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One thing that may be getting lost in the shuffle of having a tea-party zealot running for Senate in Kentucky is the fine slate of Democratic candidates we have running for Congress this year here. Candidates that are Washington outsiders and understand the problems that face real Kentuckians and Americans because they themselves are there facing those problems with us everyday. A good example of that is Ed Marksberry in Kentucky's Second Congressional district. Far from being a Washington elitist who is out of touch with working Kentucky and America, Ed is a Carpenter who wants to bring working values back to Washington and fight for them.
I wrote this diary, "John Waltz Continues to Show Strength" yesterday when I realized that the Waltz campaign had put up a very strong showing in fundraising for the last quarter. However, now it appears as if I put it up before I realized just how strong this showing really was. You see, as a political newcomer and a Progressive in a red area John Waltz did the unthinkable. He actually OUT-RAISED the sitting Republican Geoff Davis. Even more remarkable is that Waltz smoked Davis in donations from individuals.
Speaker Pelosi pulled a brilliant move at the end of the last weeks legislative session.
House Democrats are home for a long Memorial Day break with a gift-wrapped wedge issue delivered just in time for district campaigning. One of their final actions before adjourning late Friday was passing a measure that would strip tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas by a 215-204 vote.
After last weeks Scott Brown victory, we've had a number of discussions on this board about what went wrong.
Let's not play the blame game here either. h/t to Ministry of Truth
However, I'm a little concerned when I see how much trouble we are in based on news of retirements of House Dems in Arkansas and the announced decision today of Beau Biden to forgo a Senate Run in Delaware
I'm also remembering reading about some other top Dem prospects that decided to stay off the ballots in the 2010 cycle.
So what say you? Should we be more concerned that we were this time last week?
The bill, passed in a 223-202 vote, calls for the creation of a new federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers that would police consumer credit products like mortgages and credit cards. It also establishes new rules for the trading of derivatives and increases the transparency of the credit-rating process -- two previously under-regulated parts of the economy that played a large role in last year's economic collapse.
Not a single Republican voted for the bill. Twenty-seven Democrats broke with the rest of their party to vote against it.
Despite breaking down party lines (not even the vote of Joseph Cao can save it), some observers still call this legislation historic and groundbreaking financial regulatory reform
"Today is an important milestone in reversing the decades-long stranglehold Wall Street and big banks have had over our economy. But it is just the first step," said Service Employees International Union Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. "Despite the millions Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce spent fighting the demands of the American people and the dozens of visits by big bank CEOs to strong-arm members of Congress, our leaders found the political will and courage to pass the most historic financial reform legislation in nearly 80 years."
Conclusion
I believe this is clearly a step in the right direction. I'm a bit dismayed that the bill does not go far enough. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that the Marshall amendment failed which would have allowed bankruptcy judges to cut principal for homeowners. A judge can alter terms on a vacation home, but not a primary residence. Rep Jim Marshall of Georgia, who offered the amendment, is one of the more conservative Dem members. So how this could fail is beyond my grasp at this point other than we had way too many Dems sellout.
(Thank you for posting here with us Lois. Best of luck to you in 2010 - promoted by MinistryOfTruth)
Crossposted on Daily Kos Thanks, MinistryofTruth & Alpolitics!
My name is Lois Herr, and I'm running for Congress in PA-16.
And I am mad.
While there is much good in last night's healthcare bill, an amendment sponsored by my opponent, Rep. Joe Pitts, is a direct attack on the freedom and privacy of American women.
Now keep in mind: this is the same Pitts who LED the debate of this amendment on the floor .
I'd like to share with you all this comment that was placed in my diary yesterday by DKos user lascaux, as I think it sums up what we as Progressive activists and the Democrtaic base MUST accomplish in order to effect REAL CHANGE we can believe in.
What I learned
What this reform fight has taught me:
it is not enough to elect a progressive president, we need to elect liberals and progressives in congress as well.
The frustrating inability of this Democratically controlled Congress is PROOF that our job did NOT END when Obama won the Presidential election in 2008. In fact, our work has just begun, and we must face it with the same dedication, intensity and enthusiasm that we did in 2008, or we WILL lose, because we simply don't have the money to compete with the special interests that control our Government.
But we DO have the people, and they can't beat that.
We passed the health care reform bill through the house. As Steny Hoyer just said in an interview standing side by side with Nancy Pelosi and other house leaders "it was a bipartisan vote".
219 Democrats and 1 Republican joined together - just two more than the 218 needed
Not really but that's one more yes vote than we got from our Alabama Delegation which includes 3 Democrats.
Who was the Republican vote? - Ahn Joseph Cao from New Orleans who replaced "Dollar" Bill Jefferson in the House.
This essay will be short, because it is not about me, it is about you, dear readers and fellow writers.
Where do you live? What are your issues and what Congressional and Senatorial races do you want The Progressive Electorate to get involved in.
I am lucky enough to live in a very blue state, New York, where we only have 3 Republicans left in the House and solid Dems in the Senate. Other than the Governor's race and my local Reps (John Hall NY-19, Scott Murphy NY-20) I will have some free time to work on races outside of NY.
But where do I start, or rather, where do WE start, because, as readers, writers and even you lurkers out there (I know your watching!), this is as much YOUR website as much as anybody else's. What can I say, I am a socialist on some issues.
: )
So which races do YOU want US to be involved in? Which issues are the most important to you? We cureently have 5 Candidates/Races targeted on our ActBlue page and will probably add at least 5 more, though I would like to go even bigger than that if I can.
Where do we begin, and why? Go below the fold and I will leave the floor open to you.
Woke up to an e-mail from change.org. A petition request to protest UHC. United Health Care for those who have not had the misfortune to cross paths with them. They asked for a personal comment and here is mine:
It's no coincidence that your e-mail arrived in my inbox this morning. It is raining today and I' a small-plot organic farmer so I have some inside time today. This Tue morn is dedicated to doing battle with UHC and the idiots who make its policies.
Those policies are designed to cheat the members who pay big money for their premiums. We get our UHC through my wife's employment at Home Depot. I am disabled and we get by on her $22k a year but mostly we need that job just for the health insurance.
UHC are masters at mis-billing, avoidance of contract fulfillment and general outright fraud. I have friends who are doctors and their side of the story is even worse than mine as a poor patient.
I will lose an otherwise productive inside day spending it on the phone, delving the depths of incomprehensible automated telephone voice mail menus, only to find myself at the wrong department.
If by some stroke of luck I find a human being, I may be transferred to the right department - and disconnected while waiting five minutes on hold. Then I will start all over again until I get through.
Some of today's issues are interesting. My wife took family leave to tend to her dying mother last year. We paid all of our co-pays on time. But somehow I disappeared from the rolls for about two weeks during the transition back to full-time post-maternal-death. Instead of being charged $50 - $15- co-pays, I am being charged in the hundreds for procedures that should have been covered.
Your prayers for my patience are appreciated. The problem is not the underpaid, overworked employee on the other end of the phone who bears the brunt of the collective anger. Pray for them. They are ou. The problem is in the executive and upper managerial suites, the board, and the Street. All compensation flows to the top these days. All these greed-heads want is to make their quarterly numbers thereby triggering their bonuses. All else means nothing.
These people have no humanity. They are lying, extorting and bribing their asses off today to kill single payer health care. Please join in, call your congressman and help get this done right. It is NOW or NEVER on health care reform. Our time has come. Shame on us if we let it slip by.
Let's start at the beginning, Credit Default Swaps are effectively insurance taken out that pays off if a derivative defaults. The trouble we got into with Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) is that the CDSs were not regulated. The other problem was that people were buying CDSs that didn't own the underlying derivative. This is called a naked CDS which I've heard was about 90% of the total market. Basically this was just gambling, unregulated gambling. Which is rare, because whether it's Vegas, a riverboat, a lottery or online cards, gambling in this country is always regulated and either taxed or made illegal. If it were anyone other than Wall Street betting on these CDSs it would have been shut down or taxed.
What does this have to do with agriculture? The CFTC is one of two regulatory bodies competing for the role of CDS regulator. The CFTC, Commodities Futures Trading Commission is overseen by the House Agriculture Committee.
(Thanks for adding this. We love hearing about all of our candidates. Give to Heather tonight if you can spare a couple extra bucks. - promoted by admin)
Well, Heather Ryan has her first T.V. ad completed. It is a humourous take on Exxon Ed Whitfield's record of serving Big Oil and the Bush Administration which I have named "The Zephyr Hillbilly". It is our 30 sec. spot, and we have a couple of more in the offing.
We've been discussing the number 60 as the magic number in the Senate. We've been studying a lot of House races, but rarely have been given any number of estimated pick ups.
I believe it is a lot harder to measure pick up opportunities in the House for a number of reasons.
1. There are 435 house seats. It is really difficult for analysts to keep an eye on each of these districts.
2. A number of competitive open seats this year.
3. Less polls are taken in Congressional Races than Senate races.
4. Congressional Races more closely mirror local races.
Anyways - we can only give a range of estimates in terms of the number of seats that will go to the Dems.
I would say that we should get about a 7 seat turnover on the low end and on the high end will be conservative and say 16 would be our max on the high end. Those are very rough estimates and not at all Swing State Project scientific.
We look very primed to take a couple of open seats in NY including NY-13, NY-25 that were in Republican hands.
Also knock me over with a feather if we can't manage to pick up AZ-1. Rick Renzi's seat.
Here are my safe Dem pick ups
NY-13
NY-25
AZ-1
NJ-03
VA-11
I think we will lose - PA-11 according to some recent numbers and so-so trends for the Dems in in PA. We may also lose TX-22. I think LA-06 will go our way.
There are a numnber of toss ups that I really like including NM-01 and AL-02 and AK-AL. CA-04 is another race that I really would like to spend more time analyzing.
Now I would also put IL-10 into a toss up category. Mark Kirk is a Republican in a +D 4 and he doesn't seem to be running as much to the center as some of the Republican Candidates. I think this will be a nail bitter.
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