The demonization campaign is in full swing in Texas.
Location: View southbound from Interstate Hwy 35 just north of exit 315, town of Bruceville, TX
Question: How is the Earned Income Tax credit (EITC) pioneered by Richard Nixon, Treasury Secretary Connally (a Texan), and Economist Milton Freedman less "socialist" than Obama's stimulus plan that simply routes money to "shovel ready projects" in the states to reduce the "pro-cyclical" impact of reduced state government spending? The EITC is a shameless form of wealth transfer, almost like the "Negative Income Tax" (NIT) Freedman advocated along with his flat tax. Yet, there is an effort to demonize Obama for a stimulus plan less shamelessly "Socialist" than the Nixon-Connally-Freedman program?
Mitt Romney one of the top Republicans likely to oppose Obama in 2012 will be in Texas on a book tour March 17-18, in Plano, Dallas and Houston. He'll be claiming that as a successful CEO he knows what's wrong with the U.S. economy and how to fix it. He'll be claiming he is the savior who can create new jobs.
We as Texas Democratic activists need to show up in force at these events which are likely to receive significant media attention and ask hard questions.
How does your experience sending jobs offshore translate into knowing how to create American jobs?
You say you know who to create jobs but after your four years as governor Massachusetts job growth was less than 1% while the national average was 5% making it 47th in the nation. What did you learn from your mistakes in Massachusetts?
Left of College Station will be covering the protest and counter-protest at Texas A&M University during President Barack Obama's speech to the Points of Light Institute.
Stay tuned for a report on the day's events, photographs from around campus and the protests, and video interviews from both the protest and the counter-protests.
By now many of you have seen the many YouTube videos of right wingers and libertarians "protesting" Democratic members of Congress as they attempt to hold town hall meetings or public forums during the August recess to discuss healthcare reform, among other things.
Be sure of a few things, but most importantly be sure that these are not meant to do anything other than raise hell, create a disruption, shut down discourse and steamroll anyone and everyone in the way.
Certainly it is well within the right of every American to voice their opinions, protest, and, yes, even raise hell...especially with their elected officials. But that isn't really what this is about.
This is about harnessing the frustration and anger of middle class Americans and working folks. The very same folks who were victimized and injured by the policies of the disgraced, former President Bush.
So why are they so mad? Is it really about health care? Does cap and trade really light their britches on fire?
Somewhat, perhaps, but not really.
I try and refrain from lenghty, Unabomber diatribes, but this is a special case.
Bright and early yesterday morning, US Representative Lloyd Doggett, State Senator Rodney Ellis, State Representative Mark Strama, and environmental and civil rights advocate Van Jones stood together to tout the Alliance for a Clean Texas' Texas Energy Future: Clean Jobs, Green Power Conference.
Rodney Ellis opened up the press conference, stating that this year's legislative session looks to be a very green session. He also mentioned, as he has before, that the legislature is at a crucial moment in terms of climate change action. If the legislature doesn't act this year, the federal government will likely pass and begin implementing comprehensive global warming legislation before the state legislature will have a chance to meet again. If Texas is not prepared for this kind of drastic policy change, we may not have a chance to address these issues again until 2011.
Senator Ellis then gave the mic over to the group he termed the "Dapper Three" (swoon!).
Many of you joined Texans for Obama last month for our incredibly successful National Day of Service food drive benefitting the Capital Area Food Bank. We went door-to-door, and our goal was to collect one ton of food.
We're excited to announce that thanks to your help and the support of Council Members Martinez and Leffingwell, we've now raised over 3,000 pounds of food!
Thank you for acting upon President Obama's challenge to get involved in community service. In these these difficult times, food donations are even more important as we try to meet the growing hunger challenge. While Obama's bold economic stimulus plan will make a huge difference in turning things around, it's our responsibility to take action on the local level. So if you still have extra food in your cabinet, please continue to support this food drive and help our neighbors in need.
Going forward, we'd like to harness this collective grassroots Obama energy to tackle additional community service projects. In that spirit, we've connected with a wonderful local environmental group called TreeFolks, and we'll help them plant new trees in our local parks. Over the last 20 years, this group has planted hundreds of thousands of trees in public settings across the area, and we're excited to help with that effort. Council Members Martinez & Leffingwell have generously agreed to buy breakfast tacos for our volunteers, so come out and help improve our local environment. (See below for more information.)
Remember, the 2008 election was not the end of our journey. It was only the beginning. Please join your fellow Texas Obama supporters and let's volunteer to make a difference in our own backyard. Yes we can!
Y'all got President Obama elected, now let's keep that momentum going on a local level. Lee Leffingwell is running for mayor of Austin and wants to move that spirit of service forward here. He wants to hear your ideas for how we can be a more active citizenry at the local level.
What: Obama Activist Roundtable with Lee Leffingwell
When: Feb. 2, 2008, 6:30-8pm
Where: Lee for Mayor Campaign HQ, 700 N. Lamar
This will also be a chance to learn more about several of Lee's innovative proposals for the city including AustinCorps, the Mayor's Community Cabinet, Green Jobs Council, how we get our share of federal stimulus money and more.
Come on out, discuss the issues and check out our new campaign office. We hope to see you tonight!
The Texas Democratic Party doesn't stand for anything. To win, our candidates must offer a compelling vision of change.
It is not enough to have an excellent field staff, to have a good media campaign, to have a great yard sign campaign, to have attractive/experienced/qualified candidates. It is also necessary to make a strong case for change.
We have been living for nearly eight years now through the national nightmare of the Bush-Cheney presidency, a gang of silk-tied thugs who came into office through an illegitimate seizure of the presidency and have used its powers to trample the Constitution, spit on the Bill of Rights, wreak economic class war on behalf of a rich and powerful oligarchy against everybody else, turn our national treasury and resources over to the oligarchs' private uses, scorn the rule of law, subject the tools of government to the pursuit of permanent despotic one-party rule, destroy the dreams and lives of thousands of young Americans through foreign war based on blatant and deliberate lies to the nation, unleash agony and destruction upon hundreds of thousands of human beings for no crime other than being Iraqi, and tax our children and their children with endless piles of national debt in the illegal pursuit of foreign empire.
As I stood in the voting booth on the first day of early voting, I thought about...
