Progress Now Action

How many times have you seen a billboard or bumper sticker and thought you could do better?

Well, here's a chance to use your creativity for a good cause - educating people about John McCain.

Public perception of John McCain is very different than his right-wing record and questionable ethics. The media is giving him a free ride but we can't. It's up to all of us to help our fellow Americans understand who McCain really is.

That's why ProgressNowAction is launching a national contest to find the best description for McCain in five words or less. Click the link below to submit your idea:

http://www.ProgressNowAction.org/Billboards

Ben Smith, Politico.com, writes:

Obama, whose campaign jumped on Robert Novak's suggestion earlier this year of Clinton dirty tricks, mocked Novak's column today that Michelle has nixed Clinton as a vice president, Carrie Budoff Brown reports...

Communications director Robert Gibbs suggested afterward that the article should be set aside "in case of a toilet paper emergency."

LOL

We have read, in the back pages of the paper, that the Army has met it's recruiting goal for FY2007:

All of the active duty branches met or exceeded their recruiting goals for the fiscal year. On the Reserve side, four of the six reserve componants met or exceeded their recruiting goals.

If that is true then why does this happen?  Colby Buzzell writes:

That was a little over five years ago. After serving in Iraq, I elected to use my GI Bill to enroll in a photography course at San Francisco City College. I felt good, and I had a feeling that the days to come were all going to be good as well.

On way out of my building two weeks ago, I checked my mailbox and found a letter from the Department of the Army with "Important Document" printed in all caps on the middle. I immediately felt sick, so I went back to my room, locked the door, grabbed a beer from the fridge and stared out my window for a while...

I'm now going back to Iraq for a second time because people like me - existing service members - are the only people at the Army's disposal.

I've read Colby's book, which was based in part on his blog, My War.  It was an excellent book about the "boots on the ground" life of an infantryman in Iraq, which had little to do with the "grand strategy" but only with the necessities of living and surviving in a war zone.  What I found in reading Colby's book was the vivid retelling of his first firefight and how he was astonished that an Iraqi was still alive after his squad had fired so many rounds at the man and how in the excitement of the andrenaline rush the time elapsed that seemed so long was so short.

[BTW- the only other method is stop-loss by the Army.  The CS Monitor states that in 2006 "currently stop-loss is being used to extend the duty of 12,500 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan".]

I wish Colby Buzzell that he survive his second tour of duty because this war will not end.  (Remember that Rep. Rangel floated the proposal to reinstate the draft and was quickly shot down by Pelosi and Hoyer?)  The only way to end it quickly is what Colby believes:

Many people believe that the draft ended the Vietnam War. I'm convinced that reinstating the draft would definitely end this war. Rich, connected people will always find a way to evade mandatory service, but what about the rest of America? The middle class - people with good jobs and nice lives - would perhaps riot if the government even suggested that it expected from them what the Army expects from veterans.

One of the best outcomes of this election season just may be the "outing" of preachers who spout hate in the name of religion. Not that this is anything new. For thousands of years, religion has been used by the power-hungry to justify horrors inflicted on others and to whip up fervor against "outsiders" and "non-believers." . . .

In an NPR interview, [McCain ally Pastor John] Hagee said that "All Muslims are programmed to kill and we can thus never negotiate with any of them."

Hagee also enlightened us about Hurricane Katrina. "God caused Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay pride parade the week before and was filled with sexual sin."

Then there's the ever-quotable Rev. Pat Robertson, who takes on women as well as gays, Muslims and other disagreeable groups. "The feminist agenda," he said, "is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

These aren't kooks spewing venom about other human beings and religions. They are preachers who have huge audiences in their churches, radio and television programs, and national speaking tours. They continue to influence American politics despite their claim, as Rev. Dobson made recently, that they are not political.

These "men of God" do us a great disservice by trying to mask their hatred in the garb of religion. Rather than focusing on solving problems, they try to whip up fury among their listeners by savagely attacking those who think, act and believe differently from them.

Rev. Wright is not alone. We need to look just as closely at the words of other ministers who preach contempt and hate. In this election year, maybe America will begin to hold all vicious preachers accountable for their loathsome words.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Catholics Raise Questions on Bob Schaffer's Judgment
Applaud Enactment of Protections for Mariana Workers

Washington, D.C. - Catholics United today welcomed President Bush's signing into law of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008. This legislation includes a provision that will bring the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) under the protection of federal immigration laws, effectively putting an end to years of rampant human rights abuses within the territory. The Department of the Interior and Catholic advocates in the CMNI have documented extensive worker exploitation associated with an infusion of low-paid immigrant workers, including allegations of forced abortions.

Today's victory comes despite the work of former U.S. Congressman Bob Schaffer of Colorado, who has recently come under scrutiny for participating in a 1999 junket paid for by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Following this trip, Schaffer - who served on the House Resources Committee - led an effort to discredit the testimony of abused workers in the Northern Mariana Islands. His roadblocking ultimately delayed the passage of today's legislation for almost a decade.

In 2007, representatives from Guma Esperanza-House of Hope shelter of battered women in the Mariana Islands, including representatives of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd testified before a Senate committee on the rampant abuse of women on the island. One Catholic nun told explained that the then-existing labor and immigration regulation "effectively created a permanent underclass of disenfranchised persons."

"As Catholics, we believe that all workers have inherent human dignity, including a right to fair wages, humane working conditions, and respect on the job," said Sister Peg Maloney, RSM, a Catholics United member from Denver. "We are thankful today that the efforts of Bob Schaffer and Jack Abramoff to deny workers in the Northern Mariana Islands basic human dignity in the workplace did not prevail."

Miller Statement on Signing of Northern Mariana Islands Immigration Reform into Law

WASHINGTON, DC - 5/8/08 - U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee who has sought reform of the laws governing the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for more than 15 years, issued the following statement today on the President's signing into law a bill that will finally bring the CNMI under the federal immigration system governing the rest of the country.

"The problems with the old way of doing business in the Northern Marianas were legion -- for many years, this system and its exploiters did great harm to guestworkers and their families, and the islands' society and economy have been stifled as well. Those who profited from this exploitation depended on the notorious and corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his many supporters in Congress who blocked reform for over a decade.

"The Abramoff scandal was the poster child for Republican corruption in Washington and was a significant reason for Republicans losing control of the House in the 2006 election, and the Northern Mariana Islands and its sweatshop owners were among Abramoff's most lucrative clients.

"Although it was clear to nearly everyone that the CNMI's system was broken and unfair, it took a Democratic Congress to end this sordid chapter in American history. This new law responds to recommendations from the Bush Administration, the Clinton administration, the INS, the Commission on Immigration Reform, human rights activists, and many others. This law will usher in a new, safer and more just era for the Northern Mariana Islands, and for the men and women who live and work there."

BACKGROUND

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, was granted a special waiver from federal immigration laws in 1986 when it entered into a covenant with the U.S. Government to govern its population and run its own economy. When the islands became a center for the garment industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the loose immigration laws in the CNMI were exploited to bring in thousands of unregulated garment workers under false pretexts and no accountability. Concerns were raised that the loose immigration laws also allowing for narcotics trafficking and other illegal activity. Extensive investigations and reporting has occurred regarding the exploitation of workers and other problems in the CNMI, including:

"Beneath the American Flag: Labor and Human Rights Abuses in the CNMI" -- Report from George Miller and the Democratic Staff of the House Resources Committee (March 26, 1998 Report) (pdf file)

"Economic Miracle or Economic Mirage? The Human Cost of Development in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands" -- Report from George Miller and the Democratic Staff of the House Resources Committee (April 24, 1997 Report) (pdf file)

There have been many efforts to reform the Mariana Islands' immigration and labor policies in the last decade, none of which were brought to the floor of the House under Republican leadership. A partial listing of those earlier bills is available online.

See also:

New media campaign urges voters to tell Bob Schaffer to clean up politics and repent for past wrongs related to Mariana Islands junket
When Dick Wadhams attacks
Ideological roots of the Schaffer/Abramoff scandal
"Colorado Right to Life" blasts Schaffer for ignoring forced abortions in Marianas
Hey! Look over there!
Down the rabbit hole with Bob Schaffer
TPM updates Schaffer/Abramoff
Brief summary: Schaffer/Abramoff so far
Schaffer / Abramoff strategies meshed
Bob Schaffer hides from Abramoff/Marianas questions
Damaging Schaffer/Abramoff disclosures continue
Schaffer/Marianas scandal explodes
Marianas questions dog Bob Schaffer

Never more...or is it one more time before the Statue of Liberty is beheaded?  What else can one make of this assault on the Constitution and the rule of law?  Mr. Bush follows the dictum of Joseph Stalin"s "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

As close followers of our democracy and election process has shown that there is an impasse with the seating of new FEC members due to the fact that Mr. Bush wants to seat Mr. Hans von Spakovsky.  Paul Kiel, Talkingpointsmemo.com, reporter writes:

It is because of that record -- one of ignoring, marginalizing, and intimidating career lawyers in order to institute restrictive voting laws all over the country, a pattern amounting to "institutional sabotage" as one former career attorney there put it -- that Senate Democrats (Barack Obama and Russ Feingold in particular) opposed his nomination to the Federal Election Commission.

In other words, Hans von Spakovsky is utilizing methods to suppress voters that is against the historic mission of the Voting Rights Division in the Department of Justice of increasing access to voting for all citizens.

What is happening now is that there is not enough members of the FEC to take any action(s) whatsoever.  This includes the fact that Mr. McCain is violating election laws, including his own McCain-Feingold law of campaign financing limits.  But, Mr. Bush has just sent Congress a revised list of nominees to fill out the FEC board.  

It is important to let the media and your Senator know that this "compromise" by Mr. Bush is nothing of the sort.  He has nominated the vote suppressor Hans von Sakovsky again.  What is telling is that he has not renominated David Mason.  Paul Kiel continues:

Mason is one of the only two seated commissioners, and it just so happens that he's been creating a whole lot of trouble for John McCain lately...

In February, the McCain campaign notified the FEC that it was withdrawing from the public financing system for the primary. Although McCain had once opted in, his campaign said that it had never received public funds and so could opt out. The move meant that McCain would not be bound by the $54 million spending limit for the system.

But Mason balked. McCain couldn't just opt out -- the FEC had to approve his request before he could. And Mason also indicated that a tricky bank loan might mean that McCain had locked himself in to the system...

And now Mason is getting the boot.

If the compromise means that Republicans agree to a seperated vote for commissioners then von Spakosky will be out for good.  But getting rid of Dave Mason can only be good for Mr. McCain because it will forestall any action on the criminal actions by his campaign.

I would point out that Mr. McCain may have a new headache.  Judicial Watch has filed a suit about Mr. McCains fundraiser held on a foreign nation's soil- Britain.  Klaus Marre, TheHill.com, reports:

Judicial Watch argues that providing a venue for the event free of charge was an illegal in-kind contribution from two foreign nationals — Lord Rothschild OM GBE and The Honorable Nathaniel Rothschild.

“While it is, as yet, unclear how much money was raised during the luncheon, had the venue not been donated to the McCain campaign, the net profit from the event would have been significantly reduced,” the group said in a statement.

What does this mean?  Is it going to be that foreign investors in Mr. McCain's campaign will have influence on foreign policies that impact their respective countries? 

Mr. McCain has a lot of serious questions to answer to the American people for when he is willing to hold fundraisers on foreign soil for his campaign.

Stores, though open, went partially dark. Neon signs were switched off and vending machines unplugged. At home, residents of this former Gold Rush town began living a little bit like pioneers, dusting the snow off the grill, stringing clotheslines in the backyard and flicking off their TV sets. Within a week, electrical usage across town was down as much as 30 percent.

With oil prices reaching a record $120 a barrel, Alaska Electric Light and Power said customers might have to pay for an extra $25 million in diesel over the three months it would take to repair the lines. The utility warned that rates would probably leap from an average of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour to more than 50 cents, or about five times the 10.3 cents that is the national average.

There has been much criticism of Thomas Friedman and his stance with regard to Mr. Bush's Iraq war, but I will give credit where credit is due.  I could not agree more with his most recent column entitled, "Who Will Tell the People?"  It seems that if he is reaching out to the pulse of the public versus living in the D.C. echo chamber it is refreshing to read this:

Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I’ve had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it’s this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.

What do we ask of ourselves?  What will this generation leave for the sons and daughters?  It is a wail and gnashing of teeth and beating of breast to know that this nation, our country is on a path towards decay.  Mr. Friedman writes:

A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

We are bombarded with the corporate media drum beat of "We, America, U.S. of A., is the greatest nation on the planet."  But then when those in power who are afraid to confront Americans with hard truths it is a disservice to this nation.  Mr. Bush and his cohort is afraid of the truth because it is only the truth that will bring the unblinding of the American people to understand that we now must roll up our sleeves for the hard work of justice.  To heal the wounds that have been inflicted on the bedrock of this nation- the Constitution, rule of law, and the dignity of being human.

This is what Thomas Friedman leaves out when he writes:

Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.

I'm sick of listening to the demagogery by two of the presidential candidates and that it is only an external "Other" which threatens us.  I am not afraid of the motley band of "evil doers" because our belief in our ideals is our strength not in the billions of dollars that have been spent on weapons and standing armies.  

I stand with the Founders of this nation on bedrock principals embodied within the three documents- the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  We have come to grief only when we deviate from our ideals.

Republican John McCain was forced to clarify his comments Friday suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict.

At issue was a comment he made at a town hall-style meeting Friday morning in Denver.

''My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,'' McCain said.

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn't mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

''No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons,'' McCain told reporters. One reason was Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, he said. ''But also we didn't want him to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil, and it's more important than any other part of the world,'' he said.

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East, That will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

Senator McCain thinks the effort to preserve our horticultural record and a potential treasure trove for medicinal science is a waste of money.

This morning, I went to Senator McCain’s town hall meeting at the Jewish Community Center in Denver. The Rocky Mountain News made it sound as if I was part of some sneaky infiltration:

"The mainstream media has basically given McCain a free ride so far by not asking him tough questions," wrote Michael Huttner, president of ProgressNow. "So it’s important for citizens to ask those questions ourselves."

The group became concerned, however, when the McCain campaign switched from an online reservation system to one that required people to RSVP by telephone.

Alan Franklin, a ProgressNow member, made reservations first online and then called to make sure he and his wife and a friend were on the list. [link and emphasis added]

Franklin discovered that the online system had been taken down. When he asked why, he said he was told there was a concern about "some group."

But, actually, I wasn’t there with "some group"--on the other hand, I went in as a swing voter. I honestly felt that I could go either way in this election. While I didn’t agree with all of his platform, I sort of liked McCain. He was moderate and charming. I’d heard Obama and Clinton each speak last summer, and while they were likable, they hadn’t necessarily won me over. I was keeping an open mind.

I’d seen McCain speak, once before, too. That was when he made such a charming impression on me. "Colorado, I’ve come for your water!" he declared as he came on stage. The crowd roared with an amused chorus of boos. Of course, that time, he spoke in between Ann Coulter and George W. Bush; most likely anyone would have sounded charming placed in between the Wicked Witch of the East and Mr. Nuk-yuh-ler.

So I was a bit tickled this morning when the senator from arid Arizona started off by joking about the water again. This time, he was a little more gracious. "Thank you for the water," he said, "thank you, thank you thank you." Then he complained that California had been stealing some. It was a good opener... it brought a good chuckle, and showed concern about preserving our precious liquid resources.

Then he blew it for me.   Read More »

UDALL ANSWERS CLINTON GAS TAX CHALLENGE, STANDS WITH COLORADANS FOR MEANINGFUL ENERGY RELIEF

Yesterday in Indiana, Hillary Clinton challenged every member of Congress to go on the record with a position regarding her proposal to temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax, and state whether they were with her or against her. Senator McCain has offered the same proposal, despite experts from all sides declaring that this plan will not actually lower costs for drivers.

Today, Congressman and Senate candidate Mark Udall responded to the challenge:

"There is no issue I have spent more time on in my public service career than working for real, responsible change in our energy policy - the kind that breaks our addiction to foreign oil and puts us on a path to greater national security, a stronger economy, and lower energy costs for our families. There is certainly no question that families are hurting with the soaring cost of energy and need relief.

"The so-called 'temporary gas tax holiday' that Senators Clinton and McCain propose won't deliver this needed relief. This will not create the economic relief they say it will, because prices will continue to rise until we address the real source of this problem. We do need to provide immediate relief for families hard-hit by spiraling gas prices, and we can do that by demanding the President stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This will ease the production crunch that is causing these skyrocketing gas prices.

"Senator Clinton claimed yesterday that I either stand with her on this proposal or stand with the oil companies. To that I say: I stand with the families of Colorado, who aren't looking for bumper sticker fixes that don't fix anything, but for meaningful change that brings real relief and a new direction for our energy policy. We can't afford more Washington-style pandering while families keep getting squeezed.

"It is exactly the kind of short-sighted Washington game that keeps us from getting real results to our energy problem. Experts across the ideological spectrum agree that it will increase the deficit, drain money away from Colorado roads and bridges, and hurt the environment, all without actually making prices lower for drivers."

Watchdog Group Unveils Ad Campaign To Hold Schaffer Accountable

Washington, DC - Today Campaign Money Watch announced a $100,000 television and radio ad campaign to educate voters about Colorado Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's record and to urge him to put voters ahead of donors and lobbyists.

The ads, now running in the Colorado Springs market, come after reports that Schaffer, as a Republican congressman, took a trip to the Northern Mariana Islands in 1999 paid for by a front group for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Though he claimed to be on a fact-finding mission to investigate reports of worker abuse, including forced abortions, he had time for parasailing and took tours of factories - about which he recently said, "I did not observe a forced abortion." After the trip, he returned to Congress to defend the status quo.

"At the very same time this ad campaign begins in Colorado Springs, on President Bush's desk sits a bill awaiting his signature or his veto to extend American labor and immigration laws to the Northern Mariana Islands," said David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch. "It is this very legislative result that Jack Abramoff spent years trying to prevent. And it was Schaffer, Tom DeLay, and others who helped Abramoff in succeeding for so many of those years.

"There are certainly other types of lessons from this story, but the political lessons are crystal clear: Abramoff is in federal prison today," Donnelly continued. "DeLay and many of his former colleagues who helped Abramoff are now out of public office."

The ads and all the documentation for them can be found at http://www.schafferfacts.com, where citizens can also sign a petition urging Schaffer to support passage of the legislation on President Bush's desk, donate a portion of his campaign funds to charities that aid the islands' workers, and support public financing legislation that addresses the root cause of the scandals that plague politics today.

Campaign Money Watch is a project of the nonpartisan Public Campaign Action Fund. The organization works to hold candidates who are against reform accountable for where they get their political donations.

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