All people are born alike - except Republicans and Democrats.
Groucho Marx



Wednesday, April 20, 2011

KEMP HANNON BREAKS HIS PLEDGE TO VOTERS

New York State Senator Kemp Hannon has broken his pledge to his constituents. That didn't take long.

During his 2010 reelection campaign Senator Hannon made a pledge VIEW HIS PLEDGE to his constituents and to the people of New York State to support and vote for independent redistricting when he signed the Ed Koch led New York Uprising's pledge of support. Click here: YouTube - Throw the Bums Out! - New York Uprising


REPUBLICANS USE DECEIT TO SCUTTLE INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING


Apparently, Mr. Hannon's word is meaningless. The senator has refused to support the legislation put forth by Gov. Cuomo which would establish an independent redistricting commission. In fact, despite signing written pledges of support, nearly the entire Republican conference in the Senate, including all 9 Republicans from Long Island are now standing in the way of independent redistricting. NY Uprising: Heroes/Enemies

Mr. Hannon, your actions are shameful and dishonorable. There is no excuse. There is a reason, but no excuse. The reason is that it is just such partisanship that has kept you in Albany for almost 40 years. The reason is you care more about getting reelected than what is good for the people of the 6th District and The State of New York.

Unfortunately, we are not surprised.

Mr. Hannon, we your constituents, call upon you to honor your pledge and immediately vote in favor of independent redistricting in time for the next redrawing of New York's districts.

We call upon you to honor your word to us in the 6th district and to the people in New York State.

We call upon you to surprise us and do the right thing.

- Click here to listen to Ed Koch's message to voters  YouTube - Ed Koch sample robo-call (Skelos District)

TELL KEMP HANNON TO DO THE RIGHT THING BY HONORING HIS WORD.

Write to Senator Hannon at hannon@senate.state.ny.us and tell him personally that it is important to you that he votes for independent redistricting. You can use the sample wording below or write your own words.


RE: Redistricting: S-2543/660
Dear Senator Kemp Hannon,

Two bills have been introduced that would bring true, independent, non-partisan redistricting to New York: Bill # S-2543 & S-660.

As a voter in your district, I am now counting on you to keep your word and uphold the New York Uprising pledge you signed last year - and add your name as a co-sponsor of these bills.

I understand that you face a myriad of priorities.  Redistricting, however, is one that requires immediate action.  As you know, the new lines must be in place in time for the 2012 elections, and the commission must have adequate time to complete its work.

These bills do not break new ground.  They build on what was introduced in prior sessions, and the revisions, amendments, compromises, and full vetting that transpired.  They are ready to pass, and they must.

Last year, I counted on you as a "Hero of Reform" to champion this cause.  Please don't let me down.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]
[VOTING ADDRESS]


Ed Koch has designated the following New York State Legislators as DISHONORABLE ENEMIES OF REFORM for failing to live up to their written pledge. Please write to them and tell them how you feel:

DISHONOR ROLL

ASSEMBLY

SENATE
Posted by No comments:

Saturday, April 16, 2011

IS THIS THE AMERICA WE WANT?

A sign warns against swimming in a holding lake in Texas, where Fountain Quail Water Management separates and cleans hydrofracking water.

Matt Nager for The New York Times


Toxic Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells
By IAN URBINA 7:41 PM ET 

Oil and gas companies put hundreds of millions on gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, according to a Congressional study.

In the past month, the nation’s focus has been on the budget battle in Washington, where Republicans in Congress aligned with the Tea Party have fought hard for rollbacks to the Environmental Protection Agency, clean air and water regulations, renewable energy and other conservation programs.

At State Level, G.O.P. Seeks Big Environmental Cutbacks - NYTimes.com

When Republicans wrested control across the country last November, they made clear that reducing all government was important, but that cutting environmental regulations was a particular priority.

What is wrong with these people? Don't they breath the same air and drink the same water as the rest of us? What kind of people put the interests of business and the pursuit of profit over the health of our environment and people?

In the Republican version of America toxic waste sites would be a much more common occurrence than they are today. In the Republican version of America, not only would such sites be created in wider areas and much more frequently, there would be no money to clean them up. In the Republican version of America many areas of the country would be poisoned and unlivable for decade upon decade in the misguided pursuit of profit.

The Republicans say their quest to eviscerate the EPA is all about freeing business so that they can create jobs. So, poisoning our air and water, this is the big Republican jobs program? This is the only way they know how to create jobs by allowing industry to dump who knows what into our rivers and lakes and to spew toxins into our air? 

This is America, the land of innovation and technical prowess. I am confident there is a better way. Toxic air and fouled water should not and can not be the price of prosperity. It is much too high a price and one that we can not afford.

Under the Republican version of America, the long term health of our environment is to be sacrificed for short term profit. It is clear that profit and not jobs are the real reason Republicans want to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. If it was jobs they were after they would have produced them long ago.

Recently, I was in a meeting where many members of a nearby community learned that their community was among the newest federal super fund sites, the result of years of unregulated discharge of toxic chemicals into the ground by private industry, into their ground. Clearly, the people there were not happy, concerned both for their health and the health of their children as well as their property values.

The obvious concern of the community could be measured in the number of questions asked of the local water commissioner and the seriousness of those questions.

On my way out, I asked the person I was with if they thought that this community generally voted Democratic or Republican.  We both agreed that the answer was generally Republican. I wonder what they would say if they knew that the people they were voting for all these years were in favor of doing away with protecting their ground, air and water. After all, who in their right mind would vote for people who want to poison them?

It is time for these people and the people of the United States to wake up. Republicans are not ever on the side of the people. Pick a subject, given the choice, they choose the interests of business and profit over people every time!

Is this the kind of America we want to live in?
Posted by No comments:

Friday, April 15, 2011

DO WE REALLY WANT TO GIVE GUYS LIKE THIS ANOTHER TAX CUT? REPUBLICANS DO!

News Item: Morgan Stanley CEO Gets Pay Worth $15.2 Million.

Didn't we just bail these guys out?

Click here: In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures - NYTimes.com

“The proposed Republican budget contains a trillion dollars of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, while asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.”

Actually the Ryan plan calls for $2.9 trillion in tax cuts, but who's counting?

Working and middle class Americans need to wake up to the fact that the Republican right wing is not on your side. They never have been and they never will be. You don't make enough money for them to care.

How the Republicans ever get any of you to vote for them is a marvel. They give the ultra wealthy tax cut upon tax cut while they get you to pay the taxes, if you can find a job somewhere in this mess they created, and they get you to vote for them as well so that they can continue their assault upon you. It is an amazing phenomenon. Its enough to leave every one of you who voted Republican shaking your head wondering what just happened to me?

Wake up and pay attention, you were sleeping.
Posted by No comments:

Thursday, April 14, 2011

NOT WHILE I'M PRESIDENT

"Not while I'm President"

Has he finally grown a pair? 

I liked The President's speech yesterday on the debt very much. He has drawn a stark distinction between two vastly different visions for America and a line in the sand when it comes to Medicare, Social Security and the Bush Tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans. Now, for the sake of our country, for what it can and should be, he needs to show some backbone and call their bluff.

If Republicans and tea partiers want to shut down the government or have the United States of America default on its debt (unthinkable) in blind pursuit of their radical agenda it is not something that the American people will soon forget in the many Novembers to come. It is not something the world will forget. It would be a catastrophic event that would make Fukushima look simple.

I am convinced that theirs is a house of cards and as such will all come tumbling down around them. My concern is that all of us are not injured by the debris.
Posted by No comments:

Sunday, April 10, 2011

HOW TO FIX CONGRESS

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits.

  12 years only, one of the possible options below:

  A. Two Six-year Senate terms

  B. Six Two-year House terms

  C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms


2.  No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.


3.  Congress (past, present & future) participates in  Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.


4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.


5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.


6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.


7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.


8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.  Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. 

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. 

It is time to fix congress and this is how you do it.

If you agree, tell your friends and make your voice heard by leaving a comment to this post saying so. Write your Congressmen and Senators and tell them how you feel.

It is time.
Posted by No comments:

Saturday, April 9, 2011

THE BIGGEST CON SINCE "THE STING"

Representative Mick Mulvaney, a first-term Republican from South Carolina who, laughably, recently said this about the debt, the Democrats and Republican willingness to vote to raise the national debt ceiling; “It’s their debt,” he said. “Make them do it. That’s my attitude.”

He is delusional or seriously uninformed.

Currently the US National Debt is nearly $14.2 trillion.


* The growth of the gross public debt closely matched the rate of inflation where it tripled in size from $260 billion in 1950 to around $909 billion in 1980. That's 30 years.


* From 1980 - 1988, under two terms of Ronald Reagan's leadership, the total federal debt nearly tripled.


* Gross debt in nominal dollars quadrupled during the Reagan and Bush presidencies from 1980 to 1992. The net public debt quintupled in nominal terms.

* During the past decade when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, unfunded tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, an unfunded Medicare prescription-drug benefit and unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for more than $3.2 trillion in new debt.


* The recession, brought on by Republican economic policies, cost more than $800 billion in lost revenues from businesses and individuals and in automatic spending for safety-net programs like unemployment compensation.

* In order to pull the nation's economy out of the nearly catastrophic state left by his predecessor, President Obama had to provide economic stimulus spending and tax cuts aimed at the middle class but included the wealthy (the Republican pound of flesh), which added about $600 billion through the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Money that went to keep Police on the streets, firehouses open, teachers in their classrooms, hospitals from closing. Money went toward keeping people employed and paying taxes and supporting local businesses.


All of this is in direct contrast to the (borrowed) money spent by Republicans when they were in power, who spent a great deal of it on tax cuts for the very wealthiest people and corporations in this country. All backed by the big Republican lie that such tax cuts will create jobs for the little people. Problem is, that has not and has never worked, anywhere, ever.

Either Republicans are delusional or they are smart as foxes. Either they really believe the crap that they spew (and on social issues they probably do) and are in fact delusional or they are lying and they are attempting to pull off the biggest con since The Sting.


Hold on to your wallets!
Posted by No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)