Rebuilding the Democratic Party

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Comment by Donna Rodgers on October 31, 2011 at 12:16pm

Blue Dogs took up the fight for doctors' pay as poor lose health coverage

The Blue Dogs want you to believe that, unlike those other profligate politicians, they really, really care about bringing the federal budget deficit under control, even in the midst of the worst economy in 75 years.

That's why the caucus of fiscally conservative House Democrats insisted last week that their party leaders strip out nearly $30 billion in funding for health-care coverage for the poor and the unemployed from emergency legislation extending jobless benefits. It's not that we're heartless, they explained, it's just that the country can't afford it.

All of which raises the question of why the Blue Dogs couldn't muster the same fiscal discipline when it came to spending $22 billion over the next three years to guarantee that American doctors, who are far and away the best-paid in the world, don't suffer any significant declines in their incomes just because of a little thing like a recession or a government budget crisis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2...

Comment by Donna Rodgers on October 10, 2011 at 12:47pm

Source: MoveOn.org

Comment by Peter M Burr on September 23, 2011 at 3:40am

Beat The Drum...

 

One Citizen. One Dollar. One Vote.

Comment by Donna Rodgers on August 24, 2011 at 2:48pm

Comment by Donna Rodgers on August 17, 2011 at 9:14am

My recent Letter to the Editor:

 

Republicans Holding Our Country Hostage

 

Wall Street in general, Standard and Poor's and the Republican Party in particular,  have done more to contribute to America's budget deficit than anyone else in America.

 

Remember Standard and Poor's,  this is the same firm that maintained their AAA rating of the mortgage-backed securities that were being used to gamble on Wall Street right up until the time that Lehman Brothers collapsed and set off the global market meltdown.

 

There was no due diligence in determining the soundness of the financial instruments traded by Wall Street which allowed the speculative bubble that caused the Great Recession to grow and ultimately blow up in all our faces.  Wall Street hurt each and every American, old and young alike. As long as they were making a lot of money they continued  on their path to destruction.

 

The big Wall Street banks lobbied for years to deregulate their operations. That lack of oversight, including lax regulations of rating agencies like Standard and Poor's, led directly to the meltdown. And, of course, the big Wall Street banks backed by the Republican Party did everything that they could to stop the Wall Street Reform bill that passed last year, and today  they continue to work hard to undermine the regulations intended to implement it..

 

The very idea that Wall Street, and Standard and Poor's, and the Republican Party would have the gall to lecture the rest of America about fiscal responsibility should infuriate each and every American.

 

Comment by Donna Rodgers on August 8, 2011 at 7:18pm

Just a joke about John Boehner and Michelle Bachmann :)

John Boehner looked at Michelle Bachmann and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very  happy."...

 Michelle shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy". Hearing their exchange, the pilot of plane said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. I could throw both of them out of the window and make 256 million people very happy."

 

If you're one of 256 million, pass this on.

Comment by Donna Rodgers on August 8, 2011 at 11:59am

Koch Brothers, ALEC and Their Corporate Allies Plan to Privatize Government
Thursday 14 July 2011

 

On February 25, 2011, Florida State Representative Chris Dorworth (R-Lake Mary) introduced HB 1021. The bill sought to curtail the political power of unions by prohibiting public employers from deducting any amount from an employee’s pay for use by an employee organization (i.e., union dues) or for any political activity (i.e., the portion of union dues used for lobbying or for supporting candidates for office).

 

Furthermore, HB 1021 stated that, should a union seek to use any portion of dues independently collected from members for political activity, the union must obtain annual written authorization from each member.

 

In effect, this bill defunds public-sector unions—like AFSCME, SEIU, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association—by making the collection of member dues an onerous, costly task. With public-sector unions denatured, they would no longer be able to stand in the way of radical free marketeers who plan to profit from the privatization of public services.

 

Given the similarities between HB 1021 and a rash of like-minded bills in states across the country, including Wisconsin, on March 30 a public records request was sent to Dorworth’s office seeking copies of all documents pertaining to the writing of HB 1021, including copies of any pieces of model legislation the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may have provided.

 

Within an hour of submitting this request, Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon’s (R-Winter Park) Communications Director Katherine Betta responded: “We received a note from Representative Dorworth’s office regarding your request for records relating to the American Legislative Exchange Council and HB 1021. Please note that Mr. Dorworth’s legislative offices did not receive any materials from ALEC relating to this bill or any ‘model legislation’ from other states.”

 

But two weeks later Dorworth’s office delivered 87 pages of documents, mostly bill drafts and emails, detailing the evolution of what was to become HB 1021. Buried at the bottom of the stack was an 11-page bundle of neatly typed material, labeled “Paycheck Protection,” which consisted of three pieces of model legislation, with the words “Copyright, ALEC” at the end of each.

 

Snip:
Enter the Koch Brothers

 

Nov. 2, 2010 saw a radical cohort of Republicans swept into office in states across the country.

 

When the legislative sessions began in January, the American news-consuming public was shocked by the tenacity of this new breed of Grand Old Partier as it set to the task of breaking public employee unions, dismantling state government and privatizing civic services.

 

Snip:
ALEC contends that government agencies have an unfair monopoly on public goods and services. To change that situation, it has created a policy initiative to counter what it calls “Publicopoly.” ALEC’s stated aim is to provide “more effective, efficient government” via privatization—that is, the shifting of government functions to the private sector. ALEC lists its initiatives on its website (alec.org/publicopoly).

 

ALEC nuts and bolts

 

ALEC is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that in recent years has reported about $6.5 million in annual revenue. ALEC’s members include corporations, trade associations, think tanks and nearly a third (about 2,000) of the nation’s state legislators (virtually all Republican). According to the group’s promotional material, ALEC’s mission is to “advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.”

 

 

 

http://www.truth-out.org/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor/1312553212?q=publicopoly-exposed/1310660473

 

Comment by Donna Rodgers on July 29, 2011 at 8:53am

The problem with American politics right now is Republican extremism, and if you’re not willing to say that, you’re helping make that problem worse.

Comment by Donna Rodgers on July 23, 2011 at 10:34am

Country singer Ronnie Dunn has a new video out called the Cost of Living. What makes this unique for the Daily Buzz is in the video there are interludes with real people from northwest Tennessee that have been let go by Goodyear discussing how their lives have drastically changed. The song is co-written by Obion County native, Philip Coleman. Nice to see someone paying attention to an area that has been hit by an economic tsunami. LINK

Comment by Donna Rodgers on July 19, 2011 at 9:13am

It Was Designed to Happen this Way

Back at the end of June I wrote a couple of posts about the new ID requirements for voting and the free ID bill that seeks to keep the US Supreme Court from overturning those ID requirements.

On Friday the Tri-State Defender published an article detailing just how arduous a task it is to get ANY ID in Tennessee, much less a free one.

Marred by purposefully rigged service times (they don’t start counting wait times until you get in the building, ignoring the 3 hours you spent in the scorching heat) Shelby Co.’s four Driver’s Service Centers already can’t handle the volume. Can you imagine just how much worse the service will be when people realize their vote is about to be in danger.

Further, the locations of the service centers in Shelby County aren’t really all that convenient to the populations that would most likely need to be served.

http://www.vibincblog.com/?p=3862

 

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