President Obama promised hope and change. Hope and change is still unrealized but in progress. Unfortunately it is impossible that 30 years of policies that inherently undermined the American middleclass can be turned around in 20 months. It took over a decade to get out of the Great Depression and not until extreme stimulus spending effected by World War II were we able to get out and use that stimulative springboard of government spending to prop the private sector to create an unprecedented employment boon.
While we claim to fight wars on freedom, terrorists, taxes, and many other issues that hardly qualifies as wars, we forget to fight that war that afflicts 97% of Americans. Class Warfare is being waged against over 295 million Americans. If there is a war worth fighting now, this is the war.
Americans are justifiably angry. They are angry because of a jobless recovery. They are angry because of an overwhelming budget deficit whose effects they do not quite understand. They are angry because of unfettered increases in healthcare cost.
Supposedly this anger was instrumental in the formation of the Tea Party grassroots movement. While this may be partially true, the Tea Party comprises the amalgamation of three distinct factions. There is the conservative/quasi-libertarian faction that simply wants small government. There is a super wealthy/corporatist faction that finances the movement and serves as chief purveyor of misinformation to maintain the status quo. And finally there is the racist militant faction that wants to take the country back given their disdain that Americans would elect a black president.
The latter faction while physically dangerous is inconsequential for America's future success as the vast majority of Americans are good people. Of major consequence is what the wealthy/corporatist faction is doing to corrupt the body politic of the country. They have used corporate and personal wealth to perfectly orchestrate a plausible alternate reality. In this alternate reality irrespective of past experience, economics, & mathematics, keeping low taxes specifically on the wealthy (wealthy disproportionately owns most of the income and wealth and as such pay most of the taxes), will somehow generate enough economic activity to increase the absolute value of taxes while reducing the budget deficit. They even got an economist, Arthur Laffer to create a silly curve known as the Laffer Curve to prove this alternate state of reality. The Reagan vs Bush1/Clinton economic policies disproved the lie though the Right continues to disregard reality.
Because of the mainstream media refusal to present the reality of our current economic morass and because of the Right Wing echo chamber continued spewing of misinformation, many political junkies have decided to write books and blogs to attempt to provide information in a cogent manner. I've added my own insight with my book "As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Write Wing Doom" at http://books.egbertowillies.com as well as my blog http://politicaltruths.info .
This current election is important. In that light;
While exploring your support for maintaining tax cuts for both the middleclass as well as the wealthy, consider that on average the middleclass top tax rate is 35% while the wealthy is 15% because income from work is progressively taxed at a higher rate than investment income.
While exploring your support for ever more reduction in corporate regulations note that said policies have led to the outsourcing of a large percentage of our manufacturing jobs among others. While the wealthy benefits from the cheap labor of said outsourcing, the middleclass continues its decline.
While being told that repealing the tax cuts on the wealthy would cost jobs, do remember that ten years of that tax rate created no net jobs while more proportional tax rates created the largest expansion in American history in the 90s. The reason is mathematical. The wealthy' s marginal propensity to consume is much less than the average middleclass American. In other words, the middleclass will spend more of their disposable income thus creating more economic activity than the wealthy who already can spend as they please and will not necessarily invest that excess in creating jobs in America,
It is impossible that the wealthy can be considered overtaxed when middleclass income has fallen 5% in the last decade while the wealthy has continued to grow. The same applies to wealth in worst proportions as well.
It is understandable that in our busy lives, researching for truthful information is neither at the top of our list or something we want to do given the perceive view that our media is providing us legitimate information. The media must balance its interest between its corporate advertisers and its listeners. As such the listener will always be at a disadvantage. Knowing that, it is incumbent upon the middleclass to do their own independent research from a myriad of reputable unbiased sources. Inasmuch as the Internet makes this an easier task, care must be taken to cross reference for valid information. It is that concept I used in putting my book together where all pertinent data is cross referenced. In these times there is no reason to be ignorant of the issues.
Remember, when you go into that booth it is only you, your God, and your conscious. One must forget about their prejudices. One must forget about their fears. One must make the right choice for themselves, their family, and the country.
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My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare: The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book's Webpage:http://books.egbertowillies.com - Twitter:http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
Over the last week or so the entire newly-elected Executive Committee of the Camino Real Mexican-American Democrats resigned from the organization, with the exception of State Rep Norma Chavez who recently lost her re-election bid to Naomi Gonzalez.
The members of the Executive Committee were elected in July and include the Chair Willie Gandara Sr. (Mayor of Socorro, Texas), Vice-Chair Dora Oaxaca (staffer for Willie Gandra Jr, El Paso County Commissioner, and Secretary Alfredo Longoria (local El Paso businessman).
The only member of the Executive Committee to not resign was out-going State Representative Norma Chavez. Chavez has played a leadership role since the beginning of the organziation and has never been out of Executive Leadership. Many characterize the organization as "Norma's group".
The members resigned following the revelation by Chavez that the organization was set-up as a proprietorship, which raised questions among the Executive Committee about taxes, reporting, etc.
The resignation is another addition to an already bad year for Representative Chavez following her defeat to Gonzalez, and a falling-out with several members of her close political inner-circle.
In an email to membership dated August 6th, 2010, Chavez characterized the recent departures as an "organizational restructure".
Related postings can be found at www.thelionstarblog.blogspot.com
"The courts won’t end the controversy over Arizona’s anti-immigration law, only leadership will."
Every seat at the Rose Marine Theatre was taken last night. Sitting next to me was a stylishly dressed, middle-aged Anglo woman who has clearly seen success in her life. She said what I’ve been waiting years to hear — “it’s time people who look like me start speaking out.”
That was the impact of 9500 Liberty, a documentary by filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park, that chronicles the experiences of Prince William County, Virginia, when they passed an ordinance identical to SB 1070 — even written by the same right-wing, anti-immigration think tank.
At the invitation of my friend State Representative Lon Burnam, I hosted 9500 Liberty’s Fort Worth premiere on the very day SB 1070 was supposed to take effect before a federal court thankfully said otherwise. The movie drew a crowd that was equal parts Anglo, African American, and Hispanic. This was so much more than a movie premier; this was a community dialogue.
The documentary takes an interesting turn — not just when the city of Manassas suffers economic hardship and foreclosures as people move out of town, but when an unlikely pair of middle class moms start showing up at council meetings and doing their own research, become bloggers, and yes, become political activists. Their actions gave courage to others.
So I started thinking to myself, who in Texas is inspiring others to speak out?
It has been one year since protesters gathered on Tax Day, and in the time since political observers have attempted to understand and explain the Tea Party movement. The mainstream media has covered the Tea Party as a political sideshow, the conservative media has embraced the Tea Party as their audience, the Republican Party has attempted to exploit the Tea Party for political gain, the Democratic Party has used controversial Tea Party rhetoric as political fodder, conservatives have both embraced and dismissed the Tea Party, and liberals have raised their concerns about the movement. The Tea Party has been a fascinating political movement to observe, and it is a complicated thing to explain. After a year of observing the movement, attending the rallies, town hall meetings, and debating individuals within the Tea Party movement I have an understanding of how the movement is viewed by those that are within the movement, the ideological divides within the movement, and the political realities of the movement. However, I have also observed the background motivations in the movement, and that privilege plays an important role in the Tea Party movement.
Claim: On cap and trade legislation Edwards could have "stood up in several committee sessions and said that we need to not let this get out of committee."
Check: The American Clean Energy and Security Act (HR 2454), was passed by House of Representatives in June of 2009, and has yet to be voted on by the Senate. Before being voted on by the House, HR 2454 was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, Education and Labor, Science and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Ways and Means. Congressman Edwards service on the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans' Affairs, and the House Committee on Budget. HR 2454 was not referred to any of the committees that Edwards is a member of, so it is doubtful that Edwards had any opportunity to object to the cap and trade legislation during a committee hearing.
Claim: He is the only candidate that believes that the United States should withdraw from the United Nations.
Check: According to the campaign literature, none of the other four candidates has made withdrawing the United States from the United Nations an issue. Is criticizing the United States' membership in the United Nations a successful political strategy? According to a recent Gallup poll, only 26% of Americans feel that the UN is doing a "good job" compared to the 65% that believe it is doing a "poor job." However, when asked if the United States should give up its membership in the United Nations only 13% believed that it should. Criticizing the UN might be good politics, but the United States leaving the UN is not a significant issue to most Americans.
Claim: Edwards voted to pull troops out of Iraq "in defeat."
Check: The U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, included a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and was passed by Congress but vetoed by the President George W. Bush. The bill included a provision requiring troop redeployment to begin within 120 days of enactment of the legislation and be completed by April 1, 2008. Considering the inability of those who continued to support the war in Iraq to define "victory," the claim that Congressman Edwards voted to pull troops out of Iraq "in defeat" is a purely political claim.
Claim: Edwards voted to keep partial birth abortion legal.
Check: Congressman Edwards voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which prohibits the procedure commonly known as partial-birth abortion, a procedure that is usually performed during the fifth month of gestation or later. This law was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the dissenting opinion that "the absence of a health exception burdens all women for whom it is relevant-women who, in the judgment of their doctors, require an intact D&E because other procedures would place their health at risk." The Edwards did vote to keep partial birth abortion legal is factual.
Claim: Edwards won reelection "barley by 4 ½ percent."
Check: Congressman Edwards defeated Curnock in the 2008 general election with 52.98% of the vote, and Curnock received 45.50% of the vote. In general the spread in which candidates are defeated is calculated by the determining the spread of the percentage, which in this case would be 7.48%. What Curnock is referring to is the 4.5% below 50% of the vote that he received. It should also be noted that Edwards received 19,011 more votes than Curnock who, in order to win, would have had to received 11,431 more votes than he received. The claim that Edwards won reelection by 4 ½ percent depends on the math, but the claim that Edwards barely won reelection is another purely political claim.
During elections an enormous amount of money is spent on campaigns, and the dollars spent have been increasing during both Presidential and midterm elections. During the Presidential election in 2000 $3,082,340,937 was spent by presidential candidates, senate and house candidates, political parties and independent interest groups trying to influence federal elections, and that number increased to $5,285,680,883 in 2008. During the last midterm election cycle, in 2006, candidates and others groups spent $2,852,658,140, and if the trend continues even more will be spent this year.
Local residents have donated over $118,000 to political candidates and campaign during the current election cycle, and over half of those donations originated from two different zip codes. The largest amount of donations came from south College Station, a total of $39,295 in political donations originated from the 77845 zip code. The second largest amount of donations came from eastern Bryan, at total of $23,741 originated from the 77802 zip code. Residents of College Station have donated $63,429 to political campaigns, while residents of Bryan have donated $54,835.
In local Brazos County campaigns County Commissioner Duane Peters, who is a Republican primary candidate for County Judge, has spent $12,451, the most out of any other candidate. Representative Fred Brown has spent the most out of local Texas legislature candidates, spending $9,404 during the current reporting period. In the local congressional district, Congressman Edwards has already spent more than all of the Republican candidates involved in the primary combined; all five Republican primary candidates have spent a total $268,481 during the current election cycle while Edwards has spent $308,832.
Twitter has become an indispensible part of politics and political campaigning; it is a simple yet effective way to convey an idea to many people at no cost. It has become one of the tools that many upstart and candidates are using during the primaries. Many established politicians use Twitter as a way to convey quick messages without sending or press release. How are candidates in the Brazos Valley using Twitter? I took a look at some of the candidates for Texas Congressional District 17 and found out who tweets, who doesn't, and who doesn't want me to follow them.
Congressman Chet Edwards, incumbent Democrat, does not advertise a Twitter account on his campaign web site, although Edwards does maintain a Facebook page that is regularly updated. However, Edwards has tended to be a low profile Congressman, and rarely appears in interviews on cable news and has focused most of his campaign on tradition means such as radio advertising and yard signs. While Edwards might be able to provide some interesting tweets it is doubtful that he would say anything overly partisan or controversial in 140 characters.
Republican primary candidate Rob Curnock, who tweets under the name rob4congress, has focused less on specific campaign issues and more on promoting partisan attacks from Congressman Mike Pence to political commentator Dick Morris. Recently Curnock did promote a list to his 229 followers of "10 reasons why 2010 will be a year to celebrate for Central Texans" that his campaign web site published. Curnock's number one reason was a "Consistent, common-sense conservative message of less government, lower taxes and more personal freedom," and that "this campaign is about ideas and message." Which is interesting because that means that the Curnock campaign in 2010 should be completely different that the Curnock campaign in 2008 when its focus was not on ideas but on negative campaigning and saying the words "liberal" and "Edwards" in the same sentence over and over again.
Last night was the deadline to file for the Democratic and Republican primaries, and both Democrat and Republican incumbents are facing challenges from both the left and the right. In Brazos County and throughout the rest of the Brazos Valley there are several notable candidates, and what takes place in March is going to greatly affect the complexion of the election in November.
The campaign for the Republican nomination for Congressional District 17 is much more crowded than it was last year. Last year's Republican nominee, Waco businessman Rob Curnock, is joined by fellow Waco businessman Chuck Wilson, College Station nurse Timothy Delasandro, Houston businessman Bill Flores, and Texas A&M security expert Dave McIntyre. The Republican primary will probably be between Curnock and McIntyre, however, Flores is well funded and will be able to spend more than the other candidates. Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards is going to have a financial advantage over whichever Republican emerges from the primary. How the Republican primary evolves is going to greatly affect the general election in November and whether or not a Republican candidate can serious challenge Edwards.
Texas State Senator Steve Ogden had announced his retirement and State Representative Dan Gattis appeared to be the front runner to receive the Republican nomination for the vacated Senate seat. However, after Gattis withdrew from the campaign for personal reasons Ogden decided to run for reelection and facing a primary challenge from Ben Bius. Ogden will be campaigning as his experience as a State Senator, but the budget and the economy are going to be central issues in the campaign.
Texas State Representative Fred Brown is facing a primary challenge form three candidates; former Brazos County Tax Collector Buddy Winn, former candidate for Brazos County District Attorney Rick Davis, and Blinn College professor Blanche Brick. During the 2008 election Left of College Station reported on the almost unopposed Republican, who only faced a Libertarian opponent in the general election. However, during the primary Brown will face a longtime Brazos County public office holder in Winn, and candidate that will pull no punches during the campaign in Davis. Brown's record as a legislator will be the focus of the primary debate, including the dubious distinction as being named by Texas Monthly as being a piece of furniture.
As the filing deadline approaches the political maneuvering is increasing and it appears that there is significant maneuvering revolving around Texas State Senate District Five. State Representative Dan Gattis announced this weekend that he will not be seeking the Republican nomination for Senate District Five, and according to a report by the Bryan College-Station Eagle, Gattis will also not be running for reelection citing personal reasons. Senator Steve Ogden announced this year that he was not running for reelection, but according to Gattis, Ogden's "willingness to return to the senate" was one of the reasons he decided to step aside.
According to an article in the Eagle, Senator Ogden's office made a statement that there will be an announcement later this week about the upcoming election. Currently Ogden's campaign web site displays the Senator's statement from earlier this year in regards to not seeking reelection. Ben Bius, the only other Republican seeking the nomination for Senate District Five, made a statement in the Eagle article that the speculation about Ogden running for reelection is "completely unfounded and baseless."
Could it be a question of fundraising? According to Texas Ethics Commission records, Senator Ogden reported $737,578 cash on hand as of the July Semiannual campaign finance report, while Representative Gattis reported only $81,039 on hand as of the July Semiannual campaign finance report. However, according to the latest campaign finance report, Ben Bius has reported no campaign contributions. Even if Gattis is having a difficult time raising money before the primary it does not mean that he would have a difficult time raising money for a general election, and the likelihood that he would face a serious Democratic opponent is low.
