tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-143852472024-03-07T04:07:17.228-05:00Target the Corrupt Republican CampaignThis project grew out of the Tom DeLay scandal. It has quickly become clear that not only is the Republican party unwilling to hold Tom DeLay accountable for his corruption, but many other Republicans are also terribly corrupt. Given the facade the Republicans have of being the "moral party," this kind of widespread corruption kind of tarnishes their image. This blog will highlight specific Corrupt Republicans and specific actions we can all take to expose their corruption.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-34309509053743652032012-09-11T11:25:00.001-04:002012-09-11T11:25:22.061-04:00The Deeply Corrupt Brooklyn Democratic Party Machine<br />
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I am embarrassed by this diary. I live in a place where the DEMOCRATIC party is massively corrupt and that corruption is poised to continue far into the future. I fight REPUBLICAN corruption. How can I do that when I live in an area where the Democratic Party is so massively corrupt.</div>
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I grew up in Los Angeles. I remember a friend of mine from Chicago who was amazed that she couldn't find someone to bribe to hurry up her remodeling plans for her house. Los Angeles was the least corrupt place she had lived. That is my background.</div>
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I now live in Brooklyn. I am amazed that the national Democratic Party hasn't come to Brooklyn and kicked our asses because we are among the most corrupt party machines in America. We look like a third world country when it comes to corruption.</div>
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Our previous County Leader, Clarence Norman, served a full jail sentence for corruption. Our current County Leader, Vito Lopez, has done almost ALL of the same things Clarence Norman went to jail for, and is under active investigation by pretty much all levels of government for corruption. He ALSO recently was accused of sexual harassment by several women from his own staff...and apparently the NY State government settled some other sexual harassment suits against him at taxpayer's expense.</div>
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I spend a lot of time attacking Republicans for corruption. And nationally Republicans are FAR FAR FAR more corrupt than Democrats. But I find myself embarrassed by the local corruption in the Brooklyn Democratic Party.</div>
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Vito Lopez, due to health reasons and the sexual harassment suits, is on his way out. So now we are faced with a chance for reformers to make a difference. But I see the reformers acting disorganized and defeatist before our most important meeting. The anointed successor to Vito Lopez is disgraced Judge Seddio. More of the same corruption. Brooklyn is set to continue to be a corrupt blight within the Democratic Party.</div>
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Why is the national party allowing this corruption? And our local party machine is actually really bad at electing Democrats, so there is NO REASON WHY THE NATIONAL PARTY SHOULD TOLERATE THE KINGS COUNTY MACHINE!!!!</div>
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What is the role of a local Democratic County Committee?</div>
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It is to elect Democrats. Period. End of sentence.</div>
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Vito Lopez, our second County Committee Leader in a row to be disgraced (soon to be followed by ALREADY disgraced Seddio) actually AS DEMOCRATIC COUNTY LEADER endorsed a third party candidate (one of his cronies) against a DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE (someone who refused to agree to his corruption). Get that? The LEADER of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY endorsed a THIRD PARTY candidate AGAINST the DEMOCRATIC candidate for PERSONAL reasons. And the National Party let it slide.</div>
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Going more deeply into Brooklyn Politics, I am friends with many people who are head of several political organizations. Several of these people sought to find candidates and support candidates against Republican Marty Golden. Vito Lopez, the HEAD OF THE BROOKLYN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, supported Republican Marty Golden and discouraged ANY challenge to him by Democrats until VERY recently.</div>
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Furthermore, in two recent elections, we LOST Democratic seats to Republicans because Vito Lopez and the Democratic Party machine sat on their hands. David Weprin and Lew Fidler SHOULD have won. But Vito Lopez didn't care about Weprin and did NOTHING for him. Lew Fidler had recently stood up to Vito Lopez in a local primary so Vito publicly denounced Fidler. Vito officially endorsed Fidler, but did nothing at all to help him win. And this is the supposed LEADER of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn. Weprin and Fidler both lost to extremist teabagger Republicans thanks to the incompetence of the Kings County Democratic Party.</div>
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I plug Democrats across the country but I feel my local Democratic Party is an embarrassment. I am starting to feel like I have nothing to say politically because I can't make my own local Party better...despite almost a decade of trying.</div>
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I believe one of the main differences between the Republican and the Democratic Party is THEY stand by their most corrupt members while we oppose our most corrupt members. The Clarence Norman, Vito Lopez and soon to be Frank Seddio machine in Brooklyn looks a LOT like the Republican model of corruption, supported and perpetuated year after year.</div>
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Our local corruption has been tolerated on both the state and national levels. Our local incompetence at electing Democrats over Republicans has been tolerated on both the state and national levels. Why? The Kings County Democratic Party is both blatantly corrupt AND unable and unwilling to elect Democrats against Republicans in the few close races we have. Why are we tolerated?????</div>
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Our current County Leader, Vito Lopez, is on his way out because of sexual harassment charges. But he has anointed Seddio as his replacement and the reformers I am a part of can't do much about that. Seddio is an already disgraced judge. He is already PROVEN by LAW as corrupt. But the Democratic Party is going to accept him as leader in Brooklyn.</div>
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If I was a Republican this whole Clarence Norman, Vito Lopez, Frank Seddio corruption would be red meat to feed on. I would hold Brooklyn up as the most corrupt place in America and embarrass the Democratic Party with these corrupt assholes.</div>
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So far the reform movement (currently led by the likes of Chris Owens, Jo Anne Simon and Lincoln Restler) has been working hard but without support from the state or national party.</div>
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Now that we have a SECOND party leader facing major charges, can we get some help in reforming the Kings County Democratic Party??? And the next anointed Party Leader ALREADY has faced corruption charges.</div>
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Can I get some help from the NY State Democratic Party? Can I get some help from the national Party? What I have been trying to do is get my local Party to be LESS CORRUPT. Why is it so hard to get State and National help?</div>
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Clarence Norman, Vito Lopez and Frank Seddio are all corrupt scum. Why does the Democratic Party tolerate them as major power brokers? If we tolerate this level of corruption within our own party, how can we criticize the Republicans for their even greater corruption????</div>
mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-60019654702139175372012-08-11T14:12:00.002-04:002012-08-11T14:16:44.629-04:00Let's Embarrass Rom/Ry in November<br />
So I long ago realized Obama will win. It may or may not be close. A good friend, Rock Hackshaw, a local blogger and politician, predicted "it won't even be close" some months ago. And he was one of the first people I know to have predicted an Obama win in 2008.<br />
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The Rom/Ry ticket advocates a return to the horribly failed Bush policies that gutted the American economy and created our largest deficits ever. America still is angry at the Greedy Oil Party for the stupid failures of the Bush years and they realize that Rom/Ry want to go back to those failed Bush policies. But we need to do more.<br />
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It is Congress I am worried about. We need to hold the Senate and make gains in both the Senate and the House. Ideally we would win big in both, but that will take a lot of work. But it is work worth doing.<br />
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But I also think we have a real shot of embarrassing the Republicans on their home ground, and this dovetails with gains I would like us to make in Congress and on local levels. Looking at the race for the presidency we have:<br />
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Mittens "1%" Rom, former governor of Massachusetts<br />
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Paul "teabagger elitist" Ry, congressman from Wisconsin<br />
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Barack "making history" Obama, former Senator from Illinois<br />
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and Joe "I don't plagiarize anymore" Biden, former Senator from Delaware.<br />
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Now I don't know of any close races in Delaware, but I do know that Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Illinois are states with some pretty darned critical races, and in addition to simply seeing Obama/Biden defeat Rom/Ry, I would love to see the Greedy Oil Party SLAMMED into defeat in the same states that these Pres and VP candidates come from.<br />
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I want to see us come as close to sweeping every close race possible in Wisconsin (a key battleground state for several years), Massachusetts, and Illinois. In the process we can help some really damned good Democrats win over really sleazy GOPers.<br />
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Here is my new (partial) strategy for November:<br />
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To donate to the following candidates, please <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/page/mawi">visit my Embarrass Romney/Ryan 2012 Act Blue website</a>. I will match at least partly the first three donations made. Our future hangs in the balance this year, so I am hoping you guys make me shell out a LOT of money on this. I can't afford it but I feel I can't afford NOT to.<br />
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If we win most of these races, we will be REALLY kicking ass this year.<br />
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NOTE: I base my choices partly on candidates I like, partly on Democracy for America, partly on Progressive Majority, and partly on a conservative-website-I-tend-to-follow's view of what they consider close races.<br />
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Let's begin with the Rom's own state of Massachusetts. He was Gov there, and not as bad as most Repubs, but not great. Now Romney won't win Mass even though he is a former Gov...but it will be so much more satisfying if he not only loses himself, but his party loses two close and key races for Congress: Senate and MA-6. Both are close races.<br />
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<strong>MA-SEN:</strong><br />
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This is one of our most important fights this year. It is a toss up race that is really neck and neck. Winning a major Senate seat race in Romney's own state would be really, really sweet.<br />
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Elizabeth Warren is a great candidate. <a href="http://www.democracyforamerica.com/campaigns/4266">Check out her profile on Democracy for America's website.</a><br />
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<strong>MA-6:</strong><br />
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This is a close House race in Massachusetts. Holding onto this seat helps us in Congress.<br />
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Now let's turn to one of the most important swing states in the country. We have been fighting anti-union extremism here for 2 years now, and we have been winning several recall elections on the state level. Paul Ryan comes from Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a strong progressive, pro-labor, pro-farmer background that could turn so solidly against the Republicans their heads would spin. Democrats haven't fought hard enough for this state's heart and soul. The Rom picked Ryan because they want to make us fight for Wisconsin. Well let's turn the tables. We WILL win Wisconsin for Obama. I have no doubt about that. But let's make our win go deeper. Let's win every close Congressional seat and let's defend our new lead in the state senate.<br />
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My family first moved to Wisconsin (Milwaukee) after coming from Europe. So I feel some personal, family connection to winning in Wisconsin. My visits to Wisconsin (pretty much Madison for conferences) have been very enjoyable experiences. I would love to see Wisconsin follow its strong progressive history right about now and solidly reject the Rom/Ry advocacy of returning to failed Bush policies. Here are the key races:<br />
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<strong>WI-SEN:</strong><br />
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The tea party is really aiming for this seat. We need to defend it if we want to hold onto the Senate. We also need to show Ryan that his greedy and cruel vision for Wisconsin and America is a failure and that his own state prefers the more progressive vision of Tammy Baldwin.<br />
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<a href="http://www.democracyforamerica.com/campaigns/4633">You can read more about Tammy Baldwin at Democracy for America.</a><br />
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<strong>WI-01:</strong><br />
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Rob Zerban is running for Paul Ryan's own seat. I say lets fight the right on their own territory. If we can give Ryan a run for his (ample) money right in his own district it will send a clear message how sick America is of his extremist views.<br />
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<strong>WI-07:</strong><br />
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This is a key House race. This is a real chance to pick up a seat from the Republicans.<br />
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Patrick Kreitlow has been endorsed by the Intl. Association of Firefighters, Steelworkers Union, National Farmers Union, NARAL Pro-Choice America Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters, AFL-CIO, League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood Action Fund Sierra Club, United Auto Workers, WI Federation of Nurses, and WI Alliance for Retired American, among others.<br />
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<strong>WI-08:</strong><br />
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This is another pick up opportunity for Democrats in the House.<br />
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Jamie Wall has been endorsed by Green Bay Firefighters, the Alliance of Retired Americans, the Teamsters, Human Rights Campaign, American Federation of Teachers- Wisconsin, American Nurses Association, United Auto Workers, and many others.<br />
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<strong>WI-SD-18:</strong><br />
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Jessica King is one of my favorite Democrats. And she has been for several years.<br />
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Jessica King is one of the best things to happen to the Wisconsin State Senate, winning one of the hard fought recall elections against the right wing extremist Republicans. Jessica King is intelligent and very capable and will make an excellent State Senator.<br />
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She has been endorsed by Progressive Majority and is one of America's best progressives. Let's make sure she wins re-election.<br />
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<strong>WI-SD-32:</strong><br />
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Jennifer Shilling is another Progressive Majority endorsed candidate who won one of the recall elections. And this is another seat worth defending.<br />
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<strong>WI-SD-22:</strong><br />
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Bob Wirch was one of the Democrats targeted by Republicans for recall...but we beat them, defending Bob's Senate seat. Let's show him we still have his back. Bib Wirch is also endorsed by Progressive Majority.<br />
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<strong>WI-SD-30:</strong><br />
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Dave Hansen was also one of the Democrats targeted by Republicans for recall...but again, we beat them. Let's show him we still have his back. Dave Hansen is also endorsed by Progressive Majority.<br />
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NOW I want to turn to the state that elected Obama to the Senate: Illinois. It would be great to sweep the close races in Rom's Massachusetts and Ry's Wisconsin. But it would ALSO be sweet to sweep the many close races in President Obama's Illinois. Here they are (sorry Biden...don't find close races in Delaware):<br />
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<strong>IL-17:</strong><br />
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This is a seat we can pick up from the Greedy Oil Party. But it's going to be close.<br />
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<strong>IL-11:</strong><br />
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This is a close race and one that we absolutely have to win to make gains in Congress...particularly if we want Congress to start accepting global warming as an issue we need to deal with.<br />
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Bill Foster is one of my favorite candidates. He was a renowned scientist turned businessman who has already served in Congress. It is time to send him back to Congress. We need more people with Bill's intelligence, practicality and scientific outlook.<br />
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Bill Foster has been endorsed by the Associated Firefighters of Illinois, AFL-CIO State Federation of Illinois, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local #308, and many others.<br />
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<strong>IL-13:</strong><br />
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This is another very close race and an important pick up opportunity for Democrats.<br />
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Dr. David Gill has been endorsed by the United Auto Workers, AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Sierra Club, United Mine Workers of America, Democracy for America, Progressive Democrats of America, National Nurses United, and many others. He is a true progressive and would be VERY valuable to have in Congress.<br />
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<strong>IL-08:</strong><br />
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Captain Tammy Duckworth was a Black Hawk helicopter pilot fighting in Iraq. She lost both legs and part of the use of her right arm when her helicopter was shot down, and was awarded the Purple Heart for her combat injuries.<br />
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President Obama appointed Captain Duckworth to be Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs where she sought to improve the standard of care for Vets. She oversaw VA's effort to end Veteran homelessness and lead initiatives for female Vets and increased accessibility and accountability with the new Office of Online Communications.<br />
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We have a REALLY good shot at picking up this seat.<br />
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<strong>IL-12:</strong><br />
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This is a seat we could lose. If we want to make gains in the House, we need to defend it. The Greedy Oil Party is really trying to take this seat from us.<br />
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Bill Enyart is the former head of the Illinois National Guard. He is pro-labor and would be a committed Congressman.<br />
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<strong>IL-10:</strong><br />
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This is a close race but one we have a good shot of winning.<br />
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Brad Schneider has been endorsed by the Associated Firefighters of Illinois, United Auto Workers, League of Conservation Voters, NARAL, Human RIghts campaign, United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners, and many others.<br />
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Help me win these critical races and in the process embarrass the Greedy Oil Party.<br />
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Again, you can donate through my <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/page/mawi">visit my Embarrass Romney/Ryan 2012 Act Blue website</a>. And I will try to match at least partly the first three donations made.<br />
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<br />mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-56551559712087750932012-08-02T19:49:00.000-04:002012-08-02T19:49:06.778-04:00Flashback to the depths of the Bush years...<br />
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At the depths of the Bush years, when the economy was starting its nose dive, when censorship became common, when our freedoms were compromised routinely by Republicans, when Bush and Cheney let Osama bin Laden go free to dance on American graves...Eric Idle of Monty Python came up with this little number protesting Bush/Cheney attacks on American freedoms:</div>
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To anyone who complains about Barack Obama, let's remember how awful the Republicans are when they have power. Censorship, a ruined economy, failed foreign policy and self-righteous attacks on basic American freedoms are all Republicans have to offer us.</div>
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<br />mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-7976140118363396922012-06-02T12:58:00.000-04:002012-06-02T12:58:04.139-04:00NYC Comptroller John LiuI want to present a somewhat biased, but carefully thought out, view of Comptroller John Liu and the accusations against him. I know John Liu personally, though not well. He and my son get along great. He is a brilliant mind and he is one of the few politicians I know who genuinely listens to people and learns from people he talks to. During his City Council years he consistently <a href="http://dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/2011newyorkcitycouncil_humanrightsreportcard">ranked highest amongst his peers on Human Rights issues</a>. He is solidly pro-union and has stood up to developers one behalf of communities more than most of the mayoral candidates. He is smart, progressive, energetic, and not afraid of taking difficult positions. I like him and I think he would make an excellent mayor. One of our best.<br /><br />He is being accused of violating campaign finance laws. As a reformer I very much support a full investigation into these accusations. I do not intend to be an apologist if the accusations prove to have merit.<br /><br />But I also look at these accusations in the context of what I know and have experienced about John Liu and also in the context of NYC politics in general. First off, I look at the accusations against John Liu in the context of the scandals that Christine Quinn and Bill de Blasio have been mired in. Both have, shall we say, very creatively shuffled money and have gotten huge quantities of developer money, clearly in exchange for the very pro-development, largely anti-community stands they take. In the context of NYC politics, what John Liu is accused of is minor compared with the slime surrounding <a href="http://dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/workingfamiliespartyscandalwfpandbilldeblasiosubpoenaed">Bill de Blasio</a> and <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-04-22/news/the-half-billion-dollar-secret/">Christine Quinn</a>. In my mind if Liu is taken down by these accusations it is unfair if de Blasio and Quinn aren't put through just as much scrutiny and are held equally accountable for their scandals. So far that has not been the case. The media seems to be far easier on Quinn and de Blasio than they are on Liu.<br /><br />However, to me that is a weak argument. I have never believed that "well everyone does it" is an adequate excuse. If John Liu seems guilty of these accusations, even though I believe Quinn and de Blasio are far, far more corrupt, I would probably switch my support to Scott Stringer of no one better comes up. But I also have, on a very gut level, a sense that John Liu is largely innocent of the accusations made against him. Maybe his brilliance and his effectiveness as Comptroller are influencing my opinion, but I and people I know have worked side by side with his campaign and observed his campaign in action, and I want to emphasize that of ALL the campaigns we have worked with, John Liu's was by far the most careful and most transparent about money.<br /><br />I have donated to many campaigns and worked with many campaigns. John Liu's is the only one that seemed to check each signature, scrutinize every donation, and send back money if there was ANY question about the donation. I have personally seen this and I know others who had the exact same experience. We experienced this during is run for Comptroller and we have experienced it again during his run for mayor. People commented on his campaign's care and transparency LONG before the accusations started. I have never seen a campaign that was so careful about donations. I also found it telling that John Liu avoided the WFP scandal where WFP violated campaign finance laws and many candidates (including Bill de Blasio) had to scramble to correct the WFP-generated violations in order to avoid scandal. John Liu did not participate in the shady dealings of WFP. Now WFP denies wrongdoing, but the truth is the only reason no one was indicted was the judge allowed them to correct the violations to avoid indictment. But those violations were real, were massive, and were widespread. And WFP and the accused candidates never owned up to them but rather hid behind denial and excuses. John Liu did not participate in those violations despite being endorsed by WFP. I always wondered if this was good sense and care regarding campaign finance laws on his part.<br /><br />I have also found his campaign and John Liu himself very open and transparent about these accusations. Most politicians I talk to who face a scandal avoid talking about it and get angry and evasive when scandals are brought up. John Liu and his campaign have discussed it with me in a very open way unlike any other politician I have known. Not making excuses and not trying trying to deflect the discussion. I once made the statement that I thought if Bill de Blasio had done the same thing the press would have given him a pass...the people on his campaign I was talking to didn't even take that easy way out. They said they didn't agree with me and have always welcomed a fair investigation. Even when I handed them an easy excuse (and I still think I am right...de Blasio and Quinn get a pass from the media for their scandals when Liu does not) they refused to take it.<br /><br />This personal experience and the experiences of many I know who are very sensitive to any whiff of corruption do not fit with the accusations being made. This, more than anything, is the reason why I have a gut level feeling that the accusations against John Liu are false or exaggerated, are politically motivated, and standards are being applied unfairly given the very dubious and far less transparent campaigns of Christine Quinn and Bill de Blasio.<br /><br />I do think Oliver Pan may have violated campaign finance laws, though I have never worked with him as far as I am aware and can only say that the accusations seem plausible to me in a way that the accusations against John Liu do not. I feel like people like Oliver Pan skirt gray areas of finance laws and should never have become a common part of political fundraising. But they HAVE become a common part of political fundraising. We need better campaign finance laws. But that in itself is not John Liu's fault. Quinn and de Blasio use bundlers as well and I am willing to bet those bundlers use similar practices as Oliver Pan. Quinn's campaign has CERTAINLY had the exact same kind of scandal (bunlder Norman Hsu) but funny how THAT has not generated the same media attention as Liu's association with Oliver Pan.<br /><br />Bottom line is, I would welcome careful investigations into the campaign finances of Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio, AND John Liu. Fair and unbiased investigations into any questionable practices are good things. But based on my experience and my conversations with John Liu and with his campaign, I have found them to be among the most honest and transparent campaigns I have found in politics. If HIS campaign is brought down by scandal despite what seems to be unusual care and transparency, then God help us all because I still think John Liu is at the more honest end of NYC politics. Maybe that is even more damning with faint praise than I realized, but I still think it is true.<br /><br /><a href="http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO MOLE'S PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT</a><br /><br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO I HAD A THOUGHT</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-75668966570192324402012-06-02T12:56:00.001-04:002012-06-02T12:56:18.903-04:00Democrats Routinely Better for the Economy<br />
I have covered this before, but it seems it is always good to review the facts. From the <a href="http://dpc.senate.gov/docs/fs-111-1-139.html">Democratic Policy Committee</a>:<br />
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<blockquote>
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Since 1929:<br />
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· An investment of $10,000 in the S&P stock market index during only Republican administrations would have yielded a return of just $10,506 (this includes the abysmal 36.7 percent drop in returns over the eight years of the George W. Bush Administration).<br />
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· That same $10,000 invested during Democratic administrations would have grown to $389,320 (this includes the 29.5 percent increase in returns over the [first] 281 days under President Obama’s Administration).<br />
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[New York Times, Opinion, 10/14/08, updated by author Tommy McCall 10/28/09*]<br />
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This is a striking 37-fold difference in performance.<br />
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According to this analysis, annualized returns under Republican presidents through the end of the George W. Bush Administration, who presided over a 4.4 percent annualized drop in returns, were only 0.1 percent. By contrast, Democrats presided over a nine percent annualized gain for investors. </blockquote>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Stocks do better under Democrats.</span><br />
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The fact is that the economy has performed significantly better under Democratic administrations than Republican administrations. Between 1960 and 2008, Democratic presidents presided over stronger economic growth, larger increases in median family income and higher job creation, as well as lower federal spending, federal deficits, and inflation. [Slate, 9/16/08; New York Times, 8/30/08]<br />
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For example, over the past 48 years, Democrats have presided over:<br />
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· Stronger growth in the economy. From 1960 to 2008, real GDP grew faster under Democratic presidents (4.1 percent per year on average) than under Republican presidents (2.7 percent).<br />
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<img alt="" src="http://dpc.senate.gov/docs/fs-111-1-159_files/image002.gif" /><br />
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...<br />
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Better household incomes for all. Between 1948 and 2008, annual incomes grew for all income classes under Democratic Administrations. By contrast, under Republican Administrations, the richest Americans enjoyed a disproportionate share of income growth.<br />
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<img alt="" src="http://dpc.senate.gov/docs/fs-111-1-159_files/image003.gif" /> <br />
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Over this same period, real median income, representing the exact middle of American households, grew more under Democrats (2.2 percent) than under Republicans (0.6 percent). In fact, under President Bush, real median income actually fell $2,197. Looking back as far as we have data (back to President Kennedy), only two other Administrations have had a decline in real median household income.<br />
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· Largest decreases in poverty. Since the census began tracking the poverty rate in 1959, Democratic presidents have often produced the largest drops in poverty rates, while Republicans have seen the largest increases. As an example, during the eight years of William Jefferson Clinton Administration, the poverty rate decreased by 21.17 percent and the number of Americans living in poverty decreased by 19.57 percent. Unfortunately, those gains more than reversed in the George W. Bush Administration, when the poverty rate increased by 12.82 percent and the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 21.04 percent. More than numbers and percentages, these figures reflect that, while more than 7.6 million Americans rose out of poverty during the Clinton years, nearly 7 million fell into poverty during the Bush years.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Economic Growth is BETTER and more EQUITABLE under Democrats</span><br />
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<blockquote>
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Lower unemployment and more robust job growth. The unemployment rate has been lower under Democratic presidents (5.3 percent on average) than under Republicans (6.2 percent). <br />
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Moreover, in the eighty years between the start of the Hoover Administration and the end of the George W. Bush Administration, job growth was higher under all six Democratic Presidents than under any of the seven Republican Presidents. <br />
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<img alt="" src="http://dpc.senate.gov/docs/fs-111-1-159_files/image004.gif" /><br />
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The statistical probability of that happening through random chance is more than 1,700 to 1. </blockquote>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Democrats Create More Jobs</span><br />
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And let me add (not from the same source): Even in terms of fiscal responsibility, that thing Republicans like to harp on, it is really a Democratic value as proven by the numbers:<br />
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<img alt="" src="http://brual.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/national-debt-gdphalfsize.gif?w=517&h=317" /><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republicans do FAR more deficit spending that Democrats.</span><br />
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The numbers don't lie. It is very clear that Democrats are better for ALL aspects of the economy.<br />
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<a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">Return to I Had a Thought</a><br />mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-16039414990212619722012-01-22T09:06:00.001-05:002012-01-22T09:06:48.625-05:00The Lesson South Carolina Taught UsNewt "traditional values, nudge nudge, wink wink" Gingrich's success in the South Carolina Republican Primary taught us that Southern Republicans hate traditional marriage. I expect them to finally endorse same sex marriage very soon.<br /><br />Either that or this whole Republican lip service to "traditional values" is nothing but a load of hypocritical bullshit. Then again their claims of "fiscal responsibility" are about as credible as Newt's support for "traditional values."<br /><br />Why would ANYONE trust a Republican anymore?mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-10845606572122224702011-12-30T01:53:00.000-05:002011-12-30T01:54:05.656-05:00A Sad Note!One of my first and most brilliant readers has died and I want to honor her memory.<br /><br /><img src="http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/788/38136961.png" alt="" /><br /><br />Margaret was a Culture Kitchen blogger for awhile and, while there, was one of our best bloggers. She moved on long ago, and I always missed her presence at CK. But she went on to what she considered bigger and better things. In her 80's she discovered her public voice and I am proud I was one of the people who encouraged and helped her find that voice.<br /><br />This comes late because I mainly interacted with Margaret Bassett by email. So if I didn't hear from her, I didn't think much about it. But I knew she was over 80. She was a subscriber to my Progressive Democrat Newsletter from the beginning soon after the 2004 election. She had seen me as something of a hope for the future in messaging, something I think she overrated me on, but I was flattered and tried to live up to.<br /><br />Today I sent out a message to my subscribers that my writing of the Progressive Democrat Newsletter had clearly been on hold for over a month and I wasn't sure if/when it would come back.<br /><br />One email bounced. It was the first time Margaret's email bounced in all the time she read my stuff. So it caught my attention immediately. It sent a shiver down my spine. So I did a quick google search and discovered what I feared...<a href="http://www.opednews.com/Diary/R-I-P-OEN-Editor-Margaret-by-Rob-Kall-110830-286.html">Margaret had died, back in August, at the age of 89.</a> I cried.<br /><br />[NOTE: Damn! In the preview I realize that a lot of the old material I post has formatting problems, but it is midnight and I am sad at her passing, and I don't have the attention span to fix everything...Margaret's brilliance speaks for itself even with formatting errors!]<br /><br />Margaret was an original FDR progressive just like my grandmother. She was about 20 years younger than my grandmother, but clearly they had experienced many of the same things and their political lives had been very similar. Margaret somehow connected with my blogging and for a brief period I was her connection (from where she lived in Red Tennessee) to liberal politics. She wrote me often and we had long discussions by email from which she drew inspiration and I learned a lot. I quoted her in my writing, seemingly to her surprise and pride. She forwarded my newsletter to others, to my surprise and pride.<br /><br />Eventually her blogger presence developed beyond my newsletter, extending to MyLeftWing, Culture Kitchen and Political Cortex, and then to OpEdNews where she became something of a force of nature. Most of my writing that ended up at OpEdNews was thanks to her. And she sent me a lot of their stuff as well.<br /><br />But my favorite material from her was on the blog Culture Kitchen. I recruited her for Culture Kitchen. She was on it for only a brief period, but she participated in some amazing discussions about race in America that blew everyone away. I am sorry I can't link to these amazing discussions because Culture Kitchen is currently in limbo because of a conflict between our wonderful publisher and the (evil?) site host, but trust me, people of ALL races were moved by Margaret's comments on the history of race in America.<br /><br />She left Culture Kitchen, to our loss, when she became active with OpEdNews. From what I gather OpEdNews gained from our loss. From then on she would occasionally comment on my Progressive Democrat Newsletter, more occasionally post something from my newsletter to OpEdNEws, and also would send me info from OpEdNews. For some years if I didn't hear from her for awhile I would get worried. In fact she was one of two people I would worry about if I didn't hear from. Margaret I worried about because of her age, and another blogger I recruited for Culture Kitchen, Leo Igwe of Nigeria, I worried about because he was a Humanist activist fighting Christian and Muslim fanatics in Nigeria. Leo has been beaten, arrested, and generally attacked over the years I knew him, so I learned to check in with him from time to time. Margaret always seemed so alive and almost immortal, so I stopped worrying if I didn't hear from her.<br /><br />So it didn't even register that I had lost touch with her. I guess it doesn't matter, since she seems to have been alert and emailing up to the day before her death, so it isn't like I missed that she was dying. But somehow I wish I had caught on SOME time between now and last August. But I didn't and so today I found out. It hit me like a punch in the stomach.<br /><br />This is the last article Margaret shared with me in the very last email I got from her back in May: http://www.alternet.org/story/151101/how_our_government_has_merged_with_corporations<br /><br />But previous to that she had particularly thanked me for the intro I did to a December 2010 issue of the Progressive Democrat. She just commented on how much she liked it. <a href="http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/12/progressive-democrat-newsletter-281.html">This was the intro she liked</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Last week this headline was overlooked by too many people:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.leftyblogs.com/cgi-bin/go.cgi?http://www.bloggingformichigan.com/diary/6204/auto-industry-bailout-saved-114-million-jobs">Auto Industry Bailout Saved 1.4 Million Jobs</a> <br /><br />Remember, Republicans OPPOSED this! Democrats passed the Auto Industry Bailout over Republican objections and THANK GOD they did because that saved 1.4 million American jobs. Now we need a Green Energy Stimulus, because that could CREATE a large number of American jobs, but of course Republicans tend to oppose ANYTHING that creates American jobs and instead support policies that help foreign oil companies, offshore banks and multi-nationals who outsource American jobs...<br /><br />We must never let the voters forget this fact.<br /><br />Democracy for America recently reminded me, in our of their fundraising letters, of a VERY important fact for all Democrats to keep in mind:<br /><br />Looking at Congressional races in 2010, <strong>96% of the Progressive Caucus won re-election while only 47% of the Blue Dogs won.</strong><br /><br />I happen to like some Blue Dogs, but the basic fact is that as a caucus they have made the dismal mistake of becoming too much like Republicans and when Democrats start to look too much like Republicans they eventually lose. Democrats win by clearly differentiating themselves from Republicans. Which leads me to another reminder...<br /><br />For those who have read this newsletter for some time you know that I have often plugged a book that in some ways should be required reading for ANY Democrat: Drew Westen's "<a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/book_review_the_political_mind">The Political Brain</a>." Simply put the book analyzes how people vote and why, and shows how Democrats too often campaign in away that does not appeal to most voters even when most voters agree with the Democrats more on issues. Republicans, even though they usually take unpopular stands that hurt middle class and working class Americans, can often win the voters over because they campaign in a way that works better at getting votes. Drew Westen then outlines how Democrats can better appeal to voters while still being true to their values. For any Democrat who wants to win, read this book...now more than ever. And pass the book on to any Democrat you know of running for office or working on a campaign.<br /><br />We're going to miss this guy:<br /><br /><object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mqQn1_x5C3I?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mqQn1_x5C3I?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object><br /><br />Alan Grayson was one of the VERY few Congressional Representatives who really was completely up front, honest and told it like it is. He didn't hide the truth even when it made him unpopular. As I recall Harry Truman was admired for the same quality, even though it hurt him politically. I am proud that it is usually Democrats who are willing to put truth before popularity. Popularity comes and goes. But the truth is far more valuable. We need more people like Alan Grayson in Congress!</blockquote><br /><br />To me this was a run of the mill, off the cuff intro to my usual newsletter of facts, links and organizations to get involved with. In retrospect it was the last time my writing inspired her. That means something to me.<br /><br />But looking back through our correspondence, I want to share a key email from 2007:<br /><br /><blockquote>Article published Aug 29, 2007<br /><br />We are all in this world together<br /><br />Dear Editor:<br /><br />Thank you for the editorial in the Aug. 22 issue, and also for the two thought_provoking letters you printed. Perhaps it is because the weather has been very hot and I spend time indoors reading, finding news online, and watching C_Span, but it seems to me that we are all more sensitive to a wider world with many troubles. Bridges fall. Hurricanes wreak havoc. Drought or floods destroy. And there’s war.<br /><br />So I’m glad you take pen to paper, so to speak, to point out that reporters track the making and selling of weapons. This is not what we think of when we proclaim that a person should have the right to bear arms.<br /><br />And through it all, we are talking about America in Iraq. I personally was adamantly against a pre_emptive strike into Iraq. I watched and listened as I heard how many months it would take to get the gear all in place for the invasion. What I wondered about was how difficult it would be to get the stuff back out. Of course, some would be used up. But how about explosives? Might they not be used for destructive reasons? The editorial, based on an AP report, gives numbers which make me think that guns multiply faster than rabbits.<br /><br />It’s our country, and all of us in it need to think of ways to put an end to the folly. Would impeachment help? Should we just ride it out and then let the Democrats take the heat if they win the next election? So many questions.<br /><br />To me, we must recognize that we are in this together. Let’s get real and waste no time in trying to shove the blame on someone else. Let’s think of positive solutions and expect our leaders to carry them out.<br /><br />So I hope you will continue to lay out facts. During these past six years it seems that the media has given us few solid facts and a lot of opinions. And I hope if you do give us the hard truth that no one will shoot the messenger.<br /><br />Yours truly,<br /><br />Margaret Bassett</blockquote><br /><br />That was one of her letters she was proud of and sent me to circulate, and I DID circulate it.<br /><br />Here is an email she sent me on immigration and a global perspective:<br /><br /><blockquote>As a school girl, I spent summer Sunday afternoons in our empty schoolhouse, wondering what the pastel countries around the old globe were like. And I would pick a country and study what I could find in the World Book. All the while, I thought that the change of colors did not mean a big wall. More confusing still was whether various colors of people were expected to stay in their designated nations. Perhaps I came to this quandary because I saw real life evidence contradicting the lines. We all were from other states. Homesteading in our part of Wyoming happened after World War I. Our neighbors were from other states–Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, mostly. I reasoned our parents pioneered because they were looking for a better place to live.<br /><br />In high school, I learned enough history to understand how religious freedom and better working conditions brought people across the oceans. They were largely the working poor and willing to become scullery maids and ditch diggers until they learned English and studied the Constitution. Then they could become citizens. Except—Orientals were discouraged and could work on railroads, but could not bring their families or gain citizenship.<br /><br />In college, I learned the details of the 1924 immigration law. It was necessary to make a change because women had become voters in the US. They could become citizens of another country by marrying an alien, but they would have to give up their American citizenship. As a matter of fact, it was generally believed that all persons lost their citizenship of another country when they were naturalized. One way for men (women were still not in the military) to gain citizenship was to join the army and serve honorably. There were a lot of "ifs" in common lore about US citizenship.<br /><br />After college and WWII, rules changed quickly to allow for those who sought relief from being displaced from earlier homes. They were generally referred to as DP’s, displaced persons. Prelude to that was the arrival of refugees during the war, if lucky enough to reach the other side of the Atlantic. My personal experience included weekends at Scattergood, the Quaker settlement at West Branch, Iowa which is the home of Herbert Hoover. Some of us students would spend time helping the Friends who were orienting recent arrivals of Jewish families. And there went my ditch digger analogy! Many of the men were doctors or professors. To polish their English was what they craved mostly, for they saw language as necessary to regain their former positions. It seemed incomprehensible to some that they would have to take refresher courses and pass new examinations to become licensed when they were well-established in their professions.<br /><br />The Cold War brought other refugees, usually referred to as dissidents. And then the tide turned when Cubans and Haitians and later Central Americans claimed refugee status. By that time we had to recall what we had learned in high school history. The Monroe Doctrine had clearly emphasized that the Americas were for the Americans. During WWII, under the Good Neighbor Policy, those south of the border were courted for the contributions they could make in fighting totalitarianism. It became more than just semantics when my Latin American friends reminded me that it was incorrect to refer to citizens of the United States of America as Americans. They were Americans, too.<br /><br />Fast forward to the demonstrations of the past few months. The rhetoric was heavy during the 2004 presidential campaign, but by 2006 there was action in the streets. I guess our country had a Latino problem.<br /><br />Latino has become a term to describe someone who lives in the Western Hemisphere in some place other than Canada and the United States. So those who speak Spanish, Portuguese and French have an inclusive adjective. It tells nothing about country of origin. The term Hispanic narrows citizenship to those nations where Spanish is the official language. And still there is little that the words tell about a group of people who live in America and want to come to the United States.<br /><br />The question of political importance at this time is how does the United States respond to a surge of population which comes from other countries, whether by legal or illegal means. They chance to make a living in our country better than in theirs, or else they wouldn’t uproot themselves from a culture they like. Their religion is universal. They may differ on who the next Pope should be, but they recognize that the Pope has a commanding presence in all parts of the world.<br /><br />But, oh, us Gringos! We don’t understand that for centuries we have sent in the Marines to do what James Monroe, Teddy Roosevelt, and others declared to be in the interest of ourselves. After all, we stole a good part of our territory from the Mexicans.<br /><br />And then there are the folks in places like Tennessee. Without Tennesseans perhaps the Panama Canal would not have been built, because that is where much of the labor came from. In that regard, I have an interesting story from my days of studying Constitutional Law in Iowa. One of my fellow students had a father from Tennessee and a mother from Panama. He was born in Panama, but not in the Zone. Did he have US citizenship? Should they have taken him to the Consulate when he was 21? (Never heard the end of the story, because by then 1945 had come and things were changing.)<br /><br />I’ve lived in Tennessee since 1977 and I never hear about how Tennesseans helped make the Panama Canal. We do celebrate how Sam Houston, who once taught school a few miles from here, fought in Texas. He was Tennessee governor and is a big name in history.<br /><br />But I’m hearing a lot about "those," "them people" or "Latinos." Folks who have lived here all their lives, worked hard, and enjoyed some success will speak about "the ones coming in" as though there is a threat. Largely it has to do with language. Why don’t they speak English? And why do they rent an apartment and then bring a whole bunch of others to live there too? It’s classic concern for "there goes the neighborhood." But the language makes a starting point for a debate over educating their children, providing welfare, and more classic gripes that have confronted other new groups of immigrants.<br /><br />For my part, I don’t worry about the language. In my young, innocent college days I was pretty good in Spanish, even to translating El Cid, not that it helps me anymore than it does others who complain about not understanding. I do have a slight ability to detect country of origin according to accent. But dialect! Those people who espeak Espanish can’t understand each other at times.<br /><br />So now we have to talk about a delicate issue. Is there animosity between Hispanics and African-Americans. In Chicago there were many Puerto Ricans when I lived there, and no love lost between them and blacks. After a couple of friendly attempts, I backed off from the explanation that Borrenquenos are US citizens, too. There was the reaction I have come to recognize as "hair standing on the back of neck." At some point in discussing generally how all people have good points and some a few strange ones, there comes a superstitious fear. And that will be what will accompany many voters to the booth this fall. I feel truly baffled about what politicians should and can do to make firm commitments on their position. We may decide that there was an ironic e1oquence in the Senate’s vain attempt.<br /><br />But all of this has been a digression from my first paragraph. Where my heart was in the 30's is where my moral values take me in this century. However, I long ago gave up on believing that nations solve real problems of people who decide to breach borders. Actually, it can be said that nationalism is itself the problem. At this time, the Bush administration is looking at the enemy as having no borders. Why not? We have journalists without borders. Doctors without borders. Why not banditos without borders? Manuel Noriega and Osama bin Laden are both enemies of our Nation.<br /><br />I get a little facetious about Nafta. Consider: now the textile industry moves its operation to Honduras; natives can no longer make a living in those factories so they go to Mexico; Mexicans are having a harder time of finding work so they cross the Rio Grande; and the "illegals" work for peanuts and make the Anglos mad for ruining the wages on their old jobs. And the irony is politicians talk about Nafta as needing a tune-up to see that labor is paid a decent wage and enjoys healthy working conditions. Duh!</blockquote><br /><br />I also want to post an email she sent me in Dec. 2005 that is interesting to review given what has happened since:<br /><br /><blockquote> Your newsletter this week was, in Christian-speak, almost an epiphany. It reminded me of how much I took Al Gore's book to heart before the 2000 campaign. To be good stewards, the three ingredients of living are sometimes referred to as giving of time, talent and treasure. When you think of it, there isn't enough money in the world to heal an injured planet. Some can get jollies by taking their excesses to the recycle bin. But really all we have is ourselves in whatever form. And for a lot of us these days it starts at the keyboard. As long as we don't buy everything on the pop-ups. <br /><br /> There is a stealth issue, which most don't care to address. Rampant consumerism is what is messing up the nation. Any time one-third of GDP is considered to come from production and twice that much from consumers, we are headed for a meltdown. Yet, should we all start living within our means while saving some for our old age (Money can be described as congealed energy.), it's not just WalMart's stock which will plummet. If Bernanke refuses to print money for spendthrifts, those with the least of it are hurt the most. Before they beatify Greenspan I hope I can say that he did us no favor by making a red hot housing market. My observation is that Boomers, those who worry most about their entitlements, were conned by low interest rates. They cashed in 401k money to put in real estate. From my perspective their peers are the wheelers and dealers in politics and finance. I hope someone learns how to make a soft landing. And, for those who are raising young families, they've got a lot to think about before they answer all the Christmas ads with their plastic. <br /><br /> Well, that's my Scrooge message of the day. Keep up the good work!</blockquote><br /><br />You can see she was a bright, thoughtful woman!<br /><br />Here is another fascinating email she sent me in 2005 while we were, over many months, still getting to know eachother:<br /><br /><blockquote>David: There’s more heat than light coming out of Washington these days, and I tune in c-spans and PBS and wonder where we’re headed. Then I log on to my favorite back fence sites and that doesn’t help much either. Jim Lehrer tonight featured a piece asking editors from other part of the country how their readers saw the filibuster question, to which they mostly replied only the activists cared and it hadn’t touched most of the folks. "Grassroots" came into my head and I wondered about the term. The Nashville paper (not the Tennessean) said "folks" just hadn’t got interested in it yet. And then there’s little old me!<br /><br />I’m a walking time warp. When my father homesteaded in Northeastern Wyoming in 1918 he was in his mid-thirties. My mother, whom he met out there was younger, but she too was 18 when WWI ended. My three siblings and I were all born before the stock market crash. When FDR declared a bank holiday I already knew about how some people in other states had lost their farms when the banks went out of business. By the time I was through high school, many of my men teachers had left for the service to get a better commission. Times were tough on the farms still. I worked my way through college for five years at the University of Iowa and got out just as VJ Day came. In Washington on my first real job, I saw government workers re-align their assignments because all returning veterans were given extra points when they applied for jobs. After that, I spent a maturing period in the City, with a year’s timeout in Copenhagen. I met my husband in 1952 when I took a trip out West for the summer. The sour taste of Joe McCarthy’s capers shoved me away from a future in international education. But I could always work. I was a good typist, and the first thing I learned in college was to be a good waitress. My husband and I followed resort restaurants in the beginning and then moved to Chicago in 1955 where we made a stake through 1977. Then we bought a fixer-upper in Maryville, TN. We had no company pensions, and I was too young for SS and Medicare for what seemed like a long time. We made it on the proceeds of a few investments and his Social Security check. I would be in deep trouble today except that in the 90's I was able to get ahead of the curve on inflation. It nearly flattened us during the 80's when double digit increases came for material to re-model the house. Now, I manage to pay fair market rent in the elder housing where I moved six years ago. I’ve been widowed 12 years (today, as a matter of fact) and could have moved easily, but I like it here. No family in the State but lots of friends.<br /><br />When I took up gardening and canning and making our everyday clothes again, just as we had done in Wyoming, I didn’t feel out of place. My neighbors were just like the people I grew up around. Many of them were a few years older than I and I learned the way to live on Social Security and to fight the Medicare rules. After my husband died, and there were new younger families with children, I became involved in the lives of the young. It was not easy for working class families in the 90s. I could supplement their scarce time by giving what I hope would be enrichment. The children had things, but little else in my view. I cancelled all but basic cable and ordered edutainment CD’s after my sister gifted me with a computer. It is what I consider to be my way of paying back for 21 years of Social Security checks.<br /><br />I lived in early life what can best be described as 19th Century. After formal schooling and some jobs I jumped to the 20th. I was just about ready to believe I was ready for Bill Clinton’s bridge to the 21st, when all of a sudden it feels like I’m somewhere after WWII. I mean everyone is hellbent on acquiring whatever has just been invented. Now, with credit cards, they don’t have to wait for payday. Many in the child-nurturing period are so busy trying to keep body and soul together that they don’t remember what they learned about the three branches of government. Some are anxious to get to the welfare office for supplemental help, as others are too proud to even let their neighbors know when they need food. It’s always been that way. I’m just talking about our county, which is surely not one of the poorest in the State.<br /><br />Through all these years I have only been able to become a little educated because of my husband, who grew up in San Francisco. Orphaned at 9, he knew the ways of city living and, in good paperboy fashion, was also well aware of the ways of the world. It took him a long time to realize that the depression was hard for us country people too. Actually, he didn’t really understand until we moved down here. Oh, yes, he fell out of love with the Republican party and read Howard Fast’s novels during that time. When he reached maturity he moved to LA and worked in a defense factory during WWII, the same kind of work he followed in Chicago. I became a bookkeeper there and changed over to computer programming in 1966. The greatest job I’ve ever had was teaching high school graduates to program or operate computers. The students were many of them directly from housing projects on student loans and grants. I can’t say enough for LBJ’s Great Society. It made some real changes. The problem was it was not carefully monitored. Of course, there are excesses and Clinton was right to help rein it in. I have a hunch that Bush shoots for FDR’s programs because if he mentions LBJ’s he’d lose his so-called base. John Edwards wants to talk disadvantaged, and he may just be making some traction with his poverty group. I could make a case for myself as well. But no one can outdo Johnson’s upbringing.<br /><br />What brought this on? It was when I wrote you about the Earth Day celebration in the Smokies and you replied that tourism is not a good economic base. Or something about like that. And I remembered that you said you were a city kid. Then I thought about the way the media learned to morph the map in red and blue. Sure enough, those states adjacent to water are bluer. Actually, they are wealthier because of global trade. The nation mimics the old tradition of town and country, meaning the people at the county seats ran the banks and sold the merchandise and elected the officials. Those in the country produced the goods (originally mostly food, but later industrial supplies) and climbed up the social ladder by sending the children to school and getting them jobs in town. Culturally, the rural folks knew they were superior because their kids worked hard and didn’t dance or gamble–or so the story goes. But those they called city slickers knew they had better homes and nicer clothes and could travel more. I recently read several of Sinclair Lewis’ novels, which are older than me. Whenever I re-read Elmer Gantry I realize how little things change.<br /><br />So here I sit, still a country bumpkin worrying over whether Section 8 housing will be cut even more, and how the children should learn to like to learn, and whether there will be any channel on TV that the tired, hard-working, underpaid parents will watch besides Fox. In my spare time I check out MSNBC’s articles about why Wal-Mart stock is down and the predictions aren’t rosy. That gets me to thinking about the many hours I’ve pounded away on the Wal-Mart predicament. Is it possible people in Peoria, or wherever, are going to have to listen to what happens in Washington? Best regards, Margaret</blockquote><br /><br />Now here is the first email I have a record of, though I know we must have connected before. It is from November 2004, so it was one of the first interactions we had. Again, much insight and background from someone who has been around for some time:<br /><br /><blockquote>The first tells about previous progressive movements which supplied candidates. I realize that Vermont has an existing party, and there is some movement around Madison, Wisconsin.<br /><br />The second is something with which I have little experience. It catches my eye because the working poor (hard-working poor) are certainly the forgotten man and woman as far as I can see.<br /><br />In the Teddy Roosevelt age, an economic shift to heavy industry created robber barons, and thus a need to come back to a sense of fairness. In the second phase, labor was becoming organized. World War I created more jobs, but more discontent with working conditions. To avoid the revolutionary trends in Europe, especially Russia, a more benign form of organization came about here through unions.<br /><br />The curious part of the aborted movement in 1948 with Henry Wallace produced the same kind of Bolshevik scare, but I believe that unanswered civil rights questions were what drove the scare to a frenzy. My experience at that time was that to be associated with rights for colored people put one in the same cubby hole as with communist and fellow-traveler groups.<br /><br />About the only advantage of being old is that one can see three waves, described by Toffler. The first, agrarian, required decent shipping facilities for livestock and crops as well as reasonable prices for farm implements. (I grew up on a homestead in Northeastern Wyoming, where we battled dust storms and the depression.) The second wave was the industrial age where a combination of machine and men mass produced a never-ending supply of labor saving devices. From the end of World War II to the advent of cybernetics, more and better planes, locomotives, trucks, etc. shortened distances and made goods accessible to more people. Workers were lured into corporate loyalty with the promise of retirement benefits and medical insurance. Not until the 70's did the price of company affiliation begin to backfire for both sides. We talked about the rust belt. Lifelong union members began to question the Democratic party and Reagan welcomed them to his shining hill. The third wave, incubated during World War II, became all important as soon as computers advanced past tubes to transistors to the current microchips. (I started programming computers in 1966 and worked on three generations of IBM equipment within the spate of a few years. The Olivetti ten-key adding machine I pounded 8 hours a day had over 50 precision springs in it. My husband worked in a plant making such parts. We escaped job crises only because we retired to East Tennessee from Chicago after 22 years.)<br /><br />By the last quarter of the 20th Century, the global village concept was real. And thus we come to what will have to be dealt with before a progressive movement can flourish again. Just as in the past, when Americans could not ignore people of the ghettoes and slums forever, so now no nationality can ignore the cry of other nationals for a share of the earth’s treasure. I recommend reading Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber’s The World Challenge (Simon & Schuster 1981) which tells about the Near East’s rising up to assert that technology as the price we pay for oil and other basic materials. And it’s not just oil (OPEC) but other raw materials, and it’s not just the Near East but many underdeveloped nations.<br /><br />Another author who has influenced me is Lester Thurow, an economist who in 1995 wrote a book on the future of capitalism. He outlined what he considered the main changes over the ensuing twenty-five years. Changes in demography (mature countries have a high percentage of mature citizens) and communication and transportation (commerce can cross national boundaries to grow wheat in Siberia as well as North Dakota) affect voters in real time. Globalization, which is here to stay, can be criticized but there is no way to stop it. Countries can help their nationals to adjust, but recognizing how to corral unbridled world commerce takes more than tweaking the safety net. With world wide business comes the need for world wide rules governing it. On a line stretched from competition to cooperation regarding this challenge, there must be very astute negotiation. The WTO and the IMF are acting from a position of weakness, which allows laissez faire to flourish.<br /><br />How a new facet of progressivism can come about is problematic. It espouses a mixture of innovation and conservatism. If the rest of the world wants to have goods, services and opportunities equal to what we Americans have learned to cherish, it goes without saying that super-consumerism should be nobody’s first goal.<br /><br />Under the surface I think citizens in this country realize the truth of sharing or fighting. Wars only use more of the precious resources. The twin realities of Iraq and economic well-being were debated in this campaign as though it were an either/or proposition. George W. Bush's assertion that both must be achieved–his recognition that people having a stake in their future will not have time to fight each other--has validity. That’s all well and good, but he’s trying to convince the Iraqis his war is different. Imperialism is the ultimate outcome from the way he goes about it. If we take a look at the article in The Nation, we can see that fighting each other is a recipe for decline of leadership. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1124-10.htm<br /><br />With a long history of solving problems in the USA by going to a place farther away, it’s not surprising that Bush would like to get to the Moon and Mars.<br /><br />If you and I pursue this line of reasoning, I believe we must organize small groups of individuals, preferably online, who will help to shape the real issues for 2008. My summer was spent with a yahoogroup who answered the media when members perceived that it was giving false information. With a mixture of professional backgrounds and serious interaction we, and others doing similar work, probably did have some impact on the outcome of the election. Because Kerry lost, we have not known how to proceed. I suspect this group is not the only one which is essentially inactive but still so committed that it is trying to find a new approach to carry on.<br /><br />Finally, I suggest the article in the Nation about Paul Wellstone. Possibly his legacy has something to help us in progressing toward new insights.<br /><br />http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020527&s=nichols </blockquote><br /><br />I will end with the <a href="http://www.opednews.com/Diary/R-I-P-OEN-Editor-Margaret-by-Rob-Kall-110830-286.html">obituary from her beloved OpEdNews</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>The following obituary was provided to Opednews by Dr. Annabel Agee to be shared with Margaret's beloved online community: <br /><br />Margaret Ems Bassett<br /><br />02/14/1922 -- 8/21/2011<br />"Margaret Ems Bassett, age 89, quietly passed away at her residence in Maryville, TN, on Sunday, August 21, 2011. Born in Gillette, WY, on February 14, 1922, the eldest of four, Ms. Bassett is preceded in death by husband William John Bassett, parents James Edwin and Fanchon Rosenstiel Ems, sister Norma Agnes Ems Cotter, and brother Robert, and niece Roberta Ems Salley. She is survived by her brother Morris Ems, niece Janeth Cotter Hernandez, niece Connie Cotter Rasmussen, niece Colleen Ems Morrison.<br /><br />Ms. Bassett graduated from Campbell County High School in Gillette, WY (1940), received a BA degree in political science from State University of Iowa (1944), studied as a graduate student until August 1945, worked in international education until 1950, spent a year in Denmark, took numerous computer science classes, and completed an MS degree from Roosevelt University (1975). Ms. Bassett worked in Chicago from 1955 to 1977, at which time she and her husband retired to Tennessee. <br /><br />Her lifelong interest in political philosophy was reflected by her active role as editor for almost five years on OpEdNews (OEN), an online platform for which she wrote 68 articles and posted almost 4000 comments. Also to her credit, the content she generated for OEN was viewed over 700,000 times. Margaret's most recent OEN activity was logged on the Friday evening before her passing on Sunday. In her own biographical statement for OEN profile, she noted that her early introduction to computers (1966) has served her well in keeping up with "the requirements for modern communication." She said that she hoped to find "some good coming off her keyboard into the lives of those who come after her."<br /><br />She will be missed by many of the residents of Maryville Towers, a senior housing facility where she has resided since selling her home in 1999. Many of her neighbors and friends will remember Margaret as the long-time organizer/leader of the Reminiscing Writers Group at Maryville Towers." </blockquote><br /><br />I would like to remember this wonderful woman. I think a fitting tribute would be a contribution to <a href="http://www.wellstone.org/">Wellstone Action</a> or <a href="http://www.progressivemajority.org/">Progressive Majority</a>. I know these were groups we both discussed and admired a lot, though I think more because they were my favorites. I am not sure what she would say was her favorite tribute, but I know these would be good enough in an imperfect world she knew and loved so well. Please join me in donated to these groups in Margaret Bassett's name.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-46246938524510166912011-10-05T08:08:00.001-04:002011-10-05T08:08:48.338-04:00Taking on Wall Street Every DayI have personally been switching my money (credit cards, accounts, mortgage) away from the big bad mega-banks that screwed Americans with predatory lending and took taxpayer handouts with better banks and financial institution. And I invite you to join me. It is a way of moving your money at least a step away from the worst of Wall Street.<br /><br />In particular I pick four banks to target: Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo<br /><br />I base my recommendations on three things:<br /><br />1. Customer service complaints. The banks that get the most customer service complaints are as follows: (according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, I think these numbers are from 2009)<br /><br /> Bank of America: 7,230 complaints (25.5% of total)<br /> J.P. Morgan Chase: 4,890 complaints (17.3%)<br /> Citigroup: 3,742 complaints (13.2%)<br /> Wells Fargo: 2,695 complaints (9.5%)<br /> HSBC North America: 1,963 complaints (6.9%)<br /> Wachovia: 1,265 complaints (4.5%)<br /> U.S. Bancorp: 1,027 complaints (3.6%)<br /> National City: 586 complaints (2.1%)<br /> The Royal Bank of Scotland Group: 537 complaints (1.9 %)<br /> Key Corp: 343 complaints (1.2 %)<br /><br /> Total Top 10 complaints: 24,278 complaints (85.7%)<br /> Total complaints: 28,316 complaints (100%)<br /><br />Furthermore, the numbers of complaints are getting worse. <a href="http://www.mainstreet.com/article/money/investing/big-bank-complaints-increased-2010">Chase, Bank of America and Citicorp in particular declined seriously in terms of customer service in 2010</a>, according to the Comptroller of the Currency, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, and Better Business Bureau. <br /><br />I advocate avoiding the banks that are around 10% or more of the total complaints (Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Chase and Bank of America). Why patronize companies that treat their customers like crap? Particularly since they have been giving even WORSE service since we bailed them out!<br /><br />2. Predatory lending. The same banks that rank highest in customer service complaints are among the worst offenders when it comes to predatory lending. That is strike two against them. Why patronize companies that have bad, greedy business practices that lead to national and international economic crises? <a href="http://www.theroot.com/views/more-money-more-problems">And furthermore the predatory lending was carried out by these same banks in a racist manner</a>, charging higher interest rates for blacks and Hispanics than for whites and Asians. And it is the SAME four banks that were the most racist in their predatory lending.<br /><br />3. Welfare Banks: The same banks are also ones that eagerly took taxpayer funded bailout money while also advocating for cuts to services for poor and middle class Americans as being "big government". They are selfish and hypocritical as well as lousy businesses.<br /><br />Also, I should note that two of these banks, Bank of America and Citigroup, also are two of the <a href="http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-ten-tax-dodging-companies.html">top ten tax dodging companies in America</a>. They love to take our tax money, but hate to pay their fair share.<br /><br />So I advocate boycotting at least Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Chase and Bank of America. However people need alternatives. I personally have switched to USAA and TD Bank, both of which are famous for customer service, did no predatory lending, and took no bail out money. But I am learning about even better options through Green America.<br /><br />Green America (which I have been associated with since they were Co-op America) has some resources:<br /><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting/whattoknow.cfm">* The basics about socially responsible investing</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/pubs/fph/retirement.cfm"> * How to retire with one million dollars in a just and sustainable world</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting/communityinvesting/index.cfm"> * How your savings and checking accounts can build healthy communities through community investing</a><br /><br />I personally have been divesting myself of these big bad banks like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank and instead switching my mortgage, accounts and credit cards to <a href="http://www.usaa.com/">USAA</a> (which only works with Veterans and their families) and <a href="http://www.tdbank.com/">TD Bank</a> (a large bank that actually has excellent customer service and did not engage in predatory lending). Other people I know have been switching to local credit unions. I have particularly liked TD Bank who refinanced my mortgage at a much better rate and much simpler than the big bad banks. By comparison, Chase dicked me around so much, constantly upping the interest rate every time I talked to them, that I finally told them where they could stuff their refinance. TD Bank offered me a better rate and stuck by it.<br /><br />But so far my wife and I still haven't been able to get rid of all our Chase and Bank of America credit cards. Paying off the debt is tough, but we are working on it. But I would like to find better credit cards to use.<br /><br />Well, <a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/pubs/realgreen/articles/ResponsibleCreditCards.cfm">Green America</a> has some suggestions I would like to pass on to you.<br /><br /><blockquote>Cards Connected to Better Banks <br />There are socially responsible banks and credit unions that exemplify responsible lending practices—as well as community investing institutions that take the social mission one step further by also investing in low-income populations. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.wainwrightbank.com/html/personal/cards.html">Wainwright Bank Visa Cards</a> (fees and rates vary): Wainwright, a Boston-based bank with a tradition of “socially progressive” banking, offers six different Visa credit cards with different rates and terms. All of these cards are issued and managed by Elan, a financial services company. Steven F. Young, senior vice president at Wainwright, says they “chose Elan because we felt their consumer practices were best.”<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pcuonline.org/services/pcu-visa">Permaculture Credit Union’s (PCU) Visa card</a> (13% apr, no annual fee): Based in New Mexico, PCU is committed to Earth-friendly and socially responsible loans and investments. PCU’s card is issued by the Illinois Credit Union League to anyone, whether or not they are a PCU account holder, though applicants should mention they are “affiliated” with Permaculture Credit Union.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.redirectguide.com/visa">ReDirect Visa</a> (15.15% apr, no annual fee): The ReDirect card is issued by Washington state’s ShoreBank Pacific.Depositors fuel the bank’s lending programs, which enable sustainable community development. ShoreBank Pacific issues the card by way of TCM, which is owned by ICBA Bancard, a subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America. <br /><br />Your card fees support ShoreBank Pacific’s community investing mission, and half of the card’s proceeds go toward reducing CO2 emissions through Sustainable Travel International’s “MyClimate” high-quality offsets. In addition to a conventional rewards program, the card also earns cardholders discounts at the sustainable businesses listed in regional “ReDirect Guides” for Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins, CO; Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA; and Salt Lake City/Park City, UT. Those businesses that offer Internet purchasing will extend ReDirect discounts to any cardholder. There’s no need to have a ShoreBank Pacific account to apply.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salmonnation.com/growsn/snvisa.html">Salmon Nation Visa</a> (15.15% apr, no annual fee): This card, also from ShoreBank Pacific, directs a percentage of its income to growing a community of citizens that practice environmental stewardship of “Salmon Nation,” a bio-region stretching from Alaska to Oregon where wild salmon live. Like the ReDirect card, Salmon Nation Visa isn’t benefiting a mega-bank, and you don’t need a ShoreBank Pacific account to apply.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.albinabank.com/">The Loop Card</a> (11.99% apr, no annual fee): A Visa from Albina Community Bank in Oregon. Profits from this Visa from Oregon’s Albina Community Bank not only support Albina, but one percent of every purchase goes to Portland’s neighborhoods, funding education, health, social services, environment, the arts, or economic development projects. You do not have to have an account with Albina to get the card, and it is not connected to a mega-bank.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sbk.com/">Shorebank’s Elan Visa Consumer Card</a> (variable apr, no annual fee): ShoreBank, in the Midwest, is a community development and environmental bank that issues a credit card available to anyone nationwide through Elan, the same company servicing Wainright Bank’s cards, at a rate determined by your credit history. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.self-help.org/">Self-Help credit union cards</a> (9.95–12.95% apr, no annual fee): Self-Help, headquartered in North Carolina, works in communities traditionally underserved by conventional financial institutions. It offers Classic and Platinum Visa credit cards to members, and through online banking, anyone nationwide can become an account holder and apply. The cards are issued by Self-Help, a community development bank. <br /><br />For those purchases you make by credit card, using one of these best-option cards can make your charges a force for good.</blockquote><br /><br />One of my goals once we can pay off most of our current credit card debt is to switch from my current credit cards, which are still mega-bank linked, to one or two of these cards. I hope you will all join my in making the switch.<br /><br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/2011/08/consumer-advice-page.html">Return to Mole's Consumer Advice Page.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">Return to I Had a Thought</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-69422406036366293362011-09-05T09:08:00.001-04:002011-09-05T09:10:23.128-04:00Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&offerid=208108.10001708&subid=0&type=4"><img border="0" alt="Gaiam logo_145X80" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&bids=208108.10001708&subid=0&type=4&gridnum=0" /></a><br /><br />Mike Lofgren has left the Republican Party. He is not the first and won't be the last. Lofgren was a Republican staffer who worked in both the House and Senate Budget Committees.<br /><br />He grew so disgusted by the corruption and lies of the Greedy Oil Party that he has left them...and has been writing about his dissatisfaction. From <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779">his article on Truth Out.com</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote> But both parties are not rotten in quite the same way. The Democrats have their share of machine politicians, careerists, corporate bagmen, egomaniacs and kooks. Nothing, however, quite matches the modern GOP.<br /><br />To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.<br /><br />It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages...<br /><br />It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe.</blockquote><br /><br />This comes from a Republican (now former Republican) insider. He saw what was going on from WITHIN the Republican Party and found it disgusting and corrupt. He also directly addresses the destructive and cynical hypocrisy of the modern Greedy Oil Party:<br /><br /><blockquote>This tactic of inducing public distrust of government is not only cynical, it is schizophrenic. For people who profess to revere the Constitution, it is strange that they so caustically denigrate the very federal government that is the material expression of the principles embodied in that document. This is not to say that there is not some theoretical limit to the size or intrusiveness of government; I would be the first to say there are such limits, both fiscal and Constitutional. But most Republican officeholders seem strangely uninterested in the effective repeal of Fourth Amendment protections by the Patriot Act, the weakening of habeas corpus and self-incrimination protections in the public hysteria following 9/11 or the unpalatable fact that the United States has the largest incarcerated population of any country on earth. If anything, they would probably opt for more incarcerated persons, as imprisonment is a profit center for the prison privatization industry, which is itself a growth center for political contributions to these same politicians.[1] Instead, they prefer to rail against those government programs that actually help people. And when a program is too popular to attack directly, like Medicare or Social Security, they prefer to undermine it by feigning an agonized concern about the deficit. That concern, as we shall see, is largely fictitious...<br /><br /> This legislative assault is moving in a diametrically opposed direction to 200 years of American history, when the arrow of progress pointed toward more political participation by more citizens. Republicans are among the most shrill in self-righteously lecturing other countries about the wonders of democracy; exporting democracy (albeit at the barrel of a gun) to the Middle East was a signature policy of the Bush administration. But domestically, they don't want those people voting.<br /><br />You can probably guess who those people are. Above all, anyone not likely to vote Republican. As Sarah Palin would imply, the people who are not Real Americans. Racial minorities. Immigrants. Muslims. Gays. Intellectuals. Basically, anyone who doesn't look, think, or talk like the GOP base. This must account, at least to some degree, for their extraordinarily vitriolic hatred of President Obama. I have joked in the past that the main administration policy that Republicans object to is Obama's policy of being black.[2] Among the GOP base, there is constant harping about somebody else, some "other," who is deliberately, assiduously and with malice aforethought subverting the Good, the True and the Beautiful: Subversives. Commies. Socialists. Ragheads. Secular humanists. Blacks. Fags. Feminazis. The list may change with the political needs of the moment, but they always seem to need a scapegoat to hate and fear.<br /><br />It is not clear to me how many GOP officeholders believe this reactionary and paranoid claptrap. I would bet that most do not. But they cynically feed the worst instincts of their fearful and angry low-information political base with a nod and a wink...<br /><br />I do not mean to place too much emphasis on racial animus in the GOP. While it surely exists, it is also a fact that Republicans think that no Democratic president could conceivably be legitimate. Republicans also regarded Bill Clinton as somehow, in some manner, twice fraudulently elected (well do I remember the elaborate conspiracy theories that Republicans traded among themselves). Had it been Hillary Clinton, rather than Barack Obama, who had been elected in 2008, I am certain we would now be hearing, in lieu of the birther myths, conspiracy theories about Vince Foster's alleged murder.</blockquote><br /><br />There is a lot more...it is a long article and represents the careful unloading of what seems like years of gradual disillusionment in the political party he had previously identified with. <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779">I suggest reading the whole thing</a>.<br /><br />Arianna Huffington is another person who made the transition from Greedy Oil Party cultist to opposing the GOP when she realized they were a bunch of liars who never actually did what they promised. She worked for Newt Gingrich and it was Newt Gingrich's own cynical hypocrisy drove Huffington away. I am no big fan of Arianna Huffington, but I respect the fact that she, like Lofgren, was able to see through the lies and theatrics of the Greedy Oil Party and reject them as one of the most destructive and corrupt forces in American politics. Lufgren is right...there is corruption in the Democratic Party as well, as I have written about frequently in regards to my own home territory of Brooklyn. But the corruption within the Republican Party, <a href="http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/2007/11/review-of-government-corruption.html">measured by comparing the numbers of politicians under investigation, indicted or convicted, FAR outweighs any corruption within the Democratic Party</a> (see also <a href="http://liberalslikechrist.org/about/gopcorruption-1.html">this site</a> for a somewhat less clearly laid out but more up to date analysis). Furthermore, many Democrats, myself included, fight to reform our own Party (to the degree of even endorsing Republican Joseph Cao in Louisiana against a corrupt Democrat). There is hardly a corrupt Republican who isn't embraced by the Greedy Oil Party and often given and maintained in leadership positions.<br /><br />More interesting is the case of Pete McCloskey who was so disgusted by the behavior of the Republican Party during the Bush years that he left the party. Pete McCloskey had been a life-long Republican and a former candidate for President in a Republican primary. He himself says his family had been Republicans since before Lincoln, suggesting they were among the founders of the party. Yet the corruption and hypocrisy of the modern Greedy Oil Party drove away Pete McCloskey. Here is the letter he wrote explaining his decision:<br /><br /><blockquote> McCloskeys have been Republicans in California since 1859, the year before Lincoln's election. My great grandfather, John Henry McCloskey, orphaned in the great Irish potato famine of 1843, came to California in 1853 as a boy of 16, and joined the party just before the Civil War.<br /><br /> By 1890 he and my grandfather, both farmers, made up two of the twelve members of the Republican Central Committee of Merced County. My father's most memorable expletive came when I was a boy of 10 or 11: "That damn Roosevelt is trying to pack the Supreme Court!"<br /><br /> I registered Republican in 1948 after reaching the age of 21. We were the party of civil rights, of free choice for women and fiscal responsibility. Since Teddy Roosevelt, we had favored environmental protection, and most of all we stood for fiscal responsibility, honesty, ethics and limited government intrusion into our personal lives and choices. We accepted that one the duties of wealth was to pay a higher rate of income tax, and that the estates of the wealthy should contribute to the national treasury in reasonable measure.<br /><br /> I was proud to serve with Republicans like Gerry Ford, the first George Bush and Bob Dole.<br /><br /> In 1994, however, Newt Gingrich brought a new kind of Republicanism to power, and the election of George W. Bush in 2000 has led to wholly new concept of governance. The bureaucracy has mushroomed in size and power. The budget deficits have become astronomical. Our historical separation of church and state has been blurred. We have seen a succession of ethical scandals, congressmen taking bribes, and abuse of power by both the Republican House leadership and the highest appointees of the White House.<br /><br /> The single cardinal principle of political science, that power corrupts, has come to apply not only to Republican leaders like Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney and John Doolittle, but to a succession of White House officials and appointees. The stench of Jack Abramoff has permeated much of the Washington Republican establishment.<br /><br /> The Justice Department, guardian of of our rule of law, has been compromised. It's third ranking official, a graduate of Pat Robertson's dubious law school, has taken the 5th Amendment.<br /><br /> Men who have never felt the fear of combat, and who largely dodged military service in their youth, have led us into grievous wars in far off places with no thought of the diplomacy, grace and respect for other peoples and their cultures which has been an American trademark for at least the last two thirds of a century. We have lost the respect and affection of most of the world outside our borders. My son, Peter, one of the U.S. prosecutors at The Hague of the war crimes in Serbia and elsewhere, tells me that people of other countries no longer look at the country which countenances torture as a beacon for the world and the rule of law.<br /><br /> Earth Day, that bi-partisan concept of Gaylord Nelson in 1970, has become the focus of almost hatred by today's Republican leadership. Many still argue that global warming is a hoax, and that Bush has been right to demean and suppress the arguments of scientists at the E.P.A., Fish & Wildlife and U.S.Geological Survey.<br /><br /> I say a pox on them and their values.<br /><br /> Until the past few weeks, I had hoped that the party could right itself, returning to the values of the Eisenhowers, Fords and George H. W. Bush.<br /><br /> What finally turned me to despair, however, was listening to the reports, or watching on C-Span, a whole series of congressional oversight hearings on C-Span, held by old friends and colleagues like Pat Leahy, Henry Waxman, Norm Dicks, Nick Rahall, Danny Akaka and others, trying to learn the truth on the misdeeds and incompetence of the Bush Administration. Time after time I saw Republican Members of the House and Senate. speak out in scorn or derision about these exercises of Congress oversight responsibility being "witch-hunts" or partisan attempts to distort the actions of people like the head of the General Service Administration and the top political appointees in the Justice and Interior Departments. Disagreement turned into disgust.<br /><br /> I finally concluded that it was a fraud for me to remain a member of this modern Republican Party, that there were only a few like Chuck Hegel, Jack Warner, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins I could respect.<br /><br /> Two of the best, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and Jim Leach of Iowa, after years of battling for balance and sanity, were defeated last November, and it seems that every Republican presidential candidate is now vying for the support of the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells rather than talking about a return to the values of the party I joined nearly 59 years ago. My favorite spokesmen have beome Senators Jim Webb and Barack Obama.<br /><br /> And so it was, that while at the Woodland courthouse the other day, passing by the registrar's office, I filled out the form to re-register as a Democrat.<br /><br /> The issues Helen (McCloskey) and I care about most, public financing of elections, a reliable paper ballot trail, independent re-districting to replace gerrymandering, the right of a woman to choose not to bring a child into the world, a reversal of the old Proposition 13 and term limits which have so hurt California's once superb education system and the competence of our Legislature, are now almost universally opposed by California's elected Republicans, and the occasional attempts at reform by our Governor are looked on with grim disdain by most of them.<br /><br /> From Helen's and my standpoint, being farmers in Yolo County gives us the opportunity to work for purposes which were once Republican, but can no longer be found at Republican conventions and discussions.<br /><br /> I hope this answers your questions about the party and a government I have served in either civil or military service under ten presidents, five Republican and five Democrat ... I doubt it will be of much interest other than to our friends, but it has been a decision not easily taken.<br /><br /> Respectfully,<br /> Pete McCloskey</blockquote><br /><br />The Republican Party has for some time now become a party of extremists where every single reasonable Republican is driven out or silenced and corruption rules the day. It is time America recognized the corrupt Greedy Oil Party for what it is: an anti-American, destructive, greedy and corrupt organization that cares nothing for actual governance but only cares about being able to freely loot the American economy for their own personal power and gain.<br /><br /><a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&offerid=228989.10000156&subid=0&type=4"><img border="0" alt="Sierra Club Logo" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&bids=228989.10000156&subid=0&type=4&gridnum=0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/">BACK TO PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-25653256637243371842011-08-30T21:27:00.001-04:002011-08-30T21:27:51.502-04:00Sticking to the Union<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=moleshomepage&o=1&p=13&l=ur1&category=music&banner=1GVEV71RWYZ472RKWZ02&f=ifr" width="468" height="60" scrolling="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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<br />The Republican Thugs are trying to crush the unions. This is nothing new. For decades now the rich and powerful have tried to break the working class, and you know what? Despite their crap we have WON the right to a weekend, WON the right to a 40 hour work week, WON the right to childhood without forced labor, WON the right to health and retirement benefits, WON the right to collective bargaining...
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<br />There has not been one moment since the turn of the 20th century that labor hasn't had to fight for its rights. Now is no exception and now, just as much as any other time, we have to fight together, and we have to STICK TO THE UNION.
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<br />And you know it was Woodie Guthrie that got the whole thing started:
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<br />Perhaps the best message to remember from Woodie (Hillbilly) Guthrie, is "You Fascists Bound to Lose"
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<br />That is how the union movement took off, back when farmers and workers were sacrificed for the sake of trickle down economics back in the Great Depression. Yep...NONE OF THIS IS NEW. All that is new is the communication technology we all use. The basic fight dates back to the Dust Bowl and then the Great Depression. The right wing Republicans tried to force trickle down on us back then and it FAILED then...and it will fail now.
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<br />Of course Woodie was known for another great progressive song we all know:
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<br />Later Woodie Guthrie's "Union Maid" was taken up by a later generation, represented by Pete Seeger (who stood up to the Blacklist with great determination) and Woodie's son, Arlo Guthrie (who continues to stand up to a physical disability):
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<br />And then Union Maid continues in modern times:
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<br />But Woodie's other songs also continue into today's consciousness. Bruce Springsteen called it "about the greatest song ever written about America":
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<br />And Pete Seeger, who took the torch from Woodie, sang it with Bruce, who took the torch from Pete:
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<br />SHIT, THIS is what Republicans are fighting to KILL! Why do Republicans want to KILL this spirit? This spirit is the HEART of America. I mean SHIT, Johnny Cash did the song:
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<br />This FUCKING land is YOURS and MINE. Not the damned Koch Billionaires'.
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<br />And of course Greatful Dead and Los Lobos did it as well:
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<br />And of course Woodie's son Arlo did the same song:
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<br />And what about Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Denver singing it with Arlo Guthrie:
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<br />And here is yet another version:
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<br />Yeah...I mean how much more AMERICAN can you get than this kind of WORKING CLASS, pro-fucking-union, PROGRESSIVE sentiment.
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<br />But look...the union spirit is NOT just the musicians and organizers...it is the WORKERS who are at the heart of it...there is no famous singer in this version, just blue collar, working class, AMERICANS:
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<br />THIS is what the Republicans fear most...honest, working class Americans who stick to the union, because when honest, working class Americans stick to the union the pro-Billionaire Republicans LOSE. THAT is what we have to do.
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<br />Okay...enough. What is my point.
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<br />America is NOT about Teabagger, Koch Billionaire trickle down bullshit. America is NOT about the modern Republican Party. America is about Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Willie Nelson, John Denver, Johnny Cash, Los Lobos and everyone else who sings a god damned UNION song to support America's working and middle class. We support our teachers, our firefighters, our cops, our nurses, our construction workers, our trash collectors, our road builders, our farmers...you get the point. Republicans oppose each and every one of these and help ONLY billionaires. Why is this even a contest? They have the money, but we have the votes.
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<br />It is time for farmers, firefighters, cops, teachers, nurses, construction workers, miners, trash collectors, and every single working and middle class American to unite against the Republican pro-Billionaire, trickle down bullshit.
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<br />I can think of no better thing than to fight for our teachers, firefighters, nurses and police. Republicans are screwing them over, and for what? ALL they want is tax breaks for billionaires. I'd rather teachers, firefighters, nurses and cops than billionaires. What about you?
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<br />For now, there are four key states where the fight is going down. There are more, and there WILL be even more. But for now, the four key states are Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. <a href="http://www.actblue.com/page/unionsolidarity">Help fight the good fight.</a>
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<br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/p/music.html">Return to Mole's Music Page.</a>
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<br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">Return to I Had a Thought</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-80203897832700132432011-08-30T21:19:00.001-04:002011-08-30T21:19:43.254-04:00Better Banking and Better Credit Cards<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&offerid=208108.10001708&subid=0&type=4"><img border="0" alt="Gaiam logo_145X80" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&bids=208108.10001708&subid=0&type=4&gridnum=0" /></a>
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<br />We are all angry at the big banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase and Citibank because of their predatory lending practices, terrible customer service and greedy, selfish politics and business practices. Basically these banks and similar ones have screwed working class and middle class Americans and made a profit off our suffering. Then they got bailed out with OUR tax money when their lousy business practices and predatory lending hit them in the ass. These banks got us into the economic mess we are in and the CEOs of these banks took America to the cleaners and have been reaping the profits while we suffer foreclosures and tough times. And the fees they charge are insane!
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<br />That is why I advocate breaking ties with these big predatory banks and finding alternatives. I personally have been divesting myself of these big bad banks like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank and instead switching my mortgage, accounts and credit cards to <a href="http://www.usaa.com/">USAA</a> (which only works with Veterans and their families), <a href="http://www.tdbank.com/">TD Bank</a> (a large bank that actually has excellent customer service and did not engage in predatory lending), and local credit unions. I have particularly liked TD Bank who refinanced my mortgage at a much better rate and much simpler than the big bad banks.
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<br />But so far my wife and I still haven't been able to get rid of all our Chase and Bank of America credit cards. Paying off the debt is tough, but we are working on it. But I would like to find better credit cards to use.
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<br />Well, <a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/pubs/realgreen/articles/ResponsibleCreditCards.cfm">Green America</a> has some suggestions I would like to pass on to you.
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<br /><blockquote>Cards Connected to Better Banks
<br />There are socially responsible banks and credit unions that exemplify responsible lending practices—as well as community investing institutions that take the social mission one step further by also investing in low-income populations.
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<br /><a href="http://www.wainwrightbank.com/html/personal/cards.html">Wainwright Bank Visa Cards</a> (fees and rates vary): Wainwright, a Boston-based bank with a tradition of “socially progressive” banking, offers six different Visa credit cards with different rates and terms. All of these cards are issued and managed by Elan, a financial services company. Steven F. Young, senior vice president at Wainwright, says they “chose Elan because we felt their consumer practices were best.”
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<br /><a href="http://www.pcuonline.org/services/pcu-visa">Permaculture Credit Union’s (PCU) Visa card</a> (13% apr, no annual fee): Based in New Mexico, PCU is committed to Earth-friendly and socially responsible loans and investments. PCU’s card is issued by the Illinois Credit Union League to anyone, whether or not they are a PCU account holder, though applicants should mention they are “affiliated” with Permaculture Credit Union.
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<br /><a href="http://www.redirectguide.com/visa">ReDirect Visa</a> (15.15% apr, no annual fee): The ReDirect card is issued by Washington state’s ShoreBank Pacific.Depositors fuel the bank’s lending programs, which enable sustainable community development. ShoreBank Pacific issues the card by way of TCM, which is owned by ICBA Bancard, a subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America.
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<br />Your card fees support ShoreBank Pacific’s community investing mission, and half of the card’s proceeds go toward reducing CO2 emissions through Sustainable Travel International’s “MyClimate” high-quality offsets. In addition to a conventional rewards program, the card also earns cardholders discounts at the sustainable businesses listed in regional “ReDirect Guides” for Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins, CO; Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA; and Salt Lake City/Park City, UT. Those businesses that offer Internet purchasing will extend ReDirect discounts to any cardholder. There’s no need to have a ShoreBank Pacific account to apply.
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<br /><a href="http://www.salmonnation.com/growsn/snvisa.html">Salmon Nation Visa</a> (15.15% apr, no annual fee): This card, also from ShoreBank Pacific, directs a percentage of its income to growing a community of citizens that practice environmental stewardship of “Salmon Nation,” a bio-region stretching from Alaska to Oregon where wild salmon live. Like the ReDirect card, Salmon Nation Visa isn’t benefiting a mega-bank, and you don’t need a ShoreBank Pacific account to apply.
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<br /><a href="http://www.albinabank.com/">The Loop Card</a> (11.99% apr, no annual fee): A Visa from Albina Community Bank in Oregon. Profits from this Visa from Oregon’s Albina Community Bank not only support Albina, but one percent of every purchase goes to Portland’s neighborhoods, funding education, health, social services, environment, the arts, or economic development projects. You do not have to have an account with Albina to get the card, and it is not connected to a mega-bank.
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<br /><a href="http://www.sbk.com/">Shorebank’s Elan Visa Consumer Card</a> (variable apr, no annual fee): ShoreBank, in the Midwest, is a community development and environmental bank that issues a credit card available to anyone nationwide through Elan, the same company servicing Wainright Bank’s cards, at a rate determined by your credit history.
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<br /><a href="http://www.self-help.org/">Self-Help credit union cards</a> (9.95–12.95% apr, no annual fee): Self-Help, headquartered in North Carolina, works in communities traditionally underserved by conventional financial institutions. It offers Classic and Platinum Visa credit cards to members, and through online banking, anyone nationwide can become an account holder and apply. The cards are issued by Self-Help, a community development bank.
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<br />For those purchases you make by credit card, using one of these best-option cards can make your charges a force for good.</blockquote>
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<br />One of my goals this year is to switch from my current credit cards, which are still mega-bank linked, to one or two of these cards. I hope you will all join my in making the switch.
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<br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/2011/08/consumer-advice-page.html">Return to Mole's Consumer Advice Page.</a>
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<br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">Return to I Had a Thought</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-15293235484790449072011-08-29T16:58:00.000-04:002011-08-29T16:59:12.284-04:00BOOK REVIEW: This Moment on Earth<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=moleshomepage&o=1&p=26&l=ur1&category=books&banner=0GDEZK2MM2XGCEH7M202&f=ifr" width="468" height="60" scrolling="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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<br />I was surprisingly inspired by John and Teresa Heinz Kerry's book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586485652/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=moleshomepage&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1586485652">This Moment on Earth</a> when I first read it in 2007. This inspiration snuck up on me around the third chapter. Prior to that, I found the book good, well worth reading, but a little bit like just one more book outlining what humans are doing wrong. Starting around the third chapter I realized I was referring to the book in several conversations and several blog diaries and that several of the people and organizations featured in the book I mentally filed away as worth looking into for future political connections, diaries and general research.
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<br />In short, almost without my realizing it, John and Theresa Heinz Kerry's book was getting into my brain and inspiring me. The book starts a bit dull but by the end is excellent.
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<br />My earliest impression, from the press material that arrived with the book and from the introduction, was that this book promised something really new and welcome. The book was billed as the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate. I was ready for a book that took as given the problems and focused primarily on solutions. Having been through way too many "debates" online where I yet again outlined the very clear and definitive scientific evidence for global warming only to have yet the same false claims of global warming deniers (these claims are never backed up by scientific evidence of any substance), I really was ready to have a book that moved beyond that.
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<br />And, on exactly the same day I received This Moment on Earth I was reading the February 9th, 2007 issue of Science, America's most respected scientific journal. And in that issue, the scientific community was doing exactly what John Kerry seemed to be proposing. In the summation of the 4th IPCC Working Group presented in that issue of Science, has this to say:
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<br /><blockquote> The last time the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessed the state of the climate, in early 2001, it got a polite enough hearing. The world was warming, it said, and human activity was "likely" to be driving most of the warming. Back then, the committee specified a better-than-60% chance--not exactly a ringing endorsement. And how bad might things get? That depended on a 20-year-old guess about how sensitive the climate system might be to rising greenhouse gases. Given the uncertainties, the IPCC report's reception was on the tepid side.
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<br />Six years of research later, the heightened confidence is obvious. The warming is "unequivocal." Humans are "very likely" (higher than 90% likelihood) behind the warming. And the climate system is "very unlikely" to be so insensitive as to render future warming inconsequential...
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<br />The fact of warming was perhaps the most straightforward item of business. For starters, the air is 0.74°C warmer than in 1906, up from a century's warming of 0.6°C in the last report. "Eleven of the last twelve years rank among the 12 warmest years in the [150-year-long] instrumental record," <a href="http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/">notes the summary</a>. Warming ocean waters, shrinking mountain glaciers, and retreating snow cover strengthened the evidence.
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<br />So the IPCC authors weren't impressed by the contrarian argument that the warming is just an "urban heat island effect" driven by increasing amounts of heat-absorbing concrete and asphalt. That effect is real, the report says, but it has "a negligible influence" on the global number. Likewise, new analyses have largely settled the hullabaloo over why thermometers at Earth's surface measured more warming than remote-sensing satellites had detected higher in the atmosphere (Science, 12 May 2006, p. 825). Studies by several groups have increased the satellite-determined warming, largely reconciling the difference...
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<br />The IPCC concludes that both models and past climate changes point to a fairly sensitive climate system. The warming for a doubling of CO2 "is very unlikely to be less than 1.5 °C," says the report, not the less than 0.5 °C favored by some contrarians. A best estimate is about 3 °C, with a likely range of 2 °C to 4.5 °C.</blockquote>
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<br /><a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-5403436-10918544" target="_top">
<br /><img src="http://www.ftjcfx.com/image-5403436-10918544" width="468" height="60" alt="" border="0"/></a>
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<br />Much of the rest of the issue of Science is devoted to a discussion of SOLUTIONS to global warming through energy policy. The overwhelming consensus of scientists, as reported in America's most prestigious science journal, is that anthropogenic (human-caused) warming is happening and the most optimistic scenarios are not the most likely scenarios. We are in for a rough ride and the time is now to accept the problem and move on to solutions. Shift the debate, people. Let's talk what to DO ABOUT IT.
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<br />I was ready for John Kerry's book to carry the same theme: it is time to take as given the problem and move on to solutions.
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<br />That isn't what I got. And at first I was disappointed. As I read the first two chapters I felt I was reading yet another book that outlined the problem with perhaps a little more emphasis placed on solutions and how individuals and small groups are empowering themselves to fight back. The book was good and very informative, but I was unconvinced that it was new. This kind of outlining the problems we are facing reached its peak, I think, in Jared Diamond's book Collapse, covering many environmental issues from a very broad historical and sociological perspective. Superb book that I HIGHLY recommend. Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth gave us a nice Powerpoint presentation on global warming that can be easily appreciated by a far wider audience than Jared Diamond's Collapse. And John Kerry was giving us something in between: more accessible than Collapse and more fleshed out than An Inconvenient Truth.
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<br />And with more emphasis on the people who are coming up with solutions.
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<br />By the third chapter the main theme of the book emerged: we are killing ourselves and our children with the full participation of a government that is supposed to protect us. Data sound the alarm, like one in six infants born in the US each year has blood mercury levels above the EPA standards and high enough to cause neurological problems, fueled by coal-burning power plants whose owners contributed $6.6 million to the Republicans since 1999, making them one of the biggest Republican source of donations. Or that in 2005 people of color were 79% more likely to live in the most polluted communities, up from 49% in 1996. Or a study by the United Church of Christ in 1987 that found that race was the single most significant factor in determining the location of a hazardous waste facility. And so on. Every parent should read chapter two. Everyone interested in racial equality should read chapter three. Etc. The alarm bells ring constantly.
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<br />But what I found I was citing the most and taking the most note of was exactly what the Kerrys WANTED me to notice the most: the people who are fighting back. I think it was the case of Majora Carter and Sustainable South Bronx that finally made me realize that this book was inspiring me because I immediately decided she'd be perfect as an invited speaker for a political group I am involved with. The example of Riverkeeper, where ex-marines decided to patrol our nation's waterways to protect them from polluters, was another "wow" moment. Even Don Imus and his wife Deidre come off inspiring in <span style="font-style:italic;">This Moment on Earth</span>, something I never imagined I'd say. And Chapter 7, discussing energy policy, is the best chapter, showing how right here and now, using existing technology, the city of Portland, OR, as well as companies like Texas Instruments and DuPont are doing EXACTLY what needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions--and doing it while creating jobs and saving money. Chapter 7 shows us that there remain NO EXCUSES for America to continue to avoid taking a leadership role in stopping global warming. All that we lack, <a href="http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/3/16/9435/47856">as I have written before</a> is the political leadership on a national level. Kerry shows us that locally there has been considerable leadership by both Democrats and Republicans. But nationally Bush has led us down a path that leads nowhere and that has ceded economic ingenuity to other nations.
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<br />So it is precisely through highlighting some wonderful people who are empowering themselves, their communities and, in fact, all of us that John and Teresa Heinz Kerry inspire in this book. Although the book still focuses primarily on a myriad of environmental problems that are killing us now and will kill us more in the future, solutions are the constant theme: the people who come up with solutions, solutions each individual can do for themselves (throughout and in Appendix B) and, perhaps something I will have particular interest in, considering the almost simultaneous issue of Science dealing with the same theme, Appendix A is John Kerry's proposal for a national energy policy. Put all this together and you may not have the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate, but you certainly have one more important step forward and one that might have a wider appeal than Collapse and An Inconvenient Truth.
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<br />In the future This Moment on Earth will likely be the inspiration for several diaries that are brewing in my brain: energy policy, Majora Carter, Riverkeeper, Portland, Oregon... But for now I leave you with the main message of the book, from the Introduction:
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<br /><blockquote>In truth environmentalism isn't dead, it's just being reborn...the very idea of what it means to be an "environmentalist" is being revolutionized. People from all walks of life, without concern for party or ideological lines, are coming together in unprecedented numbers across the globe...
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<br />The new environmentalist knows that caring about the environment can no longer be mislabeled as caring less about national security, the economy, family, education, profit, or community. Rather, the leaders of today's new environmental movement understand that these issues are all connected...
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<br />Above all, we want this book to expose the false choices...the straw men...put forwards to purposefully slow or reverse progress in environmentalism and politicize the debate. </blockquote>
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<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586485652/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=moleshomepage&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1586485652">Buy This Moment on Earth </a>and find out what is being done to save our country and our lifestyle.
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<br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">Return to I Had a Thought</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-89403877486085793582011-08-29T16:51:00.000-04:002011-08-29T16:53:17.115-04:00Break Up With Your Mega-Bank!...Green America's Community Investing Guide<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&offerid=208108.10001708&subid=0&type=4"><img border="0" alt="Gaiam logo_145X80" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=jUiiRl5U*AQ&bids=208108.10001708&subid=0&type=4&gridnum=0" /></a>
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<br />This comes from Green America, an organization I have been supporting since they were called Co-op America.
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<br /><blockquote>How you save and invest your money has as much an effect on the world as how you spend your money. If you’re tired of seeing your banking and investment dollars support projects you don’t believe in (like fossil-fuels or weapons manufacturing) or practices you can’t endorse (like deceptive lending or huge bonuses to their CEOs), then make 2011 the year you break up with your mega-bank and start investing in communities.
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<br />Green America’s Community Investing Guide provides an introduction to community development financial institutions, or CDFIs – banks, credit unions, and other financial groups with a mission to direct your banking and investing dollars into projects that improve people’s lives.
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<br /><a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting/communityinvesting/orderguide.cfm">Purchase paper copies</a> or <a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/tools/DownloadPDF/index.cfm?PDF=GuideInvestCommunities.pdf">download a PDF copy</a>.
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<br />Whether you need a bank for depositing a weekly paycheck, or an investment opportunity for a larger sum – or anything in between – our Community Investing Guide gives you the resources you need. With the global economic crisis focusing even more public scrutiny on the greed and mismanagement of the corporate mega-banks, it’s clear: community investing is more important now than ever before.</blockquote>
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<br />More here:
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<br /> <a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting/whattoknow.cfm">* The basics about socially responsible investing</a>
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<br /><a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/pubs/fph/retirement.cfm"> * How to retire with one million dollars in a just and sustainable world</a>
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<br /><a href="http://www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting/communityinvesting/index.cfm"> * How your savings and checking accounts can build healthy communities through community investing</a>
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<br /><a href="http://thinkingmole.blogspot.com/">Return to I Had a Thought</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-88941540362749745352010-05-03T18:55:00.000-04:002010-05-03T18:56:11.317-04:00Arizona Republican Leader Follows KKK Leader on TwitterSo, the evidence that the Republican Party has a major racism problem just keeps mounting. I highlight the sad connections between the Republican Party and white supremacists with what sometimes seems like depressing frequency. The latest example comes, not surprisingly, from Arizona.<br /><br />Arizona State Senate Majority leader Chuck Gray, supposedly part of the mainstream Republican Party and a major proponent of the recent Arizona racist laws, actually is a follower of Don Black, a white supremacist who has been banned from the UK for his violent, neo-Nazi rhetoric, and Chuck Gray is also a follower of Stormfront, Don Black's KKK website. I kid you not. A leading Arizona Republican is a follower on Twitter of a KNOWN KKK leader.<br /><br />From <a href="http://gawker.com/5529952/arizona-republican-leader-follows-white-supremacist">Gawker</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Don Black is a Florida-based white supremacist who is deemed so dangerous he's banned from the UK for inciting hatred. Arizona State Senate Majority leader Chuck Gray—a proponent of the recent immigration bill—follows him on Twitter.<br /><br />StormfrontWPWW (White Pride Worldwide) is the Twitter account for Stormfront, a racist organization that is the latest project of uber-racist Stephen Donald Black, better known as Don Black. He was a Grand Wizard in the KKK and a member of the American Nazi Party. In 1981 he was convicted and jailed for trying to invade the Dominican Republic with a boatload of weapons, in order to set up some kind of utopian state. (He's pictured below, at a conference organized by the infamous white supremacist David Duke.) Stormfront.org, the website he set up on his release from jail, is a hate-filled racist forum.</blockquote><br /><br />And here is what the <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/don-black">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> has to say about Arizona Republican Leader Chuck Gray's inspiration:<br /><br /><blockquote>Don Black<br />Don Black<br />Associated Profiles: <br />David Duke<br />Related Articles: <br />Back to Black<br />Irreconcilable Differences<br />Electronic Storm<br />Insatiable<br />Date of Birth: <br />1953<br />Groups: <br />Stormfront<br />Location: <br />West Palm Beach, FL<br />Ideology: <br />White Nationalist<br /><br />A former Klan state leader and long-time white supremacist, Don Black is best known for creating Stormfront.org, the first major Internet hate site. While the site remains popular in racist circles today, Black came under criticism in 2008 from other white supremacists for toning down its offensive content and for the claimed renunciation of racism made by his wife, Chloe Black, to a reporter.<br /><br />In His Own Words<br />"The people that visit Stormfront have a righteous indignation to the Israelization of America. Zionism unbound, that is what goes on in Washington, D.C., these days. … [T]he Jewish people demolish homes abroad and condition peoples minds with the media here in the U.S.A."<br />— 2004 interview with Impact News<br /><br />"I remember [the 1950s] quite well, that a lot of people were mad about blacks. They were mad about school integration and black crime… . [B]ut … it was kind of rare to find someone that really, fully understood the Jewish involvement … behind all of this promotion of the destruction of culture and our heritage, the destruction of our schools and our neighborhoods. … [W]ith the Internet — and, I think, with this involvement in the Middle East, American involvement in the Middle East — everything's changed. I mean, we have to calm down people sometimes on Stormfront about the Jews."<br />— Stormfront.org radio, 2008<br /><br />"I get nonstop E-mails and private messages from new people who are mad as hell about the possibility of Obama being elected. White people, for a long time, have thought of our government as being for us, and Obama is the best possible evidence that we've lost that. This is scaring a lot of people who maybe never considered themselves racists, and it's bringing them over to our side."<br />— 2008 interview with The Washington Post<br /><br />"[I]f Obama wins, then Americans, white Americans, are really going to realize where they stand. It'll be demoralizing for a lot of our people, and also white people throughout the world, to have the world's greatest military power headed up by a black."<br />— Stormfront.org radio, 2008<br /><br />Criminal History<br />On April 27, 1981, Black and nine other white supremacists were arrested as they prepared to board a yacht stocked with weapons and ammunition to invade the Caribbean island of Dominica and take over its government. Black served three years in federal prison for his role in the invasion plot and for his violation of the Neutrality Act.<br /><br />In 1987, Black, along with Klan leader David Duke, was reportedly charged with reckless conduct and for illegally blocking a state highway in Forsyth County, Ga., where they had traveled to take advantage of simmering racial tensions.<br /><br />Background<br />Going back to high school, Don Black has always been one of the more enthusiastic proponents of white power. One of his first forays into the organized movement was in the 1970s, when he volunteered for the late white supremacist J.B. Stoner's unsuccessful run for governor of Georgia. He stayed with the campaign until Stoner's campaign manager, Jerry Ray, the brother of Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray, shot Black in the chest. The shooting apparently stemmed from accusations that Black had broken into Stoner's office to steal a mailing list for the National Socialist White People's Party.<br /><br />After recovering, Black went on to join the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the group headed by David Duke in the 1970s. Working on Duke's unsuccessful campaign for Louisiana state Senate, Black won Duke's trust, moving up to become his mentor's right-hand man in addition to his post as Alabama grand dragon, or state leader. When Duke left the group amid allegations that he'd tried to sell its membership list to another Klan group for $35,000, Black took over. Later, in the 1970s, according to The Crusader, a KKK newspaper, Black sponsored marches in defense of Robert Chambliss, who stood accused (and was later convicted) of the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls in Birmingham, Ala. Not long after, Black got into trouble himself. In 1981, he and nine other white supremacists were arrested as they prepared to board a yacht with which they intended to invade the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica, oust its black-run government, and transform it into a "white state." Black's resulting three-year federal prison sentence was time well spent. He took classes in computer programming that would provide the basis for his future.<br /><br />Not long after his release, Black launched an unsuccessful campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama. He wound up marrying Duke's ex-wife, Chloe Hardin, and moving to West Palm Beach, Fla. Once there, he began dabbling with his computer, eventually setting up a dial-up bulletin board service for the radical right. By March 1995, that service evolved into Stormfront.org, the Net's first ever and best-known American hate site.<br /><br />Black saw clearly that with this new technology, white supremacists might finally bypass the mainstream media and political apparatus, getting their message out to people who otherwise would never hear it. And he realized the importance of the fact that people who now could read about white supremacist ideas in the privacy of their own homes without fear of embarrassment or reproach. "The potential of the Net for organizations and movements such as ours is enormous," Black told a reporter in 1996. "We're reaching tens of thousands of people who never before had access to our point of view."<br /><br />The results have been fairly spectacular. In January 2002, Stormfront had a mere 5,000 members. A year later, membership reached 11,000; and a year after that, in early 2004, it had 23,000. By 2008, membership hit about 133,000 registered users, though the majority were inactive. These numbers don't include the large numbers who simply read Stormfront postings without actually joining up (becoming a member allows one to post messages and also to view personal information posted by other members). <br /><br />One of Stormfront's main attractions is that it provides forums for so called "white nationalists" to post articles, engage in forum discussions, and share news of upcoming racist events. Below the Stormfront motto, "White Pride World Wide," are links to racially charged news stories like "Mestizo Rapes White Woman in Elevator" and "Negro Man Stabs Elderly Woman, Shoots Detective, Negroes Screaming ‘Police Brutality." Stormfront's various forums can also contain threads like "What do you want done with the Jews?," "Aryan Storm Rising," and "To Hate or Not to Hate." But one thing you won't normally find on Stormfront today, unlike in its early years, are racial slurs. In fact, new members are explicitly warned not to use such language, and also not to post violent threats or anything describing illegal activity. It's not that Stormfront is about moderation. The talk is all about the evils of African Americans, homosexuals, non-white immigrants, and, above all, Jews, who are blamed for most of what's wrong in the world. But Black clearly has modeled his site on some of the tactics used by David Duke, who famously urged his Klan followers to "get out of the cow pasture and into hotel meeting rooms." As Black once told a reporter, "We don't use the ‘nigger, nigger' type of approaches."<br /><br />Duke and Black have remained close over the years. In 2004, Black was on hand to celebrate the end of Duke's one-and-a-half year federal prison term (for mail fraud and misstating his income taxes) at a New Orleans event put on by Duke's European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO). Black signed on to Duke's "New Orleans Protocol," a set of principles "pledging adherents to a pan-European outlook." More recently, Duke has been a regular on Black's Stormfront.org Radio, an Internet radio program that features white supremacists. <br /><br />In 2008, Black made the news when the Intelligence Report reported that his wife Chloe worked for Emilia Fanjul, wife of sugar baron Jose "Pepe" Fanjul, as an executive assistant. Part of Chloe's duties involved serving as a publicist for Glades Academy, a charter school created by Emilia Fanjul to help poor minority children. Despite having attended an event put on by the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens a month earlier, Chloe Black told the Palm Beach Post, "I am not involved with the website [Stormfront] and do not agree with extremist or racially prejudiced views." The Post, based on information supplied by the Southern Poverty Law Center, also reported that Don Black had recently toned down Stormfront, banning many symbols of Nazism that formerly were common on the site, including swastikas and SS lightning bolts, and getting rid of particularly offensive terms, including "nigger." White supremacists were not happy. In racist Web forums, they ripped both Don and Chloe, denouncing them for caring more about money than their beliefs. <br /><br />The 2008 presidential election gave Stormfront a lift. Don Black boasted on the site he was seeing six times the usual web traffic because of a possible Obama win. "There are a lot of angry White people out there looking for answers," he wrote. "Let's show them. We will not be defeated." <br /><br />In 2009, the BBC reported that five American right-wing extremists were among 16 individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom for reasons of "fostering extremism or hatred." Black was one of those banned. According to the U.K. Home Office (the lead U.K. government department for immigration and passports), Black was banned for "promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence in the UK."</blockquote><br /><br />Let me reiterate: The LEADER of the Republican Arizona Senate is a FOLLOWER of a former KKK Grand Wizard. This is sick, sick sick! And this is part of the origin of the current racist Arizona laws. RACISM is a major part of Republican policy these days and it is disgusting!<br /><br />But sadly, Chuck "I Love the KKK" Gray of Arizona's Senate is not alone by ANY means in his racism. Republican Racism is increasingly widespread. There was the <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/republicans_and_nazis">Republican running for Congress in 2008 who loved Nazis</a>. Here's <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/republican_racism">a rundown from 2007</a>. Then there was <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/yet_more_republican_racism_iowa_republican_insu">Republican Racism from Iowa</a> in 2008. And <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/more_republican_racism_michael_savage_edition">Michael Savage's racism</a> in 2008. A <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/republican_racism_strikes_again">rundown of Republican Racism from 2008</a> (some overlap with my rundown from 2007). There was <a href="http://usliberals.about.com/b/2009/05/27/ugly-republican-racism-and-sexism-over-sotomayor-nomination.htm">Republican Racism over Sotomayor</a>. A Republican and THE Teabagger candidate for Governor in New York in 2010 <a href="http://www.dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/republicanvaluesracismpornographybeastiality">forwards racist emails</a>. It goes on and on and on.<br /><br />Republican Racism is out of control and it gets down to the level of eagerly rubbing shoulders with KKK and neo-Nazi leaders. It is time we face up to the fact that the Republican Party has been working with and following KKK and neo-Nazi leaders. It isn't even hidden. The Republican/racist connection is open and public.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-67925897122935357412010-03-17T21:52:00.001-04:002010-03-17T21:53:19.700-04:00Republicans STILL Racked by ScandalCorrupt business as usual in the Republican Party:<br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uiyVIzdvKKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uiyVIzdvKKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="385"></embed></object>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-71801430216270306332010-03-17T07:28:00.002-04:002010-03-17T07:32:15.425-04:00Target the Corrupt Republican Campaign (Missouri Focus)Roy Blunt, one of the more corrupt members of the Missouri Republican Party, is running for Senate in Missouri. So I thought it was time to remind people of the corruption of the Blunt family.<br /><br />Roy Blunt (MO-7) and his son Matt Blunt (Governor of MO) are among the most corrupt politicians in America today. Here are some excerpts from <a href="http://www.bluntfacts.com/"> Blunt Facts</a> regarding the corruption of the Blunt family in Missouri politics: <br /><br />Rep. Roy Blunt (MO-7) tried to help Philip Morris (one of his big donors and employer of his son, Andrew, and his then girlfriend, Abigail Perlman) by inserting a tobacco industry backed provision attacking internet cigarette sales into the, get this, Homeland Security Bill.<br /><br />From CBS NEWS<br />Reported June 11, 2003<br /><br /><blockquote>GOP Whip Tried To Aid Tobacco Pals<br /><br />(CBS) House Majority Whip Roy Blunt is coming under fire for trying to help tobacco giant Philip Morris USA in last November's homeland security bill.<br /><br />Blunt's ties to the company include large campaign donations from the company - $150,000 since 2001 to committees affiliated with Blunt. His son, Andrew, also works as a lobbyist for Philip Morris back in his home state of Missouri.<br /><br />The Washington Post reports that just days after he was named to the House's third-highest leadership post, Blunt - who has close personal and political ties to Phillip Morris - tried to slip a pro-tobacco provision into the bill creating the new Department of Homeland Security.<br />When Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., found out about Blunt's idea, he immediately yanked it out of the bill. Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Tex., also said he opposed Blunt's effort and "worked against it" when he found out about it.<br /><br />Several Republicans told the Post they felt a pro-tobacco provision had very little support and that Blunt's actions could have proven "embarrassing" to the party and its new Whip.<br /><br />Some Republicans also expressed concern that Blunt's close personal relationship with a Phillip Morris lobbyist named Abigail Perlman may have influenced his actions.</blockquote><br /><br />Matt Blunt, Gov. of Missouri, used taxpayer's money, including Federal money, to urge people to vote. Problem was, he plastered his own name and face all over the ads even though he was a candidate. He used OUR money to plug himself.<br /><br />From SPRINGFIELD NEWS-LEADER<br />Published September 1, 2004<br /><br /><blockquote>Blunt faces ethics complaints after primary advertising<br /><br />By Kelly Wiese<br />Associated Press<br /><br />Some former Republican gubernatorial candidates and a group backing Democratic candidate Claire McCaskill have filed ethics complaints against Republican nominee Matt Blunt over newspaper ads encouraging people to vote.<br /><br />The Associated Press reported last month that Blunt, the secretary of state, spent almost $48,000 in public money on statewide newspaper advertising that includes his name and picture, urging voters to turn out for the Aug. 3 primary.<br /><br />Blunt easily defeated five little-known opponents in the Republican primary for governor to face McCaskill, the state auditor, in November.<br /><br />Blunt used federal funds to pay $47,984 to the Missouri Press Association to place the ads twice during the primary campaign in 295 daily and weekly newspapers across the state, the association said...</blockquote><br /><br />Out-of-state donors who needed support from Roy Blunt in Congress donated large amounts of money to his son, Matt Blunt's, campaign.<br /><br />From THE HILL - Newspaper for and about Congress<br />Published July 9, 2003<br /><br /><blockquote>Rep. Blunt's son aided by donors from out-of-state<br />by Sam Dealey<br /><br />Campaign finance records show that Matt Blunt, the son of House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), received significant contributions from out-of-state sources during his successful 2000 race for Missouri secretary of state.<br /><br />Many of the contributors seemingly lacked a direct interest in the down-ballot state race but had significant interests pending before Matt Bluntís father.<br /><br />At the time that the contributions to his son's campaign occurred, Roy Blunt was a rising GOP star and an aggressive fundraiser. After the elevation of J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to Speaker in 1999, Blunt was named chief deputy whip.<br /><br />He also won a seat on the powerful House Commerce Committee, with assignments on subcommittees with jurisdiction over finance and hazardous materials, oversight and investigations, and telecommunications, trade and consumer protection.<br /><br />Missouri state records show contributions to Matt Blunt's campaign came from firms and individuals with business pending before Roy Blunt's subcommittees. Although some of the companies have significant interests in the state, others do not.<br /><br />Top executives at Freddie Mac, for example, contributed $4,000 to his campaign. On Nov. 6, 2000, Senior Vice President Gary Lanzara and Vice President Lelan Brendsel gave $1,000 each. Two weeks later, Freddie Mac lobbyist David Glenn and his wife, Cherie, also contributed $1,000 apiece. Cherie is listed as a homemaker; the couple reside in Great Falls, Va.<br /><br />Contributions from telecommunications-related entities accounted for over $10,000. Railway transportation companies also contributed more than $6,000 to Matt Blunt's campaign. John Scruggs, a top lobbyist for Altria, formerly Phillip Morris, contributed $1,000. Other contributions came from companies and executives in--or representatives for--such heavily regulated industries as healthcare, insurance, chemicals and defense technology.<br /><br />By far the biggest outside contributors to Matt Blunt's campaign, however, were colleagues of Roy Blunt. Campaign finance documents show 84 House lawmakers made 95 contributions to the secretary of state campaign, totaling more than $65,000.<br /><br />"What it looks like is that people were giving not because of an independent desire to help Matt Blunt but because he was Roy Blunt's son," said Larry Noble of the Center for Responsive Politics. "Clearly, there are questions raised by the fact that so much money came from out-of-state donors, and it looks like the givers have interests where Mr. Blunt might be able to help.</blockquote><br /><br />Finally, Governor Matt Blunt has tried to prevent the U.S. Attorney's office from investigating his family's scandals by putting the wife of U.S. Attorney Todd Graves (U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri) on the Blunt Family payroll to the tune of a cool half million dollars a year, and he used taxpayer dollars to do it. This is described in the <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/10918563.htm">Kansas City Star.</a> And here is an excerpt from a <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/conflict/petition.html">petition to Attorney General Gonzales demanding an investigation of this corruption:</a><br /><br /><blockquote>It has recently been reported that United States Attorney Todd Graves and his family will personally benefit from no-bid state contracts valued at more than $3.6 million given by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt. This raises serious ethical and legal questions concerning Mr. Graves’ ability to perform his job, which includes investigating and prosecuting public corruption in federal, state and local government, including the Blunt administration, those who might attempt to influence the Blunt administration, or Blunt’s father, the United States Congressman from Missouri’s 7th District.<br /><br />Awarding these contracts to the Graves family effectively undermines any attempt by the United States Attorney’s Office to investigate claims of public corruption as they did against former Speaker of the House Bob Griffin or Attorney General William Webster...<br /><br />On Feb. 9, 2005 the Blunt administration announced that Tracy Graves, wife of United States Attorney Todd Graves, had been given a no-bid contract to run the second most lucrative motor vehicle fee office in Missouri, located in Gladstone. As the fee agent, Tracy Graves will gross more than $2.6 million over the next four years of Governor Blunt’s term. US Attorney Todd Graves’ brother-in-law, Todd Bartles, was also awarded a $1 million no-bid contract to run the Sugar Creek Motor Vehicle Fee Office.<br /><br />In addition, two congressional staffers to Congressmen Sam Graves, who is the brother of United States Attorney Todd Graves, were also given no-bid contracts, even as they continue to be on the Federal Government’s payroll. Congressman Sam Graves’ Deputy Chief of Staff Dean Brookshier was given a no-bid contract to run the Chillicothe office and Field Representative Naomi Boss was awarded the Keytesville office.<br /><br />This arrangement goes far beyond the appearance of impropriety. One could reasonably argue that this lucrative contract will ensure that the Blunt administration is never investigated for corruption or wrongdoing as long as United States Attorney Graves and his family are personally getting rich off of the administration.<br /><br />We also strongly feel that United States Attorney Todd Graves has violated the U.S. Department of Justice’s Standards of Conduct, specifically section 1-4.320, which states:<br /><br />Conflicts of Interest. Employees may not engage in outside activities that create or appear to create a conflict of interest with their official duties. Such a conflict exists when the outside activity would: (1) require the recusal of the employee from significant aspects of his or her official duties (5 C.F.R. § 2635.802(b)); (2) create an appearance that the employee's official duties were performed in a biased or less than impartial manner (5 C.F.R. § 2635.502); or (3) create an appearance of official sanction or endorsement (5 C.F.R. § 2635.702(b)).<br /><br />It is our sincere hope that you would obtain all correspondence, including emails and phone records, between the Graves family, the Blunt transition team and the Blunt administration in connection with these arrangements. It is essential to know who approached whom in regards to this arrangement and what promises were made.<br /><br />An added concern is the fact that in his official capacity, United States Attorney Graves also was a member of the interview and hiring team for the Missouri Department of Public Safety Director. This was an official governmental body that was responsible for the review of applicants and the selection of the final panel of nominees to the Governor. Such participation now makes it impossible for United States Attorney Graves to effectively investigate or prosecute misconduct by the Department of Public Safety in the expenditure of federal dollars, including Homeland Security Funds.</blockquote><br /><br />Can we tolerate this kind of corruption in American politics? The Republican party includes Roy Blunt in its leadership. This, along with their defense of Tom DeLay's corruption, is a dark stain on the reputation of the Republican party.<br /><br />We have to support <a href="http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/21709">Robin Carnahan for Senate</a> to show the Republicans that corruption doesn't pay. Carnahan is Missouri's secretary of state and has done an excellent job of it.<br /><br />Also PLEASE <a href="http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/ ">write letters to the editor about the Blunts to get the word out about their corruption.</a>mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-63055613613013585732009-12-16T11:19:00.001-05:002009-12-16T11:19:27.573-05:00New York Focus: The Ongoing Working Families Party ScandalI got a fair amount of crap from people about my coverage of the Working Families Party scandal, wherein WFP was caught red handed violating campaign finance laws. Several people told me to lay off them because they are progressives. To me, though, corruption by people I agree with on policy is worse than corruption by Republicans, who I expect it from. So I covered the WFP scandal despite attacks from fellow progressives.<br /><br />Well, now WFP and one of their star candidates, Developer Shill Bill de Blasio, have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney's Office. So folks, it isn't just me who thinks WFP, Developer Money, and Bill de Blasio are rotten to the core despite their progressive rhetoric. From the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2009/12/wfp-subpoenaed.html">New York Observer</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>The Working Families Party has received a subpoena from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District seeking information in connection with its efforts in the 2009 elections, a spokesman for the labor-backed party confirmed...<br /><br />The party is being sued for its work on Staten Island Councilwoman-elect Debi Rose's campaign. A judge ruled last week that the trial can go forward.<br /><br />It was also the subject of at least one complaint filed with the CFB.<br /><br />Three days after the Nov. 3 elections, the party announced it had hired Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom to conduct a thorough review of the structure and relationship between the WFP and its for-profit arm, Data & Field Services. The review is being led by former Chief Judge Judith Kaye...<br /><br />It's hard to overstate how bad this could be for the WFP.</blockquote><br /><br />I personally think that WFP skirted the edge of legality close enough that in the end there will be little actual punishment for their actions. But in my mind they have finally abandoned all pretense of being a reform organization. They have shown a complete willingness to bend and break laws and cooperate with corrupt political machines like the Vito Lopez machine in Brooklyn. WFP may well survive this scandal, but it is a real scandal nonetheless and one that finally shows their true colors: they are nothing more than another corrupt machine interested in their own power more than in actual governance. In this sense they are the same as the Vito Lopez or Clarence Norman machine which had perfectly respectable policy stands in most cases, but were corrupt as can be. I have high expectations of my fellow progressives. I don't accept corruption just because they have good rhetoric on policy. I find the corruption of Brooklyn's Democratic machine embarrassing as hell, and the corruption of the WFP is just as bad if not worse.<br /><br />For a LOT more on the WFP scandal (I haven't covered it much recently due to taking some time off from blogging) please see the excellent coverage by the City Hall News <a href="http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1043-all-in-the-family-part-1.html">here</a>, <a href="http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1046-all-in-the-family-part-2.html">here</a>, <a href="http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1048-all-in-the-family-part-3.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1049-all-in-the-family-part-4.html">here</a>. And that's just the stuff published since I took a break from blogging.<br /><br />(P.S. I know some of you out there are going to complain about this article, but how the hell can I speak out against Republican corruption if I don't speak out against this crap?)32mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-90060551414819972322009-06-18T14:33:00.002-04:002009-06-18T14:34:41.998-04:00New York's "Hide the Predator Act"This is one of those times where it isn't just Republicans I am disgusted with. This is a case where a corrupt political deal involving Brooklyn's Party Boss Vito Lopez is essentially protecting child molesters.<br /><br />Assemblyman Vito Lopez, <a href="http://www.dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/wfpjoinsindinbowingtovitolopez">political ally of WFP and city council candidates like Steve Levin and Maritza Davilla</a>, is under attack for his watering down a bill to protect children abused by sex offenders sheltering in religious institutions. Here's video from a local TV station (sorry, includes an ad at the beginning...thanks to a reader for passing it on to me).<br /><br /><script type='text/javascript' src='http://video.cw11.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=702412;hostDomain=video.cw11.com;playerWidth=670;playerHeight=425;isShowIcon=true;clipId=3877217;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript'></script><br /><br />Wonder how Working Families Party, Steve Levin and Maritza Davilla justify their ties to this kind of back room deal to protect child abusers from legal prosecution by their victims. Will WFP, Steve Levin and Martiza Davilla repudiate Party Boss Lopez's protection of child abusers or will they toe the line like good little hacks and support protecting child abusers? My guess is they will toe the line.<br /><br />Some more background <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15355/News/New_York.html">from Jewish Week</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>According to Marci Hamilton, professor of law at Cardozo Law School and author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children,” the “correct name for the new Lopez bill [should be] ‘The Hide the Predator Act.’”<br /><br />“Unlike the Markey bill, this bill does absolutely nothing to help New Yorkers identify the many secret child predators in New York, who have been benefiting from the short statutes of limitations for decades. With the Markey bill, we have a proven method of finding the predators in our midst. The Lopez bill gives them continuing cover to abuse our children.”<br /><br />Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for Survivors for Justice, a group of abuse survivors who grew up in Orthodox communities, urged the legislators to “stop playing politics with our children’s lives. Any support for the Lopez bill is at the behest of, and in the interest of, the Church and a few Orthodox Jewish institutions and not designed to protect children and their families from predators.”</blockquote><br /><br />From <a href="http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/breaking-child-abuse-bill-criticized-as-red-herring-makes-it-out-of-committee-after-all/">the Jewish Star</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Sexual abuse activists have criticized the Lopez bill saying that it would help sexual predators. They claim it is meant to detract attention from the Child Victims Act, stronger legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Marge Markey (D-Queens), which would extend the civil and criminal statutes by five years and, more critically, open up a yearlong window to bring cases that currently are beyond the statute of limitations...<br /><br />Marci Hamilton, a professor at Yeshiva University and the author of “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect its Children,” said it was a “non-event” that the Lopez bill had made it out of committee, after all.<br /><br />“The bill accomplishes nothing for victims,” Hamilton explained. “It’s classic form to make them look like they’re doing something, but it is keeping the secrets and keeping the predators under wraps.”<br /><br />For Hamilton, the window is the most crucial element of the bill.<br /><br />“We know how the window works,” she said, noting that when a similar bill passed in California, 300 previously unknown predators were identified. “It’s pretty simple — if you’re against the window, you don’t want the predators out.”</blockquote><br /><br />So next time you see someone from WFP, or Steve Levin or Maritza Davilla, confront them on this issue. Ask them if they support the "Hide the Predator Act" that their political mentor and ally, Vito Lopez, has proposed.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-55962478521821370702009-03-12T12:55:00.002-04:002009-03-13T07:08:49.582-04:00NORM COLEMAN: Abyssmally Stupid?I cannot believe this one. Seems Norm Coleman, the very much FORMER Senator from Minnesota who wants to run again for his old seat, has just completely compromised his donors' credit card information. This was discovered last January and yet Coleman only alerted his donors to the fact that their credit card info was now public knowledge until now. [UPDATE: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/12/101429/589/230/707604">Daily Kos has a good, if a bit over done, explanation of just how stupid and irresponsible Coleman and his campaign was</a>.]<br /><br />From the <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/28711/breaking-colemans-unsecured-donorbase-to-be-revealed-on-wikileaks">Minnesota Independent</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>...scrutiny by web enthusiasts exposed a bigger problem for the campaign: an unprotected database that contained information on campaign donors, including names, email and home addresses, credit card numbers and the three-digit security codes. On Tuesday, donors received an email from the website Wikileaks alerting them that the site has revealed some of the database information.<br /><br />“We understand that Norm Coleman became aware of the leak in January,” the note reads, in part...<br /><br />The Hill indicates that it’s been in contact with the Coleman campaign which aknowledged “that the private information of its supporters has probably been breached and is encouraging them to cancel their credit cards.”<br /><br />Campaign spokesman Cullen Sheehan wrote in an email to supporters that that there was no “evidence that our database was downloaded by any unauthorized party,” but he doesn’t dispute the possibility that security has been breached. Several IT professionals interviewed by the Minnesota Independent in late January revealed they had downloaded the database, which was not password protected. This fact seems to contradict Sheehan’s report about findings by federal authorities looking into the case. They “did not find evidence that our database was downloaded by any unauthorized party.”</blockquote><br /><br />This seems to have violated Minnesota law, as pointed out in the comments of the above article:<br /><br /><blockquote>The Minnesota Independent adds that Wikileaks pointed out that if the campaign knew of the leak and failed to alert donors immediately, there has been a violation of state law. Minnesota statute 325E.61 states: (a) Any person or business that conducts business in this state, and that owns or licenses data that includes personal information, shall disclose any breach of the security of the system following discovery or notification of the breach in the security of the data to any resident of this state whose unencrypted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person. The disclosure must be made in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, consistent with the legitimate needs of law enforcement, as provided in paragraph (c), or with any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach, identify the individuals affected, and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.</blockquote><br /><br />And has royally <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/28806/coleman-donors-express-extreme-anger-fear-worry-after-breach">pissed off Norm Coleman's donors</a>...NOT something a candidate wants to do if he is running to regain his old seat he just narrowly lost.<br /><br /><br />This shows the following characteristics of Norm Coleman: Incompetence, Irresponsibility, Disregard for the Law, and Dishonesty. Republican values at their best, aren't they? It also, <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/norm_coleman_corrupt_republican_in_minnesota">along with his other scandals</a>, probably ruins any chance of him reviving his political career.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-40783636649924798122009-02-10T16:13:00.000-05:002009-02-10T16:14:22.835-05:00Bank of America Seems to Like Pissing off AmericansRecently, <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/dear_bank_of_america">I wrote about how Bank of America</a>, right after grabbing taxpayer money through the bank bailout, went ahead and used some of that money to lobby against the very popular Employee Free Choice Act and tried to raise money for Republican Senators. By the way, the <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/liza/blog/ledbetter_fair_pay_act_of_2009_goes_to_president_o">Employee Free Choice Act passed</a> DESPITE this use of bailout money by Bank of America to lobby against it.<br /><br />This led me to decide to not bank at Bank of America and to stop using my credit cards from them. Funny how they love corporate welfare but oppose anything that helps working class and middle class Americans.<br /><br />I also decided to look into Bank of America's record in general on social issues. First thing I discovered was that according to Co-op America's Responsible Shopper, <a href="http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/industry/banking.cfm">Bank of America is considered tied with Citicorp for worst bank or financial institution</a>. Here are some <a href="http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/company.cfm?id=190">comments (last updated 9/2008) from Responsible Shopper</a> regarding Bank of America:<br /><br /><blockquote> Bank of America is the second largest US bank and operates more than 5,700 branch locations.<br /><br />• Bank of America has been sued by the New York State Attorney General for multiple instances of improper mutual fund trading, including the most costly trading scandal to date, which the company settled for $675 million.<br /><br />• Bank of America claims to enrich communities with its nationwide reach, but its acquisition of MBNA, the country's third-largest credit card company, has raised concerns about continued predatory lending and soaring interest rates due to stifled competition.<br /><br />• Bank of America is one of the largest investors in coal and coal fired power, which is responsible for nearly a third of the nation's CO2 emissions, and also funds surface coal mining. </blockquote><br /><br />By the way, according to Responsible Shopper, Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Suntrust are nominally the best of the big banks, though consolidations and buyouts may be shifting all this. But it is clear that as long as Bank of America's money grubbing CEO, <a href="http://macroaxis.com/blog/2009/01/19/time-for-bank-of-america-ceo-ken-lewis-to-go/">Ken Lewis</a>, is running the show, Bank of America will remain one of the worst financial institutions in America.<br /><br />Which leads to some other sites I came across. Seems Bank of America is pissing off lots of people with their treatment of customers as well. Grabbing taxpayer money then stabbing the taxpayer in the back is pretty low. But treating your customers poorly goes even beyond that to outright poor business practices. Here are two examples of some pretty pissed off customers.<br /><br />First, there is a gentle man named Robert G. Seketa, who runs two websites: <a href="http://stopbankabuse.blogspot.com/">Boycott Bank of America</a> and <a href="http://stopbankabuse.com/">Stop Bank Abuse</a>. Both are dedicated to trying and stop the predatory lending practices that LED to the need for a bank bailout in the first place. Check out his websites to see more about Bank of America's lending practices and their poor treatment of customers. But there is one thing I want to post from his site: a breakdown of which banks get the most complaints from customers according to the Office of the <a href="http://www.occ.treas.gov/">Comptroller of the Currency</a>:<br /><br /><br />Bank of America: 7,230 complaints (25.5% of total)<br />J.P. Morgan Chase: 4,890 complaints (17.3%)<br />Citigroup: 3,742 complaints (13.2%)<br />Wells Fargo: 2,695 complaints (9.5%)<br />HSBC North America: 1,963 complaints (6.9%)<br />Wachovia: 1,265 complaints (4.5%)<br />U.S. Bancorp: 1,027 complaints (3.6%)<br />National City: 586 complaints (2.1%)<br />The Royal Bank of Scotland Group: 537 complaints (1.9 %)<br />Key Corp: 343 complaints (1.2 %)<br /><br />Total Top 10 complaints: 24,278 complaints (85.7%)<br />Total complaints: 28,316 complaints (100%)<br /><br />Note that Bank of America and Citicorp (the two worst financial institutions according to Responsible Shopper) also are among the three companies that get the most customer complaints filed. So by two different measures these two companies suck. I should note that the chart doesn't give a time frame, so I don't know if it is for a certain year or cumulative. It also would be interesting to break it down per customer, since some of these companies are much bigger than others.<br /><br />Next we come to another pissed off Bank of America customer who is taking it to the web. From <a href="http://www.timessquaregossip.com/2008/03/boycott-crooks-of-bank-of-america.html">Times Square Gossip</a> we get this complaint:<br /><br /><blockquote>am calling for everyone that reads Times Square Gossip to boycott The Bank Of America. I have had it with their underhanded business practices. If you have their credit cards or have a account in their bank, cancel it. I never look at credit card bills, I just pay them online every month. I never look at the interest rates, I just always assume that they are the same as always. Well yesterday I just happened to look for once and was I shocked. They raised my rates from 17 percent to almost 26 percent. I could not believe it. I always pay on time, I always pay 2 or three times the minimum due and I have had this card for years. My credit score is 702 which is considered excellent. I was outraged. I called them up today, and they told me they had sent me a notice last March (One year I didn't notice the higher rate) and that I had the option of not using the card and still pay the low rate or if I used the card, the higher rate prevailed. I said, why would I care about a cheaper rate on a card if I couldn't use it and if I did I would pay the higher rate. I asked them why my rate was raised in the first place. They said they reviewed my account and I was now considered a higher risk. A higher risk? I pay on time, I always pay more than minimum, and I have a high credit score. They said that's what they decided but since I was unhappy, he could give me a rate of 23 point something. So I said let me get this straight, " I pay on time on the credit card for years, I pay more than minimum, I have a excellent history and score and this is the way you treat a customer for many years?" I told him to cancel my credit card. I don't want to deal with a sleazy bank like Bank Of America." I am paying off the credit card in full when the final bill arrives ( Besides it's only 15 hundred owed anyway) and next week I am canceling my checking and savings accounts with them too. They charge higher rates than the Mafia. This is also just one horror story on The Bank Of America. I have so many more on what they have done over the years to my checking accounts. I never switched because I have several direct deposits and didn't want to go through the task of finding another bank and calling all my direct deposits and switching them. But now I will find a new bank this week and The Bank Of America can go FU*K themselves. I have millions of readers, and I urge anyone that has accounts with them to close them. If you also have horror stories on them, please tell them below by clicking comment or e-mail them to me and I will post. I will also be posting this story on all our sister websites. I will be posting more horror stories every couple of weeks, so stay tuned.</blockquote><br /><br />Okay, so a gossip column is not my usual source. But consider this: progressive activist mole333, a NYC gossip columnist, and blue-collar type Robert Seketa all are pissed at Bank of America. If three such different people can agree Bank of America sucks, it is no wonder they lead in numbers of complaints filed against them.<br /><br />I would add that there also was <a href="http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/05/19/black_workers_file_bias_suit_against_bank_of_america/">a discrimination suit filed against Bank of America by five black workers</a>, <br /><br />So, it comes down to this:<br /><br />1. poor customer service (based on number of complaints filed against them)<br /><br />2. poor business practices (leading to their needing a bailout)<br /><br />3. Betrayal of the very taxpayers that bailed them out by lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act<br /><br />4. A discrimination lawsuit<br /><br />5. Investment in polluting coal power plants<br /><br />6. sued by the New York State Attorney General for a massive mutual fund trading scandal<br /><br />Seems like there are a lot of reasons to not like Bank of America.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-54859777621497618112009-02-09T14:23:00.001-05:002009-02-09T14:24:10.430-05:00Dear Bank of AmericaDear Bank of America,<br /><br />I am a customer. That's right. I have a couple of Bank of America credit cards. My wife and I are also looking for a bank for some accounts. But you know, your ingratitude leads me to refuse to bank with you and to consider cutting up those credit cards.<br /><br />First off, you never thanked us for that bail out. Yeah. WE bailed you out. That was OUR money that you so eagerly grabbed from the government.<br /><br />Okay, so I was willing to overlook that little act of ingratitude on your part. But now I find out that your ingratitude goes even further. You see, after eagerly grabbing a government hand out (paid for by us taxpayers!) you then turned around and stabbed us in the back. You took the money and used part of it to lobby against the Employee Free Choice Act, a labor bill that is supported by a large majority of Americans.<br /><br />From the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/bank-of-america-hosted-an_n_161248.html">Huffington Post</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.<br /><br />Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill...<br /><br />Donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republican senatorial campaigns were needed, they argued, to prevent America from turning "into France."</blockquote><br /><br />Boy, you guys were eager as hell to grab taxpayer money from the government, but as soon as there is a fair labor bill coming up, suddenly it is the fucking end of civilization? And in the midst of huge popular support for Obama and the Democrats, many of whom supported your bail out, you decide now is the time to support the party that just ruined our economy over the last 8 years. This really is pretty disgusting on your part. I agree with the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/27/132729/868/966/689579">observations made on Daily Kos regarding your igratitude</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>So Bank of America, fresh with taxpayer bailout boodle courtesy of American workers, is spending its time and money trying to screw those same American workers...<br /><br />It's little wonder that the SEIU has called on BofA to fire CEO Ken Lewis. It's unconscionable for the receipients of government handouts to spend their time and money to try and defeat the Employee Free Choice Act -- the cornerstone of long-term economic revitalization. It's time for change in the boardrooms.</blockquote><br /><br />Bank of America: your actions have consequences. Next time you come for a government handout, I will lobby my Congressional Rep and Senators (all Democrats, I will add) that I oppose bailing out any banks because you use OUR money to lobby AGAINST us.<br /><br />Furthermore, any Bank of America credit cards I now have will be shoved aside. I won't use them anymore. I don't want to patronize an ungrateful company that will turn against me right after I helped bail them out.<br /><br />Of course should you decide that CEO Ken Lewis has overstepped the bounds of decency and fire the bastard, I will consider patronizing your company once again.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />A Customermole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-21680625771086513562009-02-07T14:39:00.002-05:002009-02-07T15:03:18.183-05:00Republican Corruption Continues: RNC chief Michael SteeleThe Republican Party just plain doesn't get it. In 2006 they lost big because of the <a href="http://corruptrepub.blogspot.com/2007/07/corruption-in-government-comprehensive.html">massive corruption within their party</a>. Then in 2008 they still maintained their corruption, to the point of actually having a VP candidate who <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/yet_again_the_republicans_demonstrate_partisans">didn't pay her taxes</a> and who was <a href="http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/478090.html">actively under investigation for abuse of power</a>.<br /><br />Now the Republicans have a new chair of the Republican National Committee, one Michael Steele. Recently it came out that Steele <a href="http://culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/republicans_abandon_the_jewish_vote_again">is more than willing to let anti-Semitism be used on his behalf</a>. But now it turns out Steele also is yet another corrupt Republican.<br /><br />From the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020604151.html?wprss=rss_politics">Washington Post</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Steele's Campaign Spending Questioned<br /><br />Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed, his finance chairman from that campaign has told federal prosecutors...<br /><br />The recent allegations outlined four specific transactions. In addition to the payment to Steele's sister, Fabian said that the candidate used money from his state campaign improperly; that Steele paid $75,000 from the state campaign to a law firm for work that was never performed; and that he or an aide transferred more than $500,000 in campaign cash from one bank to another without authorization...<br /><br />In one of his allegations, Fabian points to a February 2007 payment by Steele's Senate campaign of more than $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, the company run by Steele's sister, Monica Turner. Campaign finance records list the expense as having been for "catering/web services." Turner filed papers to dissolve the company 11 months before the payment was received...<br /><br />In another allegation, Fabian claimed that payments to two vendors in 2006 for work on the Senate campaign were made from Steele's state account rather than from his federal coffers...<br /><br />It is a violation of federal campaign finance regulations for a candidate to use funds raised for a state campaign to pay for expenses associated with a federal campaign...<br /><br />Over the years, money trouble has been a persistent problem for Steele. His first race for public office, a 1998 bid for the Republican nomination for state comptroller, ended nearly $35,000 in debt, much of it to his sister. He was fined twice by state officials for missing deadlines to file campaign finance reports and was in debt and had faced foreclosure in 2001, the year before he was selected as Ehrlich's running mate. The state party threw Steele a financial lifeline, awarding him an unusual $30,000 consulting contract.</blockquote><br /><br />Typical Republican disregard for the law. And THIS guy, who has shown a persistent difficulty handling money and keeping within the law, was the guy the RNC chose to be their leader.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-42765331329117718302008-12-04T13:21:00.001-05:002008-12-04T13:21:36.941-05:00Republican Election Fraud: The Evidence MountsI still hear people dismissing accusations of Republican election fraud as crazy conspiracy theories. This dispite mounting evidence that Republicans and their corporate allies, like Diebold, HAVE systematically explored vote tampering. Right now the evidence is strongest for the 2002 Senate race in Georgia and now evidence links Karl Rove with election fraud in that race.<br /><br />Anyone who first makes such accusations is almost bound to be accused of being crazy. One of the earliest whistle blowers was <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/republican_corruption_in_florida_tom_feeney_fl_">Clint Curtis in Florida</a>, a former Republican and computer expert, who claims he was approached by his Congressman, Tom Feeney, and asked to design software that could alter vote totals on touch-screen voting machines. This was in 2000 BEFORE the Presidential election. Clint Curtis was horrified, left the Republican Party in protest and even made two runs against Feeney (whose corrupt ass was finally brought down this year by Kosmas). Many criticized Curtis for claiming that people were trying to subvert the touchscreen machines BEFORE the 2000 election when supposedly no one was thinking touch screen. Well, some <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4994">actual investigativg journalism by Dan Rather</a> eventually revealed that people WERE thinking touch screen before the 2000 election and, in fact, the problems that arose in 2000 in Florida may have been part of the push for touch screen machines. That makes two reports of Republican scheming to commit election fraud in Florida. Add to that evidence that Republicans deliberately tried to create an undercount in Florida's 2006 Congressional race in the FL-13 district (see <a href="Florida Election Board: Incompetence or Fraud?">here</a> and <a href="http://www.culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/the_smoking_gun_another_florida_election_gone_a">here</a>) and you have a pretty good case for Republican Fraud in Florida.<br /><br />Now let's turn to Georgia where a second whistle blower is confirming that fraud was probably committed in the 2002 Senate election. Previously, <a href="http://culturekitchen.com/mole333/blog/republican_cybersecurity_expert_confirms_2002_e">I have written about Stephen Spoonamore</a>, a REPUBLICAN cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who claims there is clear evidence that Diebold deliberately tampered with their own machines in Democratic districts in Georgia in 2002. Essentially, a computer patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in from Texas to apply this patch in DeKalb and Fulton counties, both Democratic strongholds. Georgia's election board was not aware of this change in the voting machines until after the election. The patch was claimed to be to fix a problem with the computer clock but did NOT fix it. Democrats raised the alarm over this at the time but were, as usual, dismissed as crazy. Then Spoonamore (again...a REPUBLICAN) came out supporting their accusations. I should add that Spoonamore aslo believes there is evidence of Republican election fraud in Ohio in 2004.<br /><br />Now <a href="http://www.blogforiowa.com/blog/_archives/2008/12/4/4004775.html">comes another whistle blower confirming this story</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>...a former Diebold vote machine contractor who was in charge of preparing the 2002 election between Saxby Chambliss and Max Cleland has stated that the software patches placed on the voting machines in the weeks prior to the election could have rigged the election in favor of Republican Chambliss.</blockquote><br /><br />We get confirmation directly from a former Diebold contractor. So, a Republican cybersecurity expert AND a former Diebold contractor agree that the 2002 Senate election in Georgia was probably rigged by Republicans and Diebold. But the conspiracy (a real one, it seems) goes one step further. The <a href="http://www.blogforiowa.com/blog/_archives/2008/12/4/4004775.html">same article</a> claims that Karl Rove himself was part of the fraud.<br /><br />Three pieces of clear evidence for fraud in Florida in 2000 and 2006. Two pieces of clear evidence for fraud in Georgia in 2002, with a clear connection to Diebold's president, and a possible connection to Karl Rove. And the same cybersecurity expert who blew the whistle on Georgia's election fraud considers Ohio 2004 also suspicious.<br /><br />How much evidence will it take before the Republicans and Diebold are held accountable for their fraud?mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-21317029950964984462008-10-18T15:51:00.000-04:002008-10-18T15:53:32.442-04:00Defeating Chickenhawk Chambliss in GeorgiaThis year Georgia has the opportunity not only to elect a fine Democrat, <a href="http://www.martinforsenate.com">Jim Martin</a>, to the Senate, but also to right a terrible wrong committed by Republicans 6 years ago. Jim Martin is running against Republican Saxby Chambliss who ran a sleazy, nasty smear campaign against Vietnam War hero and disabled Veteran Max Cleland. Saxby Chambliss, in comparison to Max Cleland's war record, was given five student deferments and he received a medical deferment for a bad knees due to a football injury. So Chickenhawk Chambliss smeared a genuine war hero, Max Cleland, to win a Senate seat.<br /><br />Now Democrat Jim Martin, also Vietnam Veteran, is running to defeat Chickenhawk Chambliss. Here is the latest ad from Jim Martin's campaign:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SbjgpdQzRqA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SbjgpdQzRqA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Jim Martin has been endorsed by <a href="http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/10/14/senateed_1014.html">the Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>In his almost six years in the U.S. Senate, Saxby Chambliss has built a reputation as a loyal defender of President Bush and his policies and as a champion of corporate interests.<br /><br />The people of Georgia now have to decide whether that’s the senator they want for the next six years as well...<br /><br />[Jim] Martin, a University of Georgia graduate who volunteered to serve his country in Vietnam, has pitched his campaign at his opponent’s weak spot by focusing on protecting the middle class. He advocates lower taxes on the middle class, stronger consumer protection laws and an end to corporate welfare. He has also criticized Chambliss’ vote on the Wall Street rescue package, a position that frankly smacks of political opportunism.<br /><br />However, Martin has a long record of public service in the state Legislature, where he earned respect from Democrats and Republicans alike for his intelligence and willingness to buck party leaders if necessary. He was appointed by Gov. Roy Barnes, a fellow Democrat, to head the Department of Human Resources, and was asked to remain in that post when Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue took office.<br /><br />He is what he seems like, a smart guy who wants to help his fellow Georgians and doesn’t care who gets the credit...<br /><br />Overall...the best candidate is Martin. In what look to be six difficult years ahead, he would do well for the people of Georgia.</blockquote><br /><br />Jim Martin has also been endorsed by the Macon Telegraph.<br /><br />Jim Martin is the best choice for Georgia. But it goes beyond this. To me, defeating Saxby Chambliss is a matter of honor as well because of how he "won" the Senate seat through smearing a good man and, quite likely, through fraud. A win for Jim Martin would not only replace a Bush Republican with someone who is more loyal to the people of Georgia than to the failed Bush policies, but also would restore the honor of Georgia.<br /><br />Six years ago Republican Saxby Chambliss won the Georgia Senate race through a sleazy smear campaign against Vietnam War Hero and disabled Veteran Max Cleland. Chambliss ran one of the nastiest campaigns I have ever seen and the fact that he called the loyalty of a decorated war hero into question added to my disgust. Even fellow Republicans John McCain and Chuck Hagel were disgusted by Saxby Chambiss' sleaze campaign.<br /><br />But it also appears Chambliss won at least partly due to election fraud. According to Republican cybersecurity expert Stephen Spoonamore, formerly an adviser to Sen. John McCain, investigated a computer patch that was installed PERSONALLY by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds. <a href="http://rawstory.com//news/2008/Cybersecurity_expert_raises_allegations_of_2004_0717.html">From Raw Story</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections.<br /><br />Stephen Spoonamore is the founder and until recently the CEO of Cybrinth LLC, an information technology policy and security firm that serves Fortune 100 companies. At a little noticed press conference in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, he discussed his investigation of a computer patch that was applied to Diebold Election Systems voting machines in Georgia right before that state's November 2002 election.</blockquote><br /><br />Let me just say here that I publicized some Democrats who called attention to this same computer patch back in 2002. No one listend back then. But maybe a major Republican IT expert can finally get some attention to this issue. More from the same article:<br /><br /><blockquote>Spoonamore is one of the most prominent cyber-security experts in the country. He has appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs and ABC's World News Tonight, and has security clearances from his work with the intelligence community and other government agencies, as well as the Department of Defense, and is one of the world’s leading authorities on hacking and cyber-espionage...<br /><br />Spoonamore received the Diebold patch from a whistleblower close to the office of Cathy Cox, Georgia’s then-Secretary of State. In discussions with RAW STORY, the whistleblower -- who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation -- said that he became suspicious of Diebold's actions in Georgia for two reasons. The first red flag went up when the computer patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in from Texas and applied it in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds. The source states that Cox was not privy to these changes until after the election and that she became particularly concerned over the patch being installed in just those two counties.<br /><br />The whistleblower said another flag went up when it became apparent that the patch installed by Urosevich had failed to fix a problem with the computer clock, which employees from Diebold and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office had been told the patch was designed specifically to address.</blockquote><br /><br />The article goes on to discuss probable Republican fraund in Ohio in 2004.<br /><br />Saxby Chambliss: a dishonorable Bush Republican who even Republicans think cheated and lied his way into office.<br /><br />Jim Martin: an honorble Veteran respected by both Democrats and Republicans. You can learn more about Jim Martin <a href="http://www.martinforsenate.com">at his website</a>.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14385247.post-29489559021866778732008-10-13T12:14:00.001-04:002008-10-13T12:14:47.614-04:00Right Wing Idiocy: Obama as Muslim...and "exterminate Jew power"In my continuing coverage of Republican racism and anti-Semitism, one of the stupidest Republican memes was "gee, uh, duh, isn't Obama a Moooslim?"<br /><br />My first reaction was "so what if he was?" Why couldn't a Muslim be an American leader? But that is beside the point. There has never, ever been the slightest evidence that Obama was Muslim.<br /><br />Those who listen to this lie and believe it are, quite honestly, abyssmally stupid or amazingly gullible.<br /><br />But who originated the "duh...Obama is a Moooslim" lie?<br /><br />Seems an unstable anti-Semite, named Andy Martin, started it. And Fox News let this unstable anti-Semite assert lies without questioning him...yet another connection between Fox News, lies, and anti-Semitism.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">Andy Martin's</a> admission to the bar was blocked due to “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.” Andy Martin has run both as a Democrat and as a Republican, yet it should be noted that no Democrat quotes him or listens to his lies, while Fox News and many McCain supporters pay close attention to him, seemingly without applying even minimal logical skepticism. Jerome Corsi even starts his now discredited book about Obama with a quote from Andy Martin, and many Republicans ate it up.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">According to the NY Times</a>, when Andy Martin ran for Congress in Connecticut, he listed as one reason for his run was “to exterminate Jew power.” <br /><br />In a 1983 bankruptcy case Andy Martin called the judge “a crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race.”<br /><br />In 1983, Mr. Martin wrote, “I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did.”<br /><br />THIS is who Fox News and Jerome Corsi and many Republicans are listening to. Paranoia and anti-Semitism seem perfectly accpetable to right wing Republicans these days.<br /><br />So, to anyone who repeats the "duh, Obama is a Moooslim" lie to you, point out to them that this lie was started by an unstable anti-Semite who wants to "exterminate Jew power." See what they think then.mole333http://www.blogger.com/profile/11350258348093301297noreply@blogger.com0