance for college can apply to be considered for the Mary Richards Scholarship Fund, offered by the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization.

Mary Richards, a graduate of the Northwestern School of Nursing, served on the Kane County Board for 24 years. She was integral in the formation of the county’s Health Department and the development of its prenatal care program.

A former president of the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization, Mary was active in the Republican Party and a strong advocate of voter registration. Richards passed away in 2007.

Scholarships in the amount of 0 will be awarded.

Applicants must be female and a resident of Kane County, Ill. They must be enrolled in a two-year or four-year college in Illinois. Other conditions also apply.

Applicants also must submit a written essay of 500 words or less, answering the following: “I’m interested in better government practices because…”

Applications must be received by April 15. Winners will be announced in May.

For full details of the scholarship, e-mail pennyfalcon@sbcglobal.net.

Kane County Republican News

What Has The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act done in our area and why is it important for me to know?

The next time you encounter a republican tea party windbag talking down the recovery act you will know something the windbag doesn’t.   You will know what the recovery act did in our area.
 
PLEASE NOTE:   This is just a partial listing of things in our area (over 16,000 projects).   Our area is a small, small part of this great country we live in.    The projects listed here are typical for all parts of the United States.
 
Projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in Central Virginia.
 
Home Weatherization

,935,140 to weatherize homes in Albemarle, Charlottesville, Greene, Fluvanna, and Nelson counties

Albemarle County Law Enforcement

3,138 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers.

I-64 Shadwell Interchange


,550,000 for construction at the I-64 Shadwell Interchange


Pavement Restoration


,848,000 for pavement restoration along Routes 20, 29, 33, 53, and 250


Appomattox County Public Schools


,650,452 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools, educational technology, school construction, and special education


Central Virginia Area Agency on Aging


9,519 for home weatherization in Appomattox and Bedford Counties


Appomattox County Law Enforcement


,057 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers


Appomattox Court House National Historic Park


2,000 for restoration projects at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park


Albemarle County Public Schools


,236,574 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools, educational technology, school construction, and special education


Bedford County Public Schools


,884,870 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools, educational technology, school construction, and special education


Bedford County Law Enforcement


5,017 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers


Union Church Road Over Shockoe Creek


4,950 for bridge repair


Boydton Plank Road Over Sturgeon Creek


,559,250 for bridge repair


New Store Road Over Willis River


,529,550 for bridge repair


Historic Preservation at St Paul’s College


4,706 for preservation of historic buildings on its campus.


Bedford City Public Schools


9,520 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools, educational technology, and school construction.


Bedford City Law Enforcement


,393 for supporting crime prevention and hiring law enforcement officers


Bedford City Water Improvements


8,330 for improvements to the Bedford City sewer system.


Lynchburg Community Action Group


9,136 to weatherize homes in Campbell County and Bedford City


Buckingham County Public Schools


,707,067 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools, educational technology, school construction and special education


Buckingham County Law Enforcement


,191 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers


Tobacco Heritage Trail


,000,000 for construction of Tobacco Heritage Trail from Town of La Crosse to Town of Lawrenceville


Central Virginia Health Services


0,000 to expand care and hire additional staff at the clinics in New Canton and Farmville.


Greenway Road over Austin’s Creek


2,000 for bridge repair


Slate Hill Road over Hunt Creek


4,750 for bridge repair


Union Church Road over Frisbee Creek


3,100 for bridge repair


Mollies Creek Road Over Suck Creek


7,000 for bridge repair


Campbell County Public Schools


,803,095 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools, educational technology, school construction, and special education.


Campbell County Law Enforcement


,762 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers.


Campbell County Water Treatment Plant


5,104 for water system upgrade for town of Brookneal


Charlotte County Law Enforcement


,981 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers


Charlottesville Redevelopment & Housing Authority


1,568 for modernization of affordable housing


Charlottesville City Public Education and Higher Education


,583,057 for saving teacher jobs at K-12 schools and universities, educational technology, school construction, special education, and early childhood education


Charlottesville City Law Enforcement


0,080 for supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers


Charlottesville Transit Service


,306,442 for energy efficient buses

The republican tea party nutjob doesn’t care about safe roads and bridges, supporting crime prevention and hiring of law enforcement officers, educational technology, school construction and special education, jobs and small business, energy efficient homes,  water treatment plant upgrades or any of the other things the act did.     Thats what you would think to hear them talk.    The truth is they are speaking from ignorance.    They just know what the right wing ideologs tell them.     They have no idea what the recovery act did and the real truth is they would support it if they did.     The republicans like to keep their voters riled up and dumb and in that respect they are second to none.   

Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

Mad as Hell
How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking our Two-Party System

I was not impressed by this book initially. I started with an open mind thinking maybe the Tea Party movement is more mainstream, less ideological or effective than I thought according to the claims in the introduction of Mad as Hell. The first half of the book left me the impression they were trying to affirm the relevance of the Tea Party as means of selling books as if to say ‘See, you are mainstream. Our book says so. Now buy our book.’

It is worth noting that the editing prior to publishing was not done. The book is rife with spelling and grammatical errors as many reviews for Mad as Hell on Amazon.com will point out in detail. I can’t help but wonder if this publication was just a get-rich-quick for-profit venture.

Granted the challenge to Rasmussen and Schoen is the rapidly changing dynamic of what the Tea Party movement is and who it is led by. Even since I started this review things have taken a turn with the Rand Paul campaign violence episode. Some old questions are now up in the air again: Who or what is the Tea Party? Who are the leaders? Is the Tea Party a bunch of racist hillbillies or a legitimate political force? Is the Tea Party grassroots or Astroturf? Pinning an accurate label on the Tea Party is probably not impossible. Just about anything one might say could stick with some truth and relevance. But being a groundswell movement, any labels subscribed to the Tea Party can only be transitory at best. Time will still have to tell what the movement will definitively stand for and more importantly accomplish long term.

From page 5 of the introduction of Mad as Hell: “It is not only America’s most vibrant political force “at the moment” to quote The Economist, but a movement that has unprecedented broad-based support, and the power to influence the 2010 and 2012 elections and, indeed, the future of American politics in ways that have been fundamentally misunderstood and not appreciated.”

From their own statistics later in the book on the demographics of Tea Party sympathizers: 80% are White, just 2% African-American. 68% are Protestant. Are we to conclude that White and Protestant is the new mainstream?
According to the University of Washington study on the subject (http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/racepolitics.html) 45% of White Americans support the Tea Party movement. White support is evenly divided in enthusiasm: 23% strongly support, 22% somewhat support. White population (18 years old and older) from the 2000 Census is 205,158,752. Translation, nearly 1 in 3 Americans is a Tea Party supporter. One third is hardly a majority but still a substantial showing. Mad as Hell opens by asserting that the Tea Party movement can be classified as mainstream. I was skeptical of that assertion, but given these numbers it is safe to say that the Tea Party in general terms is in fact a mainstream movement.

Effectiveness

The effectiveness of the Tea Party can clearly be measured in the short term, but what about long term? The Obama administration has advanced a number of ideological agendas and the Tea Party is a largely dare I say ‘knee jerk’ ideological reaction. Neither persuasion addresses the issue of the necessity of systematic power to the people political reforms. Each side of this short term ideological skirmish is looking at the outcome of this skirmish as an ominous indicator of the future of this country. Although those concerns probably have some merit, where are the strategic thinkers looking beyond this relatively brief skirmish? And why or how did we wind up on opposite sides seemingly on grappling for control of our republic?

More insight into the Tea Party direction and affiliation with the GOP from Mad as Hell: “”the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future.” These numbers reflect a party driven by a populist core increasingly uninterested in compromise.” (p.171) More like Sarah Palin? Uninterested in compromise? Let me know how that works out for ‘ya. I guess I draw a lot of my skepticism from the fact that factions uninterested in compromise usually have a limited lifecycle in this country or go to great lengths to maintain their control unconstitutionally and unethically (Jim Crow for example).

The Palin Factor

Perhaps my skepticism is related to the Palin factor. I just assumed that both conservatives and liberals know that more appeal is better than less when it comes to winning elections. Like, love or hate Palin, or somewhere in between, I thought it was pretty obvious that Sarah Palin only appealed to party loyalists and evidently white protestant GOP loyalists at that. Truth is, Sarah ‘Fox News’ Palin does not have wide appeal. And the Tea Party movement seems OK with these types of ideological purist arrangements. So, I guess I am skeptical why they think the inequality 33%<51% isn’t an impediment from the start. The best consensus builder (Obama) won in the 2008 Presidential election. He hasn’t done much for that consensus in the meantime, but the basic logic has not changed. I don’t know. Perhaps they are banking on continuing to manipulate the Electoral College and to gerrymander districts (something Karl Rove has unabashedly sworn to do) —another testament to how radically we need to reform the political process away from party manipulation and control. GOP 'tea party' gains in 2010 are from a different kind of establishment power assertion and manipulation of the system, not from a wider appeal and building coalitions of groups who disagree on some points. It appears to me to be a line in the sand when success depends on a successful sales pitch.

So, I started the book skeptical that the Tea Party movement could be considered truly ‘mainstream’. I’m much less skeptical now, but the definition of the Tea Party changes so much from day to day, that it will just be interesting to see what shakes out.

The Conclusion chapter of Mad as Hell was the best. The book would have held me better had I read the conclusion first. Still, if any chapter received any solid editing, I would think it would be the conclusion and the editing is noticeably absent. Perhaps coverage of such a mercurial subject as the Tea Party requires that you publish quickly to get out in front before the subject reinvents itself. I’ll give the authors that one, but I do wonder if there is a niche of sorts for a new style of relevant content much lengthier than a blog, not suited for published video content, but not worth publishing as a hard cover or even e-book as the content may not be relevant in six weeks.

About the author: Randy Miller is an independent in Utah, founder of the Utah League of independent Voters and an independent candidate for County Surveyor in Davis County Utah.

The Hankster

Marking the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s election by one of the closest margins in history, Mayor Thomas…

Home – BostonHerald.com

A Texas Filmmakers for Bill White web video featuring children repeating Rick Perry’s quotes about part-time lifestyle, living in a mansion, the HPV vaccine controversy, and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

When asked for a response to this video by the Houston Chronicle Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner said, “It’s nice that Bill White put his policy advisers in a video.”

In reply to Miner’s comment White spokeswoman Katy Bacon said, “Of course Texas children are on Bill’s mind when he’s thinking about policy for our state’s future. It’s Texas kids whose future Rick Perry is mortgaging with his fiscal mismanagement and the billion budget hole. Unfortunately, the only thing Rick Perry and his handlers are looking out for are their political friends and special interest lobbyists. That’s why we need a new governor.”

Sources of the quotes used in the video:

1. “Texas is still competing and winning because of hardworking visionaries and committed economic development organizations who are willing to think bigger and work harder than anyone else.” (Source: Rick Perry speech, May 26, 2010).
2. “I absolutely understand they want to get back to their homes. I’d like to get back to the mansion.” (Source: San Antonio Express-News, ” Biggest obstacle to Galveston recovery is water” 9/19/08).
3. “It has been a tragedy of unspeakable consequences that, for decades, activist courts denied many Texas parents their right to be involved in one of the most important decision their young daughter could ever make…” (Source: Rick Perry press release, 6/5/05).
4. ““The simple truth is: When it comes to roads, we need more of them….And good roads mean a better quality of life for our citizens.” (Source: Austin American-Statesman, “Perry: Legislature ‘abdicated responsibility’ on transportation,” 4/22/08).

Democratic Blog of Collin County – News

Ron Howard wants to talk about the election. So does Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler.

The Democratic Republican – views and news

BLACK REPUBLICAN: National Black Republican Association E-News

Gov. Perry is running on his record. Gov. Perry’s record:

An billion to billion permanent structural deficit in our state budget created by the property tax swap that Gov. Perry and the Republican controlled legislature passed in ’06. Texas’ state debt has doubled under Perry.

Rick Perry’s property tax increase is hurting our local schools

Almost 1 million Texans are unemployed, a state record. Texas’ unemployment rate (8.4%) now has been at or above 8 percent for 13 straight months, the longest period since a 23-month run from February 1986 to December 1987, according to data from the Texas Workforce Commission.

The Texas poverty rate rose 11% last year. Now 4.3 million Texans live in poverty.

Dallas Morning News – 5,550 Texans continue to lose their health coverage each week. Texas leads the nation in percentage of residents without health insurance with only 49.5 percent of Texas residents covered by employer-sponsored insurance.

Health care premiums have increased 91.6% since Perry became Governor

A recent report showed that Gov. Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund is “not creating jobs as promised.” The Texas Enterprise Fund spent 8 million of public funding and only 33% of the projects created the pledged jobs. And Texas companies like Dell, are spending more to create jobs in China at the expense of jobs in Texas or even the United States.

Houston Chronicle – Perry and his family headed to China – But funding raises concerns about the trade mission.

Texas Tribune – Texas college and university tuition skyrocketed by 63 percent while Perry has been Governor. Since 2003, when the Republican dominated State Legislature deregulated tuition by allowing individual boards of regents to set prices for each school, tuition and fees at four-year state schools has skyrocketed by an average of 63 percent, from ,934 per semester to ,150 according to the last state figures, from 2008.

Utility rates continue to rise, and some utility companies and Perry thinks that is just fine.

The student dropout rate in Texas is 30 percent and as high as 50 percent in some large urban districts.

Texas currently has the third-highest teen pregnancy rate in the United States and “the highest rate of repeat teen births.

The rate of student pregnancies has increased as much as 57 percent and rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising in some urban school districts.

Democratic Blog of Collin County – News

An interesting correlation between America’s poorest cities and their overwhelming control by the Democrat Party can be seen, with some cities never having elected a Republican mayor.Here is a breakdown:

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level (pop. 250,000+)
(U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007)

1. Detroit , MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo , NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%
4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%
5. Miami , FL 26.9%
6. St. Louis , MO 26.8%
7. El Paso , TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%
10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

Democrat Party Rule in these Cities:

1. Detroit, MI hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1961.
2. Buffalo, NY hasn’t elected one since 1954.
3. Cincinnati, OH …since 1984.
4. Cleveland, OH …since 1989.
5. Miami, FL has never had a Republican mayor.
6. St. Louis, MO ….since 1949.
7. El Paso, TX has never had a Republican mayor.
8. Milwaukee, WI …since 1908.
9. Philadelphia, PA …since 1952.
10. Newark, NJ …since 1907.

Democratic Party News – The News of the Democratic Party.