Daily Archives: 08/12/2010

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Special Senate Session …


The Senate Convened: 10:00am The Senate will convene to receive and pass by unanimous consent H.R.6080, Border Security Emergency Appropriations, and S.Res.617, a resolution honoring the life of the late Senator Ted Stevens.

Unanimous Consent:
Passed H.R.6080, Border Security Emergency Appropriations.

Adopted S.Res.617, a resolution honoring the life of the late Senator Ted Stevens.

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The next meeting in the House is scheduled for September 14, 2010

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Energy: In Coal We Don’t Trust


On April 5, an explosion of methane gas ripped through the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, eventually killing 29 of the 31 miners at the site. The tragedy was the worst mining disaster in decades and shed light on the unsafe working conditions in mines run by Massey Energy and other industry leaders. Yet more than four months later, federal officials say they still don’t know the cause of the explosion, although they reject a theory “put forward by Massey, that a huge crack in the floor of the mine may have allowed an influx of the explosive gas methane.” Regulators from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the state of West Virginia have so far interviewed 166 people in their investigation and are now going to subpoena Massey executives, including CEO Don Blankenship. Despite this devastating incident, Blankenship and other coal barons continue to put profits over public safety, polluting the political environment by throwing large sums of money at candidates who will help them weaken regulations.

PROFITS OVER PEOPLE: MSHA has cited Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine for more than 3,000 violations, with 638 since 2009. The fines assessed against the mine amount to $2.2 million; at the time of the April explosion, Massey had paid just $791,327. This week, MSHA issued new sanctions on the Upper Big Branch mine, saying “officials there failed to report five cave-ins and 20 lost-time work accidents in the months before a fatal blast killed 29 men.” Since April, Blankenship has been receiving some long-overdue scrutiny for his record of putting coal profits over fundamental safety and health concerns. Blankenship, a right-wing activist millionaire who sits on the boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Mining Association, used his company’s ties to the industry-dominated Bush administration to paper over Massey’s egregious environmental and health violations. At a Labor Day rally last year, Blankenship called safety regulators “as silly as global warming.” Even after the Upper Big Branch disaster, Massey officials prevented miners from attending funerals of the 29 victims and even “required a worker to go on shift even though the fate of a relative — one of the victims of the April 5 disaster — remained unknown at the time.” Last month, five former employees sued a Massey subsidiary saying that it “forced them to work off the clock to avoid paying overtime.” Yesterday, the Labor Department “filed for full reinstatement” of a miner who was fired by Massey after blowing the whistle on the unsafe practices at Massey mines. The miner is a witness in the federal criminal investigation into the Upper Big Branch explosion.

HURTING THE BOTTOM LINE: Massey is also starting to take a hit financially. The Upper Big Branch Mine is unlikely to reopen this year, and the explosion contributed “to a second-quarter loss of $88.7 million, or 88 cents per share, in the period.” Yesterday, the Rainforest Action Network announced that major Wall Street banks are backing away from companies that practice destructive mountain top removal mining. The organization reports, “Bank of America, which was one of the ‘syndication agents’ on a $175 million revolver loan to Massey in March 2008, is no longer on the deal or any others with the company. JPMorgan, similarly, underwrote $180 million in debt securities in 2008 to Massey and was also the lead manager on a $233 million share deal (joint with UBS) that same year. JPMorgan no longer has any financial ties to the company.” Reducing the power of the coal industry is actually good news for West Virginia, the heart of the industry, despite what many politicians state. Despite $118 million in coal-mining annual income, West Virginia has the nation’s lowest median household income, worst educational services, worst social assistance, and highest percentage of its population with disabilities. Nearly a quarter of West Virginia children are in poverty. A West Virginia University study found that the “human cost of the Appalachian coal mining economy outweighs its economic benefits.” Although the coal industry generates more than “$8 billion a year in economic benefits for the Appalachian region,” the value of the premature deaths due to the mining industry are valued at a minimum of $42 billion.

POLITICAL INFLUENCE: Rep. George Miller (D-CA), along with co-sponsors Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) and Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), has introduced legislation to improve mine safety by hiking financial penalties for mine-safety violations. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would generate “$200 million in increased revenues during the next decade.” Naturally, Blankenship is against the bill. “We need to let businesses function as businesses,” he said last week at the National Press Club. “Corporate business is what built America, in my opinion, and we need to let it thrive by, in a sense, leaving it alone.” Blankenship and other coal barons are now doing all they can to make sure that there won’t be more regulations, including by donating large sums of money to industry-friendly candidates who will look the other way at their misbehavior. Blankenship and other Massey employees have donated thousands of dollars to West Virginia congressional candidates Elliott “Spike” Maynard and David McKinley. Maynard and Blankenship are especially tight. In 2006, when Maynard was chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and Massey had millions of dollars of cases pending before the court, Maynard and Blankenship went on an expensive vacation in the French Riviera together. Later that year, Maynard voted with the majority in favor of Massey. McKinley has hired Blankenship’s old “chief political consultant” to help his campaign. The Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky also reports that several coal executives, including Blankenship, are pooling their money to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision loosening corporate campaign finance laws by forming a 527 group to help elect coal-friendly Republicans. Why a 527? Because according to the IRS, they can hide their activities until “next year, long after the Nov. 2 election.” Coal executives are even planning to influence the minds of West Virginia’s future leaders at a younger age, by teaching schoolchildren about the wonders of coal.

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National Security… from ThinkProgress.org


UNDER THE RADAR

NATIONAL SECURITY — JUDGE ADMITS CONFESSION EXTRACTED BY THREATENING A DETAINEE WITH GANG RAPE: In the first full war crimes tribunal of the Obama administration, a military judge held that a detainee, who confessed to killing an American soldier after he was threatened with being gang-raped to death if he did not cooperate, may nonetheless have that confession used against him at trial. Omar Khadr faced interrogation by U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, who testified in May hearings that he threatened Khadr with being gang-raped. Sgt. Claus has since been convicted of abusing a different detainee and has left the military, but nevertheless, military judge Col. Patrick Parrish allowed the confession to be used during Khadr’s tribunal. Khadr’s trial is controversial to begin with — he was only 15 years old at the time of his capture and confession, earning his tribunal a strong condemnation from the United Nations. In the words of the U.N., “Juvenile justice standards are clear. Children should not be tried before military tribunals.” Other proceedings are also underway at Guantanamo — yesterday, a military jury handed an al-Qaeda cook a 14-year sentence. There is reportedly a plea deal that will send the man home much earlier, but the details have not been officially disclosed. Human Rights Watch observer Andrew Prasow slammed those proceedings, saying, “The fact that the actual plea agreement is secret calls into question how open and transparent these proceedings really are.” The Pentagon has been offering journalists tours of the base several times per month to clear up “common misrepresentations” and promote transparency, but in a story today titled, “Tours of Guantanamo Offers a Look, but Little Else,” the paper reported the information journalists receive is mostly useless.

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thoughtful Thursday &some News …


Today, In another effort to help All Americans The Senate Democrats will offer a unanimous consent resolution on border security legislation at 10 a.m. In addition, the Senate plans to adopt a resolution honoring the memory of former Senator Ted Stevens.

President Obama will be heading to Panama City, FL to assess the BP oil disaster,  what is going on with the people,  the various businesses affected and evaluate the progress of any an all  clean-up happening or that needs to happen in order for everyone and everything to become whole in the present and future.

Though November is not a Presidential election year folks on both sides of the aisle have been talking about who may or may not be the best choice to go up against President Obama. If you tuned into msnbc and listened to the stupid noise of Jenk you would be quite disappointed, he was so bold to say he supported Hillary and moved on from there. There quite a few folks on twitter were not happy and hopefully his guest appearances will be less and less maybe reduced to YouTube again. Hey, that is where he belongs. In other rants of mine includes the right promoting presidential candidates that have now decided to come to national TV and state the 14th Amendment needs to be looked at and because of what it represents i personally became very concerned and so should most people of under-represented groups. The notion that SB1070 was suppose to enhance the federal laws has been challenged and is in the appeal process which also brought out the anchor baby clause… how awful does that sound? It is a terrible comment that was coined by someone on the right i guess but buried in SB1070 and now has become a topic, a tool to scare people into voting for Republicans. I say it goes against what Americans stand for and those who choose to represent this ugly side of America should not be holding any type of Political office.

Now, sadly AG McCollum and Senator Snyder of Florida, which has a rich history of immigrants are trying to continue the effort to round-up illegals with a Papers Please legislation. I have to suggest reading the article by the CNN Wire Staff …the proposal is def offensive and compares the undocumented to gangs and is using a gang statue these men worked on and passed in 2008. Cheryl Little stated, “This bill would hurt our economy, public safety and individual rights, adding chaos instead of working on realistic solutions for our broken immigration system.”

To continue my rant; how could anyone promote and vote for a person to be the President of the free world who clearly  feels they could only represent a select few, a specific people. My only conclusion is that it could be and would be truly an un-American thing to do… We the People should always be aware of that when voting for the President of the USA, because they represent all Americans not a few, some or a select group.

A person who believes and practices exclusion, discrimination, sexism, racism should never be allowed or considered the leader of the free world unless of course they want to be dictators and maybe that is what Republicans want who knows because they keep saying wow wait until 2weeks and we will tell you what we stand for? that is joke, offensive and helps no one ..will Republican constituents  Please open up their eyes!!!!

The only thing i see, hear, or understand about people in this so-called tea party movement is anger, fear mongering, and hate. I have not heard anyone from the movement be specific about what big government means to them and when they try to explain it the only information they  have, has been personal issues that have impacted their entire lives by our crashing economy, which, if anyone has common sense? The crash affected all of us not just the Democratic Party.

I watched the marches with nasty words about the President, signs with nasty pictures of the President, as well as people dressed in costumes that represented a time when both women and minorities were not treated well, i saw mostly white faces angry about the country being taken over by a Black man who quite possibly could be a socialist. These ideas were implied, promoted, and provoked by Sarah Palin several times during the 2008 campaign for President. The right and or extreme right is definitely upset they are not in charge, they also feel a personal threat over the fact that our population in the United States is growing in numbers for minorities. The notion that Republicans want to bring in more people into their base definitely is not an invitation to minorities. Even with Michael steele as RNC chair it is obvious his party, who gives purity tests is a party of exclusion, only accepts a select few and if you pay attention to the words of Republicans do not believe in compassion for others. We could really use a little social-ism right about now.

I still do not understand what Republicans stand for. How can a group of people promote exclusion when it is obvious they prefer the elite, have said no to both the middle and lower class, which are also of varying racial backgrounds. They want the government out of their lives but feel they have a right to tell women what they can do with their bodies, have said no to Teachers, First Responders, Native Americans and Black Farmers yet they think the Bush Tax cuts should not be allowed to expire. The question for them is who and how will these Tax Cuts be paid for and if you watched David Gregory last week not one Republican was able to respond directly to his question. The cost of the Bush Tax Cuts is over 700billion dollars and if you ask me, they would be glad to have tax payers keep them in the elite category. Hey, no one is perfect but the C’street group should not have members that are serving in Public Office, if for nothing else than for the Separation of Church and State, which, obviously they are not adhering to. Just ask the people of Uganda, maybe in other countries as well. I would call for an investigation into just what are Public Servants doing in Uganda promoting religious exclusion and or something even more sinister.

Most conservative and or tea party members want to get rid of Medicare, Medicare, Social Security, which are all entitlements; my question is how would most of their parents or grandparents live if not for these programs? I just do not understand. Now, the voices of or from tea party members are said to be from a wide range of people. I have to be honest, the tent of democrats is a lot larger, and when people say there are extremes on the left as well? I wonder what kind of extreme are they talking about. Socialism? The fact is … for me the last ten or so years of the bush White House has been life on the sidelines, working and not getting wage increases, that was during the Bush years, even then corporations were flexing their muscles, no increases but you can keep your health care…if you don’t have this that or the other. I do not think tea party folks truly understand what they want, if it’s what Republicans stand for then, at least for me, we are in great trouble.

The Bush administrations gave 2tax cuts to the wealthy and did not pay for it, he committed to two wars, and these were not paid for. The spending the last guy did absolutely drained the government surplus, which was left to him by a democratic President. Bush had 2terms and i still cannot think of anything positive this man did while in office for eight years for All Americans. I am not in the top 2% so i definitely did not enjoy the wealth. The wars did not make sense to me, 9/11 still makes no sense to me.

We have a President who has changed the way the world sees us, he has extended a hand of peace, a willingness to talk. Not-    my way or no way as our previous one did; this is a good thing but that would be eliminated if Republicans and or their fringy element called tea baggers get into office. The Democratic Party needs to unite against the crap that the right is offering up and it is clear to me that it is not anything that will help ALL Americans …that is un-American.

Other News …
**The BP oil disaster drilling resumes after 96hrs of storms
**Jurors deadlock on some counts in the blogojevich trial
**A vote in San Fran will determine if folks can marry while prop8 is in the appeal process
**Obama signs bill to help US manufacturing
**Florida Senator AG proposes immigration legislation
**GM posts a 1.33Million dollar profits

Senior voters

Senior voters

Several senior citizens from Auburn and Enumclaw explain what issues will influence their votes in the upcoming elections.

watch State Dept. Briefing

watch Pres. Obama Bill Signing Manufacturing Enhancement ACT

watch White House Briefing

Senate Convenes to Pass Border Security Bill, Honor the Late Ted Stevens

The Senate will convene this morning for a short session to consider two items. Picking up after the House passage of the border security bill (H.R. 6080) on Monday, the Senate is set to approve the legislation by unanimous consent. The chamber will also take up a resolution in memory of former Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), who died Monday in an plane crash in southwest Alaska.

Washington Journal looks at Wind Technology as an energy resource

The Washington Journal continues its week-long series focusing on energy issues. Virginia Tech’s George Hagerman, who conducts research on wind energy, will join us to talk about the industry. The Energy Department has earmarked $5 million this year for wind research and development with a $45 million increase in 2011.

Friday the series will conclude with a conversation about solar power.

Earlier this week, the Washington Journal looked at various ways to construct energy saving homes and buildings, explored how public policy regarding electric vehicles affects the industry and the distribution of natural gas and the impact of public policy decisions on the utility industry.

Educational Summit Aims To Stop Bullying Nationwide

As a new school year begins, the Department of Education is hosting its first ever summit on preventing bullying. Today’s discussions will focus on policy efforts at the local level to prevent bullying.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan stressed the importance of the topic, saying that children can’t learn in an environment in which they feel threatened. “Every child is entitled to feel safe in the classroom or in the hallways of school and on the playground. Children go to school to learn, educational opportunities must be the great equalizer in our country,” he said.

Duncan went on to announce that his department is launching a pilot program granting federal funds for intervention proposals at schools with the greatest bullying problems.

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Washington State …mail in your Ballot and VOTE for Patty Murray!


Organizing for America

The primary election here in Washington ends on Tuesday, August 17th — but in most parts of the state every day is Election Day because mail-in ballots have already been sent.

When you cast your ballot, be sure to vote for Patty Murray. She has been a strong ally of the President, fighting for health insurance reform, Wall Street reform, and more. She’s fought for Washingtonians, now we need to make sure she can continue to represent us in the Senate.

If you are submitting your vote by mail, you have until Election Day to send in your ballot. In order to be counted, your ballot must be postmarked by Tuesday, August 17th.

In Pierce County, you can either request an absentee ballot, or vote at your polling place between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 17th.

Check here for more information about mail-in ballots and polling locations.

Washingtonians will cast their votes for candidates who will represent them in state and local government and in the halls of Congress — so it’s crucial that as many voters as possible make their voices heard.

Vote by mail is available to all voters, so be sure that you return your mail-in ballot. You can find more information about early voting and find polling locations and times here:

http://wa.barackobama.com/WashingtonVotes

Thanks,

Dustin

Dustin Lambro
Washington State Director
Organizing for America