Republicans Fear That If Unemployment Goes Down, So Will Their Chances To Win In 2012

Obama's "jobs" speech last week may only have scratched the surface of solving the country's economic crisis but there are absolutely some good proposals mixed in with all the tax cuts and the hodgepodge of failed conservative proposals. And predictably, the Republicans want to cut those good parts out and pass all the bad parts. Who couldn't have seen that coming a mile away?

House Republicans responded by signaling an openness to passing parts of Obama’s new jobs bill, while signaling disapproval of Obama’s vow to barnstorm the country to get the American Jobs Act passed in its current form.

“The message was: either accept my package as it is, or I will take it to the American people,” Eric Cantor said. “I would say that that’s the wrong approach.”

Today, the White House offered its answer: Sorry, we want the whole bill passed. Nothing less.

With the spin war over the speech now shifting to a phase where Republicans are telegraphing a desire to compromise, even as Obama hits the road to sell his whole plan to the American people, this exchange on MSNBC this morning between Chuck Todd and White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer struck me as important:

TODD: The bill gets sent to Congress next week. Are you guys assuming that it gets sort of piecemealed, that at the end of the day you’re going to get some of what you want but not all of what you want?

PFEIFFER: No, we’re not assuming that. The president said it 16 times, I’ll say it a 17th time today. He wants them to pass the American Jobs Act. That’s the piece of legislation he’s sending up. It’s a simple thing. Puts the Americans back to work and puts more money into the pockets of working families. Our belief is that everything in this bill is reasonable. Everything in the bill has bipartisan support. Everything will have an effect right now. And so we want them to pass it.

After the president spoke we highlighted how a New Hampshire progressive candidate for Congress, Ann Kuster, was looking at the unemployment situation. She put a far more effective proposal on the table than President Obama did and told New Hampshire voters that "It is time-- in fact, it is way past time-- to make job-creation the single, critical priority of our entire nation." She continued:

Washington has spent plenty of time lately on other issues, from genuine crises like Libya to political distractions like the debt-ceiling debate and efforts to end Medicare. But we cannot afford to go another month without real solutions for getting more Americans back to work. 

I may sound like a broken record-- for the past two years, whenever I have been asked about the top three issues facing our country, my reply has been “Jobs, Jobs, and Jobs.” But the truth is, this Congress has done next to nothing to promote an economic recovery and get Americans back to work.

How do we do it? Education is how we grew an economy this strong in the first place, and it is where we have to start again. Innovation has been a powerful competitive advantage for America, and we can’t afford to lose our edge. And Rejuvenation-- of our bridges & roads, cities & towns, and economic networks (highways and broadband communications)-- that's the key to a country that is built to win the future.

New Hampshire has two congressional districts and the other one is also held by a rubber stamp Republican, Frank Guinta, with absolutely no inclination to solve the mess conservatives created for working families. Next year will see a re-match between Guinta and former Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter. Carol responded to the Republican obstructionism after Fox aired a Republican Party propaganda segment on Hannity's show.

“After spending his whole vacation insisting that he was so bipartisan now that he was friends with Barney Frank, it did not take our current Congressman, Frank Guinta, a New York minute to condemn President Obama's Jobs Program. One of the top Republican leaders, Rep Eric Cantor, said, 'But there are some things that we can do if we transcend those differences and stick to what the mission here is,' but Frank [Guinta] simply refused to be bipartisan at all, flatly stating, 'they got more failed policy and empty eloquence'."

Like Ann, Carol vows to New Hampshire voters she will work in Congress in the interests of ordinary working families and small businesspeople. If you'd like to contribute to their campaigns, they're both on the same page.


THE SUNDAY CLASSICS POST DEVOTED TO BORODIN'S PRINCE IGOR (following Friday night's and last night's previews) is coming up at 2pm PT.

My only question: How did they know it WASN'T Glenn Beck lunging for that burger?

"I liked the way he bit off that guy’s hand, and the way he did his business in the middle of the stage. We need more of that in Washington."

-- Jefferson City (MO) Tea Party supporter Gwendolene
Thomason, as quoted by The Borowitz Report (see below)

by Ken

This just in (OK, well, early this morning -- in the grand scheme of the cosmos, that's barely a trice ago):

Rabid Dog Briefly Mistaken for Tea Party Candidate
Receives Standing Ovation at Missouri Rally

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (The Borowitz Report) – A rabid Doberman Pinscher jumped on stage at a Tea Party rally in Missouri on Labor Day and barked at the crowd for nearly twenty minutes before people realized he was not a candidate.

The dog, later identified by its owner as “Mister Buster,” held the crowd spellbound as he barked, growled, and frothed at the mouth, eventually receiving a standing ovation for his exertions.

Gwendolene Thomason, 42, a Tea Party supporter from Jefferson City, was one of the hundreds on hand who were convinced that the Doberman was a Tea Party candidate until he was outed as a dog.

“I liked what he had to say,” she said. ”He reminded me of Glenn Beck, only furrier.”

The Doberman’s canine identity finally became clear when he lunged at a man in the front row and wrested a hamburger from his right hand, taking two of the man’s fingers with it.

While the discovery that Mister Buster was not a Tea Party candidate disappointed many in attendance, Ms. Thomason held out hope that, dog or no, he might consider running for office at some point.

“I liked the way he bit off that guy’s hand, and the way he did his business in the middle of the stage,” she said. ”We need more of that in Washington.”

This might usefully be read against the backdrop of the new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Here are some of the juiciest gleanings of WaPo's Jon Cohen and Dan Balz, in a piece headlined "Obama ratings sink to new lows as hope fades":

The sense of deflation is particularly apparent among Democrats, with nearly two-thirds saying things are pretty seriously off on the wrong track. The percentage of Democrats saying things are headed in the right direction has cratered from 60 percent at the start of the year to 32 percent now.

Among political independents — a prime target of Obama’s new outreach — 78 percent see the country as off-kilter. The percentage saying so in January 2009 was 79 percent. Pessimism was even higher among independents — and everyone else — during the depth of the financial crisis in late 2008. But for Obama, things are back to square one.

Obama’s overall approval rating is down 11 percentage points from the start of the year. The only other time a majority disapproved of his handling of the presidency in Post-ABC polling was a year agoafter another rough summer.

For the first time, fewer than half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 give the president positive marks. Young voters broke overwhelmingly for Obama in 2008, but just 47 percent of those under age 30 now approve of the way he is doing his job; just as many disapprove.

Fewer than three-quarters of Democrats approve of the president; his disapproval rating among independents ties its high from a year ago at 57 percent.

No doubt at Obama reelect campaign HQ they're dancing on the desks over this exciting news:

Obama does, however, rate better than do congressional Republicans, his adversaries in recent, fierce confrontations on federal spending. Just 28 percent approve of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their job, and 68 percent disapprove, the worst spread for the GOP since summer 2008.

This gibes perfectly with the apparent reelection strategy: to pray that the Republicans nominate someone so appalling that the president, following his now-standard practice of positioning himself as "Republican lite," appears to just enough voters to be merely "appalling lite."

Meanwhile that peerless political sage Chris Cillizza went to town ("Vote out the entire Congress? You bet.") on a rival NBC/Wall Street Journal poll,

where 54 percent of those tested said that if they had the opportunity to vote out every single Member of Congress -- including their own - they would take it.

That’s the highest that number has been in the 18 months or so that NBC/WSJ have been asking the question -- and the clearest evidence yet that we may be headed to a “pox on both your houses” election the likes of which we have never seen before.

One of these damned polls, I'm pretty sure I heard on the radio, reported that something like 163 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. One might feel more sympathy if the respondents hadn't voted these very bums in, and weren't standing ready, to judge by history including the excellent midterm replacements they chose in 2010, to replace these bums with life forms a bare minimum of twice as bad, and ideally 20 to 100 times as bad.

That'll fix the problem for sure.

#

Alan Grayson-- Still Kicking The War Profiteers' Asses

Long before he stood up on the floor of the House and defined the Republican health care plan as Don't Get Sick! And if you do get sick, die quickly, and, in fact, long before he bucked the Democratic and the Republican Establishments to win a House seat from Orlando, Florida, some people had gotten to know Alan Grayson through a compelling feature in Vanity Fair about how he, a successful but little-known crusading attorney, took on Halliburton, KBR and other powerful Iraq war profiteers... and beat them.

“In my mind, one of the basic reasons, maybe even the basic reason, why the war has gone badly is war profiteering,” says Grayson. “You could say that the only people who have benefited from the invasion of Iraq are al-Qaeda, Iran, and Halliburton. America has spent so much money that we literally could have hired every single adult Iraqi and it would have cost less than what it has cost to conduct this war through U.S. military forces and contractors.”



In Grayson’s view, a nightmare combination of jacked-up bids, waste, kickbacks, and inflated subcontracts means that as much as half the value of every contract he has seen “ends up being fraudulent in one way or another.” He adds, “Cumulatively, the amount that’s been spent on contractors in the four-plus years of the war is now over $100 billion. Pick any number between 10 percent and 50 percent-- I don’t think you can seriously argue that the scale of the fraud is less than 10 percent. Either way, you’re talking cumulatively about something between $10 and $50 billion.”



Indeed, in February, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform got the news from Pentagon auditors that contractors in Iraq had claimed at least $10 billion-- three times more than previous official estimates—in expenditures that were either unreasonably high or unsupported by proper documentation. Of this amount, $2.7 billion had been billed to the government by KBR.



...In the early years of his career, Alan Grayson spent most of his time representing military contractors. “It was the most heavily regulated business in existence anywhere in the world, and the result of that was that it was clean,” he says. “There was a tremendous bureaucracy that existed to make sure that contractors stuck to the rules, and also to punish those who did not stick to the rules very severely.” In one famous case, he recalls, a uniform manufacturer that had made hundreds of thousands of military garments was investigated because he asked his workers to sew one dress as a gift for his daughter.



Today, such stringency is unthinkable. “What has happened is a systematic dismantling of the protections that kept the system honest,” says Grayson. Between 1991 and 2005, the size of the staff responsible for managing and auditing Pentagon contracts was cut in half. “What we have seen in recent years is an explosion in contracting, while at the same point in time we have seen a contraction of those engaged in oversight of contracting matters,” says Comptroller General David M. Walker, the head of the G.A.O. This, he says, serves “to exacerbate the systemic problems that have existed for years.”



...There are a few encouraging signs that a day of reckoning is drawing near. Committees in both the House and the Senate have held hearings on contracting in Iraq, and several plan to hold more. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, has introduced a War Profiteering Prevention Act, which would make it much easier to investigate corrupt contractors and call them to account. And in August, the news that tens of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces had vanished or been stolen prompted the Pentagon to announce that its inspector general, Claude M. Kicklighter, would lead an 18-person team to investigate “contracting practices” in Iraq.



In the more distant future, a Democratic administration might open up the vaults and expose the American public to the scale of what has been looted. “What we have seen up to now is the worst of the worst in terms of a deliberate cover-up,” Grayson says. But if and when it comes to an end, he thinks it’s entirely possible that Congress will appoint a special prosecutor-- one whose targets might one day reach “an extremely high level.”

But, obviously not this Democratic administration and certainly not this Republican-controlled Congress. The single biggest tragedy of the 2010 midterms was how the DCCC completely abandoned Grayson and spent tens of millions of dollars defending worthless Blue Dogs almost all of whom lost their seats anyway. Grayson was one of only 5 progressives to lose in the midst of dozens of Blue Dogs and their conservative brethren. Many of the war profiteers he had pursued helped underwrite the Republican efforts against his reelection. Now they may be sorry they did.



Since leaving Congress in January, Grayson has been fighting war profiteers again-- as a private attorney. And last month he scored-- for the American taxpayers who have been cheated out of billions of dollars by Cheney, Bush, the Republican war establishment and their corrupt cronies. When the Commission on Wartime Contracting released its final report last week they reported that between $31 billion and $62 billion of the tax money spent on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan has been wasted. It also said that between $10 billion and $19 billion of what contractors billed and received was fraudulent. $360 million of our tax dollars went straight to the Taliban! "Wow," wrote Grayson. "Who could have imagined that? Well... me."

When I saw that the Bush Administration was doing nothing about fraud in Iraq, I revived a law going back to the Civil War that allowed whistleblowers to bring lawsuits in the name of the U.S. Government. I filed case after case, which were promptly greeted by the Bush Administration with gag orders-- gag orders that they kept in place for years. They didn’t want any more bad news coming out of Iraq.



So I went on CNN, spoke to the New York Times and the Washington Post, and told America whatever I could say without violating those gag orders. And when the Bush Administration finally let one case out from under those gag orders-- and declined to prosecute it-- I took that case to trial, and won a $14 million judgment. It was the third-largest judgment for whistleblowers in the 143-year history of that law.



Those contractors built bases without hooking up the plumbing. A general testified that when he went there, he felt like throwing up.



The Wall Street Journal reported in a front-page article that I was “waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq.” The national organization Taxpayers Against Fraud named me “Lawyer of the Year.” And people started to think, “what is going on over there?”



In Congress, I spoke out against the wars, [see video above] and I voted against the wars. I wrote and introduced The War is Making You Poor Act, HR 5353. My bill pointed out that you could:



1. Require the Pentagon to fund the wars from its own budget of over $500 billion, not supplemental appropriations;



2. Take all the money that would save and eliminate taxes on everyone’s first $35,000 of income, $70,000 for married couples; and



3. Still have over $10 billion a year left over, to cut the federal deficit.



OpenCongress’s unscientific poll showed 91% in favor of HR 5353.



After I left Congress in January, I took up the work against contractor fraud in Iraq again. And I won an $8.7 million settlement from DynCorp and the Sandi Group.The defendants paid our attorney’s fees last Friday.



Here’s some simple arithmetic. We’ve budgeted $159.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, through next month. (The true cost is much more, but let’s leave that aside.)  That’s: $159,300,000,000.00.



You could take all that money and create 5,310,000 jobs here in America paying $30,000 a year, rebuilding our bridges, our roads, our schools, instead of the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would immediately lower the unemployment rate from 9 percent to 5.5 percent, and get money flowing in our communities again.



Now, that’s a job program. I’ll put that up against whatever President Obama proposes next week.



The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed more than 8,000 Americans, and who-knows-how-many Iraqis and Afghans. War has destroyed our economy, just as the war in Afghanistan destroyed the Soviet economy. According to the calculations of Nobel Prize-winner Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the war in Iraq alone has cost us around 8% of our $50 trillion national net worth, all of the wealth that America built up over two centuries. Over $13,000 for every single American, young and old.



We’ve taken our inheritance, and dumped it into a wood chipper.



My father served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He told me once that one of the most common questions that men of his generation heard was, “what did you do in the war?” Maybe our children will ask us, “what did you do against the war?”



That’s a question I can answer.

WE HAVE TO GET GRAYSON BACK INTO CONGRESS. Blue American has endorsed him and you can contribute here if you'd like to help. I left the country and lived abroad during the Vietnam War, not to avoid the draft-- my lottery number was high enough so that I had no worries about that-- but to avoid financing it by paying any U.S. taxes. When I visited Vietnam recently and met men and women my own age, I wanted to apologize for not having done more to stop what my country did to theirs and to them and their families. Alan Grayson can very very proud of what he's done in fighting against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Like I said, we HAVE to get him back into Congress!

SuperCommittee Appointee Fred Upton (R-MI)-- Not Just A Disaster For Our Economic Health, A Disaster For Health In General

More than a few people were surprised when John Boehner chose Michigan plutocrat Fred Upton for the SuperCommittee. Is he, they wondered, dependable enough to stick with the party's lockstep obstructionist line? In the past, Upton has cultivated a reputation as a mainstream conservative. But, those paying attention have seen a marked change in him since the rise of the Tea Party. These days, Upton has not just signed onto the Grover Norquist pledge, he's swallowed whole the entire far right agenda being pushed by the Koch Brothers and the other ultra-reactionary billionaires financing the teabaggers. Upton gave up his mainstream conservatism to embrace a radical right, even fascist ideology with nary a whimper.



Louis and Emory Upton founded the Upton Machine Company in 1911 and the congressman's grandfather, Freddy, transformed it into Whirlpool in 1950, which he headquartered in Benton Harbor 6 years later, still part of Upton's economically depressed congressional district. They began buying up other companies-- like KitchenAid, Maytag, Jenn-Air, Amana, Magic Chef and Dixie-Narco and by 2007 they were closing plants all over America, offshoring in a search for non-unionized slave labor. In 2007 alone-- as annual revenues surged past $19 billion, the Uptons closed plants in Newton, Iowa, Searcy, Arkansas and Herrin, Illinois, taking 4,5000 jobs out of America. The next two years saw plant closings in La Vergne, Tennessee, Oxford, Mississippi and Evansville, Indiana while sucking nearly $20 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding as part of its Smart Grid Investment Grant program.

Evansville's Whirlpool factory, which has employed several generations of Tri-Staters and once gave backing to the city's claim as "Refrigerator Capital of the World," will close next year, leaving at least 1,100 people unemployed as production moves to Mexico.



...Company officials cited global economic conditions as well as a decline in demand for the freezer-topped refrigerators produced here as reasons for closure of the 1.7-million-square-foot factory.



It was news that stunned many of the workers, though the company has been steadily shaving jobs over the past few years.



...One employee, 46-year-old Robert Gross of Mount Carmel, Ill., said employees had heard rumors that the plant would close for many years, but that employees were still stunned and upset that the company is moving the jobs to Mexico.



"You guys are making a lot of money, but you guys are sending our jobs to Mexico. It's just not right." Gross said he told a company official.



It will be, by far, the largest blow the current recession has dealt to Southwestern Indiana's economic infrastructure. Vanderburgh and its neighboring counties had been affected less than counties farther north in the state. As of July, unemployment in Vanderburgh County stood at 8.2 percent, while most counties in northern Indiana were well into double digits.

So why exactly did Boehner chose Upton for this crucial position on the SuperCommittee? An article in last week's Washington Post points to the answer: Some of the country’s best-known multinational corporations closely guard a number they don’t want anyone to know: the breakdown between their jobs here and abroad. The Upton family is certainly adept at playing that game and that game is at the very heart of the devastating Republican economic agenda for America. The big American multinationals like Whirlpool have cut 2.9 million jobs in the U.S. while adding 2.4 million jobs overseas during the Bush years.

Some of the same companies that do not report their jobs breakdown, including Apple and Pfizer, are pushing lawmakers to cut their tax bills in the name of job creation in the United States.

Few Republicans are as wily and practiced in obfuscating this harsh reality as Upton. Last week his own constituents in Kalamazoo were furious about his anti-jobs agenda and let him know it at a townhall meeting. Watch:







And while Upton was doing his little song-and-dance about jobs, he got a letter from the American Lung Association, not exactly a partisan organization, but an organization worried about his recent statements about abolishing the EPA-- and one that has clashed with Upton in the past.

As you and your colleagues on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction begin your deliberations, the American Lung Association writes to urge you to prioritize and protect investments in public health and to produce a final bill that is free from any policy riders.



The American Lung Association is the oldest national voluntary health organization and the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research. The American Lung Association wishes to call particular attention to the importance of maintaining lifesaving investments in the budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).



• CDC is at the heart of our nation’s efforts to prevent and reduce diseases such as asthma and those caused by tobacco use. Preventing and reducing chronic diseases will result in greater American productivity and fewer healthcare costs.



• EPA plays a critical role in protecting the public health from life-threatening air pollution that can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, cancer and shorten lives.



• NIH works to find cures and treatments for diseases such as lung cancer, emphysema and asthma.



• In addition, the American Lung Association calls on the committee to preserve and maintain the levels of funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund as defined in the Affordable Care Act. The Fund was created to be a dedicated investment in addition to current appropriations to prevention and public health in order to reduce medical costs and improve the health of all Americans.



Reduction in funding for these critical public health agencies and to the Prevention and Public Health Fund will lead to greater healthcare costs and burdens on the Medicaid and Medicare system-- driving up spending instead of reducing it. Finally, legislation that is as important and as far-reaching as what will be produced by this committee must not include policy riders that prevent agencies from taking the steps they are required to do to protect public health. The American Lung Association calls upon the Joint Committee to reject the inclusion of any policy riders from its final product.



Continuing investments in public health today will save lives and healthcare dollars both now and in the future. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction must protect the public health by maintaining funding for these critical health agencies and by not including any policy riders that would hamper federal agencies from carrying out their responsibilities to protect the public health.

It was signed by Charles Connor the president and CEO of the organization. As we pointed out last week, progressive Iraq war vet, John Waltz, is taking on Upton for the southwest Michigan congressional seat, a seat President Obama won in 2008 with 54% of the vote. Of the 7 counties that make up the 6th district, Obama won majorities in Berrien (52%), Calhoun (54%), Cass (51%), Kalamazoo (59%) and Van Buren (53%).



Upton has never had a serious Democratic challenger before. The voters don't especially like him but they had no one to inspire them in the past. John Waltz is changing that. Let's take Calhoun County, for example. In 2008 Obama took 34,561 votes and McCain took 28,553. On the same day Senator Carl Levin took 37,323 votes and the clownish Republican opposing him, perennial candidate Jack Hoogendyk, won 23,060. But just down the ballot in the House race, only 1,851 voters bothered to mark their ballots for Upton (and only 817 for his Democratic opponent). Think about that kind of a fall off. Clearly Calhoun County voters were willing to turn out for Obama and Levin. Upton spent $1,527,587 on that race and Democrat Don Cooney, a professor at Western Michigan University, spent $84,883. Last year, running in Kentucky, Waltz raised close to half a million dollars. This year he'll intends on giving Upton the fight of his political life. (Please consider pitching in here.) I asked him if he thought the letter from the American Lung Association would make Upton stop and think about how badly he's veered away from the mainstream. He didn't.

" Once this letter hits Fred Upton's office there is a good chance it will end up in the waste bin because he has been bought off by mega corporations who want a free pass to pollute. Upton has pledged his allegiance to the Tea Party and has sworn a blood oath to eliminate the EPA. Considering he represents a district that borders Lake Michigan and the huge oil spill in the Kalamazoo river last year his anti-environmental agenda is destructive and backwards. If we don't stop Upton in 2012 we can fully expect him to be the chief architect of tea party policy."

Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) On The Role Of Government

As I've said before, when Democrats and left-leaning independents decided to show their disappointment in Obama's timidity to fight for working families and their anger with DEmocratic acquiescence for going along with right-wing framing that benefitted the ruling elites over ordinary Americans, dozens of conservative Democrats-- including more than half the slimy Blue Dog Caucus-- lost their careers. That wasn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, the tsnami also took down a handful of progressives who had been standing and fighting. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) was one of the good ones we lost. NH-1 is a 50/50 swing district and last year, New Hampshire swung way to the right. A worthless Tea Party sick-up, Frank Guinta, beat her 121,655 (54%) to 95,503 (42%).



Carol has originally beaten incumbent Jeb Bradley in 2006, also a midterm, with a close and unexpected 100,899 (52%) to 94,869 (48%) vote. In 2008, in a rematch with Bradley, Carol won reelection with 176,435 (52%) to 156,338 (46%), Obama winning the district with 53%. If you look at the numbers, what you see is Democrats and left-leaning independents staying how. BIG mistake. Republican turnout from 2008 dropped off by almost 35,000 votes, better than normal for them. Democratic fall off... fell off the cliff-- down almost 61,000 votes for Carol. Voters made their point but it was like cutting off their noses to spite their faces. The New Hampshire legislature is a far right extremist operation now that is horrifying voters (and stay-at-homes) and Guinta has been a lockstep, anti-family shill for Big Business, Cantor and Boehner across the board.



Carol is running for the seat again. You can contribute to her campaign here. This week she did an OpEd on the virulent and hihilistic Republican Party attack on government itself. Please take some time and read what a dedicated public servant-- unlike Rick Perry, Carol hasn';t enriched herself while working for the people-- has to say about the legitimate roll of government in the lives of American citizens.



Our Government, Ourselves



by Carol Shea-Porter



While political discourse has taken a dive in terms of civility and substance, actually something far more sinister and frightening is occurring. There are people who are attacking the basic structure of our government and our faith in it. A few are even talking openly about secession because they truly do not believe in our government and our way of life. (We have always had those people, but they were not politically powerful until now.) But most are being absolutely irresponsible, trying to foment--and gain from-- a deeper anger.



In our past, most politicians for office publicly supported our system of government, and believed we could stand together and solve severe problems. Candidates tried to inspire, or at least tried to be careful to attack the opponent or the platform, not the government.



That has changed.



The attacks are damaging an already fragile trust, and many Americans and the world have responded by becoming increasingly convinced that America’s best days are behind us. Confidence and faith in our ability to solve problems are absolutely essential if we are to move forward, but we have irresponsible politicians (and some media and special interest groups) tearing at that faith and trust. Incredibly, a couple of them are running for president.



Here are some examples of how leaders in the past talked about our country and our problems. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said at his First Inaugural, “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper … The only thing we have to fear is fear itself … which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”



It was a buoying remark, a call to hope and patriotism, helping people through the dark days of the Depression.



Remember George W. Bush’s talk to the nation after 9/11? “We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers-- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people …”



On Jan. 9, 1961, President-elect John F. Kennedy said, “Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us-- and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state, and local, must be as a city upon a hill-- constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities.”



Are these current politicians and influential public figures “aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities?”



One of New Hampshire’s members of Congress told the tea party that the federal government was taking away all their individual freedoms. And two tea party presidential candidates also have made inflammatory remarks about our government.



The Hill reported that Michele Bachmann “likened America to the sinking Titanic,” and said, “We have gangster government.”



Texas Gov. Rick Perry said, “When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation … And one of the deals was, we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.”



This is not responsible leadership. These are outrageous comments, meant to denigrate our federal government.



The interesting thing is Bachmann has sought and received earmarks and Stimulus Act money from the “gangster government” (that would be U.S. taxpayers) and Perry brags about all the jobs in Texas that came from United States Oil and United States defense dollars.



There are other reckless leaders. Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, got almost every single Republican in Congress to sign his no-tax pledge even though he was clear about his intention to hurt our ability to administer this great nation. “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”



How can this great country recover and grow with this kind of attitude? How can we pay our bills and invest in technology, infrastructure, and medical research with this blind vision? How can we handle natural disasters like Katrina or attacks like 9/11 if we drown our government? How can we educate or defend ourselves, if we drown the major sources of government funding?



Harry Truman said, “No government is perfect."



We the people have to keep striving, but we need leaders who encourage progress, not defeat, and confidence, not despair.

"We Are Your Constituents-- Not Grover Norquist"

After Blue Dog Kirsten Gillibrand left the House to run for the open New York Senate seat, she was replaced by am even more conservative Democrat, Scott Murphy, in a special election. Last November Chris Gibson beat Murphy 130,176 (55%) to 107,077 (45%), winning in 9 of the 10 counties in the upstate New York district that had voted for Obama over McCain 51-48%. (In 2008 Gillibrand had won ALL 10 counties.) The only county that voted to retain Murphy was tiny Essex. The drop off across the district was gigantic. Democratic voters just didn't come out to vote in NY-20 in 2010, primarily because Murphy's adamantly conservative voting record was very much in line with the GOP so... why bother? It didn't make Republicans vote for him... they had an even more extreme candidate of their own; and it didn't make Democrats vote for the Republican. It just held down the Democratic and left-leaning independent turn-out.



Gibson has been a lockstep clone of Boehner's and Cantor's, a sure vote for obstructionism on every single thing President Obama has tried to accomplish for the economy. He may not be as dangerous a sociopath as Ann Marie Buerkle in Syracuse, whose ghastly record we looked at Thursday-- but he votes as through he's representing a bunch of backward, ignorant southerner bigots instead of a moderate Northeast district.



Gibson, an eager supporter of the Satan Sandwich and of Paul Ryan's plan to gut Medicare, has been angering constituents by promoting a dangerous nuclear plant and waste reprocessing facility in the district. But Grover loves him. As you can see in the video of a Gibson town hall meeting this week, his affair with Norquist is infuriating his constituents. And-- probably not counting the deepest red bowels of the Old Confederacy-- this is happening everywhere in America.

Cincinnati Wing-Nut Steve Chabot's Constituents Jeer His Anti-Choice Fanaticism

On Monday an Iraq War vet and progressive Ohio state legislator, Rep. Connie Pillich, did a guest post for us here about her battle against John Kasich's fascist anti-union agenda. At the time I found a floor speech she gave in Columbus that I thought showed what she's made of and asked for readers to consider chipping in a contribution for her campaign. I reposted it above. Why again? And so fast?



Her opponent is a pathetic John Boehner clone named Steve Chabot, who Cincinnati voters fired in 2008 and who managed to slip back into office in the Great Shellacking of 2010, mostly because of dissatisfaction with the Democrats' tepid agenda for what they promised would be Change. In 2008, 155,089 voters (52%) elected moderate Democrat Steve Driehaus over the incumbent Chabot, who they gave 140,469 votes (48%). Two years later far fewer voters came out for the rematch. But Chabot only lost 36,699 votes, while Driehaus had a catastrophic 62,417 voter falloff (allowing Chabot to regain the seat with 51%, even edging Driehaus in Hamilton County, which is a relatively Democratic stronghold.



Next year, voters won't have to chose between a conservative Democrat and a more conservative Republican. Connie comes from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt wing of the Democratic Party. She's all about the legitimate aspirations of ordinary working families. And Chabot is... still as extreme and far from the mainstream as ever. Monday be was abusive towards constituents who wanted to talk with him about unacceptably high unemployment in the region and was booed and jeered at his own Cincinnati town hall meeting-- and it centered on his virulent opposition to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

After a citizen asked the congress-man why he stood “against funding Planned Parenthood when public funds are not used for abortion,” Chabot argued that the money was fungible so he opposed funding because “they are the largest abortion provider in the United States.” This response brought loud jeers and shouts of “no!” from the audience. When Chabot later accused Planned Parenthood of using federal funds for abortion, one constituent asked, “Do you have any proof of that happening?” Chabot declined to respond.



...By Chabot’s logic, Congress ought to strip federal funding for any religious organizations that receive federal funds to finance their charitable and social work because “money is fungible.” Yet it’s difficult to imagine Republicans will use the same standard to target groups like the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops any time soon.



Still, the questioner makes an important point that ought not be missed in the discussion: Planned Parent is vitally important to women’s health care, especially poor women. Despite Sen. Jon Kyl’s (R-AZ) assertion that abortion is “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,” in fact, it accounts for just 3 percent of their services. The other 97 percent includes such procedures as breast cancer exams, STI testing, and cervical cancer screening.



Yet if Chabot and Republicans in Congress had their way, Planned Parenthood would lose $330 million in federal funding that would otherwise be used to provide critical medical services to women across the country.

So... if you'd like to see a strong progressive woman working for working families in that seat instead of a crackpot like Chabot, you can help Connie win the election here.

Dan Maffei Wants To Take On Teabagger Ann Marie Buerkle Again... But First He Has To Persuade Democrats He Deserves Their Nomination

Yesterday we mentioned that, by overwhelming numbers, the Democrats who lost last November were either Blue Dogs (more than half of them lost their seats) or their conservative allies. There were, however a tiny handful of progressives who also got swept up in the carnage, half a dozen Democrats who did NOT deserve to lose their seats but whose districts are so red that the Tea Party rage and the right-wing momentum impacted them as well. We've mentioned that Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) are both running for Congress again next year. Yesterday, Dan Maffei, one of the more conservative Democrats to have lost in 2010, made it official-- he's challenging deranged teabagger Ann Marie Buerkle to a rematch.



Their contest for New York's 25th CD, centered in Syracuse, was the closest election of the year and Buerkle squeezed by with a 648 vote margin-- 104,602- 103,954. Maffei lost because of a swing towards the crazy teabagger in the traditionally Republican suburbs of Rochester. In 2008 Maffei had won the Monroe County section of the district 26,883 (58%) to 19,179 (41%) but last year the Monroe precincts gave Buerkle the lift she needed-- 20,790 (55%) to 17,106 (45%). She picked up over a thousand Republican voters in the county at the same time that Maffei lost over 9,000! The biggest county on the district, by far, is Onondaga (Syracuse) and Maffei still won that one handily-- 76,046 (54%) to 65,632 (46%) but, even there in the most Democratic part of the district, it was a disappointing turn out. In fact in 2008, Maffei had taken 112,856 (56%) and his GOP opponent had only gotten 81,312 (40%). So while Maffei's falloff from 2008 was almost 37,000 votes, Buerkle's falloff from the presidential year to the midterm was only just over 15,000 votes. The two smaller, more rural and Republican, counties voted against Maffei both times but in 2008 he managed to get 47% in Wayne and 42% in Cayuga. Last year Wayne only gave him 37% of its vote and Cayuga 35%.



Clearly, Maffei needs to win back the suburban Rochester swing voters in Monroe County and turn out the disillusioned Democratic base in Onondaga. His dull and uninspiring , centrist message isn't going to get many progressives excited. He'll be counting on Obama's presence at the top of the ticket for Onondaga and he'll be counting on Buerkle's political psychosis for the swing suburbanites. She's been one of the most insane of the radical teabaggers among the House freshmen. Although she represents a swing district equally divided between Democrats and Republicans her voting record is to the right of most right-wing Confederate lunatics from the deepest red districts in the bowels of the South. Her ProgressivePunch score is a dismal 1.64, not just the worst of any New York congressmember, but tied (with two Mississippi KKK freaks, Gregg Harper and Steven Palazzo) for the 14th worst in the entire Congress. Buerkle's voting record is to the right of Darrell Issa's, Mike Pence's, Patrick McHenry's, Eric Cantor's, Paul Ryan's Taliban Dan Webster's, Allen West's, Steve King's, Virginia Foxx's, Louie Gohmert's, Mean Jean Schmidt's... getting the picture? From a political perspective, she's stark raving mad. As Maffei pointed out, "Buerkle has had eight months to show some sort of willingness to compromise and get things done for the district or the country, and she remains as radical as ever."

Buerkle was among 66 Republicans who voted earlier this month against a compromise to raise the debt limit and cut more than $2.1 trillion in federal spending over 10 years.



"It seems like it has been a long time since we were working on how to get things done-- not to shut things down and put the United States literally on the brink of default," Maffei said. "It’s an opportunity I have to represent the people of Central New York again. We cannot continue to allow someone as radical and extreme as Buerkle to do so. I represent a much more moderate point of view."



Buerkle, reached Tuesday afternoon on a trip to Israel, declined to comment about a rematch with Maffei.

Ironically, the congressmembers touring Israel are reassuring Israel that they, unlike the hard-pressed working families of central New York, will feel NONE of the impact of the financial hardtimes disrupting the U.S. and the rest of the world. American aid will see to that.



This is the letter Maffei sent supporters Tuesday morning making his announcement:

Since January a shock wave of Tea Party driven partisanship and inflexibility has rolled across Congress. When I lost my election last November by 648 votes, I hoped that such a close result would convince our new Congresswoman to put aside her radical ideology, and set about finding ways to bring people together and create new opportunities for Central New Yorkers. Instead, she has marched in lockstep with her Tea Party friends, and voted time and again with the special interests who spent so many hundreds of thousands of dollars on the attack ads that helped her win. 



Rep. Buerkle’s actions, now that she is in power, have clearly shown her dangerous priorities. She has already voted to end Medicare as we know it while protecting tax breaks for oil companies and billionaires. She has made her right-wing social agenda her priority while ignoring the real needs in this District for infrastructure funding and public education. And she was part of the extreme group that refused any compromise, and nearly plunged the nation into economic catastrophe.



Over the past 9 months I have done a great deal of listening to friends, neighbors and former constituents across Central New York about what they feel about the direction of the country, and whether I should be a candidate in 2012. The overwhelming refrain has been that it’s time for Congress to stop wasting time, and start working together to solve the very real problems that we face.



Sometimes, people are so frustrated that they are tempted to throw up their hands in disgust and walk away. I understand this feeling. But I know that there is a bright future in front of us as long as we don’t give up on Central New York, America, or ourselves. Working together, we can do better! That is why I am running for Congress in 2012. Our campaign will offer the people of Central New York a better future than the divisive politics of Ann Marie Buerkle.



People have had enough, and they want and deserve a representative who will offer solutions to modernize our infrastructure, to protect seniors and our middle class, and to get our deficit under control while jump-starting our economy. I have always worked hard to find solutions, and have been successful at doing so both inside and outside of government. The people that know me best know how passionate I am for the future of my home and birthplace, Central New York, and that passion gives me great energy. But I can't change things without your help. I am running for Congress and I ask for your active support.

If Maffei gets the Democratic nomination it will be another example of a conservative Democrat-- he's a member of Rahm Emanuel's sell-out New Democratic Coalition-- duking it out against a reactionary Republican. There's no real upside for normal working families. Is he better than Buerkle? Sure. She's an F. He's a C or a D. Oh boy! When he was defeated he went to work against the interests of working families at the right-wing think tank, Third Way, working on repatriating corporate profits at lower tax rates, one of the most regressive proposals floating around Washington circles. And, as the National Journal points out he's a dedicated "moderate."

In the House, he emphasized his moderate stripes and nonideological pragmatism. He joined the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats. He got seats on the Financial Services and Judiciary committees.



He says he keeps a photograph of hard-charging Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and former Illinois lawmaker, in his office closet as a reminder of the need to raise money.

The other Democrat hoping for the nomination is Brianne Murphy, a 30 year old Syracuse labor attorney. Tom Buckel, who is considerably more progressive than Maffei, was thinking of running for the seat but decided to run for the state Supreme Court instead. Tom told me that Brianne has a compelling personal story. He was right. She's an amazing, passionate candidate who is so lively, intellectually curious and animated that she makes Maffei seem like Mr. Potatohead. I spoke with her last night and my first impression was that she would make an incredible candidate against Buerkle. She told me that people across central New York are looking for "an advocate for their interests in Washington; and a fresh voice that isn’t beholden to any special interests."

"Growing up in Syracuse, raised by a single mother who supported our family with a good, union job and with some help from the government, and now as an employment attorney, I know firsthand the challenges that working families in Central New York are facing.



"I know how important it is that we support working- and middle-class families with strong public policies that create good jobs. I know the values my mother instilled in me-- promoting the common good, supporting our children, and advancing equality-- and won’t be afraid to fight for them in Washington. I believe we must win back the economic debate by fighting for policies that will create the good jobs of the future. I plan to do that in Congress."

New Yorkers will be lucky if she's part of their delegation to Congress-- and everyone else in the country looking for social justice and a muscular approach to old fashioned economic fairness will be as well. She's worth checking out-- especially if you live in the Syracuse area. In 2008 Blue America endorsed Dan Maffei and helped him raise money after he assured us of his progressive agenda. What a disappointment he turned out to be! We didn't re-endorse him in 2010. This year we'll be looking closely at endorsing his primary opponent. For now, if you want to help Brianne's campaign, you can do it here.

Guest Post From Rep. Connie Pillich (D-OH): Ohio's Senate Bill 5

State Rep. Connie Pillich is running for the Cincinnati-bassed House seat currently occupied by GOP corporate shill Steve Chabot

Now that the recall elections are over in Wisconsin, all eyes should be turning to Ohio. In Ohio, an even more restrictive anti-collective bargaining law was passed by the Republican-dominated legislature and signed into law by the Republican governor in March.



While teachers were demonstrating in Madison, thousands of fire fighters, police officers, teachers, nurses, hospital workers, school bus drivers, and many others were protesting in Columbus. We just didn’t get the national press.



Ohio’s law restricts collective bargaining for all public employees, including safety personnel such as police officers, fire fighters, and nurses. The law, called Senate Bill 5, was introduced by one lone state senator without a single co-sponsor. It quickly drew the ire of public employees, their unions, and their friends.



In its original form, SB 5 prohibited all collective bargaining for all public employees. Later it was amended to permit what the sponsor called collective bargaining for wages. This “bargaining” eliminated arbitration, giving the final say on any contract to the employer. In reality, this is nothing more than collective begging. One does not need to be an attorney to understand the patent unfairness of such a provision. The bill also contains unconstitutional provisions and hurts veterans.



Using the power of social media, public employee unions urged their members, their families, and their supporters to attend the committee hearings on SB 5. Hundreds and thousands heard the call. They began to pack the State House on committee hearing days. The Republican hierarchy began to panic at the response. Had they really not anticipated this reaction? By eliminating collective bargaining, they not only were taking away people’s rights, they also were jeopardizing their livelihoods and safety equipment.



Ohio’s State House has been the site of many protests and gatherings over its 150-year history. The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board is well-equipped to accommodate large crowds who attend committee hearings and sessions. They prepare over-flow rooms for the crowds, setting up thousands of chairs and piping in the audio from the committee room. CSRAB prepared for these protests as they had done for others. But too many people came.



I made sure to walk from my office over to the State House during the protests. I not only wanted to show my support for the public employees, but I also got a pick-me-up from visiting. As a Democrat serving at a time when the Republican majority was introducing such draconian legislation, I loved stopping by the State House to see several thousand of my friends. I would walk over, roam through the crowds and find people from my district. Every now and then, people would erupt into a cheer, or start clapping their hands. Other than that, it was pretty peaceful as they strained to listen to the committee proceedings. I would chat for a while, and then I would head off to my next appointment. But on February 22nd, everything changed.



On that day, the doors to the State House were barricaded to keep Ohioans out.



Every door to the State House, the Senate Office Building, and the Atrium-- which connects the two-- was blocked by State Troopers. They granted entry only to state legislators, staff, people on official business, lobbyists, and 700 citizens who wanted to listen to the hearings on Senate Bill 5. The remaining thousands who wished to listen to the hearings were forced to wait outside in sub-freezing temperatures for hours while vast expanses of the large State House complex remained empty.



Attempts to learn who ordered the paltry limit and who had the authority to modify that order were rather fruitless, as troopers suggested I call the dispatch clerk (no answer) or the Columbus Fire Marshall (there isn’t one).



State Rep. Teresa Fedor marched right past the State Troopers and opened the doors herself, letting dozens more in. State Rep. Bob Hagan convinced Troopers to allow an additional 500 people in. Other state reps. were permitted to escort dozens more. But thousands continued to wait outside in the cold. We handed out cookies, coffee, and doughnuts and led spectators in cheers and chants. Fire fighters played bag pipes.



Unable to get relief from the barricaded doors through the chain of command, Democrats opted to seek an injunction in court to keep the State House open. Under the threat of a lawsuit, Republicans opened the doors and permitted many to enter late in the day.



It is an abomination that we had to resort to such action. The State House is the people’s house! It is normally open to everyone. It provides the forum for people to petition their government. It is the very essence of our First Amendment rights to assemble and speak freely. To deny entry to ordinary citizens who merely wish to listen-- and chant and clap-- is nothing short of tyranny.



Is this what we have come to? I had to wonder.



Governor Kasich signed SB 5 into law on March 31st. Public employee unions and their supporters immediately began a referendum effort to put SB 5 on the statewide ballot in November. On June 29th I joined about 6,000 people as we marched to the Secretary of State’s office. We delivered 1500 boxes of petitions holding 1.3 million signatures of people demanding to put SB 5 on the ballot. SB 5 will be Issue 2 this November. A “No” on Issue 2 means a repeal of SB 5.



With a majority of Ohioans opposing SB 5, the lines are being drawn. Business groups and chambers of commerce are officially endorsing the embattled bill. The middle class, working families, fire fighters, police, teachers, nurses, and those who appreciate them are lining up on the other side. This issue and the division it is causing are symptoms of the growing polarization in our state and nation. SB 5, if enacted, will be another step in the dismantling of the middle class, ruining the livelihood that has sustained so many families and local communities. And shutting down the engine that has driven our national economy for 60 years.



This week, Governor Kasich announced he is interested in “talking” with SB 5/Issue 2 opponents. I suppose he has seen the polling that shows a huge majority of Ohioans oppose SB 5. He claims he hopes to find a compromise that will avoid the costly referendum election this fall. Opponents are pleased that he has finally admitted that the bill is flawed, unfair, and unconstitutional, as well as harmful to veterans. But the idea that he suddenly wants to talk is ludicrous. Where was he when thousands descended on the capitol last winter? Instead of talking, he hid behind locked doors.



If Gov. Kasich is really interested in compromise, he and the Republic legislative leadership should show an act of good faith: Convene the legislature and repeal SB 5 this month. Then all parties can sit at the same table to craft a mutually agreeable solution. Anything short of a full repeal this month would destroy all goodwill between the two sides. And, it will reveal the Governor’s statement for what it truly is: a campaign tactic in this difficult battle.



The mobilization of ordinary, working people in response to the draconian content of SB 5 and the tyrannical efforts to keep people out of the State House has been amazing. It has been the one bright spot in this year of terrible legislative policy by the Ohio Republicans.



Rep. Connie Pillich



---------------------------------



UPDATE From Howie



I looked around the archives for a video that would show something of Connie's soul as a public servant. I found several. I want to share this one with you just as I ask you to consider chipping in for her election campaign at our ActBlue page.

John Waltz Moves Back Home To Kalamazoo To Take On Michigan Plutocrat Fred Upton

Last we checked in with John Waltz, a 34 year old Iraq war vet, he had fallen in love and moved to Kentucky to marry his sweetheart-- and he was running for Congress there, in one of the reddest districts in the country, KY-4, against corporate shill Geoff Davis. Although Waltz raised more money than anyone had ever managed against Davis-- around half a million dollars-- he was still outspent 6-1 and... Davis is still in Congress, voting against Medicare, Social Security and the interests of ordinary American families. Since the election, Waltz has packed up his family and moved back to his hometown, Kalamazoo, Michigan.



Kalamazoo is far friendlier to Waltz's progressive politics and to his blue collar vision of fairness and equality of opportunity. And he's running for Congress again, this time against a virtual Geoff Davis clone, conflicted conservative Fred Upton. Upton, an entitled self-styled aristocrat from a wealthy industrial family-- they own Whirlpool-- has been desperately running away from any semblance of being part of the mainstream by currying favor with the local teabaggers. This week educators, union workers and retirees in Kalamazoo were protesting against Upton's anti-family values... and his horrible voting record.

They gathered on Michigan Avenue, bringing out signs and a large puppet called 'Big Head Fred.' They also went inside the district office to voice their opinions.



“We're steady rising in our unemployment,” said union employee Tamerah Mboup, “it hasn't declined, so what is he doing for us?”



The protesters are looking for the congressman to create jobs, saying they believe he'll be too focused on his recent selection to the 'super committee' a twelve-member group looking at cutting $1.5 trillion from the federal budget over the next ten years.



...“He ran on a platform, he's going to create jobs and it hasn't been done,” said Sue Mure.

In 2008, Obama won MI-6 with 54% of the vote-- a major step over Kerry's 46% or Gore's 45%. See the trend? And in Kalamzoo County, the population heartland of the district, Obama won 77,051 votes (59%), the same percentage as Senator Carl Levin... and, alas, Upton. Today Waltz told me why he thinks he can do a lot better against Upton. In fact, a lot of it has to do with Upton. "I fully expect him to propose privatizing Social Security, gutting Medicare, gutting the VA budget, working to get rid of the EPA, all to protect tax cuts for the 1,400 millionaires who didn't pay a dime in income taxes last year... and to do so again and again while normal people shoulder the load. Running in a Tea Party strong-hold district has made me a hardened campaigner."



Michigan's most progressive political leader, Congressman John Conyers, has already endorsed him. Here some of the reasons Waltz feels he can turn things around in MI-6:

•    Fred Upton is a policy leader within the Tea Party but they're actually saying he's not radical enough.



•    He votes against the President on every major issue; anti-EPA, "wants to repeal healthcare" Law, and is a roadblock to bipartisan negotiations.



•    The district has an about even voter registration, but Upton only cares about appealing to the Tea Party. With the President and a healthy top of the ticket generating turnout, Upton is beatable.



•    That means we need to do two things in order to win; raise my name ID and be on the airways dollar-for-dollar with Upton on election day.



•    Upton is the heir to the Whirlpool fortune, which has shipped thousands of jobs from the district overseas and in a district with double digit unemployment this does not sit well. Instead of focusing on the perceived crisis of the debt we need to work on the real crisis of getting folks back to work.

Alan Grayson Is Running For Reelection

Alan Grayson, arguably the best congressman in our lifetimes, is announcing his candidacy for one of the new Orlando-based districts being created. This morning he told me that "under no circumstances" would he ever support a cut in Social Security. "I don't just say 'no'; I say HELL NO-- Under. No. Circumstances... Last year I said we can't let the choice in 2010 be between the lazies and the crazies. Now its coming down to choice between the heartless and the spineless. Ask them 'am I my brother's keeper' and they just say 'no'."

Orlando police chief Val Demmings-- the one who arrested 30 people for feeding the homeless in public parks-- is also running in the Democratic primary. She's best known for losing her gun and for being an especially ignorant religious crazy. Indicted and convicted state Senator Gary Siplin may also run. He's an anti-union Democrat. I guess Grayson can just spend his time wondering who the GOP will put up against him, if not the current declared candidate, Karen Diebel, who has a history of mental instability but nearly beat Sandy Adams in their last primary.

Blue America will formally endorse Grayson as soon as he files his FEC papers. Meanwhile, though, please join me in letting Alan know how excited we are that he's running again.

Southeast Wisconsin Purged A Fascist Congressman In 1940-- Will It Do It Again In 2012?

Today Wisconsin's 4th CD is the most dependably Democratic district in Wisconsin. Gore took it with 66%, Kerry with 70% and the Obama landslide was an eye-popping 75%. The Congresswoman from WI-4 is Gwen Moore, an outstanding and dedicated progressive. Last November, the strong right-wing headwinds still saw her mop the floor with her opponent 69-30%. The midterm before that (2006) she scored 72%. Comprised entirely of Milwaukee and working class suburbs like Cudahy and St. Francis, the district residents' medium income is just over $33,000. It's 54.8% white, 33.4% black and 11.2% Hispanic. The PVI is... D+22. But the 4th wasn't always such a bright blue stronghold. In fact, it was once the very worst kind of red hellhole.

In 1923 the 4th elected John Schafer, a Republican whose district also went further south into the area currently represented by Paul Ryan. And, in some sense, Schafer was the Paul Ryan of his day, at the forefront of the most extreme parts of the national Republican agenda, treading where just a few other psychopaths dared to go. By 1939 Schafer was a full-fledged, raving Nazi-- as virulently anti-American in his policies as Ryan is today. Allow me to quote Glen Yeadon's book, The Nazi Hydra in America, from the subchapter titled "Congressmen and Seditionists:"

One fascistic congressman was Republican John Schafer from Wisconsin. His congressional record was one of complete opposition to any defense measure. In speaking with Carlson, an investigative reporter posing as a pro-fascist, Schafer spoke of a revolution against democracy: "The Bloody kind. There will be purges and Roosevelt will be cleaned right off the earth along with the Jews. We’ll have a military dictatorship to save the country." He belonged to the Steuben Society, a German-American ethnic association.

Last year, discussing the dangers of John Boehner's Nazi pal Rich Iott, then a Republican candidate for Congress, Salon explored the prevalence of fascist support among Republican Members of Congress in the 1930s and '40s.

Several Republican Party members were also enthusiastic supporters of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization made up primarily of ethnic German-Americans. Though never a major national movement, the Bund had a strong enough following that it was not unusual to see Americans in Nazi uniforms openly goose-stepping through American cities giving the straight-arm salute. Conservative politicians were frequent speakers at such rallies.
 
Republican support wasn’t relegated to support of minor political movements, though. Members often brought their support straight into the halls of Congress. During the early days of the war, Senator Rusfus Holman, a Republican from Oregon, gave a speech in the Senate blaming “international bankers” for the world crisis.

...As in Germany, pro-fascist Americans considered themselves patriots. They were willing to destroy American democracy in order to save America.
 
An article at the time quoted Republican House Member John Schafer using words eerily prescient of the kind of rhetoric used today by Tea Party activists. A revolution was coming to America, Schafer predicted. "The bloody kind,” he said. “There will be purges and Roosevelt will be cleaned right off the earth along with the Jews. We’ll have a military dictatorship to save the country."

Finally in 1940, Wisconsinites had the good sense to deny Schafer reelection and replace him with Democrat Thaddeus Wasielewski. He kept trying for elective office into the 1950s but the allure of fascism-- at least the blatant kind-- was no longer attractive enough to elect Schafer's kind of Republicans. Today, though, in some of the same wards, like Oak Creek, the far right is still alive and voting for Paul Ryan with his own more modern brand of fascism. And this cycle, Blue America is dedicating itself to helping to wake people up to the dangers Ryan poses to ordinary American families. (You've probably noticed.) If you'd like to help, please take a look at Stop Paul Ryan.