(Please welcome this guest post from Jim Harrington and the Texas Civil Rights Project. - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
By James C. Harrington
Director, Texas Civil Rights Project
It's always difficult to write about Martin Luther King, Jr., around the time of the holiday dedicated to him, because the expectation is that it should be something laudatory -- and, of course, invoking his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
Americans have a way of "flattening" holidays, that is, turning them into something celebratory or vacation-like, rather that looking at them for the challenge they present to us to be better Americans.
Labor Day, for example, has become an end-of-the-summer vacation fling, rather than commemorating the many people before us and the labor movement that struggled to bring us justice in the workplace (health benefits, the 40-hour week, overtime pay, minimum wage, safety and protection, for example). Nor do we use the day to take stock of where we are in terms of working people's rights and how we might strive to protect and enhance them.
The same is true of the Fourth of July. It's become a grand party day, with music and fireworks, but hardly a time to stop and evaluate where we are as a country in terms of the great principles of democracy and civil liberty to which we claim to subscribe.
Presidents Day has become a day to honor all the presidents, no matter how bad their leadership (such as dragging us into Civil War or various Depressions), rather than paying respect to the remarkable leadership of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
So, too, with the MLK holiday. We honor the name of Dr. King, but were forget all the "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" that went into the Civil Rights movement. And, of course, his ultimate sacrifice.
We pay scant attention to the fact that Dr. King was passionately non-violent and vehemently opposed war. He would have led the opposition in the streets and pulpit to our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the silence of America's pulpits was deafening.
At the end of his life, Dr. King had shifted focus to economic justice, which naturally flowed out of the Civil Rights movement, and was preparing to lead a Poor People's March on Washington. In fact, he gave his life while helping Memphis sanitary street workers organize for better wages.
If Dr. King were alive today, his "I Have a Dream" speech might include something like:
"I have the dream of Ronald Reagan, who said 'Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity.'
"I have a dream of the day when we value and support service in the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps as much as we have valued and supported our military prowess."
"I have the dream of Micah that we will learn to do to justice through education, dialogue, and advocacy for the poor among us."
"I have the dream of the Apostle James that employers will pay a fair and living wage for all their workers and extend to them health security.
"And I have the dream of Isaiah that 'the wolf and the lamb will live together and the leopard will lie down with the baby goat' and that Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all peoples, regardless of race, religion, and geography will be safe with each other and respect one another as brothers and sisters."
The State Department's public meeting in Austin tonight will give Texans a chance to weigh in on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. This massive infrastructure project-stretching from Hardisty, Canada to Houston and Port Arthur-has the potential to really boost our economy and give us a big leg up in securing our future energy supply from a close, friendly ally. And while tonight's meeting at UT will likely showcase a wide range of views, I hope that in the end actual facts rather than inflated fears prevail.
What facts? Well, Keystone XL's economic benefits for Texas cannot be overstated, especially in this bad economy. According to the Perryman Group in Waco, construction and development of Keystone XL throughout the lifetime of the project will inject more than $2.3 billion in increased business activity into the state. Additionally, a $1.6 billion jump in personal income will result. And the pipeline will pump $7.7 million and $41 million into local and state government treasuries respectively.
Since the recession hit, Texas' unemployment rate has almost doubled-skyrocketing from 4.4 to 8.5 percent. Luckily, with Keystone XL expected to immediately create 20,000 jobs and another 118,000 indirect jobs nationwide, unemployed Texans along the 371 miles that the pipeline would stretch through the state will be dealt a good card.
Public meetings like these are a great part of our democracy. And pipelines like Keystone XL are a fantastic way to jump start our economy and get people back to work. Therefore, hopefully there won't be too many Robert Redford-types in the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium tonight to smear this very important project. Texas deserves better, and America at-large sorely needs better.
"Gov. Rick Perry left wildfire-ravaged Texas on Wednesday and flew to California to debate his Republican presidential rivals," the Associated Press reported after the debate last night.
The wildfires that have killed four Texans and destroyed 1,386 homes were less important to Rick Perry than going to California to fundraise and talk about what a great leader he is.
This is the Rick Perry governorship: when Texas needs leadership, none is provided.
Earlier this year, in the midst of one of the state's longest droughts, Perry cut state aid to volunteer fire departments by 75 percent. Volunteer fire departments make up the vast majority of the state's fire units. As a result of this severe underfunding, the wildfires have taken much longer to contain and have spread further as resources run bare.
This is what Rick Perry offers you, America. Don't listen to a word he says about being a leader, let alone a great one.
I've heard from a lot of people over the past couple of weeks in Texas that they are feeling a sense of "Perry Fatigue". No, they are not referring to the decade long secession from reality that has become endemic of Perry-era politics; they are referring to the non-stop national regurgitation of the same stories and scandals that have already been heard in Texas for some time.
I agree. It's hard to listen to, but as much as it saddens and bores us, it's "new news" for a whole lot of people. Consider the following Google Trends graph for "rick perry". The top line is for search volume, the second for news references.
I know it's hard for Rick Perry to keep being all that anyone can talk about and, rest assured, he won't be the only topic of discussion on Burnt Orange Report moving forward. But we wouldn't be who we are today without Rick Perry attacking us on the front page of the Austin American Statesman in 2003. So it is only fair that we repay the favor, on behalf of the people of Texas...and the rest of the country.
There are lots of things to discuss about Perry's first few days as a candidate. There's the current media infatuation with him, his utter distortion of his economic record and his first few jabs at his fellow candidates.
Most interesting, perhaps, is how his campaign has matched up against expectations that he could excite both the GOP and the general electorate. "For months, the opinion-shaping elites of the GOP had hoped that he might represent a magical hybrid of Bachmann's passion and Romney's electability," political reporter Steve Kornacki explained on Salon.
On Monday, Perry casually threatened to have Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve appointed by President Bush, murdered. "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas," he said. "Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous, or treasonous in my opinion." Perry's comments have been met with loud criticism and widespread media coverage. Even Karl Rove told Perry to calm down.
When asked whether he stood by his statement, Perry reiterated his threat. "I am just passionate about the issue and we stand by what we said," Perry told CNN.
Not the kind of mass appeal rhetoric that the GOP was looking for in a candidate who they hoped would combine Bachmann's base appeal and Romney's electability.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal printed a scathing editorial calling for a new candidate and arguing that Perry's brand of extreme rhetoric is unable to appeal to the general electorate. Karl Rove went on Sean Hannity's show to suggest that there's still time and room for more candidates to run. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is said to be seriously eyeing an entry into the race.
"These are not the signs of a successful rollout for Perry...[I]f Perry keeps this up (and he may not be able to help himself) they're liable to conclude that he's just another Bachmann," Salon's Kornacki argued.
In the last week, more serious scandals have begun to emerge. Yesterday, Politico reported that his campaign is scrambling to raise money by recklessly throwing together a team of bundlers. One member of this team, Stephen Payne, has been caught trading time with President Bush for donations to the former president's library. Payne even arranged Perry's recent meeting with former Pakistan President Pervez Musharaff to "boost [Perry's] foreign policy credentials." During the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Perry criticized Hutchison for employing Payne's services.
On Saturday, the Huffington Post reported that the operatives running almost all of the Perry-supporting PACs are members of Perry's inner circle. Evidence of collusion seems imminent. As these groups step up their efforts to support Perry, this scandal will only grow.
To the GOP's dissapointment, Perry is turning out to be a wingnut who has more skeletons in his closet than most. Whether these particular Perry actions are particularly damning or not, it doesn't matter. Rick Perry is campaigning as a divisive, violent Tea Party candidate.
He is not some sort of ideal hybrid of Romney and Bachmann; he is a dangerous hybrid of insane and corrupt.
But we've known that for a while down here in Texas. Rick Perry has been treating us pretty ugly for more than a decade.
This week, it's the 104th anniversary of Ellis Island's one-day peak - the day when more immigrants were welcomed than any other in American history. On April 17, 1907, 11,747 immigrants became Americans - and that was just at Ellis Island.
Today, 104 years later, America is stuck in the mud with a broken immigration system. Americans want reform that unites families, promotes fair employment practices, and restores America's place as a nation that welcomes those seeking freedom from persecution and a better way of life.
This week, Immigrants' List -- a bipartisan political action committee dedicated to electing pro-immigration lawmakers - unveiled the 2011 inductees into the Immigration Hall of Shame. Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, now chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is #2 on the list.
Social Security and by extension Medicare have often been called one of the three legs of the Democratic Party yet some in the media are reporting that our President is planning to call for cuts to those very programs in his State of the Union address. Let's all be clear regardless of the findings of the Deficit Commission, Social Security and Medicare are not the cause of the deficit. We all know that Social Security is paid for by taxes dedicated directly to it and not out of the general fund. Social Security is not now and will not be in the next few decades in danger of default.
Considering the level of Democratic voter apathy in Texas due to the poor economy I believe it is incumbent the Democratic Party and our elected officials to show by word and deed that we intend to protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts. It is high time that the message of the Party and our elected officials focused on the moral issues of our day and one of those issues it protecting the weak and less fortunate among us. It is above all necessary that the Party return to its roots as the party of the people. If the leadership of the Democratic Party makes the mistake of accepting the conservative frame on this issue it will mean the end of the "social safety net" and the Democratic Party.
I urge you in your capacity as the leader of the Texas Democratic Party and spokesperson for Texas Democrats to use all your resources to insure support for Social Security and Medicare among the Democratic members of the Texas Congressional delegation. I also call on you to bring to the attention of the Democratic National Committee and the President the urgent need to protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts.
This should be the story of a win-win situation. In the middle of the Great Recession, a nationally prominent mega-corporation manages to achieve phenomenal profitability and decides to share its good fortune with the wage workers who helped make that profit possible. All of that happens to be true about Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX), the nation's second-largest pharmacy benefits manager--all except for the decision about how to thank its workers. To show their gratitude, Express Scripts managers went in a different direction. First, they publicly lauded union workers at their most efficient processing plant. Then they told them they were losing their jobs. And they're poised to do the same thing to workers at their plants in thirteen other states. Sometimes corporate America's capacity to stick it to the little guy is so astounding, you can't help but feel impressed by the chutzpah.
Politicians have tried and failed for decades to enact universal health care. This time, they succeeded. In 2008, Democrats won the presidency and both houses of Congress, and by the thinnest of margins, they rammed a bill through. They weren't going to get another opportunity for a very long time. It cost them their majority, and it was worth it.
And that's not counting financial regulation, economic stimulus, college lending reform, and all the other bills that became law under Pelosi. So spare me the tears and gloating about her so-called failure. If John Boehner is speaker of the House for the next 20 years, he'll be lucky to match her achievements.
[...]
It's funny, in a twisted way, to read all the post-election complaints that Democrats lost because they thought only of themselves. Even the chief operating officer of the party's leading think tank, the Center for American Progress, says Obama failed to convince Americans "that he knows their jobs are as important as his." That's too bad, because Obama, Pelosi, and their congressional allies proved just the opposite. They risked their jobs—and in many cases lost them—to pass the health care bill. The elections were a painful defeat, and you can argue that the bill was misguided. But Democrats didn't lose the most important battle of 2010. They won it.
What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?
What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?
What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?
Answers:
In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.
In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.
On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.
And here's one more -- just in case you're not a numbers kind of person:
Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?
The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.
