From the Green Party of the United States:
WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates and leaders said today that the US must avoid a military confrontation with Iran by diplomacy based on the goal of ridding the Middle East and Asia of nuclear weapons, including Israel, Pakistan, and India.
The Green Party strongly opposes [...]
Green Party Watch
From an e-mail from Ian Gilyeat, independent Candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona:
This past Saturday, in Dewey at the Patriots Country Fair, I had opportunity to speak with ranchers, engineers, students and government leaders to name a few. I listened to a wide range of complaints touching on things like:
- the tough job market
- subsidies for agriculture, ranching and solar industries
- Federally funded highway projects run amok
- taxing people off of property their families have owned for generations
- excessive government regulations that violate private property rights
- legislative barriers to mining and job creation
- border security and immigration
This doesn’t hit every subject but it is enough to make my point: limiting government at all levels is the greatest economic stimulus we can create!
Economic stimulus from the Federal government is simply the wrong answer. It stifles, plunders and manipulates the American people.
We need the Federal government to stop trying to “fix things” and simply get out of our way so we can go to work. We know how to work – we want to work – we just need the Federal government to pipe down, sit down and stand down…
Sadly, too many go to Washington, drink the Kool-aid and begin to believe the Federal Government is the answer to all our woes. The longer they stay the more difficulty they have in defending the free market. As soon as they get comfortable on the beltway, it’s time to replace them. This is why we need people in Washington who come from the private sector and want to return to the private sector. Help me get on the ballot and let’s make sure we don’t send another career politician to the U.S. Senate in 2012.
Respectfully,
Ian Gilyeat
Candidate, U.S. Senate
Independent
Al Jazerra live coverage
Libyan people [or some combination of the people and some political forces] are succeeding to overthrow the Gaddafi regime.
The polls provide guidance on what the voters want and Democrats should stand with the people. Republicans already look out for big business and big oil so they already have a say in how things happen. The middle class, workers,seniors, women and children are the forgotten sectors that need a voice.
The following polls came from www.nonesoblind.org.
That is the website of Dr. Andrew Bard Schmookler who is a
Democrat running for Congress in Virginia’s 6th District. Dr. Schmookler will be joining us at a Democratic Committee Meeting soon and everyone is welcome to attend and meet him. When arrangements are final for his visit we will post it here.
Swing state Democrats need to stand up to the GOP’s proposed plans to destroy Medicare and make huge cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, according to the latest polling from Public Policy Polling.
The latest polls, commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in partnership with Democracy for America, MoveOn.org and Credo Action, show that the voters undeniably support these progressive programs — and candidates looking to
win in 2012 need to keep all cuts off the table.
Look at the results from swing states.
QUESTION: In order to reduce the national debt, would you support or oppose cutting spending on Social Security, which is the retirement program for the elderly?
Ohio 16% support 80% oppose
Missouri 17% support 76% oppose
Montana 20% support 76% oppose
Minnesota 23% support 72% oppose
QUESTION: In order to reduce the national debt, would you support or oppose cutting spending on Medicare, which is the government health insurance program for the elderly?
Ohio 20% support 76% oppose
Missouri 19% support 77% oppose
Montana 24% support 71% oppose
Minnesota 26% support 69% oppose
QUESTION: In order to reduce the national debt, would you support or oppose cutting spending on Medicaid, which is the government health insurance program for the poor, disabled, and children?
Ohio 33% support 61% oppose
Missouri 32% support 63% oppose
Montana 36% support 59% oppose
Minnesota 33% support 62% oppose
The polls should be a clear sign to Senators Sherrod Brown (OH), Claire McCaskill (MO), John Tester (MT), and Amy “This polling shows that voters have serious problems with any politician who votes to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid,” said PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor. “Democratic leaders should not ask incumbent Senators to walk the plank on these issues. Instead, Democrats should go on offense by investing in jobs and making oil companies, Wall Street, and the rich pay their fair share in taxes.”
“If Democrats cut Social Security and Medicare, there will be outrage in red states and blue states. It’s that simple,” said Charles Chamberlain, Political Director at Democracy for America. “Democrats need to say firmly that any tampering with these critical programs whatsoever is off the table.”
Klobuchar (MN) that their reelection will depend on their willingness to defend these programs for their swing states. The results have already gotten coverage in Talking Points Memo, the Huffington Post and The Amherst County Virginia Democratic News.
Claire McCaskill, MO
John Tester, MT
Thats the story in the swing states, leave Medicare and Social Security alone. So Say the People. Now You Know What The People Want so Lets Meet The Players who fight for us and against the people.
“We Will Fight Them Anywhere in America When it Comes to Defending and Strengthening Medicare.” Rep. Steve Israel
What a sleazy group this GOP is. Nothing stands in the way of tax breaks for the rich and breaks for big oil but flood and tornado victims have to find programs to cut before they can be helped. If you’re willing to kiss Medicare goodby for your children and slightly younger friends you aren’t thinking straight. If you continue to vote for Republicans You aren’t thinking at all. Throw these Bum Republicans Out at the earliest opportunity.
Republicans say voters will reward them for taking on a tough issue and freeing seniors to pay their own way. The money saved by cutting Social Security and killing Medicare will go to big companies as tax breaks and this will trickle down as jobs. But Democrats say yes look at the surprising results of a special election in western New York to see the popularity of Medicare. Even Republicans in large numbers want Medicare left alone.
Kathy Hochul, the Democratic clerk of Erie County, swept to victory Tuesday night in the race to fill the U.S. House seat previously held by Republican Chris Lee. Lee, who is married, resigned after it was discovered that he was trying to arrange sexual trysts via the Web site Craigslist. Lee is a family values christian right republican as are a number of republicans recently returning to the private sector from government positions.
The real surprise, however, turned out to be Hochul’s ability to capture a seat long considered a GOP stronghold. The Republicans had controlled the district, which stretches roughly from Rochester to Buffalo, for over four decades. Over 40 years in the GOP’s pocket and killing Medicare and reducing Social Security and killing womens health care and killing Pell Grants and taking away funds from early childhood education and giving it all to the upper 2% and big business tax breaks and suddenly the district is in play. How much do these crazy republicans think they can do to working people and still get their vote?
How did Hochul pull it off? There were no exit polls for the race so it’s impossible to say for sure. But the centerpiece of her campaign was a no-holds-barred attack on a plan to overhaul Medicare authored by Paul Ryan and recently passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Under the plan, originally put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, Medicare would end and be replaced with vouchers and coupons. The government would no longer directly pay bills for senior citizens in the program.
Instead, recipients would negotiate a plan with private providers, which the federal government partially pay with vouchers. The Republican Plan is unpopular but the GOP keeps on pushing it on
the people and every time the people get to vote they vote the republicans out and the democrats in. The time to stop this madness is right now and the people should keep turning republicans away till sensibility returns to the grand old party.
Individuals currently 55 or older would not be affected by the changes at the moment but who knows what a crazy as hell Republican Party will do if they get the chance, if they get their foot in the door. There is nothing republicans won’t do to make a tax break for the rich or a break for big oil. They already plan to lower Social Security payments and add years to the age level when you can draw it.
Republican leaders consider the plan a necessary cost-cutting measure to generate funds for big business tax cuts which will create jobs. They also contend tomorrow’s seniors will benefit from a wider range of choices as they negotiate their own deals with the insurance companies and pick levels of coverage they can afford.
Republicans feel seniors will be better off on their own.
Democrats warn the move would shred the health care security enjoyed by older Americans in recent generations.
Democrats have all but sworn to make the proposal, passed with near unanimous support by House Republicans, a focal point of their campaign efforts next year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is forcing Senate Republicans to go on record by forcing a vote on the plan later this week. All but 4 Republicans in the House voted to kill Medicare.
The bill has no chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate, thank goodness, but Republicans vow to keep on attacking Medicare until they kill and bury it. Republicans have tried to kill Social Security for over 75 years, since its very creation. They made fade into the background during good times but when the opportunity to exploit bad times comes the Republicans go into action trying to kill Social Security again. Why voters don’t have longer and more accurate memories is a mystery.
During Hochul’s victory speech Tuesday night, jubilant supporters repeatedly chanted “Medicare! Medicare!” Hochul pledged to help balance the budget “the right way, not on backs of our seniors.”
Throughout the campaign, Hochul highlighted the national fight, telling voters that her Republican opponent, had “100% embraced” the plan. “Even when Republicans in Washington walk away from it, she’s been asked again and again, and she continues to support it,” Hochul said.
“I’m working to protect Medicare.” Hochul said.
Moments after the Hochul’s victory was announced, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the head of the Democratic National Committee, declared that the outcome of the race proves “Republicans and Independent voters, along with Democrats, will reject extreme policies.” The DNC head continued “Tonight’s result has far-reaching consequences beyond New York.” For their part, Republican leaders said voters misunderstood the Republican message and that they would work to make the message more palatable. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas insisted the race has no national implications. “To predict the future based on the results of this unusual race is naive and risky,” Sessions said and then pointed to last November’s GOP landslide.
Rep. Steve Israel of New York, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, announced that the
Republicans have been ”served notice … that we will fight them anywhere in America when it comes to defending and strengthening Medicare.”
On Wednesday morning, Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, released a statement arguing that the results “provide clear evidence that Senate Democrats will be able to play offense in Senate races across the country by remaining focused on the Republican effort to end Medicare.”
Reince Priebus is everything Michael Steele was except effective and good at his job and interesting to listen to. Great Choice.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus blasted Democrats for stopping “at nothing to preserve the status quo in Washington.” Priebus’ remarks reflected the fact that hugely popular entitlement programs — including Medicare, Medicaid, and
Social Security needed to be trimmed back or completely eliminated.
GOP leaders attacked President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in 2010, arguing that it would weaken Medicare yet now Republicans want to kill Medicare outright. “Last November seniors voted for republicans by a 21 point margin”, Priebus said. “Take away their benefits and suddenly they don’t like us anymore”.
Can they defend Ryan’s plan, which is a virtual litmus test for their conservative base, without scaring older voters? Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now a presidential candidate, was recently excoriated by conservative activists for calling Ryan’s plan a form of objectionable “right-wing social engineering.”
Sen. Scott Brown, a moderate Republican facing what is expected to be a tough re-election fight in heavily Democratic Massachusetts next year, has announced he has no intention of voting for the Ryan plan.
Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, a freshman Republican, said Monday that Brown should suck it up and get in line with the rest of the GOP and support ending Medicare. “This is the defining moment of this generation,” Walsh said “Its time to bury Medicare”.
Joe Walsh calling the killing of Medicare the defining moment of this generation shines a big spotlight on idiot republicans.
Joe is just what the GOP loves a keep your trap closed and do as you are told republican. Joe might make it into leadership if the voters in his district want to kill medicare as much as he does.
It’s Friday night, you’re in New York City, and you’re looking to meet some interesting people. You can go to a museum or have dinner with friends, you can go see a Broadway play or an Off-Broadway play, AND….. if it’s the 3rd Friday of the month, you can take a step off the beaten path and step into the world of Lenora Fulani.
Dr. Fulani is one of the country’s most significant black leaders and the leading black independent. She helped establish the current independent movement with her 1988 independent run for President of the United States in which she became the first woman and first African American to be on the ballot in all 50 states. She also qualified for federal primary matching funds.
Fulani hosts a monthly forum called Interviews by a Black Independent (on the 3rd Friday of the month) at the Harlem State Office Building on 125th Street in Manhattan. She interviews her guests in an intimate setting on the 2nd Floor Gallery with a diverse audience of political and cultural independents. Introductions are made, interview ensues, and Q&A from the audience makes for a really interesting and important community dialogue where you can get to know some of the movers and shakers in the NYC intellectual community.
Last month Dr. Fulani interviewed New Federal Theater founder Woodie King, Jr. (see below) and this week we are treated to a conversation with former NYC Comptroller and recent candidate for Mayor Bill Thompson.
Hope to see you there!!
NH
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Creating Jobs Isn’t On The Republican “To Do” List. Destroying every benefit that the middle class and poor have IS The Republican List.
They could have worked on creating jobs but instead Republicans Are Waging a War Against Women. Christianity doesn’t make everyone want to judge others and mind their business but the ones drawn to the republican party suffer from that disease.
In addition to destroying jobs and threatening economic growth, the GOP spending bill eliminates Title X a program that provides life-saving health services, including HIV testing, cancer screening, blood-pressure testing, and contraceptive services for more than 5 million women (two-thirds of whom are uninsured). The contraceptive services and supplies provided at Title X clinics are cost-effective and prevent nearly a million unintended pregnancies every year.
Once again the religious right is leading the Republican party around by the snout and for some reason if you want to take something away Republicans are up for it unless its taking back the unnecessary and unneeded tax breaks for the rich and big business.
Somewhere along the way a division started to show, educated and intellegent people were attracted to the Democratic Party and those oherwise inclined were not. The split grew and grew and that gets us to today and the polarized enviroment that governing must live in.
I don’t know the solution but a comedian named Ron White has built a whole act around the phrase “You Can’t Fix Stupid”. The one thing I’m sure of is the Republican Party doesn’t spend a moment of their time trying to educate their flock. It doesn’t matter how goofy your views are if you’ll pull the lever for the GOP they will pander to you. They will even attack health care for women for you to get your twisted vote.
All of us alive today were born of woman. The great tale of the Bible is of virgin birth, not womanless birth. Mary was needed to bring about the miracle. When these Republicans attack health care for women they are attacking our Mothers, Daughters, Wives and other beloved female family members and friends. When a poor woman is denied health care her life span is affected and the life of her child is at risk. I am not willing to sacrafice women on the alter of right wing christian beliefs. Its time for these religious terriost to mind their own business and time for the republican party to stand for something and stop attacking everything.
Republicans can draw a crowd of people who want to attack womens rights and availability to receive health care. A crowd
that wants to take benefits away from working class and poor people so they can advance the lot in life of the upper 2% of society. The Bottom Line, If you earn over a quarter of a million dollrs a year you can afford to kick in an extra couple of percent to the tax man when the country is going thru hard times.
Eliminating Title X funding isn’t fiscally responsible and the people pushing it have another agenda. For every dollar invested in family planning services, taxpayers save . It will not reduce the United States bottom line, it will add to it. It may please the right wing religious busybodies of the republican party to impose their ideas of right and wrong on others but it won’t solve the defecit.
Gutting womens health services is but one of seaventy cuts the Republicans propose.
Make no mistake, these cuts are not low-hanging fruit. These cuts are real and will impact every district across the country – including Amherst County. Two wars and a defense budget that is out of control and the rich paying the lowest tax rates in the history of the United States and look at what the Republicans want to cut. Read down the list, something is sure to grab your attention. How about funds for Job Training Programs? Or funding for Food Safety and Inspection Services, don’t we have enough food illnesses to need this? Why does partisanship trump common sense?
The List of 70 Spending Cuts Proposed by Republicans follows:
Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies -M
· Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy -9M
· Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability -M
· Nuclear Energy -9M
· Fossil Energy Research -M
· Clean Coal Technology -M
· Strategic Petroleum Reserve -M
· Energy Information Administration -M
· Office of Science -.1B
· Power Marketing Administrations -M
· Department of Treasury -8M
· Internal Revenue Service -3M
· Treasury Forfeiture Fund -8M
· GSA Federal Buildings Fund -.7B
· ONDCP -M
· International Trade Administration -M
· Economic Development Assistance -M
· Minority Business Development Agency -M
· National Institute of Standards and Technology -6M
· NOAA -6M
· National Drug Intelligence Center -M
· Law Enforcement Wireless Communications -M
· US Marshals Service -M
· FBI -M
· State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance -6M
· Juvenile Justice -.3M
· COPS -0M
· NASA -9M
· NSF -9M
· Legal Services Corporation -M
· EPA -.6B
· Food Safety and Inspection Services -M
· Farm Service Agency -1M
· Agriculture Research -6M
· Natural Resource Conservation Service -M
· Rural Development Programs -7M
· WIC -8M
· International Food Aid grants -4M
· FDA -0M
· Land and Water Conservation Fund -8M
· National Archives and Record Service -M
· DOE Loan Guarantee Authority -.4B
· EPA ENERGY STAR -.4M
· EPA GHG Reporting Registry -M
· USGS -M
· EPA Cap and Trade Technical Assistance -M
· EPA State and Local Air Quality Management -M
· Fish and Wildlife Service -M
· Smithsonian -.3M
· National Park Service -M
· Clean Water State Revolving Fund -0M
· Drinking Water State Revolving Fund -0M
· EPA Brownfields -M
· Forest Service -M
· National Endowment for the Arts -M
· National Endowment for the Humanities -M
· Job Training Programs -B
· Community Health Centers -.3B
· Maternal and Child Health Block Grants -0M
· Family Planning -7M
· Poison Control Centers -M
· CDC -5M
· NIH -B
· Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services -M
· LIHEAP Contingency fund -0M
· Community Services Block Grant -5M
· High Speed Rail -B
· FAA Next Gen -4M
· Amtrak -4M
· HUD Community Development Fund -0M
Several bills addressing Title X have been introduced in the 112thCongress.
H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, and S. 96, the Title X Family Planning Act, would prohibit Title X grants to abortion-performing entities.
H.R. 408 and S. 178, both called the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, would eliminate the Title X program.
H.R. 1 would eliminate funding for Title X for the remainder of FY2011. Three amendments (335, 386 and 505) to H.R. 1 would strike the language eliminating funds for Title X. Amendment no. 335 to H.R. 1 would maintain FY2011 funding to Title X at the FY2010 level of 7.491 million. Amendment no. 11 to H.R. 1 would prohibit the bill’s funds from being made available “for any purpose” to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America or to any of 102 Planned Parenthood affiliates and offices listed in the amendment.
You can follow and watch these House and Senate Bills here with just a click of your mouse. Don’t be thrown off by the Title of the Bill or Senate Resolution, politicians will stick an ammendment on any piece of legislation moving unless the rules specifically prohibit it. A great many thing get passed that almost no one is aware of and thats the way these guys like it. The less we know the more they like it.
Our inability to follow what they are doing allows them to take special interest money and serve that master and most times we are unaware. If the parties wished to play it straight they would eliminte the adding of ammendments not directly related to the original bill. They haven’t done that and they haven’t done it on purpose.
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Amherst County Virginia Democratic News will try to keep you informed and is constantly looking for widgets and services that keep you on top of the things the politicians are doing. The Informed Voter is A Democratic Vote.
ACVDN Bottom Line. Ron White appears in this posting completely beyond the scope of his personal knowledge and yet we thank him anyway. (and hope he never finds out)
John Boehner, Incoming Speaker of the House
The GOP’s dramatic gains in Tuesday’s midterm election have positioned John Boehner as the incoming Speaker of the House in the 112th Congress. In his twenty years in Congress, Boehner has been one of the fiercest protectors of Corporate America, and his political and legislative history provide a striking road map for what to expect from his tenure as Speaker.
Following stints in local politics and service in the Ohio State House, John Boehner was elected to the United States Congress in 1990. In his second term in Congress, Boehner helped write the Contract with America and became a stalwart ally of Newt Gingrich, even his “protégé.” Boehner backed Gingrich’s partisan and confrontational style of leadership, and Gingrich elevated him to the position of GOP Conference Chairman. From there, Boehner became the go-to Member of Congress for corporate lobbyists and business interests.
As Conference Chairman, Boehner “met weekly with leading lobbyists to enlist their support and discuss strategy” throughout his four year tenure. During a vote to remove a subsidy to the tobacco industry, Boehner personally handed out checks from tobacco lobbyists and industry PACs to other congressmen on the House floor. At least one Republican colleague, Rep. Linda Smith, blasted Boehner’s actions, saying that “if it is not illegal, it should be.” Since his role in the Republican leadership was closely tied to Gingrich, when Gingrich resigned following the GOP’s 1998 election loss, Boehner was voted out of his leadership position.
After he was forced out of his role as Conference Chairman, Boehner embarked on a plan to regain support among his Republican colleagues. His leadership PAC, called the “Freedom Project,” took in millions of dollars from special-interest lobbyists, and he then used the money to contribute to his fellow Republican candidates. Top contributors included Sallie Mae, Merrill Lynch, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Cincinnati Financial Corp., which helped make Boehner’s leadership PAC one of the best-funded among his peers. The “major sources of financing” for the Freedom Project came from “for-profit colleges and trade schools, and private student lenders,” and as chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Boehner sponsored “legislation strongly supported by private student lenders to restrict the ability of the U.S. Department of Education to make government student loans less expensive by cutting fees.” Boehner told representatives from student loan companies that he has “tricks up my sleeve to protect you,” and he later helped pass a law to bar individuals from refinancing their student loans.
According to Boehner, “I have a good relationship to K Street and people who lobby us.”
Even Boehner’s landlord is a lobbyist, and the Washington Post writes that his landlord’s “clients — including restaurant chains and health insurance companies — hired him to lobby on issues at the heart of Boehner’s work, including minimum-wage increases, small-business tax breaks and tax-free savings accounts to help cover insurance costs.”
In addition to building relationships with corporate lobbyists, Boehner enhanced his standing with the Religious Right. In 2002 Boehner wrote a letter to the Ohio Board of Education urging them to teach intelligent design in public schools, using language derived from anti-evolution activist Phillip E. Johnson. Cyrus B. Richardson Jr., the school board vice president, called Boehner’s letter “misleading” because “it makes it sound like the law says you have to teach intelligent design, when that isn’t in the law.”
He has consistently stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Religious Right throughout his time in Congress. Boehner voted to ban same-sex couples from adopting children and to repeal domestic partnership laws, he opposed hate crimes laws and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and he supported Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. On issues regarding reproductive justice, Boehner voted against protecting reproductive health clinics and backed laws which would compel women to go through biased counseling before terminating their pregnancy. In his speech to the Family Research Council’s 2009 Values Voter Summit, Boehner emphasized his steadfast, 100% anti-choice record. After the 2010 election, Boehner’s chief of staff met with Randall Terry, the radical founder of Operation Rescue, who pressured Republicans in the House to criminalize abortion.
Following Tom DeLay’s resignation as Majority Leader in 2006 (after DeLay was indicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges for which he was recently convicted) John Boehner returned to the GOP leadership and was elected to replace DeLay. From the outset, Boehner pledged to support Republican plans to privatize Social Security, worked against a bipartisan immigration reform bill, and vigorously fought stronger ethics laws. Once elevated to Majority Leader, his leadership PAC received even more financial support from special interest groups. The New York Times found that “Mr. Boehner’s biggest donors include the political action committees of lobbying firms, drug and cigarette makers, banks, health insurers, oil companies and military contractors.” Boehner’s PAC also received ,000 from casino-owning American Indian tribes with ties to convicted felon Jack Abramoff.
Boehner only deepened his ties to special interest lobbyists and intensified his pro-corporate agenda after the 2006 elections, when Republicans lost their majority and he became Minority Leader. Like the Freedom Project, the “Boehner for Speaker” committee allowed lobbyists to buy significant access to the congressman. Lobbyists were allowed “VIP access” to Boehner and his top aides if they could raise 0,000 worth of contributions or more for the committee. But Boehner’s ties to lobbyists don’t end there: he routinely met with business leaders, particularly from the banking and tobacco industries, at his Thursday Group meetings, spent tens of thousands of dollars “to travel to golf destinations on a corporate-subsidized tab,” and gave business associations a larger platform through his America Speaking Out initiative. In September, the New York Times profiled his close ties with K Street:
He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R. J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.
They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns, provided him with rides on their corporate jets, socialized with him at luxury golf resorts and waterfront bashes and are now leading fund-raising efforts for his Boehner for Speaker campaign, which is soliciting checks of up to ,800 each, the maximum allowed.
Some of the lobbyists readily acknowledge routinely seeking his office’s help — calling the congressman and his aides as often as several times a week — to advance their agenda in Washington. And in many cases, Mr. Boehner has helped them out.
Special interest groups continue to pay handsomely to gain access to Boehner and his aides. This year Boehner raised well over million and Fredreka Schouten of USA Today writes the “industries giving the most to Boehner” include “insurance companies, drug manufacturers and Wall Street firms, all of which now face new regulations adopted by the Democratic-controlled Congress.” In all, the financial and insurance industries have been his top donors, contributing .8 million to his political committees.
Boehner’s connections to corporate lobbyists and trade associations greatly influenced his political work. He is big business’s chief advocate on the Hill, and his efforts include “combating fee increases for the oil industry, fighting a proposed cap on debit card fees, protecting tax breaks for hedge fund executives and opposing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.” Reacting to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Boehner agreed with the US Chamber of Commerce that taxpayers should subsidize the cleanup, rather than forcing BP to pay for the entire bill. Boehner has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil companies, and fought attempts by Democrats to lift the liability cap in order to make BP pay for the entire cost of the cleanup.
Boehner vehemently opposes greater supervision of the financial industry and worked tirelessly against Wall Street reform, comparing new oversight and regulations to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.” When speaking to an “enthusiastic crowd of bankers at the American Bankers Association government relations summit,” Boehner told them to fight regulatory reform and not “to let those little punk staffers take advantage of you.” Before the historic financial reform bill came up for a vote, Boehner “met with more than 100 lobbyists” to strategize their opposition, and after the legislation was signed into law, he immediately called for its repeal.
But while Boehner looks after his friends and campaign contributors on K Street and Wall Street, he voted against recent legislation to increase lending and tax relief for small businesses, voted ‘No’ on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, attempted to stop extending benefits to unemployed Americans, and vigorously opposed a proposal to bolster and ensure government funding for the medical treatment of 9/11 rescue workers. He also led the opposition to the DISCLOSE Act, which would have made corporations publicly disclose their political contributions and prevent foreign corporations from spending in US elections.
An unapologetic beneficiary of corporate money and an unwavering ally of K Street, John Boehner consistently supports the interests of big business over the public interest. Corporations and their lobbyists are largely responsible for financing his political operations, crafting his policy proposals, and lifting his political career and ambitions. Not only has John Boehner embraced Wall Street and K Street, but he also worked hard to shore up his support from the Religious Right and other conservative interest groups. As the next Speaker of the House, John Boehner will have even more power to advance the goals of Washington lobbyists and push his right-wing, pro-corporate agenda.
You may have noticed a new voice here at The Hankster — Editorial Assistant Charles Perez. Charly, a pre-law senior at John Jay College in NYC, has the day off today, so I’m filling in.
President Obama spoke eloquently for the country yesterday in Tucson while the punditocracy and polleratti continue to tell us what is and is not going on and why… Louisiana is waiting for the Justice Department to approve a return to open primaries… and Dr. Lenora Fulani says “You can’t learn without development”… And if you are in NYC, you might want to stop by Dr. Fulani’s interview with independentvoting.org
president Jackie Salit on Friday at 6:00pm at the Harlem State Office Building…
RSVP by calling 212.962.1699
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Interviews by a Black Independent
Friday January 14th – 6pm Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building 163 W. 125th Street, Second Floor |
And now for the news:
POLITICS
OPEN PRIMARIES
REDISTRICTING
EDUCATION REFORM
INDEPENDENT CULTURE/ EDUCATION
“The American people did not vote for gridlock. They didn’t vote for unyielding partisanship. They’re demanding cooperation and they’re demanding progress. And they’ll hold all of us — and I mean all of us — accountable for it.” (Barak Obama to Congressional leaders)
President Obama was quoted widely in the press this week “warning” Congressional leaders to come together “or else”…
David Axelrod told Judy Woodruff in an interview on Tuesday: “We have shared responsibilities now as a result of the election. It’s very, very important that there be open lines of communication. I’m not going to be Pollyannish about it. There are big differences. That’s why we have two parties. But it is important that, where we can find common ground, we do, especially on these fundamental issues like the economy and national security.“
The real question is how are the parties able to bully an American President who was elected by a coalition of independents, blacks, progressives and young people? Over 40% of Americans consider themselves independent but 99% of Congress belongs to either the Democratic or Republican parties — and they literally live by taking in each other’s wash. And, as historian Omar Ali likes to say, “Those Who Make the Rules, Rule“. That’s why independents are working on structural political reform — and growing like wild!
And now for the news:
INDEPENDENT VOTERS
OPEN PRIMARIES
BALLOT ACCESS
NEW YORK
EDUCATION REFORM
UPDATED 11.16.10 — This just in: Defendants for independent voters filed a post trial brief. Read here:
Post Trial Brief Kresky Allen Idaho Case 1-08-Cv-00165-BLW
The Idaho Partisan Problem
by Harry Kresky
As I flew back to New York from Boise last month, I thought about our history as independents and felt a deep appreciation of this moment. 147 years after the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln’s “government of the people, by the people, for the people” still needed defending.
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| Gettysburg, November 19, 1863 |
In July 2008 I joined with Idaho attorney Gary Allen to represent 11 Idaho independent voters, the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, Inc. (a/k/a independentvoting.org), and the American Independent Movement of Idaho seeking to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit brought by the Idaho Republican Party (“IRP”) to dismantle the State’s open primary system. Intervention was granted, and in October, 2010 the case went to trial. We are now awaiting a decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.
If the IRP wins the lawsuit, the 28 percent of the Idaho electorate who are independents, will be barred from participation in Idaho’s primary elections unless they registered into a political party which they do not wish to do. As the lawsuit progressed, it became apparent that more than the narrow issue of their participation in the first round of voting is at stake. At a time when Americans are deeply concerned with how partisanship is making it increasingly difficult to achieve consensus (or even constructive compromise) on the issues facing our country, plaintiffs assert that the U.S. Constitution (which makes no mention of political parties) not only protects the right of citizens to organize parties, but guarantees party organizations a dominant role in determining the electoral framework.
The issue before the Court is the people v. the parties. As independents, we believe that in a democracy the people determine the form of government and how those who govern are chosen. Apparently, not everyone agrees with this proposition. The expert witness retained by the IRP in support of its effort to close the primaries, a Professor at Duke University, had the following back and forth with me at his deposition:
Q. Right. Okay. But isn’t this whole thing about the voter? Isn’t that what democracy is?
A. No, sir.
Q. What is democracy?
A. Democracy is about having a strong, responsible, party system that offers a clearly articulated set of alternatives that educates voters and gives them the information they need to make informed choices. Voters on their own can’t make choices.
I can only hope that Gary and I made the people’s case.
Harry Kresky is an attorney based in NYC who represents CUIP (independentvoting.org). He blogs at Legal Briefs.
