Progressive Democrat Issue 104: THOUGHTS
What a week! Within the first few days of taking control of Congress, House Democrats passed a minimum wage increase, adopted the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, and voted to support life-saving stem cell research.
Not bad for one short week! And I must say about time! The Republicans did NOTHING for all this time, and the Democrats get busy right away. And I DARE Bush to start vetoing! I think Americans will finally see him for the fool he is if he vetos more money for working Americans, support for keeping Americans more secure, and life saving scientific research.
I think we can say we are getting our return on the help we gave last year's House races. But these things still need to pass the Senate. It is always worth writing Congress and the media telling them what you think of these sweeping changes.
Even when it comes to Iraq there are hopeful signs despite Bush's plan to dig himself deeper into the quagmire. This last week I received statements from Howard Dean, John Edwards, Tom Vilsack and Russ Feingold all urging opposition to Bush's "surge" and advocating withholding money from any such surge. That is a dangerous political game, but I like the backbone Dems have finally formed. I have said before that I think Dems should start by demanding conditions on any more money: restoration of Veteran's benefits, a raise in combat pay, restoration of oversight of where the money is going in Iraq (watch out Halliburton!) and a clearly defined exit strategy.
Last weekend Joy and I went to a party held by a local Democratic club. Boy was it refershing. But to me the people who were most interesting to listen to were Congress members Nydia Velasquez and Anthony Weiner.
Weiner gave a brief speech, which almost sounded like a campaign speech, mentioning the need to remember our soldiers. But here's the key point he made: he mentioned the goal of having the troops by this time next year. Weiner gave, in my mind, a solid indication that Democrats aim to get us OUT OF IRAQ. It could have been mere rhetoric, but that wasn't how it felt. It felt like he KNEW the message he was giving and was essentially giving us local bulwarks of the party a taste of what House Democrats have in mind. Or so I hope.
But the best part of last night was talking to Nydia Velasquez, who now is the first woman in history to lead the Small Business committee in the House. Jacob (my 2 year old) had fun flirting with her. I got a great chance to talk to her and hear her take on what's coming up in Congress. Nydia was chomping at the bit to get going with this legislative season. She indicated that Democrats will give the public their money's worth, not like the Republicans who last year only had Congress in session about 72 days out of the whole year. Nydia told us it's going to be hard working hours. It seems like our Democratic Representatives are taking their cue from Bill Clinton, known as the hardest working of our modern Presidents, while Republicans took after George Bush, known as the President who has spent the most time on vacation, even during moments of crisis.
Nydia plans on bringing back the Small Business committee from the neglect of the Republicans. She also indicates that Pelosi is going to be extremely tough on the Republicans...as well as on Democrats who have their own agenda. She is uniting House Democrats into a solid front against the Republican mismanagement of America.
The best quote of the evening was Nydia's: "The Republicans AND the Democrats learned an important lesson [in 2006]: There is no such thing as absolute power." The PEOPLE have restored checks and balances to the government.
Here is this week's newsletter:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
JUMPSTARTING THE MIDWEST: start now folks! Invest time and money early and often for the 2008 elections.
THE 10 HOT HOUSE RACES IN 2008: We have a pretty good idea where we need to focus for the House in 2008. Let's get started now.
GOOD LUCK Mr. GATES (humor)
INDIANA FOCUS: a very important international labor action!
IOWA FOCUS: looking for a job?
MIDWEST PROGRESSIVE GROUPS
ELECTION INTEGRITY IN NY STATE
NYC GROUPS AND EVENTS
CALIFORNIA FOCUS: Fighting hate radio
CALIFORNIA GROUPS AND EVENTS
VIRGINIA FOCUS: Celebrate MLK Day with the Virginia Young Democrats
VIRGINIA/DC AREA GROUPS AND EVENTS
NEW JERSEY GROUPS AND EVENTS
Want more? See what's going on at Culture Kitchen.
Not bad for one short week! And I must say about time! The Republicans did NOTHING for all this time, and the Democrats get busy right away. And I DARE Bush to start vetoing! I think Americans will finally see him for the fool he is if he vetos more money for working Americans, support for keeping Americans more secure, and life saving scientific research.
I think we can say we are getting our return on the help we gave last year's House races. But these things still need to pass the Senate. It is always worth writing Congress and the media telling them what you think of these sweeping changes.
Even when it comes to Iraq there are hopeful signs despite Bush's plan to dig himself deeper into the quagmire. This last week I received statements from Howard Dean, John Edwards, Tom Vilsack and Russ Feingold all urging opposition to Bush's "surge" and advocating withholding money from any such surge. That is a dangerous political game, but I like the backbone Dems have finally formed. I have said before that I think Dems should start by demanding conditions on any more money: restoration of Veteran's benefits, a raise in combat pay, restoration of oversight of where the money is going in Iraq (watch out Halliburton!) and a clearly defined exit strategy.
Last weekend Joy and I went to a party held by a local Democratic club. Boy was it refershing. But to me the people who were most interesting to listen to were Congress members Nydia Velasquez and Anthony Weiner.
Weiner gave a brief speech, which almost sounded like a campaign speech, mentioning the need to remember our soldiers. But here's the key point he made: he mentioned the goal of having the troops by this time next year. Weiner gave, in my mind, a solid indication that Democrats aim to get us OUT OF IRAQ. It could have been mere rhetoric, but that wasn't how it felt. It felt like he KNEW the message he was giving and was essentially giving us local bulwarks of the party a taste of what House Democrats have in mind. Or so I hope.
But the best part of last night was talking to Nydia Velasquez, who now is the first woman in history to lead the Small Business committee in the House. Jacob (my 2 year old) had fun flirting with her. I got a great chance to talk to her and hear her take on what's coming up in Congress. Nydia was chomping at the bit to get going with this legislative season. She indicated that Democrats will give the public their money's worth, not like the Republicans who last year only had Congress in session about 72 days out of the whole year. Nydia told us it's going to be hard working hours. It seems like our Democratic Representatives are taking their cue from Bill Clinton, known as the hardest working of our modern Presidents, while Republicans took after George Bush, known as the President who has spent the most time on vacation, even during moments of crisis.
Nydia plans on bringing back the Small Business committee from the neglect of the Republicans. She also indicates that Pelosi is going to be extremely tough on the Republicans...as well as on Democrats who have their own agenda. She is uniting House Democrats into a solid front against the Republican mismanagement of America.
The best quote of the evening was Nydia's: "The Republicans AND the Democrats learned an important lesson [in 2006]: There is no such thing as absolute power." The PEOPLE have restored checks and balances to the government.
Here is this week's newsletter:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
JUMPSTARTING THE MIDWEST: start now folks! Invest time and money early and often for the 2008 elections.
THE 10 HOT HOUSE RACES IN 2008: We have a pretty good idea where we need to focus for the House in 2008. Let's get started now.
GOOD LUCK Mr. GATES (humor)
INDIANA FOCUS: a very important international labor action!
IOWA FOCUS: looking for a job?
MIDWEST PROGRESSIVE GROUPS
ELECTION INTEGRITY IN NY STATE
NYC GROUPS AND EVENTS
CALIFORNIA FOCUS: Fighting hate radio
CALIFORNIA GROUPS AND EVENTS
VIRGINIA FOCUS: Celebrate MLK Day with the Virginia Young Democrats
VIRGINIA/DC AREA GROUPS AND EVENTS
NEW JERSEY GROUPS AND EVENTS
Want more? See what's going on at Culture Kitchen.
posted by mole333 | 11:58 PM
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4 comments
4 Comments:
Do you have any information on what the Dems will/might be doing to restore habeas corpus?
I haven't heard enough about it. The DCCC did not include it in their "first 100 hour" plan, but I will say that those first 100 hours have been impressive none the less.
There is one article on plans in the Senate to "revisit" the question. And this seems to refer to the same thing, a bill already introduced in 2006.
What worries me is that there doesn't seem to be anything more recent or stronger. But when the Senate gets up and running, let's see what happens.
Thanks for the info. I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Does anybody know if Pelosi/Reid intend to attach conditions to the 2nd attempt to enact a war funding bill (after the veto) that would dramatically increase the cost of the war but would also be very politically costly for Bush to veto?
I've heard that they intend to immediately triple combat pay, and to also retroactively double combat pay effective the date of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Variations of this highly suspect rumor also include dramatic increases in life insurance benefits payouts both current and retroactive, similar current and retroactive increases in diability pay. The wildest version includes even more dramatic increases of these "benefits" as of Mar 31, 2008.
The political counter-attack will assert that the congress is just trying to raise the morale of our soldiers so that Bush's so-called "surge" has a slightly better chance of success. Who can vote against that "they argue"?
[The tripling is supposedly based on a 2005 article by Col. David Hackworth (Ret) asserting that current combat pay is only a third of the inflation adusted combat pay that combat soldiers got during WWII. He also asserts that many are now getting combat pay that do not merit it, such as those in air-conditioned offices in Kuwait.]
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