Please pass on to all, fnally a clear understanding of the health care laws and what it means to you!!!
http://healthreform.kff.org/the-basics.aspx
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
It Isn't Easy to write this note or send out your thoughts, but we will prevail!
Dear Obama/Biden Supporters:
This is not an easy note for me to write. I have been all over the place with my thoughts on what we should have done differently and where we went wrong in this election. I started reading many of the things you and others wrote about the loss of the House and the mood of the country. I came across this quote from Mort Sahl that I liked a lot , "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen". What more can I say? My heart hurts and my mind is racing about how to fix what went wrong. The GOP/Tea Party not only hijacked the language they stole our spirit and drive and all the independents and young people who believed in our agenda from 08. Karl Rove did it again and we let him by not getting our message out and telling people what we had accomplished in the last two years. We should have been shouting about our preventing a global economic collapse and successfully restructuring two auto companies. Why weren't we talking about our President who raised fuel -efficiency standards, negotiated a nuclear arms treaty with Russia,inspired education reforms and reformed health care. Where were the ads that described these incredible accomplishments and made them clear to the public over and over again. Why didn't we see auto workers stand up and say, "Obama saved my job", one after another. Why weren't we shown that this is the America we are proud of and this is the Presidnet who is working to keep jobs for all of us here at home!
My CA sister Peggy called a few days ago to say she hated Obama's talk at the press conference. I was taken aback and then she explained. " He should have said this was a disappointing election because we were in the midst of accomplishing change and weren't given cooperation or time to finish, education reform,energy cap and trade, health care tweaking, controls on big banks spending and lending, but we were able to make huge inroads. I am disappointed that the GOP chose to say no to all initiatives and to put roadblocks up for all the changes from W's failed policies". I am paraphrasing but she was right. He let them make us look like we hadn't accomplished much when he has passed more legislation than anyone since FDR! Now what is wrong with this picture and how do we change it for 2012? The picture on the front page of the NY Times of Barack Obama, the cool collected President ,grimacing was so uncomfortable and sad to me. This is the man who grabbed a brief window of opportunity and passed a major health care bill. He knew in the long run it was good for the country and that it could be made better by tweaking and revising it. How desperately sad that so many conscientious caring Congresspeople who voted for Obama's bill paid the price for placing the good of the nation over the good of the party.
Several Tea Party people who were know nothing candidates with no experience and had never met payroll were swept in on the ignorance that seemed to prevail among voters. All they needed was lots of money and theatrics from Fox news "reporters" who have a disturbing inadequacy of the basic facts of American history and political development. The Tea Party's simplistic appeals to an imaginary past that has little or no relevance to the present seemed to make sense to the uneducated voter. It is also true that Republicans always follow the party line in lock step fashion. The demand for immediate gratification in the world we live in is scary and they ran with this and fears of the unknown future. It is much easier to call for change than look at what has been accomplished by a President given only two years to fix eight years of W's over spending(where were these people when he took us from a surplus to negative trillions).We saw Liberals disheartened as well as Independents and the moderate arm of the GOP. It was if Americans wanted to go backwards to "Mad Men" times. It is like they are thinking about Leave It To Beaver and that his was a real life and one to aspire to. Rove has set the agenda again and we have to regroup and be ready for him in 2012!
People want Obama to stop being the community organizer and start fighting back and getting our message out. It is true that he has reached across the aisle to seek to placate the right by sacrificing demands of the left electorate. However, it seems to me that it was worth his efforts when he won the few votes needed for the stimulus and health care bills. Time and time again of late he has been rebuffed by the party of NO! Now we need to tell the public every time we do something, pass legislation and if not passed ,why and what the loss means to people. We have to clearly define how bills will influence your life and make them better in specific terms. It seems those middle class voters in Ohio didn't think about the tax deductions put in place by the Obama administration and were more concerned that he hadn't proven he was an American Citizen. Why not put this to rest once and for all? Lets pay for ads to toot our own horn and stop the lies!!! My friend Sharon in MO feels that people are voting to be a part of the American dream, even those middle class workers that may never accomplish it. They still have hope that it will come to them if only they can pull themselves up by their boot straps. This may be why they don't feel badly that there is such a differential between rich and poor since one day that dream could be theirs! We haven't sold anything to middle America, and the GOP/Tea Party people are dangling a carrot; if you stick with them it is way to American dream and they bought it hook line and sinker bought it! Hatred brings more hatred and we should think of Alice( *** see CA Randy's youtube,oldest Holocaust survivor ) when we get down and out ! Alice has embraced a powerful wisdom: Suffering does not rob life of meaning. It can make life all the more beautiful and all the more rich. Maybe, before I complain about the injustices of the universe(or this election) I should remember others have it much worse. I should embrace the pain and let it teach me and make us all stronger and wiser!!!!
In closing I want to point out a little know fact I learned from the NY Times this week. John Adams,200 years ago, predicted the rise of the Tea Party!!! " We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will mot make us happy. G-d grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly,members will obtain an influence by noise not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls"...(Letter dated April 22,1776, while serving in first Continental Congress). Now why the hell don't we use this as an ad?
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
Please join me at both of these sites where you can make statements and they will reach many more people than in the past. In order to get to the blog please go to http://progressivegovernment.blogspot.com/ and read my updates and make comments
You can also find me on Facebook at "The Sunny Side - Political news for the Friends of Progressive Government" at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/The-Sunny-Side-Political-news-for-the-Friends-of-Progressive-Government/141511589209655.
(Before the election results)
From Jude Upper bucks county PA Organizer:
Hey Sunny--
Tell everybody to keep their heads up, don't get discouraged. The ground game here in PA is kicking butt. In Bucks County alone this weekend we knocked over 100,000 doors and made over 25000 calls to get out the vote.
From Nita in DC/White Plains:
Yes we can! Thank youxxx
From Susan in Rye:
Great sentiments in your blog today! We all need to think positive now.
From Hank in NYC:
This will be in the Times tomorrow – They are giving me a pass on the usual 60-day rule before another letter runs. “Special dispensation for Election Day!”
To the Editor:
“With Time Short, Parties Advance Last Argument” (front page, Nov. 1):
The Republicans will almost surely regain control of the House and make serious inroads in the Senate on Election Day, but when they wake up bleary-eyed on Wednesday morning they will be faced with the same impossible choices that President Obama and the Democrats have been trying to deal with for almost two years now — a high unemployment rate, an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, an education system crumbling as fast as the antiquated buildings our children attend school in and deficits of monumental proportions.
I’ve listened carefully to G.O.P. and Tea Party candidates tell the public what they will do if elected — cut taxes, reduce the deficit and cut spending — but little is said about how they will accomplish this.
It will be very interesting to see Representative John A. Boehner wield the gavel as speaker of the House, and Mitch McConnell pursue his “single most important thing” for the next two years: making Barack Obama a one-term president.
The real losers, no matter the outcome of the midterm elections, will be the American people.
From Fritzie in NYC:
Thanks Sunny! Absolutely I'll be voting! I've been nagging everyone, and even give staff time off to
go vote.
**********From Randy in CA: About Alice I referred to in above note!
I guess some people have hope regardless of what the situation is ... maybe we should all think positively despite the cruel outcome of this past week's election.
Please view and share this wonderful video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlccsLr48Mw
#2
#2(before election results)
I thought this week's Week in Review was one of the best ever! I read
the entire section and each article seemed better than the next. I
too was very impressed with Kristof's opinion.(see Judy's below)
***From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Click here: Give Obama a Break - NYTimes.com
After the Election Results:
From our Lilly Ledbetter in Alabama:
I am sooooo disappointed in the election results from Nov 2--2010!! I am ready to
get to work for 2012!!!!!!!!!! Hope you are well!!
#2
Wanted to share this with you---------------Lilly
Official Business of the Missouri Federation of Women's Democratic Clubs
To: All MFWDC members and Democratic Friends/Allies
(please pass this on to your local clubs, central committees, and candidates/officials)
Tonight, we saw something that many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. This overwhelming sweep of Republican takeover should be a wake up call for us to consider how we shall proceed to make things different in the next election. As president of the MFWDC, I know you all worked very hard to try to get our Democrats elected or reelected, and I want to thank you for all you contributed to this election. I know you gave 110%. I know you believed in our candidates. Well, frankly I am more determined than ever that we shall overcome this great defeat...our Public Education system depends on us, our community service workers depend on us, and even the little innocent puppies who are so abused, are dependent on us to get out the vote and make a difference in the next election.
It is important to for us to know that, although some fights were lost, we still held our ground. I know Missouri took a beating, from county to state to federal elections. But we are, after all, Democrats, who believe in the rights of the ones without a voice, who care about children and whether they get a quality education, and who continue to have the ethical senses that make us get up out of bed every day and go to work so we can feed our families. We must work together these next two years so that we can not only hold our ground, but that we gain back that which we have lost, so we can continue the great fight for what is good, honest, fair, and just for ALL people in this country, not just corporate interests and the rich.
So, my fellow Democrats, do not be in dismay. All is not lost. It is our responsibility to learn from this experience and to look deep within ourselves and to find the strength and the fortitude to plan our next steps, knowing full well in our hearts, that this is just the beginning of something better....because we CAN and WILL make it better. This is our opportunity!
Thank you to all our Democratic friends and volunteers who worked their tails off this election. Thanks to all of our candidates who ran great races and fought for what is good and just. And congratulations to those who won! I am committed to working with all of you over the next two years to do whatever it takes to put Democrats in office and continue to ensure that our government is truly working for the people.
May God richly bless us and be with us as we move through this time of mourning to the day we find peace amidst this small, two year glitch in the political landscape; remember we shall overcome. Let us make our pledge to one another this day to do every thing we can to get Democrats elected two years from now.
With warmest regards,
Charli Seitz, M.A. Ed.
MFWDC President
Kansas City, MO
#3
Election Results from CAWP: Republican Women Follow Winning Trend
Election results compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) for U.S. Senate and House and governors show that Republican women matched winning patterns of Republicans overall, and some notable firsts were achieved. Republican women's gains in the U.S. House were offset by Democratic women's losses; depending on races not yet decided, the number of women in the House could drop or remain level.
Read the complete press release here.
Headlines and anecdotes never tell the whole story!
That's why you turn to CAWP's Election Watch. Your gift of $25 or more will help CAWP collect and share accurate data on women candidates, officeholders and voters.
From Robin New Salem:
Hope you are feeling better!!! We missed you last night. Yippee for Kirsten, Chuck and Andrew. Sad re: John. How did Robin Carnahan do? I have many morning after thoughts to share but my biggest is the lesson learned after 08. There was so much grassroots energy and we let it slip away. When we needed it - it wasn't there. We have to stay united and keep going. 2012 will be here in a heartbeat and I already heard on the news last night that in addition for going after Barack they won't make this mistake again of putting up a bogus candidate to challenge Kirsten. I have been so bummed about what has happened to WLF - we've got to keep the fire going!!! Speak soon - feel better.
From Ohio Joe:
Better days are ahead……America is STUPID and you can’t fix STUPID. This too will pass !!!
PS once again Ohio goes from bad to WORSE!!!
#2
Val is correct, I am afraid the DEMS have been beat down with the economy, jobs that many have given up. I watched Mitch McConnell a few minutes and I made me sick…..he is scary at best – he was so full of aggression and hate…….beating Barack down verbally, how does this create growth…….SICK
The energy wasn’t there……I know there are far more DEMS in numbers than GOP, but due to the population that comprises the DEMS party, many do not find it important to vote until the presidential elections. I do not want to sound dramatic or “gay” but I am physically sick from this…….I thought Ohio was going to see light at the end of the tunnel…….LOL…….not Ohio.
It really makes me think “Does Hillary need to be the running mate in 2012 with Barack so we have a win” from Ohio it may make sense for this type of population. If I hear Tea Party again……….Tea Party = STUPID…….and STUPID voted in 2010, hence our results.
From Randy in Berkeley:
60 seats lost to the Republicans let alone some of the Senate seats
like Illinois! It is deplorable what happened yesterday. I hate to
say this but I hope the economy prevails and jobs aren't restored so
the Dems can gain back some of what was lost last night.
Wait till this idiots who voted for these idiots realize what is
happening. In watching CNN which has fabulous visuals, the entire
country is red except for a few areas so small one would almost need a
magnifying glass!
What is going to happen to this country? Soon, if things don't
change, this country will be intolerble.
From Carla NYC:
Do you have any encouraging words? This country seems to be influenced by the gun toting, religious, narrow minded majority, and New Yorkers seem to come from a different planet than the rest of the country. How sad!
From Val in Ohio:
I did some phone banking Monday night and got more callers threatening me with a vote for the opposition if they got one more call. There were too many calls and not enough 1-1 contact where you can actually make your case. OFA has to go if it's the same team they sent for this election. There was a big blow up between the OFA folks and the party folks on election day. I left the headquarters because the atmosphere was toxic. That's pretty much how it has been during this election cycle. The Dems did take Montgomery County in '08. That didn't happen this election. Time to regroup and come out fighting for 2012.
Heard from my sister that Mass. stayed blue. That brightened my day. Very unhappy about Sestak and Strickland.
From Kathy in MO:
You are echoing my sentiments exactly. We let the repubs get control of the message with their lies. They repeated them enough that they became the truth in people's minds. I think Obama didn't think it was necessary to toot his own horn because they were quietly going about the people's business and were so busy trying to solve dire problems. That is the high road. We can't go that route any more because the repubs always take the low road!
This is how bad it was in this bizarro world. Roy Blunt who is on tape saying Medicare should never have been started and that he intended to privatize Social Security, ran ads along with Karl Rove and the Chamber saying flat out that Robin Carnahan was cutting billions from Medicare. He has a record on Medicare and she does not, yet with their lies, they convinced senior citizens that she was taking their Medicare away! I had more elderly people tell me that in the last few weeks that they wanted to support Robin until they heard what she was going to do to Medicare.
You are right, we have to get the message out and it needs to be short and sweet. We have to control the message for the next two years. Once you let them get control and the lies are out, you cannot get them back.
#2
I think everyone is on the same page that we let the repub's multimillion dollar noise machine drown us out, distort facts, and get their lies entrenched well before the election so there was no reversing it. I think you are right we have to engage people for the next two years with ads, editorials, face to face, whatever to confront them with the facts. It is too late during the election season because there are zillions of ads and everyone starts tuning them out.
One of my lovely volunteers was brainstorming with me during the GOTV weekend. We were lamenting about the ignorant electorate and how they vote against their own best interests. We were concentrating on first time and sporadic voters and undecideds...probably low information folks. She asked why we don't try to keep in touch with them over the next two years instead of inundating them right before the election. Her suggestion was to give each activist several names of these kinds of voters and just touch base with them every few months to see what their concerns are. Not to preach to them but to ask them what their needs and worries are. Then as they air their concerns, we can give them the facts about what Obama has done or what the obstructionist Republicans are blocking. For example, if they say they are worried about loans, I can personally atest to the fact that the rethugs blocked for nearly a year legislation that would have enabled my family to get an SBA loan we desperately need. It is legislation that they helped write and voted against because they thought Obama wanted it.
I think this idea has merit, but I don't know how it would be coordinated. You wouldn't want to drive them crazy like we do in a campaign, but more just stay in touch to keep a dialog going.
I am glad people are engaged and ready to mobilize to go forward. I am determined but right now, I am just tired.
I am just sick, but I am in for 2012!
From Hank in NYC:
“Take The Gloves Off Mr. President” – November 5, 2010
The Republicans were swept into power in the House based upon their promises to reduce the debt, cut the deficit, and slash spending. The only quasi-concrete plans these Republicans have put forward are to extend or make permanent all the Bush era tax cuts, and to cut billions from “discretionary” spending. Extending all the Bush tax cuts would not only fail to reduce the deficit, but would do exactly the opposite. At a time when the middle class is struggling to keep its head above water, small businesses cannot get credit to expand and hire, and more Americans are slipping into poverty than ever before, it would be unconscionable to add even a single dollar to the deficit. Now let’s look at “discretionary” spending. What that term really means is all spending that does not involve defense or entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which account for about 75-80% of all spending in this country. Slashing $100 billion per year as Eric Cantor has claimed will be all but impossible, especially in a Congress that still is driven by creating earmarks for pet projects in their home districts.
It is time for President Obama to return to being the man I campaigned and voted for. The reason Democrats took such a “shellacking” last Tuesday is mainly because Mr. Obama has allowed himself to become walled into the protective fortress we call the White House, and has surrounded himself with people who keep him from using his greatest strength: connecting directly with the people. I urge the President to take immediate and direct action in the following three areas: End the war in Afghanistan and begin bringing the troops home this Christmas. We are spending $2 billion dollars a month, not to mention the lives and limbs of our bravest young men and women, to support a corrupt government, a country that is no closer to being able to defend itself from the Taliban and Al Qaeda than it was nine years ago, and whose only economic infrastructure is the opium trade. The money saved could be used to pay for health care reform and the development of alternative sources of clean energy, as well as enhanced benefits for all our soldiers who have fought so bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. Second, Mr. Obama needs to come out and say without equivocation, that he will veto any and all legislation that would extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, or reduce and/or attempt to repeal his signature health care reform act. Last, the President needs to rally his party in the Congress, and prepare them for what will surely be an all-out effort by the Republicans to reduce his presidency to an afterthought. Mr. Obama and the Democrats extended the olive branch to the opposition while they controlled both houses of Congress, only to have it thrown back in their faces. If it means becoming the “party of no” in the House, and using the filibuster again and again in the Senate, so be it.
Bi-partisanship is dead in Washington, and it is past time for Obama to realize it. I know that this President can be as tough as nails when he wants to be, but fear that he has been counseled far too often to keep trying to work with the opposition. Mitch McConnell’s now oft repeated single most important challenge for the next two years, to see that Obama is only a one-term President, and Mr. Boehner’s insistence on repeal of the health care reform act, should be all Mr. Obama needs to circle the wagons and prepare for the fight of his life, and the future of our country.
From Barbara in KS:
Subject: FW: Word trivia for word lovers
Did you know that the words "race car" spelled backwards still spells "race car"?
Did you know that "eat" is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense, "ate"?
And if you rearrange the letters in "so-called tea party Republicans," and add just a few more letters, it spells: "Shut up you freeloading, progress-blocking, benefit grabbing, resource-sucking, violent, hypocritical jerks, and face the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush."
Wow! How weird is that?
From Susan in Rye:
I know we're all pretty down about the Hall election and so many others, but we are forging ahead. I will probably be at Sunny's house for lunch next Friday and look forward to meeting you. Do you want to be put on the Westchester for Change elist? We also are on www.meetup.com/westchester-for-change and facebook. We are having a great event on Nov. 16th called "Better Food for Us All" and one of the panelists is woman who runs NY Coalition for Healthy School Food, Amie Hamlin.
Learn about:
The politics behind our food supply:
How current food policies affect our health
Effective grassroots efforts to improve access at all income levels to fresh, healthy, local food
Date: Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Time: 7:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Place: James Harmon Community Center
44 Main St, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
Featured Panelists:
Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of NY Coalition for Healthy School Food
Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network
Elisa Zazzera, Sustainable Hastings
Contacts: Joyce Tichy: joyce.tichy@gmail.com (914) 953-5807
From Andy T DNC/NY:
This is a tough and sometimes disheartening business. What does it say about the electorate, and the process, that in one state (Florida) all 17 major newspapers, from the most liberal to the most conservative, could have endorsed the Democrat -- unanimously -- and yet, so very narrowly, the voters made a different choice?
I feel terrible for our country that we’ve again lurched in the wrong direction, as we did so dramatically in 2000. But I don’t feel bad for trying.
And I feel ENORMOUSLY grateful for the help you gave.
At least on the human-scale, transparent political money, subject to legal limits, the “enthusiasm gap” went all our way. With your help, the DNC far outraised the RNC, and nearly doubled our 2006 midterm fundraising results. As a result, OFA was funded to make tens of millions of personal phone calls and door knocks to get out the vote, which did do the trick for us in a number of key races. Hats off to Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet, for example, and to its great new governor, John Hickenlooper. Hats off to California. Hats off to New York. And more.
As bad as it was, it would have been a lot worse without your help.
There is so much to say, but I want to leave it at this: onward and upward . . . and THANK you.
From Fran in Larchmont:
Dear Pro-Choice Friends in Larchmont and Mamaroneck!
In "Women: The New Green Leaders" Vicky Markham, Director of the Center for Environment and Population, propounds that the issues of women's empowerment and environmental preservation are so irrevocably linked that 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai is now only one of a burgeoning phalanx of forward-thinking women worldwide building coalitions to save the Earth.
Future Choices is brought to your home either on Channel 75 (Cablevision) or Channel 36 (Verizon). The show airs Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm with repeats 3 am, 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm the following day. See full schedule:http://www.lmc-tv.org/?q=node/52
N.B. Future Choices shows can usually be viewed anytime online as well — see hotlink at http://futurechoices.net/ .
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
This came from one of my Gilda's Singers.. but it is a nice glimpse into our new lieutenant-governor elect! He sounds like a real mensch!
won on Tuesday--having run with Cuomo on the Democratic ticket.
from an e-mail from Muriel....
...One more note--my next-door neighbor is lieutenant-governor elect!! Bill and I went to vote Tuesday morning and we were next in line behind Bob, his wife and younger daughter. The media were all there--it was a zoo. Bob was happy to see us, shook Bill's hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I hoped that would not be considered electioneering!! I think New York State is lucky to have him in office. He is truly interested in others and making the world a better place. When Bill was sick last winter, Bob cleaned our walk and even shoveled off our front steps. On a day with really bad roads he drove me to the hospital to bring Bill home, had us stay in his warm car in his driveway while he cleaned off our walk, got Bill into the house, then went to CVS and had a prescription filled for Bill. Someone with a lot of ego does not do things like that. His wife was interviewed by the local tv station and said they intend to keep their house in Rochester. So, he will be here at least some of the time. (We will have to clear the snow from our walks ourselves, however!)
From John in CT:
Maybe we should send this to Supreme Court idiots who equate free
speech with money and have put the last nail in the coffin.
Honey, I tell you, you can never go wrong underestimating the American
people. I hope you are not beating yourself up over the election.
You do more than your fair share. The American people deserve the
government they get because they are too stupid and too lazy to get
off their asses and vote.
George Carlin on "The American Dream"
Perfect for today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
...More Americans care about Jersey Shore, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, etc. It is UNCOOL in American to pay any attention to politics or history or our socio-political climate. Just buy a cell phone that you can barely afford to pay the bill on, and get an iPod with more gigs, and EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.......
From Peggy in CA:
This is fabulous!!!
"Dear Red States..." A Letter From The Blue!
Dear Red States...
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially
to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot
Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their
children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say
that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved
in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people
with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
From Val in Ohio:
http://www.ellicottvillenews.com/index.php/2010/06/3808/
There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm. Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.
Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.
Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.
Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea...(Read rest on line http://www.ellicottvillenews.com/index.php/2010/06/3808/)
From Kathy in KCMO:
This is an article I sent to Marisa to read when we were feeling crappy about the outcome of the election. It made me feel better. He articulated what I was thinking. Maybe it will make you feel better too.
Read this article from one of the writers at Daily Kos. It is a good summary and makes me feel better. He said what I was thinking. I especially like the last paragraphs about the tea partiers shitting their costume pantaloons! Good stuff. I feel better today!
Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday
The Morning After
First and foremost, we must congratulate some of the Democratic winners, names both old and new: Patrick Leahy and Chris Coons. Chuck Schumer and Dick Blumenthal. Kirsten Gillibrand and Barbara Mikulski. Jim Gray, the new and openly-gay mayor of Lexington Kentucky, Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire, the gay-marriage-into-law-signer who won reelection, and good ol' Barney Frank. Andrew Cuomo defeated the porn-forwarding homophobe with anger issues (I forget his name already) in New York's governor race, and Deval Patrick coasted to his guv win in Massachusetts. I love seeing Lincoln Chafee back in the political saddle as the governor of Rhode Island, and John Hickenlooper in the Colorado statehouse. Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer--woo hoo! And Maine's two Democratic congressmembers, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud went through their challengers like a spoon through a jar of delicious Maine blueberry jam, now on sale at fine supermarkets across America. (Buy some today!)
The Republican Nazi re-enactor in Ohio is crying in his strudel this morning after he literally met his political "D"-Day. (Und vee say Heil! [Thpptt!] Heil! [Thpptt!] Right in Herr Iott's face!) And there will be no stationery printed with the words: "From the Desk of Senator Sharron Angle" on it.
Plus---minor little thing here---we still hold the Senate, which is where destructive Republican bills from the House will go to die. (But, damn, losing Feingold is just crazy.)
And now we'll overturn the stone to see what's underneath and...oh god, that's ugly. The good news is, we didn’t lose 435 seats last night. The bad news is, we seem to have lost 434.
Let's keep this in perspective. This is not a seismic shift to the Republican agenda. This was a protest vote---a message to Democrats that said, "We don’t think you delivered our ponies fast enough, so we're going to make you feel our pain the only way we know how: by reminding you that there's another team out there."
But this does not mean Americans are in love with Republicans, or even that they like them...they don't. Democrats are still more popular than Republicans. Democratic policies are still more popular than Republican policies when we explain them...it's just that the average American doesn’t have the time or inclination to be explained to. So on we search for ways to slap our brand on a bumper sticker. ("We're less worse than Republicans" didn’t cut it this time.)And a special message for the "loose confederation" of "non-affiliated" tea party types:
When you see Republican leaders in the House fucking up and doing the very things you crapped your costume pantaloons over---and they will---you must stay true to your "party-neutral" mission and declare war on them the same way you declared war on those nasty Democrats. Because don't forget: by your own admission you're not Republican...or Democrat...or anything "organized." You say so yourself every five minutes. So when Republicans start pumping out juicy slabs of pork to their districts willy nilly, and add to the deficit, and raise the debt ceiling, and ignore your agenda and, yes, when THEY START TREADING ON YOU...you must hold rallies against them and call them what you called Democrats: tyrants and traitors and Hitlers and Maos and Stalins who want to drop-kick your grandma onto an ice floe (if you can find one these days).And if you don't judge the New Improved House by the same standards you judged the Old Tyrannical House, then you wallowers-in-hypocrisy will have two options: either drop the charade and start calling yourselves plain old (and getting older by the day) lockstep Republicans again...or shut the hell up.
As for you, John Boehner: jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs. If you and your corporate buddies don’t produce jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs by 2012, it's gonna be one helluva short honeymoon. And we'll remember that you told your right-wing fringe last night that "I'll never let you down."As Lawrence O'Donnell responded, in the understatement of the evening: "Oh...yes...you...will."
This is not an easy note for me to write. I have been all over the place with my thoughts on what we should have done differently and where we went wrong in this election. I started reading many of the things you and others wrote about the loss of the House and the mood of the country. I came across this quote from Mort Sahl that I liked a lot , "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen". What more can I say? My heart hurts and my mind is racing about how to fix what went wrong. The GOP/Tea Party not only hijacked the language they stole our spirit and drive and all the independents and young people who believed in our agenda from 08. Karl Rove did it again and we let him by not getting our message out and telling people what we had accomplished in the last two years. We should have been shouting about our preventing a global economic collapse and successfully restructuring two auto companies. Why weren't we talking about our President who raised fuel -efficiency standards, negotiated a nuclear arms treaty with Russia,inspired education reforms and reformed health care. Where were the ads that described these incredible accomplishments and made them clear to the public over and over again. Why didn't we see auto workers stand up and say, "Obama saved my job", one after another. Why weren't we shown that this is the America we are proud of and this is the Presidnet who is working to keep jobs for all of us here at home!
My CA sister Peggy called a few days ago to say she hated Obama's talk at the press conference. I was taken aback and then she explained. " He should have said this was a disappointing election because we were in the midst of accomplishing change and weren't given cooperation or time to finish, education reform,energy cap and trade, health care tweaking, controls on big banks spending and lending, but we were able to make huge inroads. I am disappointed that the GOP chose to say no to all initiatives and to put roadblocks up for all the changes from W's failed policies". I am paraphrasing but she was right. He let them make us look like we hadn't accomplished much when he has passed more legislation than anyone since FDR! Now what is wrong with this picture and how do we change it for 2012? The picture on the front page of the NY Times of Barack Obama, the cool collected President ,grimacing was so uncomfortable and sad to me. This is the man who grabbed a brief window of opportunity and passed a major health care bill. He knew in the long run it was good for the country and that it could be made better by tweaking and revising it. How desperately sad that so many conscientious caring Congresspeople who voted for Obama's bill paid the price for placing the good of the nation over the good of the party.
Several Tea Party people who were know nothing candidates with no experience and had never met payroll were swept in on the ignorance that seemed to prevail among voters. All they needed was lots of money and theatrics from Fox news "reporters" who have a disturbing inadequacy of the basic facts of American history and political development. The Tea Party's simplistic appeals to an imaginary past that has little or no relevance to the present seemed to make sense to the uneducated voter. It is also true that Republicans always follow the party line in lock step fashion. The demand for immediate gratification in the world we live in is scary and they ran with this and fears of the unknown future. It is much easier to call for change than look at what has been accomplished by a President given only two years to fix eight years of W's over spending(where were these people when he took us from a surplus to negative trillions).We saw Liberals disheartened as well as Independents and the moderate arm of the GOP. It was if Americans wanted to go backwards to "Mad Men" times. It is like they are thinking about Leave It To Beaver and that his was a real life and one to aspire to. Rove has set the agenda again and we have to regroup and be ready for him in 2012!
People want Obama to stop being the community organizer and start fighting back and getting our message out. It is true that he has reached across the aisle to seek to placate the right by sacrificing demands of the left electorate. However, it seems to me that it was worth his efforts when he won the few votes needed for the stimulus and health care bills. Time and time again of late he has been rebuffed by the party of NO! Now we need to tell the public every time we do something, pass legislation and if not passed ,why and what the loss means to people. We have to clearly define how bills will influence your life and make them better in specific terms. It seems those middle class voters in Ohio didn't think about the tax deductions put in place by the Obama administration and were more concerned that he hadn't proven he was an American Citizen. Why not put this to rest once and for all? Lets pay for ads to toot our own horn and stop the lies!!! My friend Sharon in MO feels that people are voting to be a part of the American dream, even those middle class workers that may never accomplish it. They still have hope that it will come to them if only they can pull themselves up by their boot straps. This may be why they don't feel badly that there is such a differential between rich and poor since one day that dream could be theirs! We haven't sold anything to middle America, and the GOP/Tea Party people are dangling a carrot; if you stick with them it is way to American dream and they bought it hook line and sinker bought it! Hatred brings more hatred and we should think of Alice( *** see CA Randy's youtube,oldest Holocaust survivor ) when we get down and out ! Alice has embraced a powerful wisdom: Suffering does not rob life of meaning. It can make life all the more beautiful and all the more rich. Maybe, before I complain about the injustices of the universe(or this election) I should remember others have it much worse. I should embrace the pain and let it teach me and make us all stronger and wiser!!!!
In closing I want to point out a little know fact I learned from the NY Times this week. John Adams,200 years ago, predicted the rise of the Tea Party!!! " We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will mot make us happy. G-d grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly,members will obtain an influence by noise not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls"...(Letter dated April 22,1776, while serving in first Continental Congress). Now why the hell don't we use this as an ad?
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
Please join me at both of these sites where you can make statements and they will reach many more people than in the past. In order to get to the blog please go to http://progressivegovernment.blogspot.com/ and read my updates and make comments
You can also find me on Facebook at "The Sunny Side - Political news for the Friends of Progressive Government" at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/The-Sunny-Side-Political-news-for-the-Friends-of-Progressive-Government/141511589209655.
(Before the election results)
From Jude Upper bucks county PA Organizer:
Hey Sunny--
Tell everybody to keep their heads up, don't get discouraged. The ground game here in PA is kicking butt. In Bucks County alone this weekend we knocked over 100,000 doors and made over 25000 calls to get out the vote.
From Nita in DC/White Plains:
Yes we can! Thank youxxx
From Susan in Rye:
Great sentiments in your blog today! We all need to think positive now.
From Hank in NYC:
This will be in the Times tomorrow – They are giving me a pass on the usual 60-day rule before another letter runs. “Special dispensation for Election Day!”
To the Editor:
“With Time Short, Parties Advance Last Argument” (front page, Nov. 1):
The Republicans will almost surely regain control of the House and make serious inroads in the Senate on Election Day, but when they wake up bleary-eyed on Wednesday morning they will be faced with the same impossible choices that President Obama and the Democrats have been trying to deal with for almost two years now — a high unemployment rate, an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, an education system crumbling as fast as the antiquated buildings our children attend school in and deficits of monumental proportions.
I’ve listened carefully to G.O.P. and Tea Party candidates tell the public what they will do if elected — cut taxes, reduce the deficit and cut spending — but little is said about how they will accomplish this.
It will be very interesting to see Representative John A. Boehner wield the gavel as speaker of the House, and Mitch McConnell pursue his “single most important thing” for the next two years: making Barack Obama a one-term president.
The real losers, no matter the outcome of the midterm elections, will be the American people.
From Fritzie in NYC:
Thanks Sunny! Absolutely I'll be voting! I've been nagging everyone, and even give staff time off to
go vote.
**********From Randy in CA: About Alice I referred to in above note!
I guess some people have hope regardless of what the situation is ... maybe we should all think positively despite the cruel outcome of this past week's election.
Please view and share this wonderful video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlccsLr48Mw
#2
#2(before election results)
I thought this week's Week in Review was one of the best ever! I read
the entire section and each article seemed better than the next. I
too was very impressed with Kristof's opinion.(see Judy's below)
***From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Click here: Give Obama a Break - NYTimes.com
After the Election Results:
From our Lilly Ledbetter in Alabama:
I am sooooo disappointed in the election results from Nov 2--2010!! I am ready to
get to work for 2012!!!!!!!!!! Hope you are well!!
#2
Wanted to share this with you---------------Lilly
Official Business of the Missouri Federation of Women's Democratic Clubs
To: All MFWDC members and Democratic Friends/Allies
(please pass this on to your local clubs, central committees, and candidates/officials)
Tonight, we saw something that many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. This overwhelming sweep of Republican takeover should be a wake up call for us to consider how we shall proceed to make things different in the next election. As president of the MFWDC, I know you all worked very hard to try to get our Democrats elected or reelected, and I want to thank you for all you contributed to this election. I know you gave 110%. I know you believed in our candidates. Well, frankly I am more determined than ever that we shall overcome this great defeat...our Public Education system depends on us, our community service workers depend on us, and even the little innocent puppies who are so abused, are dependent on us to get out the vote and make a difference in the next election.
It is important to for us to know that, although some fights were lost, we still held our ground. I know Missouri took a beating, from county to state to federal elections. But we are, after all, Democrats, who believe in the rights of the ones without a voice, who care about children and whether they get a quality education, and who continue to have the ethical senses that make us get up out of bed every day and go to work so we can feed our families. We must work together these next two years so that we can not only hold our ground, but that we gain back that which we have lost, so we can continue the great fight for what is good, honest, fair, and just for ALL people in this country, not just corporate interests and the rich.
So, my fellow Democrats, do not be in dismay. All is not lost. It is our responsibility to learn from this experience and to look deep within ourselves and to find the strength and the fortitude to plan our next steps, knowing full well in our hearts, that this is just the beginning of something better....because we CAN and WILL make it better. This is our opportunity!
Thank you to all our Democratic friends and volunteers who worked their tails off this election. Thanks to all of our candidates who ran great races and fought for what is good and just. And congratulations to those who won! I am committed to working with all of you over the next two years to do whatever it takes to put Democrats in office and continue to ensure that our government is truly working for the people.
May God richly bless us and be with us as we move through this time of mourning to the day we find peace amidst this small, two year glitch in the political landscape; remember we shall overcome. Let us make our pledge to one another this day to do every thing we can to get Democrats elected two years from now.
With warmest regards,
Charli Seitz, M.A. Ed.
MFWDC President
Kansas City, MO
#3
Election Results from CAWP: Republican Women Follow Winning Trend
Election results compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) for U.S. Senate and House and governors show that Republican women matched winning patterns of Republicans overall, and some notable firsts were achieved. Republican women's gains in the U.S. House were offset by Democratic women's losses; depending on races not yet decided, the number of women in the House could drop or remain level.
Read the complete press release here.
Headlines and anecdotes never tell the whole story!
That's why you turn to CAWP's Election Watch. Your gift of $25 or more will help CAWP collect and share accurate data on women candidates, officeholders and voters.
From Robin New Salem:
Hope you are feeling better!!! We missed you last night. Yippee for Kirsten, Chuck and Andrew. Sad re: John. How did Robin Carnahan do? I have many morning after thoughts to share but my biggest is the lesson learned after 08. There was so much grassroots energy and we let it slip away. When we needed it - it wasn't there. We have to stay united and keep going. 2012 will be here in a heartbeat and I already heard on the news last night that in addition for going after Barack they won't make this mistake again of putting up a bogus candidate to challenge Kirsten. I have been so bummed about what has happened to WLF - we've got to keep the fire going!!! Speak soon - feel better.
From Ohio Joe:
Better days are ahead……America is STUPID and you can’t fix STUPID. This too will pass !!!
PS once again Ohio goes from bad to WORSE!!!
#2
Val is correct, I am afraid the DEMS have been beat down with the economy, jobs that many have given up. I watched Mitch McConnell a few minutes and I made me sick…..he is scary at best – he was so full of aggression and hate…….beating Barack down verbally, how does this create growth…….SICK
The energy wasn’t there……I know there are far more DEMS in numbers than GOP, but due to the population that comprises the DEMS party, many do not find it important to vote until the presidential elections. I do not want to sound dramatic or “gay” but I am physically sick from this…….I thought Ohio was going to see light at the end of the tunnel…….LOL…….not Ohio.
It really makes me think “Does Hillary need to be the running mate in 2012 with Barack so we have a win” from Ohio it may make sense for this type of population. If I hear Tea Party again……….Tea Party = STUPID…….and STUPID voted in 2010, hence our results.
From Randy in Berkeley:
60 seats lost to the Republicans let alone some of the Senate seats
like Illinois! It is deplorable what happened yesterday. I hate to
say this but I hope the economy prevails and jobs aren't restored so
the Dems can gain back some of what was lost last night.
Wait till this idiots who voted for these idiots realize what is
happening. In watching CNN which has fabulous visuals, the entire
country is red except for a few areas so small one would almost need a
magnifying glass!
What is going to happen to this country? Soon, if things don't
change, this country will be intolerble.
From Carla NYC:
Do you have any encouraging words? This country seems to be influenced by the gun toting, religious, narrow minded majority, and New Yorkers seem to come from a different planet than the rest of the country. How sad!
From Val in Ohio:
I did some phone banking Monday night and got more callers threatening me with a vote for the opposition if they got one more call. There were too many calls and not enough 1-1 contact where you can actually make your case. OFA has to go if it's the same team they sent for this election. There was a big blow up between the OFA folks and the party folks on election day. I left the headquarters because the atmosphere was toxic. That's pretty much how it has been during this election cycle. The Dems did take Montgomery County in '08. That didn't happen this election. Time to regroup and come out fighting for 2012.
Heard from my sister that Mass. stayed blue. That brightened my day. Very unhappy about Sestak and Strickland.
From Kathy in MO:
You are echoing my sentiments exactly. We let the repubs get control of the message with their lies. They repeated them enough that they became the truth in people's minds. I think Obama didn't think it was necessary to toot his own horn because they were quietly going about the people's business and were so busy trying to solve dire problems. That is the high road. We can't go that route any more because the repubs always take the low road!
This is how bad it was in this bizarro world. Roy Blunt who is on tape saying Medicare should never have been started and that he intended to privatize Social Security, ran ads along with Karl Rove and the Chamber saying flat out that Robin Carnahan was cutting billions from Medicare. He has a record on Medicare and she does not, yet with their lies, they convinced senior citizens that she was taking their Medicare away! I had more elderly people tell me that in the last few weeks that they wanted to support Robin until they heard what she was going to do to Medicare.
You are right, we have to get the message out and it needs to be short and sweet. We have to control the message for the next two years. Once you let them get control and the lies are out, you cannot get them back.
#2
I think everyone is on the same page that we let the repub's multimillion dollar noise machine drown us out, distort facts, and get their lies entrenched well before the election so there was no reversing it. I think you are right we have to engage people for the next two years with ads, editorials, face to face, whatever to confront them with the facts. It is too late during the election season because there are zillions of ads and everyone starts tuning them out.
One of my lovely volunteers was brainstorming with me during the GOTV weekend. We were lamenting about the ignorant electorate and how they vote against their own best interests. We were concentrating on first time and sporadic voters and undecideds...probably low information folks. She asked why we don't try to keep in touch with them over the next two years instead of inundating them right before the election. Her suggestion was to give each activist several names of these kinds of voters and just touch base with them every few months to see what their concerns are. Not to preach to them but to ask them what their needs and worries are. Then as they air their concerns, we can give them the facts about what Obama has done or what the obstructionist Republicans are blocking. For example, if they say they are worried about loans, I can personally atest to the fact that the rethugs blocked for nearly a year legislation that would have enabled my family to get an SBA loan we desperately need. It is legislation that they helped write and voted against because they thought Obama wanted it.
I think this idea has merit, but I don't know how it would be coordinated. You wouldn't want to drive them crazy like we do in a campaign, but more just stay in touch to keep a dialog going.
I am glad people are engaged and ready to mobilize to go forward. I am determined but right now, I am just tired.
I am just sick, but I am in for 2012!
From Hank in NYC:
“Take The Gloves Off Mr. President” – November 5, 2010
The Republicans were swept into power in the House based upon their promises to reduce the debt, cut the deficit, and slash spending. The only quasi-concrete plans these Republicans have put forward are to extend or make permanent all the Bush era tax cuts, and to cut billions from “discretionary” spending. Extending all the Bush tax cuts would not only fail to reduce the deficit, but would do exactly the opposite. At a time when the middle class is struggling to keep its head above water, small businesses cannot get credit to expand and hire, and more Americans are slipping into poverty than ever before, it would be unconscionable to add even a single dollar to the deficit. Now let’s look at “discretionary” spending. What that term really means is all spending that does not involve defense or entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which account for about 75-80% of all spending in this country. Slashing $100 billion per year as Eric Cantor has claimed will be all but impossible, especially in a Congress that still is driven by creating earmarks for pet projects in their home districts.
It is time for President Obama to return to being the man I campaigned and voted for. The reason Democrats took such a “shellacking” last Tuesday is mainly because Mr. Obama has allowed himself to become walled into the protective fortress we call the White House, and has surrounded himself with people who keep him from using his greatest strength: connecting directly with the people. I urge the President to take immediate and direct action in the following three areas: End the war in Afghanistan and begin bringing the troops home this Christmas. We are spending $2 billion dollars a month, not to mention the lives and limbs of our bravest young men and women, to support a corrupt government, a country that is no closer to being able to defend itself from the Taliban and Al Qaeda than it was nine years ago, and whose only economic infrastructure is the opium trade. The money saved could be used to pay for health care reform and the development of alternative sources of clean energy, as well as enhanced benefits for all our soldiers who have fought so bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. Second, Mr. Obama needs to come out and say without equivocation, that he will veto any and all legislation that would extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, or reduce and/or attempt to repeal his signature health care reform act. Last, the President needs to rally his party in the Congress, and prepare them for what will surely be an all-out effort by the Republicans to reduce his presidency to an afterthought. Mr. Obama and the Democrats extended the olive branch to the opposition while they controlled both houses of Congress, only to have it thrown back in their faces. If it means becoming the “party of no” in the House, and using the filibuster again and again in the Senate, so be it.
Bi-partisanship is dead in Washington, and it is past time for Obama to realize it. I know that this President can be as tough as nails when he wants to be, but fear that he has been counseled far too often to keep trying to work with the opposition. Mitch McConnell’s now oft repeated single most important challenge for the next two years, to see that Obama is only a one-term President, and Mr. Boehner’s insistence on repeal of the health care reform act, should be all Mr. Obama needs to circle the wagons and prepare for the fight of his life, and the future of our country.
From Barbara in KS:
Subject: FW: Word trivia for word lovers
Did you know that the words "race car" spelled backwards still spells "race car"?
Did you know that "eat" is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense, "ate"?
And if you rearrange the letters in "so-called tea party Republicans," and add just a few more letters, it spells: "Shut up you freeloading, progress-blocking, benefit grabbing, resource-sucking, violent, hypocritical jerks, and face the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush."
Wow! How weird is that?
From Susan in Rye:
I know we're all pretty down about the Hall election and so many others, but we are forging ahead. I will probably be at Sunny's house for lunch next Friday and look forward to meeting you. Do you want to be put on the Westchester for Change elist? We also are on www.meetup.com/westchester-for-change and facebook. We are having a great event on Nov. 16th called "Better Food for Us All" and one of the panelists is woman who runs NY Coalition for Healthy School Food, Amie Hamlin.
Learn about:
The politics behind our food supply:
How current food policies affect our health
Effective grassroots efforts to improve access at all income levels to fresh, healthy, local food
Date: Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Time: 7:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Place: James Harmon Community Center
44 Main St, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
Featured Panelists:
Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of NY Coalition for Healthy School Food
Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network
Elisa Zazzera, Sustainable Hastings
Contacts: Joyce Tichy: joyce.tichy@gmail.com (914) 953-5807
From Andy T DNC/NY:
This is a tough and sometimes disheartening business. What does it say about the electorate, and the process, that in one state (Florida) all 17 major newspapers, from the most liberal to the most conservative, could have endorsed the Democrat -- unanimously -- and yet, so very narrowly, the voters made a different choice?
I feel terrible for our country that we’ve again lurched in the wrong direction, as we did so dramatically in 2000. But I don’t feel bad for trying.
And I feel ENORMOUSLY grateful for the help you gave.
At least on the human-scale, transparent political money, subject to legal limits, the “enthusiasm gap” went all our way. With your help, the DNC far outraised the RNC, and nearly doubled our 2006 midterm fundraising results. As a result, OFA was funded to make tens of millions of personal phone calls and door knocks to get out the vote, which did do the trick for us in a number of key races. Hats off to Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet, for example, and to its great new governor, John Hickenlooper. Hats off to California. Hats off to New York. And more.
As bad as it was, it would have been a lot worse without your help.
There is so much to say, but I want to leave it at this: onward and upward . . . and THANK you.
From Fran in Larchmont:
Dear Pro-Choice Friends in Larchmont and Mamaroneck!
In "Women: The New Green Leaders" Vicky Markham, Director of the Center for Environment and Population, propounds that the issues of women's empowerment and environmental preservation are so irrevocably linked that 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai is now only one of a burgeoning phalanx of forward-thinking women worldwide building coalitions to save the Earth.
Future Choices is brought to your home either on Channel 75 (Cablevision) or Channel 36 (Verizon). The show airs Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm with repeats 3 am, 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm the following day. See full schedule:http://www.lmc-tv.org/?q=node/52
N.B. Future Choices shows can usually be viewed anytime online as well — see hotlink at http://futurechoices.net/ .
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
This came from one of my Gilda's Singers.. but it is a nice glimpse into our new lieutenant-governor elect! He sounds like a real mensch!
won on Tuesday--having run with Cuomo on the Democratic ticket.
from an e-mail from Muriel....
...One more note--my next-door neighbor is lieutenant-governor elect!! Bill and I went to vote Tuesday morning and we were next in line behind Bob, his wife and younger daughter. The media were all there--it was a zoo. Bob was happy to see us, shook Bill's hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I hoped that would not be considered electioneering!! I think New York State is lucky to have him in office. He is truly interested in others and making the world a better place. When Bill was sick last winter, Bob cleaned our walk and even shoveled off our front steps. On a day with really bad roads he drove me to the hospital to bring Bill home, had us stay in his warm car in his driveway while he cleaned off our walk, got Bill into the house, then went to CVS and had a prescription filled for Bill. Someone with a lot of ego does not do things like that. His wife was interviewed by the local tv station and said they intend to keep their house in Rochester. So, he will be here at least some of the time. (We will have to clear the snow from our walks ourselves, however!)
From John in CT:
Maybe we should send this to Supreme Court idiots who equate free
speech with money and have put the last nail in the coffin.
Honey, I tell you, you can never go wrong underestimating the American
people. I hope you are not beating yourself up over the election.
You do more than your fair share. The American people deserve the
government they get because they are too stupid and too lazy to get
off their asses and vote.
George Carlin on "The American Dream"
Perfect for today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
...More Americans care about Jersey Shore, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, etc. It is UNCOOL in American to pay any attention to politics or history or our socio-political climate. Just buy a cell phone that you can barely afford to pay the bill on, and get an iPod with more gigs, and EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.......
From Peggy in CA:
This is fabulous!!!
"Dear Red States..." A Letter From The Blue!
Dear Red States...
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially
to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot
Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their
children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say
that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved
in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people
with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
From Val in Ohio:
http://www.ellicottvillenews.com/index.php/2010/06/3808/
There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm. Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.
Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.
Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.
Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea...(Read rest on line http://www.ellicottvillenews.com/index.php/2010/06/3808/)
From Kathy in KCMO:
This is an article I sent to Marisa to read when we were feeling crappy about the outcome of the election. It made me feel better. He articulated what I was thinking. Maybe it will make you feel better too.
Read this article from one of the writers at Daily Kos. It is a good summary and makes me feel better. He said what I was thinking. I especially like the last paragraphs about the tea partiers shitting their costume pantaloons! Good stuff. I feel better today!
Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday
The Morning After
First and foremost, we must congratulate some of the Democratic winners, names both old and new: Patrick Leahy and Chris Coons. Chuck Schumer and Dick Blumenthal. Kirsten Gillibrand and Barbara Mikulski. Jim Gray, the new and openly-gay mayor of Lexington Kentucky, Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire, the gay-marriage-into-law-signer who won reelection, and good ol' Barney Frank. Andrew Cuomo defeated the porn-forwarding homophobe with anger issues (I forget his name already) in New York's governor race, and Deval Patrick coasted to his guv win in Massachusetts. I love seeing Lincoln Chafee back in the political saddle as the governor of Rhode Island, and John Hickenlooper in the Colorado statehouse. Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer--woo hoo! And Maine's two Democratic congressmembers, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud went through their challengers like a spoon through a jar of delicious Maine blueberry jam, now on sale at fine supermarkets across America. (Buy some today!)
The Republican Nazi re-enactor in Ohio is crying in his strudel this morning after he literally met his political "D"-Day. (Und vee say Heil! [Thpptt!] Heil! [Thpptt!] Right in Herr Iott's face!) And there will be no stationery printed with the words: "From the Desk of Senator Sharron Angle" on it.
Plus---minor little thing here---we still hold the Senate, which is where destructive Republican bills from the House will go to die. (But, damn, losing Feingold is just crazy.)
And now we'll overturn the stone to see what's underneath and...oh god, that's ugly. The good news is, we didn’t lose 435 seats last night. The bad news is, we seem to have lost 434.
Let's keep this in perspective. This is not a seismic shift to the Republican agenda. This was a protest vote---a message to Democrats that said, "We don’t think you delivered our ponies fast enough, so we're going to make you feel our pain the only way we know how: by reminding you that there's another team out there."
But this does not mean Americans are in love with Republicans, or even that they like them...they don't. Democrats are still more popular than Republicans. Democratic policies are still more popular than Republican policies when we explain them...it's just that the average American doesn’t have the time or inclination to be explained to. So on we search for ways to slap our brand on a bumper sticker. ("We're less worse than Republicans" didn’t cut it this time.)And a special message for the "loose confederation" of "non-affiliated" tea party types:
When you see Republican leaders in the House fucking up and doing the very things you crapped your costume pantaloons over---and they will---you must stay true to your "party-neutral" mission and declare war on them the same way you declared war on those nasty Democrats. Because don't forget: by your own admission you're not Republican...or Democrat...or anything "organized." You say so yourself every five minutes. So when Republicans start pumping out juicy slabs of pork to their districts willy nilly, and add to the deficit, and raise the debt ceiling, and ignore your agenda and, yes, when THEY START TREADING ON YOU...you must hold rallies against them and call them what you called Democrats: tyrants and traitors and Hitlers and Maos and Stalins who want to drop-kick your grandma onto an ice floe (if you can find one these days).And if you don't judge the New Improved House by the same standards you judged the Old Tyrannical House, then you wallowers-in-hypocrisy will have two options: either drop the charade and start calling yourselves plain old (and getting older by the day) lockstep Republicans again...or shut the hell up.
As for you, John Boehner: jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs. If you and your corporate buddies don’t produce jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs by 2012, it's gonna be one helluva short honeymoon. And we'll remember that you told your right-wing fringe last night that "I'll never let you down."As Lawrence O'Donnell responded, in the understatement of the evening: "Oh...yes...you...will."
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Don't let them twist our words,facts,issues-fire up and get the truth out!
Dear Obama/Biden Supporters:
Did you ever realize the potency of words and how they can be twisted to support one's viewpoint before this election? The Republican Party has hijacked our language and turned things upside down. They have been doing it since John Kerry was Swift Boated and you would think we would have learned how to counteract this by now. So, according to them health care is now Obamacare and socialism at its best. It seems that government(as long as it is something you don't want to control like gay marriage) is an invasion into your life and completely over spending. Obama's financial rescue plan that kept us out of the largest depression ever (after W got us into this hole) is perceived as big government on an out of control spending tear.Once again, Karl Rove and now Glen Beck , have fired up this group of hypocrites who say they are for small government but don't want anyone to touch their Social Security and Medicare . What they do with their curious control of language is to get people to vote against their own interests. I mean do you really think that these greedy fat cats, who want to keep all their money, give a damn about the working class. They want their W tax cuts renewed at the cost of about 100 billion dollar deficit to this budget, they say they are so concerned about! It is this kind of language where you spin about bailouts,spending and deficits that makes all these people buy into it like it truth. Somehow I have to believe that this country has smart people who are beginning to see through this rhetoric. They are not as dumb as Rove thinks they are. The Tea Party message of keep government out of my life, except if I want to get rid of gay marriage,build a bridge to nowhere, keep tax cuts for the upper 1%(Koch brothers raison d'etre), dig for oil or abolish something we don't approve of like the education department. These great "father figures" know what is best for us and not that dangerous bloated government . The GOP and Tea Party use this spin that often is composed of lies (or distorted facts) and all use it consistently in lock step every chance they get. It is not about content but spin and saying it enough times that people begin to believe it.
We saw a movie last night in our film class that really drove this point home, called Fair Play, the story of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. There were all W's men including Cheney and Libby making this great case for Niger selling yellowcake uranium to Saddam Hussein for WMD's. You know the tale where Wilson wrote his report saying he traveled to Niger and talked to officials and found no evidence of the sale.He wrote a detailed report that stated," Moreover, because the two mines are closely regulated, quasi-governmental entities, selling uranium would require the approval of the minister of mines, the prime minister and probably the president. In short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired."So back he goes and finds out in W's State of the Union address that what he had shown to be a false report was being taken as not only true but a reason to go to war with Iraq. W and Cheney were determined to go to war with Iraq. No information, facts, or discoveries of false signatures on the 1990's report was seemingly important or valid for them. This British report (remember those 16 words in the state of the union address) became the basis for war by raising fear that Saddam had Weapons of mass destruction.
I sat there cringing and watching news clips and wanting to tear out my hair over the manipulation of facts. At the very least Congress , which authorized the use of military force at the president's behest, should have investigated if the assertions about Iraq were warranted. Could we be falling for this again and the same guys selling us those lies. Here you have a man whose wife was an exposed CIA agent ,his family and his marriage were threatened because Cheney and Libby didn't agree with his report. Wilson sat down and wrote a an editorial to the NY Times about the results of his trip to Niger that negated the sale of uranium to Iraq. Hence, Libby had Plame outed in retaliation for this editorial. My friend in the film club said," I was not surprised at the lengths the Bush White House went to cover their behinds with the lies and deceit... but it was heartbreaking to know that many Iraqi scientists and their families who were depending on the US to get them safely out of the country, likely died as a result of the outing of Valerie Plame... and worse yet, is that there is no recourse, to this day, for Rove, Cheney, Bush and the rest! And of course the thousands of military and innocent Iraqis who died and continue to die, needlessly!"
Wilson felt both he and the CIA must tell the truth ,and his life was turned upside down and put into imminent danger because he did. Does one speak out when they know things are wrong? Do we protest the a candidate in Delaware is surprised that a separation of church and state is in the constitution. Do we fight back when Obama is pulverized by Fox news?Do we read newspapers and learn about issues since TV is no longer news but entertainment? Television doesn't seem to care about keeping us informed or getting the facts straight . Instead they like to talk about, Sharon Angle wanting Harry Reid to "man up". This is the same woman who sunk to a new low when she told a classroom of Hispanic kids in Las Vegas: "Some of you look a little more Asian to me". In the final scene of the movie Fair Game, Joe Wilson makes a rousing speech for speaking out against injustice and factual reporting. He asks his class how many of you students remember those 16 little words that led us into a war with Iraq? A few students raised their hands . Next he asked how many of you know my wife's name, and the whole room held up their hands. I rest my case says he about sensationalism making news. If you scream loud really loud you get your point across and that makes an impression.
I urge you in these last 10 days of the election to reach out to people. We have to speak out against injustice, no matter what the consequence. We need to get the truth out,since the GOP is more adept at spreading their message irregardless of the facts. The Republicans opposed the stimulus package that created between 1.4-3.3 million jobs. Go to www.FactCheck.org , the indispensable truth squad there says."It's just false to say the stimulus created no jobs".Where is the GOP plan that creates jobs? Indeed they propose actions that would worsen the fiscal situation. For starters they favor $700 billion in extended tax cuts for the most affluent Americans. This would lead to an even more gargantuan gap between rich and poor.They want to do away with health care reform that would mean an increase in deficits of about $455 billion. On the other hand,keeping health care reform will trim the deficits by more than $170 billion between now and 2020 says the C.B.O.(you can fact check this). You and I know these facts but the spinners are out there distorting the issues and making it seem like they will take us to" the promised land". We have to answer back and so many of you are out there doing just that by knocking on doors, making those calls, and e-mailing(don't worry there is an end in sight!!!). We cannot shut up and must report an injustice even if it is a pothole ! Please join me in getting out the facts and the vote on November 2. You can be sure that Palin will vote, Sharon Angle will vote, Rush Limbaugh will vote, and certainly Glenn Beck will vote. Lets don't let them beat us at our own game. We won in 2008 because we connected with the voters and each other. So many of you have come up with such terrific ideas and appeals to reach the voters from ****Dames for Democrats to ***Westchester 4 Change(see examples in this blog). We can and must keep fighting with facts and information against the outrageous unqualified people running for office with Tea Party support. They are not only ill informed but hypocrites begging for small government but not wanting anyone to touch their Social Security and Medicare. Yes we can and will spend these last days doing the right thing and getting our message out because this is who we are and what we do.
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
From Betty in Scarsdale:
Nita is really lucky---and so are we to get rid of her opponent!!!
#2
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Go Viral!!!!
From Jude in PA:
Hi Sunny! Thanks for keeping the fires lit. Let me know if any of your folks want to bus down between now and November 2nd--I'm running OFA operations out of Bucks County PA. we're about 45 minutes from philly, just slightly south of the lehigh valley. theres a train that comes into quakertown and doylestown.Hugs,
From Val in Ohio:
I guess you have not been persuaded to join the tea party (smiles). I just returned from the AARP convention in Orlando. Heard Kathleen Sibelius address health care reform; Larry King and Whoopi Goldberg shared a stage; was enthralled with Gladys Knight and BB King; gained wisdom from Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot; etc.etc. I bet there was not a tea party member in the crowd because the folks were not haters. They just came to have a good time. I didn't even find time to meet with your friend, Harriet.
Our local chapter of Drs. for America will be attending the rally on Oct. 30. That's going to be a nice way to wrap up the campaign season.
Sent the application for an absentee ballot to my son for his signature. Joe Sestak can count on a vote once he gets a ballot.
It's full speed ahead from now until November 2. I already voted so I can help get others to the polls.
From Sara in DC:
Hey obama family-
Hope this finds you all well! Put together a video essentially telling candidates threatening to repeal health care to back off-- thought you might be able to make some use of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4T-J04jwW0
Wonk Room has more: http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/aca-young-cover/
#2
Hope this finds you well. Thought you'd get a kick out of a video Campus Progress put together as a part of http://www.voteagain2010.com, an effort to boost youth turnout this midterm election cycle being orchestrated by over 30 groups and media partners.
http://www.voteagain2010.com/2010/07/iller/
The video is a response to the persistent talking point that young people who are politically active are zombies.
From Val in Ohio:
I drove down a newly paved street in my community this morning and a thought crossed my mind. If John McCain & Co. had been elected this road would not have been paved. Yes, it was stimulus dollars at work that got the job done. Now as the 2010 election draws near, I have to wonder what else will be taken away if the Rethugs dominate our national agenda. Prez Obama has tried to do what we asked of him with one hand tied behind his back (the Congress). We need to give him some help. Get out and vote!!! PS I hear James Carville said the Dems have come out of their fetal position and are starting to fight back.
From Hank in NY:
“What The World Needs Now” – October 12, 2010
Hal David, along with Burt Bacharach wrote that song many years ago. It was originally sung by Jackie DeShannon, and made even more popular by Luther Vandross. “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love, it's the only thing, that there's just too little of……” These lyrics were never more true than they are today.
Actually, the world, and especially America, is today so full of hate that we can’t even see straight. I thought there could be no more hated man in this country than George W. Bush, but the racist hatred being spewed at Barack Obama is so vile, and so vindictive, it makes the vitriolic contempt leveled on “W” seem as soft and sweet as cotton candy.
Given the level of racism still present in the U.S. in the early stages of the twenty-first century, it is almost hard to believe that Obama ever got elected. If not for the miserable opponent, John McCain, that he faced in 2008, and that candidate’s almost mind-numbing decision to name Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President, Barack Obama might not be sitting behind that desk in the Oval Office.
Now, everything that is wrong with America is being blamed on Obama. The “Tea Party” movement actually started as a result of ultra right-wing hatred of the president. Even many in the progressive segment of his own party hates him for escalating the war in Afghanistan. The scenes of joy and tears from Grant Park are a distant memory now. On that election night America convinced itself that we had become a color blind nation. The world community, friend and foe stood up and cheered, amazed at what the American electorate had wrought! Then Obama was sworn in and took office. It was as if the president had disguised himself as a caucasian man, and as he drove and walked down Constitution Avenue that cold January 19th, 2009, he started taking off the make-up and showing the world that he was an African American.
The haters stared in immediately, tossing in grenades comparing him to Hitler, and accusing him of not being a U.S. citizen. (Some 18% of Americans still believe it). The Glenn Beck’s, Rush Limbaugh’s, Newt Gingrich’s and Sarah Palin’s of the world hit him with everything from being a total socialist intent on ruining America, to blaming him for both Bush wars and the deficit. The Republican minorities in the House and Senate decided long before Inauguration Day to “just say no” to anything this president asked for, and it was only with the unique courage and conviction that Obama possess that enabled him to get health care and financial reforms passed into law.
Now this hatred has spawned candidates for Governor, the Senate and the House, who are so unqualified as to be incapable of even spelling the word “legislation.” Carl Paladino, Sharon Angel, and Christine O’Donnell are the more prominent names that come to mind, but there are many races where a Tea Party candidate has defeated the Republican Party’s own choice, and got there because of the hatred of their supporters for this president and their own party regulars. We cannot, and will not, solve the massive problems America faces as long as so much hate is present in our discourse. We must become, as Bush 41 said, “a kinder and gentler nation.”
Whatever the voters decide on November 2nd, all Americans need to start singing, “what the world needs now……”
From Lee in DC/NYC OFA and DNC:
As you know we are moving into the final days before the important midterm election on November 2nd. The final weeks of any election are about one thing – getting out the vote. If we can get large numbers of our 2008 voters to vote again this November then Democrats will keep the House and Senate, and President Obama can continue to move America forward. Please help us by volunteering some of your time at our office in New York City.
Organizing for America
25 East 21st Street, 4th Floor
between Park Avenue South and Broadway
Phone banks are scheduled almost daily:
Monday - Thursday from 1:00PM-5:00PM in the afternoon and 5:00PM to 9:00PM.
Saturday: 23rd from 1:00PM-5:00PM
We are doing our GOTV push the final four days, from Saturday October 30th through Election Day, Nov.2nd - - we will be making calls from 10 AM to 9 PM .Additionally, the OFA team organizes Saturday and Sunday trips to canvas in Westchester and Long Island. ** If you have questions please contact our amazing OFA Volunteer Coordinator Clare White (and Women for Obama alum) at 917-783-8905 or at clareawhite@gmail.com. Clare is copied on this email.
Thanks for your continued support,
From Kathy in MO:
Sorry this message is so long. I just think we need to arm ourselves with facts and get out and talk to voters every chance we get.
If you are a Missouri voter or have friends and family who are, please encourage them to get out and vote on Nov. 2 and support Robin Carnahan for Senator. She and her family have a record of real service to Missouri unlike Roy Blunt who only claims to have Missouri values.
Robin supports strengthening Medicare and Social Security where Blunt has said it would have been better if they had never started these life saving programs that have kept seniors out of poverty for years. He claims they really don't benefit anyone. He has voted to privatize or weaken them whenever he has had a chance. This is a very real part of the Republican agenda if they regain control of Congress.
Blunt has a voting record in Washington; Robin does not. He likes to rail against spending in Washington, but he neglects to say that he was Bush’s point man in the House to push through the $700 billion TARP bank/Wall St. bailout of 2008. Many would argue that the government needed to step in, but as it was set up, there was no accountability as to how this would be spent and much of it went to paying bonuses to CEO’s instead of stimulating the economy.
As small business owners, we have watched the legislation on SBA loans carefully this year. Blunt and the Republicans claim to be pro small business, but voted against this important legislation every time it came up. This has delayed for nearly a year us being able to get the loans we need to expand our business. He has voted against Main Street and job creation at every opportunity and for Wall Street and big business at every turn.
Blunt and the Republicans like railing against the stimulus spending and claim it didn’t create a single job. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office claims it has created approx. 2.5 million jobs and saved thousands more jobs of teachers, firefighters, and police officers. Blunt voted against all measures to stimulate the economy.
He is trying to hang a label of corruption on the Carnahan family by running ads against Robin's brother's Missouri windfarm. The claims are totally false. No one lobbied for these tax breaks in the Carnahan family nor in the windfarm company. The money was set aside and designated for companies all over the country to create jobs and encourage clean energy, something the Carnahans have been doing for years not just to get tax breaks or grants this year. Over 1000 companies across the country got these grants and tax incentives. The windfarm is the largest private sector investment in the state in the past couple of years and is expected to generate more than 2500 jobs as well as clean energy!
Blunt is just trying to deflect from his own proven record of corruption. His ties to indicted Tom Delay and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff are well documented. Even Chris Wallace on FOX questioned whether Blunt had the ethics to lead change in DC! One of his best known ethics breaches was trying to insert into a homeland security bill benefits for his tobacco lobbyist girlfriend and her company. He still maintains that making the tobacco industry stronger makes us all safer! His well documented voting record for big business and gifts from lobbyists is too long to list.
Millions of dollars of Blunt's ads are being paid for by Karl Rove's American Crossroads group and The US Chamber of Commerce that is rife with scandal over contributions from foreign countries to influence our election! They are running a well financed multi-million dollar smear campaign against Robin.
Please help us keep Blunt out of the Senate! He is a bought and paid for politician that exemplifies the very worst of Washington. Missouri and the country cannot afford to have him in the Senate.
Robin Carnahan has served MO well in many capacities most recently as our Secretary of State. She has fought corruption here and fought for consumers. She has also worked hard to make our elections safer and more ethical. We need her in the Senate.
Please support her with your vote and your volunteer efforts. You can see the volunteer opportunities at www.robincarnahan.com Thanks,
Also please Vote yes on Prop B which would strengthen regulation of the unsafe and inhumane puppy mills that MO has become infamous for!
From Mary in MO:
POWER!!!!!
This election is about power. It's about Republicans regaining power. They have shown they will stop at almost nothing to do so, up to and including using the feckless freakish tea partiers.
So now, the Republican Party has gathered under its "umbrella" people who engage in bigoted, absurd, and inflammatory rhetoric (and bahavior) and people who propose, among other things, the privatization of Social Security, the repeal of health care and Wall Street reform, and the impeachment of President Obama. The big "umbrella" includes people who say that government is too big and intrusive and yet propose that all abortions be illegal including for victims of rape and incest. As an advocate for abused and neglected kids for nearly thirty years, I can tell you that this last idea shows an abysmal lack of compassion and understanding.
To the point. Last month I turned 71.......the month before that, I completed treatment for breast cancer.
This month --- I PLEDGE to spend every Saturday until election day knocking doors for Robin Carnahan and to do whatever I can for the GET OUT THE VOTE effort.
I urge you, no, challenge you to do the same where ever you are.....there is work to be done. California, Wisconsin, Florida...there are races everywhere that could use help. Knock doors, make phone calls, -- just do it. I know some of you are already working hard --- enlist others.
In Platte County, Missouri: meet me tomorrowat at the HQ ( the Montee building) on 9 Hwy in Parkville 10:00 am. E-mail me if you can make it or if I can help you.
"They" say they want their country back but what they want to do with it is down right scary! I don't need to tell you that a Republican majority in both houses of Congress would be disastrous.
Let's do it........................
From Jane in Larchmont: How Dare Women not Vote after those who fought to get it for us only 90 years ago!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StF3_Mj0tBg
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say.
I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
Hard to believe this actually happened and we don't even talk about it.
This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because --- why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.' We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.
From Betty in Scarsdale:
We released this new ad today hitting Joe DioGuardi where he claims to be strongest: on his fiscal restraint, or, rather, the lack thereof when he was a congressman. Link to the ad is below. Please spread it to your networks.
Maggie Haberman and Celeste Katz have the ad up on their blogs:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/maggiehaberman/1010/Gillibrand_goes_negative_on_DioGuardi_.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/10/after-cheery-pro-vets-ad-gilli.html
From Val in Ohio:
I drove down a newly paved street in my community this morning and a thought crossed my mind. If John McCain & Co. had been elected this road would not have been paved. Yes, it was stimulus dollars at work that got the job done. Now as the 2010 election draws near, I have to wonder what else will be taken away if the Rethugs dominate our national agenda. Prez Obama has tried to do what we asked of him with one hand tied behind his back (the Congress). We need to give him some help. Get out and vote!!!
From Gloria in McCungie PA:
Macungie Volunteers -
Lots of good news this morning -
1 - Rick + Noreen have taken on the Herculean task of calling all *382 Obama `08 volunteers* for whom we have phone numbers to nudge them into action. Go, you guys! I'm sure they'd appreciate your help if you have the time.
2 - The Mac Institute has offered us the use of a room *FREE* for one night as reparations for locking us out last Friday night. Free's always good, right?
Bad news -
There are no rooms available there for this Thursday 10/14 as we'd hoped. Two alternatives:
* Wednesday 10/13
* Friday 10/15
Please *email me with your preference* ASAP and I'll let you know the group's consensus.
Fired up + Ready to go!
From Tommy in MO:
28 days left in the campaign --- you know that means, right? Tomorrow, I kick off my third Boots on the Ground operation - BOTG III.
In the last 28 days of the campaign, I will again travel throughout this district's 28 counties. Tomorrow, we begin on Pine Street in my hometown of Rolla and proceed. Over the next 28 days, I'll join my growing field army to knock on doors and meet voters the old fashioned way.
From day one, my campaign made a strategic choice not to to run a conventional campaign. We wanted to build a campaign that people believe in, one less focused on me sitting in a call room dialing for dollars, and more focused on getting my boots on the ground, meeting voters.
That's why I need your help. Every minute I spend knocking doors and marching down Main Streets, my opponent will be destroying my name on the air. We need ammo to fight back. Every dollar you contribute means I can continue to communicate with the rest of the district via television and radio.Will you chip in to keep my ads on the air while I'm on the ground?I really appreciate your support as I prepare to hit the pavement!
From Betty in Scarsdale:
Elie Wiesel: Ground Zero mosque should be used to bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together Make sure and vote!!!
From Peggy in LA:
After a rocky start, Kirsten Gillibrand has not only found her footing, she is poised to assume the mantle of her formidable predecessor. Jonathan Van Meter reports on the Senate’s rising star. Photographed by Norman Jean Roy.
READ THE VOGUE ARTICLE, “IN HILLARY’S FOOTSTEPS”
From Sheila in Larchmont:
It was so great to be with a bunch of impassioned women (and a few men too), writing postcards until our fingers ached (and eating fabulous chocolate), knowing we were part of helping Senator Gillebrand stay in Washington to fight for the President and all of us. How great was it to see her ahead by almost 10 points in the polls the very next day (our postcards did not do it, but our spirit might have)!
Still I worry about all the potential upsets all over the country that may defeat our hopes for giving President Obama the support he needs and for furthering our progressive goals. I can't help thinking that if we could transport all the energy that was collected in your dining room yesterday to our neighbor state, Connecticut, where the wrestler and her money threaten Richard Blumenthal...! Maybe some of your Connecticut fans can tell us what we can do to help them in their efforts. CONNECTICUT: WE'RE HERE FOR YOU! WHAT CAN WE DO?
From Letty in NYC:
I strongly recommend the film "Budrus," about the triumph of Palestinian nonviolence in a small West Bank village. It will be playing in Manhattan from Friday, October 8th through the 21st.
Location: The Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St.
Letty
Here's a story on the film that ran in last Sunday's Times. Click here: Film - ‘Budrus’ Becomes Part of a Palestinian Debate - NYTimes.com
*** FOR SCREENING DATES IN L.A. AND WASHINGTON, D.C., CLICK HERE:
Click here: Budrus Official Film Website
Just Vision
From Amy in Mamaroneck:
Check out Joe on CBS News -- on total defensive
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20018941-503544.html
From Randy in Berkeley ,CA:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904
This is an article from the October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone by matt Taibbi.
Rolling Stones strikes again-- be sure to read the entire piece. As usual, Matt gets to the heart of the matter.
It's taken three trips to Kentucky, but I'm finally getting my Tea Party epiphany exactly where you'd expect: at a Sarah Palin rally. The red-hot mama of American exceptionalism has flown in to speak at something called the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, a gospel-music hoedown in a giant convention center filled with thousands of elderly white Southerners. Palin — who earlier this morning held a closed-door fundraiser for Rand Paul, the Tea Party champion running for the U.S. Senate — is railing against a GOP establishment that has just seen Tea Partiers oust entrenched Republican hacks in Delaware and New York. The dingbat revolution, it seems, is nigh.
"We're shaking up the good ol' boys," Palin chortles, to the best applause her aging crowd can muster. She then issues an oft-repeated warning (her speeches are usually a tired succession of half-coherent one-liners dumped on ravenous audiences like chum to sharks) to Republican insiders who underestimated the power of the Tea Party Death Star. "Buck up," she says, "or stay in the truck."
Stay in what truck? I wonder. What the hell does that even mean?
Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn't a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — "Government's not the solution! Government's the problem!" — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains...
...(After speech runs out to speak to some listeners)OK," I say. "And what do you do for a living?"
"Me?" he says proudly. "Oh, I'm a property appraiser. Have been my whole life."
I frown. "Are either of you on Medicare?"
Silence: Then Janice, a nice enough woman, it seems, slowly raises her hand, offering a faint smile, as if to say, You got me!
"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"
"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people are living off the government." "But," I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"... The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin...(Read rest on line really great article http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904)
From Jennifer in DC:
Is this the Jon Stewart clip you were mentioning?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-23-2010/postcards-from-the-pledge
From Eileen in MO:
Platform for the 2010 Election
I COULD SUPPORT THIS. GEORGE
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that
includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though
we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends. My
friend and neighbor wants to promote a "Congressional Reform Act of
2010". It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be
strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights. I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you,
Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the
time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity
that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a
Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These
people will become American heroes
Thanks,A Fellow American
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding
Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home
and back to work.
2. No Tenure / No Pension:
A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they are out of office. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social
Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social
Security system, Congress participates with the American people.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all
Americans. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional
pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in
the same health care system as the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American
people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work. Or go to jail, if appropriate.
8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective
1/1/11. The American people did not make this contract with congressmen,
congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
From Stef in KIrsten's office:
I have concerning news. As you know, Kirsten has been an unwavering champion of women's reproductive freedom both as a member of the House and in the US Senate with a 100% pro-choice rating from groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL NY.
Amazingly, NY Republicans have nominated Joe DioGuardi, an extreme anti-choice Republican to run against her. DioGuardi opposes reproductive rights even in the cases of rape and incest. He says he wants to see Roe V. Wade overturned and has voted to eliminate funding for emergency reproductive care when a mother's life is in danger.
Read about his extremist record here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lorna-brett-howard/joe-dioguardi-liar-liar-p_b_744184.html Please comment and spread the word to your friends and social networks.
You can help keep Kirsten fighting as our pro-choice champion and progressive advocate by helping out with Women's Week of Action!
Hundreds of women across the state are taking action and it's not too late to get on board! Please reply to this email or sign up at http://kirstengillibrand.com/womensweek to find out how you can help!
From Kathy in MO: In response to KC Star Editorial(see below)
Aren't they just hideous??? Anything that is humane or makes sense they are automatically against! This should be unanimously supported, but again they are twisting everything around to make it look bad to protect animals in this state! The fact that it is outside agitators like Joe the fake Plumber makes it even worse!
Joe the Plumber plunges into Missouri puppy mills
By BARBARA SHELLY
The Kansas City Star
A grand conspiracy is afoot, and it starts right here in Missouri.
So says none other than Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, John McCain’s improbable sidekick in the 2008 presidential campaign. Liking the limelight and desperately searching for a new gig, Joe has lighted upon the Missouri ballot proposition cracking down on puppy breeding abuses.
Joe wants you to know that Proposition B is not really about making sure that dogs have access to healthy food, clean water, reasonable veterinary care, protection from extreme cold and heat, and room to move around.
No. Prop B is a plot by the dreaded Humane Society of the United States, “simply to get rid of ALL dog breeding in Missouri — the unlicensed AND licensed breeders.”
But it doesn’t stop there. Here’s Joe, on the website Alliance for Truth, dedicated to “exposing hidden political agendas.”
“This bill is just a stepping stone. HSUS eventually wants to extend this law to ALL animals. Their idea of utopia is a United States with NO animal ownership; NO meat to eat; NO pets; NO hunting; NO fishing; NO service animals.”
Is that the end of it? Oh, indeed not. More from Joe:
“Even the extinction of our food industry isn’t the scariest part of this whacko liberal agenda. A law is only as good as it’s enforced. And HSUS is happy to fill the void. HSUS has now become the self-appointed law enforcement of the animal world. We have to draw the line and hold these radical animal rights activists back.”
Wurzelbacher’s rantings could be dismissed as comedy but for one thing: His arguments have been voiced many times in the halls and chambers of the Missouri Capitol.
That’s why the Humane Society mobilized to get Proposition B on the ballot. Animal protection measures are radioactive in the state legislature.
Elected officials in Missouri have argued that tougher rules for puppy breeders are the first step to limits on livestock production. They portray the Humane Society (HSUS to opponents) as a fringe organization determined to turn us into a nation of vegans.
Meanwhile, Missouri holds the dubious status of the “puppy mill capital” of the U.S., with about 1,500 licensed breeders supplying four of every 10 puppies sold at pet stores around the nation — many with breeding and health problems. Officials believe hundreds of unlicensed breeders also operate in the state.
Law enforcement raids continually turn up starved, sick and mangy animals, some stacked atop one another in wire cages.
Contrary to what Wurzelbacher and others claim, existing laws don’t adequately protect dogs. Missouri’s animal care facilities act is 18 years old and lax compared with animal welfare laws in other states.
“The provisions ensure that the dogs survive. It does not ensure that they’re treated humanely,” said Barbara Schmitz, director of the Humane Society of Missouri.
As Schmitz observed, opponents of Proposition B don’t want to talk about the way dogs are treated. So they hide behind smoke screens and outright falsehoods.
Experience from other states debunks the claim that the new regulations would “put almost every breeder in Missouri out of business,” as Wurzelbacher warns breathlessly. In any case, the demise of a business that forces animals to exist in misery is no great loss.
And although some states empower employees of animal protection groups to inspect breeding operations and enforce laws, in Missouri those responsibilities would fall to Department of Agriculture employees and local police and sheriff’s departments.
Wurzelbacher’s ominous vision of “HSUS employees running around with guns and police-like badges breaking down doors,” would not play out here.
Joe the Plumber would love to throw a wrench into the animal welfare campaign. But his conspiracy theory leaks like a bad faucet.
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - Facebook Politicians Are Not Your Friends - NYTimes.com
From Dani in Brooklyn:
When Dowd's good, she's good...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opinion/10dowd.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 9, 2010
Lord of the Internet Rings
By MAUREEN DOWD
It didn’t take long, sitting with an enthralled audience and watching the saga of the cloistered jerk who betrayed those around him and ended up unfathomably rich and influential, to understand why it has been hailed as a masterpiece.
They had me at the mesmerizing first scene, when the repulsive nerd is mocked by a comely, slender young lady he’s trying to woo. Bitter about women, he returns to his dark lair in a crimson fury of revenge.
It unfolds with mythic sweep, telling the most compelling story of all, the one I cover every day in politics: What happens when the powerless become powerful and the powerful become powerless? ...
From Amy in Mamaroneck and Todd in Gilllibrand's office:
I think we have the ideal name for DioGuardi: "Old Crony." It was the SEC's nickname for him when he was investigated as part of a ponzi scheme. Below is our press release we sent out today. I think between his tax cheating, his election law scheming and this, "Old Crony" sort of sums it all up. An old time insider using his connections to better himself.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/12/2010-10-12_feds_link_gop_senate_hopeful_joe_dioguardi_to_ponzi_firm.html#community
BREAKING…. NY Daily News: Feds link GOP Senate hopeful Joe DioGuardi to Ponzi firm
The SEC described DioGuardi, who faces incumbent Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next month's election, as an "old crony" of the company's bosses and suggested "he's connected to the original fraudulent scheme."
As of last November, thousands of investors were owed $1 billion. The feds froze the company's assets; the case is pending.
BY Kathleen Lucadamo
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 12th 2010
U.S. Senate hopeful Joe DioGuardi prides himself on his accounting expertise - but he has a history with a firm the feds say ran a $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme.Medical Capital Holdings and its subsidiaries bilked investors out of $1 billion while sinking millions into a mega-yacht and Hollywood flop, a complaint filed last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission said.From 2007 to 2009, the former Westchester Republican congressman was paid $5,000 a month as a consultant for the subsidiary Medical Capital Corp. - and also got $16,000 a year to sit on boards of various other MCH subsidiaries.MCH managed the messy books for several of the companies involved in the so-called scheme and was named in the suit.DioGuardi, a trained accountant, claims he was oblivious to any wrongdoing.
"As a consultant, Joe was tasked with saving hospitals in New York from being shut down, but knew nothing of the schemes that were occurring behind the scenes," said his spokesman Brian Hummell, adding that his boss "has never seen the books."The SEC described DioGuardi, who faces incumbent Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next month's election, as an "old crony" of the company's bosses and suggested "he's connected to the original fraudulent scheme."...(Read rest on line)
From Val in Ohio:
The OSU rally had a lot of "fillers" leaving me to think the Prez had not arrived on time. The tea baggers put out a fake agenda listing speeches in five minute increments. Things like Obama explaining the trillion dollar budget, Michelle talking about childhood obesity, etc. Since it wasn't nasty, it was actually amusing. John Legend was great!
Off to a rally tomorrow for John Boehner's opponent. Canvassing last today. This is busy season.
From Hank in NY:
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 9:19 AM
To: 'letters@nytimes.com'
Subject: To The Editor
“The Rage Won’t End on Election Day” – Frank Rich – October 17, 2010
Mr. Rich’s essay is correct, but he doesn’t include the major reasons why. America has lost her way. In many Caucasian neighborhoods, hate thy neighbor has become the lexicon, especially if that neighbor is a Muslim, Latino or African American. Our children are obese, apathetic and are leaving school unprepared to compete in the global economy. Our elected officials vote what the “polls” say, even against the best interests of their constituents. America doesn't make anything anymore, and as the Fed considers printing more money to stimulate the economy, the beneficiaries of that strategy will be Wall Street, not Main Street.
We have been mired in unwinnable wars for a decade, the cost of which measured in lives and national treasure is beyond calculation. But the real reason the rage will continue after the midterm elections is, those elected will do no better than those in power, and perhaps worse. There was a time when American voters could influence their own destiny with their ballot, but today American corporations and billionaires control the outcome of our elections. If we want a real target for our rage, look no further than that.
From Sue in Long Island:
We have a choice in Washington: Moving forward to solve our many challenges vs. pandering to anger and fear. Nov. 2 will be one of the most pivotal elections in our lifetimes. You can make a difference!
Call, walk and talk for Tim Bishop now. The race is neck-and-neck. Most polls show Tim Bishop is ahead among registered voters but trailing among “likely” voters. That’s why we need you: To tell Bishop supporters the importance of this election and make sure they Vote. Please join us! If you care about education, if you care about healthcare reform, if you care about preserving Medicare, if you care about equal rights, if you care about a woman’s right to choose, if you care about the environment, if you care about long-term job growth instead of boom and bust cycles...
From now until Nov. 2, our extraordinary volunteers have organized a bonanza of canvasses and phonebanks. They can’t make all those calls and knock on all those doors alone. Besides, these events are fun! Tonight please join Mike and Irene to make phone calls, join Mike on Saturday for a Bridgehampton canvass, and Susan on Sunday to go door to door in Sag Harbor. Next week Arlene is hosting a Monday night phonebank, Mike’s organized a Southampton canvass, and David will lead a team going door to door in East Hampton. Details here:
PHONEBANKS
Mike and Irene’s Southampton Phonebank
Call first time 2008 voters and get them to the polls!
CANVASSES
Will you help out during the most important 4 days of the campaign season? Commit to work during Get Out The Vote weekend Oct. 30-31, Monday, Nov. 1 and Election Day, Nov. 2 – all day or a half-day. Please contact Sue at suehornik@aol.com, 631-605-4689 or David at dposnett@med.cornell.edu, 631-324-4158
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Wife of Clarence Thomas Reaches Out to Anita Hill Over 1991 Episode
>
> Virginia Thomas, the wife of Associate Justice Clarence
> Thomas of the Supreme Court, left a message last weekend on
> the voice mail of Anita Hill, who accused her husband of
> sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings, a
> spokeswoman for Ms. Thomas confirmed on Tuesday.
>
> In a message left at the office of Ms. Hill, who is now a
> professor at Brandeis University, Ms. Thomas apparently
> brought up Ms. Hill's accusations against her husband during
> the 1991 hearings.
>
> Andrew Gully, senior vice president of the Brandeis
> University communications office, confirmed that Ms. Hill had
> received the message and that she had turned it over to the
> campus department of public safety. That office, in turn,
> passed it on to the F.B.I.
>
> Read More:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20thomas.html?emc=na
From Betty in Scarsdale:
There are less than two weeks until Election Day and the stakes for New York have never been higher.
Andrew Cuomo needs your support not only to win this election, but to build a movement to turn our state around. And Andrew has run his campaign just like he will govern – by building a coalition for reform that draws support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
But our ability to move New York forward depends on how many supporters like you cast your vote.This election is your chance to send Albany a message that we need to change direction and build a better future for New York.
Make the pledge to vote on Election Day -- Tuesday, November 2nd:
From Elizabeth in Mamaroneck:
Dear friends,
This video clip just about had me in tears, it's so good. Please don't miss it.
President Obama has been harshly criticized by many Democrats for his slow and cautious approach to gay civil rights, but a new video in which he talks about gay teenagers who are bullied is a breakthrough.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/10/22/obama_speaks_to_gay_teens.html
From John R- ********* Note from Sunny,I loved it and think you will too!
Hi got this from Dean and found it share worthy. Check out the video:
http://bit.ly/9Y7H4Y
**** From Robin in North Salem:Wonderful example of starting a creative appeal to voters:
Dear All,
Got this from my dear friend robin I worked on Obama and the WLF with. It is terrific and I sent home to MO for them to do with Robin Carnahan . Can we do it for our candidates here and Kirsten and chuck? Let me know if any one of you can do this quick break down of who to vote for and few sentences of why?
Love,Sunny
Fired up and ready to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sent to me by my North Salem friend Robin!
Our sample of using their idea--Dear Friends: On behalf of Elizabeth,Susan,Rachael,Sunny,and the Dames for Democracy, I am forwarding this email to each of you in the hope that you will read it and send it to 10 of your democratic women friends in our area and remind them to vote on November 2. We need honest, thoughtful, level headed, hardworking people representing us at the state and federal levels – people who are willing to reach across ideological divides to get really important things done (like finishing healthcare reform, fiscal discipline in government and addressing global climate change). These are huge, complex, nonpartisan issues and republicans and democrats should not be fighting over them -- and would not be fighting over them (at least to the point of paralysis) but for the vicious partisan lie machine at work in our society. John, Mike and Tom (as diverse as they are) are each this kind of leader. I support all three of them. I also support Kirsten Gillibrand for exactly the same reasons. Robin Albin recently sent around a good article about Kirsten in Vogue. If you have not read it, please do and pass it along as well.
Recently I became part of a group called "Dames for Democracy." It is a local group of 10 women formed because research shows when women vote democrats win. This midterm election is crucial. Traditionally voter turnout is low during the midterms when every vote counts even more. The Republicans and Tea Party are using scare tactics to frighten the public about social issues. We must elect people who will support the issues and causes we believe in. Each one of us agreed to contact 10 democratic women and ask each to:
1. Promise to vote
2. Reach out to 10 additional democratic women and ask them to do the same
3. Provide absentee ballot information to friends with kids in college.
We can affect big change with this simple recipe for voter turn out. PLEASE join me and the other Dames for Democracy.
Here is our ballot line up:
Nita Lowey for U. S. House of Representatives: etc etc who can fix this up for us?
John is a staunch supporter of healthcare reform based on a real life family experience where he had to fundraise for a family member to afford medical treatment. He chairs the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, where he is an ardent advocate for the proper treatment of veterans. He has voted reliably forextensions of unemployment insurance, phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, support for infrastructure projects, affordable healthcare, and protecting social security.
Nan Hayworth is a very wealthy former ophthalmologist who made enough money in 16 years of work under the current health-denial system to retire at age 45 to pursue her political aspirations. Her husband is the CEO and President of Mount Kisco Medical Group (MKMG) and one of only 9 doctors on the national advisory board of Aetna Healthcare.
She OPPOSES the DISCLOSE ACT (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5175/show) which requires those corporations paying for advertising and funding campaign to put their NAME on their ads – BP/Exxon Mobil NOT ‘Citizens for sensible energy’ – Aetna or Cigna not ‘Americans for Healthcare Protection’.
She is in favor of the repeal of the healthcare reforms. A repeal would protect the profits of doctors and facilities like MKMG where her husband is CEO. Repeals of things like allowing people with preexisting conditions to get healthcare; allowing children to stay on their parent’s plan until 26; preventing insurers from dropping members who have been faithfully paying their premiums for years once they got an expensive illness to treat; no co-pays for preventative care, annual physicals, OB/Gyn etc.; Money to seniors to close the ‘doughnut-hole’
She is not pro-choice and supports the Stupak Amendment. (http://www.docstoc.com/docs/15284081/Stupak-Amendment-to-HR-3962-Rev-108)
She would like to see:
a Permanent extension of tax cuts for millionaires (like her)
Elimination of the estate tax which only affects the wealthiest Americans with estates valued OVER $3.5 million (like her)
Privatization of our social security – subjecting it to fluctuations in the market; privative Medicare and Medicaid – allowing Medicare which cost about 1.5% to administer to cost 35% or more; extending the Social security eligibility age to 70; and privatize the VA – subject our veterans to denials and rejections of claims arising from their service to our nation. Instituting a national sales tax – a 23% INCREASE for the middle class and elimination of MORTGAGE interest deduction.
Mike Kaplowitz for NY State Senate:
Mike is a Financial Planner and budget expert NOT a career candidate like Greg Ball.
Mike voted AGAINST Andy Spano’s budget, tax increases and pay raises and was FIRED from a leadership position as punishment.
Mike cut $120 Million in taxes and wasteful spending.
Mike has been in the County Legislature for 12 years – Greg runs for office, ANY office every election cycle.
Mike supports: Consolidation and downsizing of agencies; reduced reliance on property tax to pay for schools; Empowering individual legislators by reducing the total power of party leaders.
Greg Ball:
Greg wants to be promoted from the NYS Assembly to the Senate with a record of 0-132 he has failed in 3 years to have any one of 132 pieces of legislation he sponsored passed.
GREG IS A MEMBER OF THE NYS ASSEMBLY AND AN ALBANY INSIDER – A PART OF THE PROBLEM.
MIKE IS AN OUTSIDER WHO HAS NEVER HELD AN OFFICE IN ALBANY – yet Greg says HE is the outsider and Mike is the insider – clearly he has a problem with basic facts and logic.
Did you ever realize the potency of words and how they can be twisted to support one's viewpoint before this election? The Republican Party has hijacked our language and turned things upside down. They have been doing it since John Kerry was Swift Boated and you would think we would have learned how to counteract this by now. So, according to them health care is now Obamacare and socialism at its best. It seems that government(as long as it is something you don't want to control like gay marriage) is an invasion into your life and completely over spending. Obama's financial rescue plan that kept us out of the largest depression ever (after W got us into this hole) is perceived as big government on an out of control spending tear.Once again, Karl Rove and now Glen Beck , have fired up this group of hypocrites who say they are for small government but don't want anyone to touch their Social Security and Medicare . What they do with their curious control of language is to get people to vote against their own interests. I mean do you really think that these greedy fat cats, who want to keep all their money, give a damn about the working class. They want their W tax cuts renewed at the cost of about 100 billion dollar deficit to this budget, they say they are so concerned about! It is this kind of language where you spin about bailouts,spending and deficits that makes all these people buy into it like it truth. Somehow I have to believe that this country has smart people who are beginning to see through this rhetoric. They are not as dumb as Rove thinks they are. The Tea Party message of keep government out of my life, except if I want to get rid of gay marriage,build a bridge to nowhere, keep tax cuts for the upper 1%(Koch brothers raison d'etre), dig for oil or abolish something we don't approve of like the education department. These great "father figures" know what is best for us and not that dangerous bloated government . The GOP and Tea Party use this spin that often is composed of lies (or distorted facts) and all use it consistently in lock step every chance they get. It is not about content but spin and saying it enough times that people begin to believe it.
We saw a movie last night in our film class that really drove this point home, called Fair Play, the story of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. There were all W's men including Cheney and Libby making this great case for Niger selling yellowcake uranium to Saddam Hussein for WMD's. You know the tale where Wilson wrote his report saying he traveled to Niger and talked to officials and found no evidence of the sale.He wrote a detailed report that stated," Moreover, because the two mines are closely regulated, quasi-governmental entities, selling uranium would require the approval of the minister of mines, the prime minister and probably the president. In short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired."So back he goes and finds out in W's State of the Union address that what he had shown to be a false report was being taken as not only true but a reason to go to war with Iraq. W and Cheney were determined to go to war with Iraq. No information, facts, or discoveries of false signatures on the 1990's report was seemingly important or valid for them. This British report (remember those 16 words in the state of the union address) became the basis for war by raising fear that Saddam had Weapons of mass destruction.
I sat there cringing and watching news clips and wanting to tear out my hair over the manipulation of facts. At the very least Congress , which authorized the use of military force at the president's behest, should have investigated if the assertions about Iraq were warranted. Could we be falling for this again and the same guys selling us those lies. Here you have a man whose wife was an exposed CIA agent ,his family and his marriage were threatened because Cheney and Libby didn't agree with his report. Wilson sat down and wrote a an editorial to the NY Times about the results of his trip to Niger that negated the sale of uranium to Iraq. Hence, Libby had Plame outed in retaliation for this editorial. My friend in the film club said," I was not surprised at the lengths the Bush White House went to cover their behinds with the lies and deceit... but it was heartbreaking to know that many Iraqi scientists and their families who were depending on the US to get them safely out of the country, likely died as a result of the outing of Valerie Plame... and worse yet, is that there is no recourse, to this day, for Rove, Cheney, Bush and the rest! And of course the thousands of military and innocent Iraqis who died and continue to die, needlessly!"
Wilson felt both he and the CIA must tell the truth ,and his life was turned upside down and put into imminent danger because he did. Does one speak out when they know things are wrong? Do we protest the a candidate in Delaware is surprised that a separation of church and state is in the constitution. Do we fight back when Obama is pulverized by Fox news?Do we read newspapers and learn about issues since TV is no longer news but entertainment? Television doesn't seem to care about keeping us informed or getting the facts straight . Instead they like to talk about, Sharon Angle wanting Harry Reid to "man up". This is the same woman who sunk to a new low when she told a classroom of Hispanic kids in Las Vegas: "Some of you look a little more Asian to me". In the final scene of the movie Fair Game, Joe Wilson makes a rousing speech for speaking out against injustice and factual reporting. He asks his class how many of you students remember those 16 little words that led us into a war with Iraq? A few students raised their hands . Next he asked how many of you know my wife's name, and the whole room held up their hands. I rest my case says he about sensationalism making news. If you scream loud really loud you get your point across and that makes an impression.
I urge you in these last 10 days of the election to reach out to people. We have to speak out against injustice, no matter what the consequence. We need to get the truth out,since the GOP is more adept at spreading their message irregardless of the facts. The Republicans opposed the stimulus package that created between 1.4-3.3 million jobs. Go to www.FactCheck.org , the indispensable truth squad there says."It's just false to say the stimulus created no jobs".Where is the GOP plan that creates jobs? Indeed they propose actions that would worsen the fiscal situation. For starters they favor $700 billion in extended tax cuts for the most affluent Americans. This would lead to an even more gargantuan gap between rich and poor.They want to do away with health care reform that would mean an increase in deficits of about $455 billion. On the other hand,keeping health care reform will trim the deficits by more than $170 billion between now and 2020 says the C.B.O.(you can fact check this). You and I know these facts but the spinners are out there distorting the issues and making it seem like they will take us to" the promised land". We have to answer back and so many of you are out there doing just that by knocking on doors, making those calls, and e-mailing(don't worry there is an end in sight!!!). We cannot shut up and must report an injustice even if it is a pothole ! Please join me in getting out the facts and the vote on November 2. You can be sure that Palin will vote, Sharon Angle will vote, Rush Limbaugh will vote, and certainly Glenn Beck will vote. Lets don't let them beat us at our own game. We won in 2008 because we connected with the voters and each other. So many of you have come up with such terrific ideas and appeals to reach the voters from ****Dames for Democrats to ***Westchester 4 Change(see examples in this blog). We can and must keep fighting with facts and information against the outrageous unqualified people running for office with Tea Party support. They are not only ill informed but hypocrites begging for small government but not wanting anyone to touch their Social Security and Medicare. Yes we can and will spend these last days doing the right thing and getting our message out because this is who we are and what we do.
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
From Betty in Scarsdale:
Nita is really lucky---and so are we to get rid of her opponent!!!
#2
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Go Viral!!!!
From Jude in PA:
Hi Sunny! Thanks for keeping the fires lit. Let me know if any of your folks want to bus down between now and November 2nd--I'm running OFA operations out of Bucks County PA. we're about 45 minutes from philly, just slightly south of the lehigh valley. theres a train that comes into quakertown and doylestown.Hugs,
From Val in Ohio:
I guess you have not been persuaded to join the tea party (smiles). I just returned from the AARP convention in Orlando. Heard Kathleen Sibelius address health care reform; Larry King and Whoopi Goldberg shared a stage; was enthralled with Gladys Knight and BB King; gained wisdom from Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot; etc.etc. I bet there was not a tea party member in the crowd because the folks were not haters. They just came to have a good time. I didn't even find time to meet with your friend, Harriet.
Our local chapter of Drs. for America will be attending the rally on Oct. 30. That's going to be a nice way to wrap up the campaign season.
Sent the application for an absentee ballot to my son for his signature. Joe Sestak can count on a vote once he gets a ballot.
It's full speed ahead from now until November 2. I already voted so I can help get others to the polls.
From Sara in DC:
Hey obama family-
Hope this finds you all well! Put together a video essentially telling candidates threatening to repeal health care to back off-- thought you might be able to make some use of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4T-J04jwW0
Wonk Room has more: http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/aca-young-cover/
#2
Hope this finds you well. Thought you'd get a kick out of a video Campus Progress put together as a part of http://www.voteagain2010.com, an effort to boost youth turnout this midterm election cycle being orchestrated by over 30 groups and media partners.
http://www.voteagain2010.com/2010/07/iller/
The video is a response to the persistent talking point that young people who are politically active are zombies.
From Val in Ohio:
I drove down a newly paved street in my community this morning and a thought crossed my mind. If John McCain & Co. had been elected this road would not have been paved. Yes, it was stimulus dollars at work that got the job done. Now as the 2010 election draws near, I have to wonder what else will be taken away if the Rethugs dominate our national agenda. Prez Obama has tried to do what we asked of him with one hand tied behind his back (the Congress). We need to give him some help. Get out and vote!!! PS I hear James Carville said the Dems have come out of their fetal position and are starting to fight back.
From Hank in NY:
“What The World Needs Now” – October 12, 2010
Hal David, along with Burt Bacharach wrote that song many years ago. It was originally sung by Jackie DeShannon, and made even more popular by Luther Vandross. “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love, it's the only thing, that there's just too little of……” These lyrics were never more true than they are today.
Actually, the world, and especially America, is today so full of hate that we can’t even see straight. I thought there could be no more hated man in this country than George W. Bush, but the racist hatred being spewed at Barack Obama is so vile, and so vindictive, it makes the vitriolic contempt leveled on “W” seem as soft and sweet as cotton candy.
Given the level of racism still present in the U.S. in the early stages of the twenty-first century, it is almost hard to believe that Obama ever got elected. If not for the miserable opponent, John McCain, that he faced in 2008, and that candidate’s almost mind-numbing decision to name Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President, Barack Obama might not be sitting behind that desk in the Oval Office.
Now, everything that is wrong with America is being blamed on Obama. The “Tea Party” movement actually started as a result of ultra right-wing hatred of the president. Even many in the progressive segment of his own party hates him for escalating the war in Afghanistan. The scenes of joy and tears from Grant Park are a distant memory now. On that election night America convinced itself that we had become a color blind nation. The world community, friend and foe stood up and cheered, amazed at what the American electorate had wrought! Then Obama was sworn in and took office. It was as if the president had disguised himself as a caucasian man, and as he drove and walked down Constitution Avenue that cold January 19th, 2009, he started taking off the make-up and showing the world that he was an African American.
The haters stared in immediately, tossing in grenades comparing him to Hitler, and accusing him of not being a U.S. citizen. (Some 18% of Americans still believe it). The Glenn Beck’s, Rush Limbaugh’s, Newt Gingrich’s and Sarah Palin’s of the world hit him with everything from being a total socialist intent on ruining America, to blaming him for both Bush wars and the deficit. The Republican minorities in the House and Senate decided long before Inauguration Day to “just say no” to anything this president asked for, and it was only with the unique courage and conviction that Obama possess that enabled him to get health care and financial reforms passed into law.
Now this hatred has spawned candidates for Governor, the Senate and the House, who are so unqualified as to be incapable of even spelling the word “legislation.” Carl Paladino, Sharon Angel, and Christine O’Donnell are the more prominent names that come to mind, but there are many races where a Tea Party candidate has defeated the Republican Party’s own choice, and got there because of the hatred of their supporters for this president and their own party regulars. We cannot, and will not, solve the massive problems America faces as long as so much hate is present in our discourse. We must become, as Bush 41 said, “a kinder and gentler nation.”
Whatever the voters decide on November 2nd, all Americans need to start singing, “what the world needs now……”
From Lee in DC/NYC OFA and DNC:
As you know we are moving into the final days before the important midterm election on November 2nd. The final weeks of any election are about one thing – getting out the vote. If we can get large numbers of our 2008 voters to vote again this November then Democrats will keep the House and Senate, and President Obama can continue to move America forward. Please help us by volunteering some of your time at our office in New York City.
Organizing for America
25 East 21st Street, 4th Floor
between Park Avenue South and Broadway
Phone banks are scheduled almost daily:
Monday - Thursday from 1:00PM-5:00PM in the afternoon and 5:00PM to 9:00PM.
Saturday: 23rd from 1:00PM-5:00PM
We are doing our GOTV push the final four days, from Saturday October 30th through Election Day, Nov.2nd - - we will be making calls from 10 AM to 9 PM .Additionally, the OFA team organizes Saturday and Sunday trips to canvas in Westchester and Long Island. ** If you have questions please contact our amazing OFA Volunteer Coordinator Clare White (and Women for Obama alum) at 917-783-8905 or at clareawhite@gmail.com. Clare is copied on this email.
Thanks for your continued support,
From Kathy in MO:
Sorry this message is so long. I just think we need to arm ourselves with facts and get out and talk to voters every chance we get.
If you are a Missouri voter or have friends and family who are, please encourage them to get out and vote on Nov. 2 and support Robin Carnahan for Senator. She and her family have a record of real service to Missouri unlike Roy Blunt who only claims to have Missouri values.
Robin supports strengthening Medicare and Social Security where Blunt has said it would have been better if they had never started these life saving programs that have kept seniors out of poverty for years. He claims they really don't benefit anyone. He has voted to privatize or weaken them whenever he has had a chance. This is a very real part of the Republican agenda if they regain control of Congress.
Blunt has a voting record in Washington; Robin does not. He likes to rail against spending in Washington, but he neglects to say that he was Bush’s point man in the House to push through the $700 billion TARP bank/Wall St. bailout of 2008. Many would argue that the government needed to step in, but as it was set up, there was no accountability as to how this would be spent and much of it went to paying bonuses to CEO’s instead of stimulating the economy.
As small business owners, we have watched the legislation on SBA loans carefully this year. Blunt and the Republicans claim to be pro small business, but voted against this important legislation every time it came up. This has delayed for nearly a year us being able to get the loans we need to expand our business. He has voted against Main Street and job creation at every opportunity and for Wall Street and big business at every turn.
Blunt and the Republicans like railing against the stimulus spending and claim it didn’t create a single job. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office claims it has created approx. 2.5 million jobs and saved thousands more jobs of teachers, firefighters, and police officers. Blunt voted against all measures to stimulate the economy.
He is trying to hang a label of corruption on the Carnahan family by running ads against Robin's brother's Missouri windfarm. The claims are totally false. No one lobbied for these tax breaks in the Carnahan family nor in the windfarm company. The money was set aside and designated for companies all over the country to create jobs and encourage clean energy, something the Carnahans have been doing for years not just to get tax breaks or grants this year. Over 1000 companies across the country got these grants and tax incentives. The windfarm is the largest private sector investment in the state in the past couple of years and is expected to generate more than 2500 jobs as well as clean energy!
Blunt is just trying to deflect from his own proven record of corruption. His ties to indicted Tom Delay and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff are well documented. Even Chris Wallace on FOX questioned whether Blunt had the ethics to lead change in DC! One of his best known ethics breaches was trying to insert into a homeland security bill benefits for his tobacco lobbyist girlfriend and her company. He still maintains that making the tobacco industry stronger makes us all safer! His well documented voting record for big business and gifts from lobbyists is too long to list.
Millions of dollars of Blunt's ads are being paid for by Karl Rove's American Crossroads group and The US Chamber of Commerce that is rife with scandal over contributions from foreign countries to influence our election! They are running a well financed multi-million dollar smear campaign against Robin.
Please help us keep Blunt out of the Senate! He is a bought and paid for politician that exemplifies the very worst of Washington. Missouri and the country cannot afford to have him in the Senate.
Robin Carnahan has served MO well in many capacities most recently as our Secretary of State. She has fought corruption here and fought for consumers. She has also worked hard to make our elections safer and more ethical. We need her in the Senate.
Please support her with your vote and your volunteer efforts. You can see the volunteer opportunities at www.robincarnahan.com Thanks,
Also please Vote yes on Prop B which would strengthen regulation of the unsafe and inhumane puppy mills that MO has become infamous for!
From Mary in MO:
POWER!!!!!
This election is about power. It's about Republicans regaining power. They have shown they will stop at almost nothing to do so, up to and including using the feckless freakish tea partiers.
So now, the Republican Party has gathered under its "umbrella" people who engage in bigoted, absurd, and inflammatory rhetoric (and bahavior) and people who propose, among other things, the privatization of Social Security, the repeal of health care and Wall Street reform, and the impeachment of President Obama. The big "umbrella" includes people who say that government is too big and intrusive and yet propose that all abortions be illegal including for victims of rape and incest. As an advocate for abused and neglected kids for nearly thirty years, I can tell you that this last idea shows an abysmal lack of compassion and understanding.
To the point. Last month I turned 71.......the month before that, I completed treatment for breast cancer.
This month --- I PLEDGE to spend every Saturday until election day knocking doors for Robin Carnahan and to do whatever I can for the GET OUT THE VOTE effort.
I urge you, no, challenge you to do the same where ever you are.....there is work to be done. California, Wisconsin, Florida...there are races everywhere that could use help. Knock doors, make phone calls, -- just do it. I know some of you are already working hard --- enlist others.
In Platte County, Missouri: meet me tomorrowat at the HQ ( the Montee building) on 9 Hwy in Parkville 10:00 am. E-mail me if you can make it or if I can help you.
"They" say they want their country back but what they want to do with it is down right scary! I don't need to tell you that a Republican majority in both houses of Congress would be disastrous.
Let's do it........................
From Jane in Larchmont: How Dare Women not Vote after those who fought to get it for us only 90 years ago!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StF3_Mj0tBg
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say.
I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
Hard to believe this actually happened and we don't even talk about it.
This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because --- why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.' We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.
From Betty in Scarsdale:
We released this new ad today hitting Joe DioGuardi where he claims to be strongest: on his fiscal restraint, or, rather, the lack thereof when he was a congressman. Link to the ad is below. Please spread it to your networks.
Maggie Haberman and Celeste Katz have the ad up on their blogs:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/maggiehaberman/1010/Gillibrand_goes_negative_on_DioGuardi_.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/10/after-cheery-pro-vets-ad-gilli.html
From Val in Ohio:
I drove down a newly paved street in my community this morning and a thought crossed my mind. If John McCain & Co. had been elected this road would not have been paved. Yes, it was stimulus dollars at work that got the job done. Now as the 2010 election draws near, I have to wonder what else will be taken away if the Rethugs dominate our national agenda. Prez Obama has tried to do what we asked of him with one hand tied behind his back (the Congress). We need to give him some help. Get out and vote!!!
From Gloria in McCungie PA:
Macungie Volunteers -
Lots of good news this morning -
1 - Rick + Noreen have taken on the Herculean task of calling all *382 Obama `08 volunteers* for whom we have phone numbers to nudge them into action. Go, you guys! I'm sure they'd appreciate your help if you have the time.
2 - The Mac Institute has offered us the use of a room *FREE* for one night as reparations for locking us out last Friday night. Free's always good, right?
Bad news -
There are no rooms available there for this Thursday 10/14 as we'd hoped. Two alternatives:
* Wednesday 10/13
* Friday 10/15
Please *email me with your preference* ASAP and I'll let you know the group's consensus.
Fired up + Ready to go!
From Tommy in MO:
28 days left in the campaign --- you know that means, right? Tomorrow, I kick off my third Boots on the Ground operation - BOTG III.
In the last 28 days of the campaign, I will again travel throughout this district's 28 counties. Tomorrow, we begin on Pine Street in my hometown of Rolla and proceed. Over the next 28 days, I'll join my growing field army to knock on doors and meet voters the old fashioned way.
From day one, my campaign made a strategic choice not to to run a conventional campaign. We wanted to build a campaign that people believe in, one less focused on me sitting in a call room dialing for dollars, and more focused on getting my boots on the ground, meeting voters.
That's why I need your help. Every minute I spend knocking doors and marching down Main Streets, my opponent will be destroying my name on the air. We need ammo to fight back. Every dollar you contribute means I can continue to communicate with the rest of the district via television and radio.Will you chip in to keep my ads on the air while I'm on the ground?I really appreciate your support as I prepare to hit the pavement!
From Betty in Scarsdale:
Elie Wiesel: Ground Zero mosque should be used to bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together Make sure and vote!!!
From Peggy in LA:
After a rocky start, Kirsten Gillibrand has not only found her footing, she is poised to assume the mantle of her formidable predecessor. Jonathan Van Meter reports on the Senate’s rising star. Photographed by Norman Jean Roy.
READ THE VOGUE ARTICLE, “IN HILLARY’S FOOTSTEPS”
From Sheila in Larchmont:
It was so great to be with a bunch of impassioned women (and a few men too), writing postcards until our fingers ached (and eating fabulous chocolate), knowing we were part of helping Senator Gillebrand stay in Washington to fight for the President and all of us. How great was it to see her ahead by almost 10 points in the polls the very next day (our postcards did not do it, but our spirit might have)!
Still I worry about all the potential upsets all over the country that may defeat our hopes for giving President Obama the support he needs and for furthering our progressive goals. I can't help thinking that if we could transport all the energy that was collected in your dining room yesterday to our neighbor state, Connecticut, where the wrestler and her money threaten Richard Blumenthal...! Maybe some of your Connecticut fans can tell us what we can do to help them in their efforts. CONNECTICUT: WE'RE HERE FOR YOU! WHAT CAN WE DO?
From Letty in NYC:
I strongly recommend the film "Budrus," about the triumph of Palestinian nonviolence in a small West Bank village. It will be playing in Manhattan from Friday, October 8th through the 21st.
Location: The Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St.
Letty
Here's a story on the film that ran in last Sunday's Times. Click here: Film - ‘Budrus’ Becomes Part of a Palestinian Debate - NYTimes.com
*** FOR SCREENING DATES IN L.A. AND WASHINGTON, D.C., CLICK HERE:
Click here: Budrus Official Film Website
Just Vision
From Amy in Mamaroneck:
Check out Joe on CBS News -- on total defensive
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20018941-503544.html
From Randy in Berkeley ,CA:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904
This is an article from the October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone by matt Taibbi.
Rolling Stones strikes again-- be sure to read the entire piece. As usual, Matt gets to the heart of the matter.
It's taken three trips to Kentucky, but I'm finally getting my Tea Party epiphany exactly where you'd expect: at a Sarah Palin rally. The red-hot mama of American exceptionalism has flown in to speak at something called the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, a gospel-music hoedown in a giant convention center filled with thousands of elderly white Southerners. Palin — who earlier this morning held a closed-door fundraiser for Rand Paul, the Tea Party champion running for the U.S. Senate — is railing against a GOP establishment that has just seen Tea Partiers oust entrenched Republican hacks in Delaware and New York. The dingbat revolution, it seems, is nigh.
"We're shaking up the good ol' boys," Palin chortles, to the best applause her aging crowd can muster. She then issues an oft-repeated warning (her speeches are usually a tired succession of half-coherent one-liners dumped on ravenous audiences like chum to sharks) to Republican insiders who underestimated the power of the Tea Party Death Star. "Buck up," she says, "or stay in the truck."
Stay in what truck? I wonder. What the hell does that even mean?
Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn't a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — "Government's not the solution! Government's the problem!" — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains...
...(After speech runs out to speak to some listeners)OK," I say. "And what do you do for a living?"
"Me?" he says proudly. "Oh, I'm a property appraiser. Have been my whole life."
I frown. "Are either of you on Medicare?"
Silence: Then Janice, a nice enough woman, it seems, slowly raises her hand, offering a faint smile, as if to say, You got me!
"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"
"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people are living off the government." "But," I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"... The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin...(Read rest on line really great article http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904)
From Jennifer in DC:
Is this the Jon Stewart clip you were mentioning?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-23-2010/postcards-from-the-pledge
From Eileen in MO:
Platform for the 2010 Election
I COULD SUPPORT THIS. GEORGE
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that
includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though
we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends. My
friend and neighbor wants to promote a "Congressional Reform Act of
2010". It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be
strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights. I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you,
Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the
time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity
that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a
Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These
people will become American heroes
Thanks,A Fellow American
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding
Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home
and back to work.
2. No Tenure / No Pension:
A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they are out of office. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social
Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social
Security system, Congress participates with the American people.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all
Americans. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional
pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in
the same health care system as the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American
people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work. Or go to jail, if appropriate.
8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective
1/1/11. The American people did not make this contract with congressmen,
congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and
back to work.
From Stef in KIrsten's office:
I have concerning news. As you know, Kirsten has been an unwavering champion of women's reproductive freedom both as a member of the House and in the US Senate with a 100% pro-choice rating from groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL NY.
Amazingly, NY Republicans have nominated Joe DioGuardi, an extreme anti-choice Republican to run against her. DioGuardi opposes reproductive rights even in the cases of rape and incest. He says he wants to see Roe V. Wade overturned and has voted to eliminate funding for emergency reproductive care when a mother's life is in danger.
Read about his extremist record here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lorna-brett-howard/joe-dioguardi-liar-liar-p_b_744184.html Please comment and spread the word to your friends and social networks.
You can help keep Kirsten fighting as our pro-choice champion and progressive advocate by helping out with Women's Week of Action!
Hundreds of women across the state are taking action and it's not too late to get on board! Please reply to this email or sign up at http://kirstengillibrand.com/womensweek to find out how you can help!
From Kathy in MO: In response to KC Star Editorial(see below)
Aren't they just hideous??? Anything that is humane or makes sense they are automatically against! This should be unanimously supported, but again they are twisting everything around to make it look bad to protect animals in this state! The fact that it is outside agitators like Joe the fake Plumber makes it even worse!
Joe the Plumber plunges into Missouri puppy mills
By BARBARA SHELLY
The Kansas City Star
A grand conspiracy is afoot, and it starts right here in Missouri.
So says none other than Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, John McCain’s improbable sidekick in the 2008 presidential campaign. Liking the limelight and desperately searching for a new gig, Joe has lighted upon the Missouri ballot proposition cracking down on puppy breeding abuses.
Joe wants you to know that Proposition B is not really about making sure that dogs have access to healthy food, clean water, reasonable veterinary care, protection from extreme cold and heat, and room to move around.
No. Prop B is a plot by the dreaded Humane Society of the United States, “simply to get rid of ALL dog breeding in Missouri — the unlicensed AND licensed breeders.”
But it doesn’t stop there. Here’s Joe, on the website Alliance for Truth, dedicated to “exposing hidden political agendas.”
“This bill is just a stepping stone. HSUS eventually wants to extend this law to ALL animals. Their idea of utopia is a United States with NO animal ownership; NO meat to eat; NO pets; NO hunting; NO fishing; NO service animals.”
Is that the end of it? Oh, indeed not. More from Joe:
“Even the extinction of our food industry isn’t the scariest part of this whacko liberal agenda. A law is only as good as it’s enforced. And HSUS is happy to fill the void. HSUS has now become the self-appointed law enforcement of the animal world. We have to draw the line and hold these radical animal rights activists back.”
Wurzelbacher’s rantings could be dismissed as comedy but for one thing: His arguments have been voiced many times in the halls and chambers of the Missouri Capitol.
That’s why the Humane Society mobilized to get Proposition B on the ballot. Animal protection measures are radioactive in the state legislature.
Elected officials in Missouri have argued that tougher rules for puppy breeders are the first step to limits on livestock production. They portray the Humane Society (HSUS to opponents) as a fringe organization determined to turn us into a nation of vegans.
Meanwhile, Missouri holds the dubious status of the “puppy mill capital” of the U.S., with about 1,500 licensed breeders supplying four of every 10 puppies sold at pet stores around the nation — many with breeding and health problems. Officials believe hundreds of unlicensed breeders also operate in the state.
Law enforcement raids continually turn up starved, sick and mangy animals, some stacked atop one another in wire cages.
Contrary to what Wurzelbacher and others claim, existing laws don’t adequately protect dogs. Missouri’s animal care facilities act is 18 years old and lax compared with animal welfare laws in other states.
“The provisions ensure that the dogs survive. It does not ensure that they’re treated humanely,” said Barbara Schmitz, director of the Humane Society of Missouri.
As Schmitz observed, opponents of Proposition B don’t want to talk about the way dogs are treated. So they hide behind smoke screens and outright falsehoods.
Experience from other states debunks the claim that the new regulations would “put almost every breeder in Missouri out of business,” as Wurzelbacher warns breathlessly. In any case, the demise of a business that forces animals to exist in misery is no great loss.
And although some states empower employees of animal protection groups to inspect breeding operations and enforce laws, in Missouri those responsibilities would fall to Department of Agriculture employees and local police and sheriff’s departments.
Wurzelbacher’s ominous vision of “HSUS employees running around with guns and police-like badges breaking down doors,” would not play out here.
Joe the Plumber would love to throw a wrench into the animal welfare campaign. But his conspiracy theory leaks like a bad faucet.
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - Facebook Politicians Are Not Your Friends - NYTimes.com
From Dani in Brooklyn:
When Dowd's good, she's good...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opinion/10dowd.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 9, 2010
Lord of the Internet Rings
By MAUREEN DOWD
It didn’t take long, sitting with an enthralled audience and watching the saga of the cloistered jerk who betrayed those around him and ended up unfathomably rich and influential, to understand why it has been hailed as a masterpiece.
They had me at the mesmerizing first scene, when the repulsive nerd is mocked by a comely, slender young lady he’s trying to woo. Bitter about women, he returns to his dark lair in a crimson fury of revenge.
It unfolds with mythic sweep, telling the most compelling story of all, the one I cover every day in politics: What happens when the powerless become powerful and the powerful become powerless? ...
From Amy in Mamaroneck and Todd in Gilllibrand's office:
I think we have the ideal name for DioGuardi: "Old Crony." It was the SEC's nickname for him when he was investigated as part of a ponzi scheme. Below is our press release we sent out today. I think between his tax cheating, his election law scheming and this, "Old Crony" sort of sums it all up. An old time insider using his connections to better himself.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/12/2010-10-12_feds_link_gop_senate_hopeful_joe_dioguardi_to_ponzi_firm.html#community
BREAKING…. NY Daily News: Feds link GOP Senate hopeful Joe DioGuardi to Ponzi firm
The SEC described DioGuardi, who faces incumbent Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next month's election, as an "old crony" of the company's bosses and suggested "he's connected to the original fraudulent scheme."
As of last November, thousands of investors were owed $1 billion. The feds froze the company's assets; the case is pending.
BY Kathleen Lucadamo
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 12th 2010
U.S. Senate hopeful Joe DioGuardi prides himself on his accounting expertise - but he has a history with a firm the feds say ran a $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme.Medical Capital Holdings and its subsidiaries bilked investors out of $1 billion while sinking millions into a mega-yacht and Hollywood flop, a complaint filed last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission said.From 2007 to 2009, the former Westchester Republican congressman was paid $5,000 a month as a consultant for the subsidiary Medical Capital Corp. - and also got $16,000 a year to sit on boards of various other MCH subsidiaries.MCH managed the messy books for several of the companies involved in the so-called scheme and was named in the suit.DioGuardi, a trained accountant, claims he was oblivious to any wrongdoing.
"As a consultant, Joe was tasked with saving hospitals in New York from being shut down, but knew nothing of the schemes that were occurring behind the scenes," said his spokesman Brian Hummell, adding that his boss "has never seen the books."The SEC described DioGuardi, who faces incumbent Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next month's election, as an "old crony" of the company's bosses and suggested "he's connected to the original fraudulent scheme."...(Read rest on line)
From Val in Ohio:
The OSU rally had a lot of "fillers" leaving me to think the Prez had not arrived on time. The tea baggers put out a fake agenda listing speeches in five minute increments. Things like Obama explaining the trillion dollar budget, Michelle talking about childhood obesity, etc. Since it wasn't nasty, it was actually amusing. John Legend was great!
Off to a rally tomorrow for John Boehner's opponent. Canvassing last today. This is busy season.
From Hank in NY:
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 9:19 AM
To: 'letters@nytimes.com'
Subject: To The Editor
“The Rage Won’t End on Election Day” – Frank Rich – October 17, 2010
Mr. Rich’s essay is correct, but he doesn’t include the major reasons why. America has lost her way. In many Caucasian neighborhoods, hate thy neighbor has become the lexicon, especially if that neighbor is a Muslim, Latino or African American. Our children are obese, apathetic and are leaving school unprepared to compete in the global economy. Our elected officials vote what the “polls” say, even against the best interests of their constituents. America doesn't make anything anymore, and as the Fed considers printing more money to stimulate the economy, the beneficiaries of that strategy will be Wall Street, not Main Street.
We have been mired in unwinnable wars for a decade, the cost of which measured in lives and national treasure is beyond calculation. But the real reason the rage will continue after the midterm elections is, those elected will do no better than those in power, and perhaps worse. There was a time when American voters could influence their own destiny with their ballot, but today American corporations and billionaires control the outcome of our elections. If we want a real target for our rage, look no further than that.
From Sue in Long Island:
We have a choice in Washington: Moving forward to solve our many challenges vs. pandering to anger and fear. Nov. 2 will be one of the most pivotal elections in our lifetimes. You can make a difference!
Call, walk and talk for Tim Bishop now. The race is neck-and-neck. Most polls show Tim Bishop is ahead among registered voters but trailing among “likely” voters. That’s why we need you: To tell Bishop supporters the importance of this election and make sure they Vote. Please join us! If you care about education, if you care about healthcare reform, if you care about preserving Medicare, if you care about equal rights, if you care about a woman’s right to choose, if you care about the environment, if you care about long-term job growth instead of boom and bust cycles...
From now until Nov. 2, our extraordinary volunteers have organized a bonanza of canvasses and phonebanks. They can’t make all those calls and knock on all those doors alone. Besides, these events are fun! Tonight please join Mike and Irene to make phone calls, join Mike on Saturday for a Bridgehampton canvass, and Susan on Sunday to go door to door in Sag Harbor. Next week Arlene is hosting a Monday night phonebank, Mike’s organized a Southampton canvass, and David will lead a team going door to door in East Hampton. Details here:
PHONEBANKS
Mike and Irene’s Southampton Phonebank
Call first time 2008 voters and get them to the polls!
CANVASSES
Will you help out during the most important 4 days of the campaign season? Commit to work during Get Out The Vote weekend Oct. 30-31, Monday, Nov. 1 and Election Day, Nov. 2 – all day or a half-day. Please contact Sue at suehornik@aol.com, 631-605-4689 or David at dposnett@med.cornell.edu, 631-324-4158
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Wife of Clarence Thomas Reaches Out to Anita Hill Over 1991 Episode
>
> Virginia Thomas, the wife of Associate Justice Clarence
> Thomas of the Supreme Court, left a message last weekend on
> the voice mail of Anita Hill, who accused her husband of
> sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings, a
> spokeswoman for Ms. Thomas confirmed on Tuesday.
>
> In a message left at the office of Ms. Hill, who is now a
> professor at Brandeis University, Ms. Thomas apparently
> brought up Ms. Hill's accusations against her husband during
> the 1991 hearings.
>
> Andrew Gully, senior vice president of the Brandeis
> University communications office, confirmed that Ms. Hill had
> received the message and that she had turned it over to the
> campus department of public safety. That office, in turn,
> passed it on to the F.B.I.
>
> Read More:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20thomas.html?emc=na
From Betty in Scarsdale:
There are less than two weeks until Election Day and the stakes for New York have never been higher.
Andrew Cuomo needs your support not only to win this election, but to build a movement to turn our state around. And Andrew has run his campaign just like he will govern – by building a coalition for reform that draws support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
But our ability to move New York forward depends on how many supporters like you cast your vote.This election is your chance to send Albany a message that we need to change direction and build a better future for New York.
Make the pledge to vote on Election Day -- Tuesday, November 2nd:
From Elizabeth in Mamaroneck:
Dear friends,
This video clip just about had me in tears, it's so good. Please don't miss it.
President Obama has been harshly criticized by many Democrats for his slow and cautious approach to gay civil rights, but a new video in which he talks about gay teenagers who are bullied is a breakthrough.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/10/22/obama_speaks_to_gay_teens.html
From John R- ********* Note from Sunny,I loved it and think you will too!
Hi got this from Dean and found it share worthy. Check out the video:
http://bit.ly/9Y7H4Y
**** From Robin in North Salem:Wonderful example of starting a creative appeal to voters:
Dear All,
Got this from my dear friend robin I worked on Obama and the WLF with. It is terrific and I sent home to MO for them to do with Robin Carnahan . Can we do it for our candidates here and Kirsten and chuck? Let me know if any one of you can do this quick break down of who to vote for and few sentences of why?
Love,Sunny
Fired up and ready to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sent to me by my North Salem friend Robin!
Our sample of using their idea--Dear Friends: On behalf of Elizabeth,Susan,Rachael,Sunny,and the Dames for Democracy, I am forwarding this email to each of you in the hope that you will read it and send it to 10 of your democratic women friends in our area and remind them to vote on November 2. We need honest, thoughtful, level headed, hardworking people representing us at the state and federal levels – people who are willing to reach across ideological divides to get really important things done (like finishing healthcare reform, fiscal discipline in government and addressing global climate change). These are huge, complex, nonpartisan issues and republicans and democrats should not be fighting over them -- and would not be fighting over them (at least to the point of paralysis) but for the vicious partisan lie machine at work in our society. John, Mike and Tom (as diverse as they are) are each this kind of leader. I support all three of them. I also support Kirsten Gillibrand for exactly the same reasons. Robin Albin recently sent around a good article about Kirsten in Vogue. If you have not read it, please do and pass it along as well.
Recently I became part of a group called "Dames for Democracy." It is a local group of 10 women formed because research shows when women vote democrats win. This midterm election is crucial. Traditionally voter turnout is low during the midterms when every vote counts even more. The Republicans and Tea Party are using scare tactics to frighten the public about social issues. We must elect people who will support the issues and causes we believe in. Each one of us agreed to contact 10 democratic women and ask each to:
1. Promise to vote
2. Reach out to 10 additional democratic women and ask them to do the same
3. Provide absentee ballot information to friends with kids in college.
We can affect big change with this simple recipe for voter turn out. PLEASE join me and the other Dames for Democracy.
Here is our ballot line up:
Nita Lowey for U. S. House of Representatives: etc etc who can fix this up for us?
John is a staunch supporter of healthcare reform based on a real life family experience where he had to fundraise for a family member to afford medical treatment. He chairs the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, where he is an ardent advocate for the proper treatment of veterans. He has voted reliably forextensions of unemployment insurance, phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, support for infrastructure projects, affordable healthcare, and protecting social security.
Nan Hayworth is a very wealthy former ophthalmologist who made enough money in 16 years of work under the current health-denial system to retire at age 45 to pursue her political aspirations. Her husband is the CEO and President of Mount Kisco Medical Group (MKMG) and one of only 9 doctors on the national advisory board of Aetna Healthcare.
She OPPOSES the DISCLOSE ACT (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5175/show) which requires those corporations paying for advertising and funding campaign to put their NAME on their ads – BP/Exxon Mobil NOT ‘Citizens for sensible energy’ – Aetna or Cigna not ‘Americans for Healthcare Protection’.
She is in favor of the repeal of the healthcare reforms. A repeal would protect the profits of doctors and facilities like MKMG where her husband is CEO. Repeals of things like allowing people with preexisting conditions to get healthcare; allowing children to stay on their parent’s plan until 26; preventing insurers from dropping members who have been faithfully paying their premiums for years once they got an expensive illness to treat; no co-pays for preventative care, annual physicals, OB/Gyn etc.; Money to seniors to close the ‘doughnut-hole’
She is not pro-choice and supports the Stupak Amendment. (http://www.docstoc.com/docs/15284081/Stupak-Amendment-to-HR-3962-Rev-108)
She would like to see:
a Permanent extension of tax cuts for millionaires (like her)
Elimination of the estate tax which only affects the wealthiest Americans with estates valued OVER $3.5 million (like her)
Privatization of our social security – subjecting it to fluctuations in the market; privative Medicare and Medicaid – allowing Medicare which cost about 1.5% to administer to cost 35% or more; extending the Social security eligibility age to 70; and privatize the VA – subject our veterans to denials and rejections of claims arising from their service to our nation. Instituting a national sales tax – a 23% INCREASE for the middle class and elimination of MORTGAGE interest deduction.
Mike Kaplowitz for NY State Senate:
Mike is a Financial Planner and budget expert NOT a career candidate like Greg Ball.
Mike voted AGAINST Andy Spano’s budget, tax increases and pay raises and was FIRED from a leadership position as punishment.
Mike cut $120 Million in taxes and wasteful spending.
Mike has been in the County Legislature for 12 years – Greg runs for office, ANY office every election cycle.
Mike supports: Consolidation and downsizing of agencies; reduced reliance on property tax to pay for schools; Empowering individual legislators by reducing the total power of party leaders.
Greg Ball:
Greg wants to be promoted from the NYS Assembly to the Senate with a record of 0-132 he has failed in 3 years to have any one of 132 pieces of legislation he sponsored passed.
GREG IS A MEMBER OF THE NYS ASSEMBLY AND AN ALBANY INSIDER – A PART OF THE PROBLEM.
MIKE IS AN OUTSIDER WHO HAS NEVER HELD AN OFFICE IN ALBANY – yet Greg says HE is the outsider and Mike is the insider – clearly he has a problem with basic facts and logic.
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