New Hampshire Primaries …Vote for Ann M Kuster

09/13/2010 Nativegrl77

Win or lose, I want to say:

THANK YOU.

Ann McLane Kuster

People-powered candidate for Congress

Tomorrow is my congressional primary in New Hampshire against Katrina Swett, and our campaign has great momentum.

But win or lose, I want to say thank you to PCCC members for adding to the “people power” of my grassroots campaign.

Our campaign has over a thousand local volunteers working tirelessly — and the phone calls from PCCC members to voters were a tremendous help (and they continue through tomorrow).

I’m also proud that my campaign has raised more money from New Hampshire citizens than anyone ever to run for U.S. House of Representatives in our state history. Many PCCC members donated $3, $4, or $10 as well, allowing us to continually expand our grassroots effort.

What’s great about running a people-powered campaign is that it allows candidates to be accountable to the people — not the special interests.

The PCCC has been a great partner and has helped progressive candidates like me run effective, people-powered campaigns. It’s been an honor to know that thousands of people in New Hampshire and beyond are watching this race and helping us run a strong campaign.

So again, thank you for being part of the “people power” that is changing this country. Your efforts are noticed and greatly appreciated — and with your help we’ll enjoy a big victory together on Tuesday.

Sincerely,

Ann McLane Kuster

P.S. You can still sign up to make “get out the vote” phone calls to voters on Tuesday — or donate to help us fund our “get out the vote” online ads in the final 24 hours. Both are appreciated.

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RADICAL RIGHT Rallies of Misinformation

09/13/2010 Nativegrl77

In the months leading up to the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, conservatives, right-wing media, and Republican lawmakers have led a campaign of misinformation, paranoia, fear, and anger toward Muslims, sparked by the recent hysteria over a hate pastor’s plan to burn the Quran (which he thankfully never carried out) and outrage over an organization’s plan to build a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero in Manhattan. A recent Washington Post poll found that a plurality of Americans now have an unfavorable view of Islam, “the most negative split on the question” since Oct. 2001. Commemorating the 9/11 attacks, President Obama urged tolerance toward Muslims. “As Americans we are not — and never will be — at war with Islam,” he said. “It was not a religion that attacked us that September day — it was al Qaida, a sorry band of men which perverts religion.” Yet rhetoric from conservatives who gathered this weekend in New York City to protest the Park51 community center, and in Washington, D.C. for the Tea Party “9/12” rally was steeped in Islamophobia and general misinformation about the President, leading Democrats, and their policies.

‘NO MOSQUE HERE’: The Stop Islamization of America-sponsored rally near Ground Zero in Manhattan against the Park51 Islamic cultural center drummed up fears of Sharia law in America with regular “no mosque here” chants from the Tea Party-esque crowd. As the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss noted, the event stirred “together half-truths with outright falsehoods into a stew of anti-Muslim paranoia.” Speaking at the event, GOP House candidate Ilario Pantano attempted to instill fears that Park51 project leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, along with Iran, was responsible for the Gaza aid flotilla this summer that resulted in the killing of nine Turks — including one Turkish American — by Israeli commandos. And the event’s headline speaker, right-wing Dutch politician Geert Welders — who once called Islam “the ideology of a retarded culture” — falsely claimed that the Park51 center would be “a house of Sharia” and that Rauf “refuses to condemn terrorists.” In dozens of interviews with The Progress Report, attendees at the protest espoused similar views. “It’s going to be a Sharia law mosque. They believe in the jihad,” one woman from Long Island said. Another woman associated with the American Congress for Truth said Rauf is “building sharia on Ground Zero.” Echoing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one man — not seeming to recognize the freedoms bestowed on the U.S. as opposed to other countries — said, “When they build a church in Saudi Arabia then they can build a mosque” near Ground Zero. Many attendees said that Rauf and his organization wanted to build a mosque near Ground Zero because that’s what Muslims do after a victory in battle — a notion propagated recently by Fox News, and by hate radio hosts Micheal Savage and Rush Limbaugh. “History shows us that they do build where they have conquered,” one woman said. When asked how she knew this, she replied, “On many different shows. … We have historians in our family and they said if you were to research that, that that would right. I don’t know personally myself, I haven’t seen them but they say in history, that’s what they have done.”

THE TEA PARTY IN D.C.: Tea Party members from all over the country gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for their second annual FreedomWorks-sponsored “9/12” rally to protest against President Obama and his purported “socialist cronies.” Many attendees at the 9/12 rally appeared to represent the nearly 20 percent of Americans who believe that Obama is a Muslim. “None of the crowd members I talked to would say that Obama was either Christian or a U.S. citizen (the best I got was ‘only God knows what’s in his heart,’ from a nice woman from Ohio),” reported TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro. The rest of the rally — which was considerably smaller in size when compared to last year’s event — consisted of ridiculing taxes and spending and heralding the Constitution with “God repeatedly placed firmly on the conservative side of the political spectrum by speakers and audience members alike.”

SIGNS OF INTOLERANCE: Apart from the divisive and misinformed rhetoric that took place at these rallies, attendees often displayed signs, banners, and other placards displaying symbols and inscriptions of hatred and intolerance. At the 9/12 rally, one attendee held a sign that said “Obama wants to ban pork!” presumably a reference to the false claim that he is a Muslim. Another sign depicted Obama as both a Nazi and a communist while another associated members of Congress with rodents. One man carried a sign that said “Obama, the terrorist from within.” One banner at the New York rally read that the Park51 center is “the monument to terrorism,” while another sign read “no Muslim integration.” Many protesters carried small pieces of cardboard that read “No Obama’s Mosque.” One placard portrayed a cartoonish image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and read: “‘Sharia’ Pelosi. Implant A Tongue Depressor — Wire Her Jaw.” Others wore t-shirts with an image of an airplane flying into the World Trade Center with the words, “They will teach” imprinted on them. Indeed, one observer at the anti-mosque rally in New York noticed the signs and rhetoric of hatred and intolerance, telling The Progress Report, “It’s so emotional here. It’s really aggressive…it’s all fear and it’s all anger, and it just makes me cry. … What is wrong with a mosque? It’s just the same, it’s a great religion just as all the others.”

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Congress in Session -9/13/10

09/13/2010 Nativegrl77

The Senate Convenes today at 2:30pmET

following any Leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business until 3:30pm with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

At 3:30pm, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session to consider the nomination of Jane Stranch, of Tennessee, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit. There will be 2 hours for debate with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and Sessions, or their designees.

At 5:30pm on Monday, September 13, the Senate will proceed to vote on confirmation of the nomination of Jane Stranch to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit.

As a reminder, Senator Reid filed 4 cloture motions with respect to the Small Business Jobs bill (HR5297). The filing deadline for first degree amendments to HR5297 and the Reid for Baucus-Landrieu amendment #4594 (Substitute) is 3:00pm on Monday, September 13.
Votes:
230: Confirmation of Jane Stranch to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit; Confirmed: 71-21

The next meeting in the House will be on September 14, 2010 at 2:30

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Monday mashup &some News

09/13/2010 Nativegrl77

The President will be in WVA to talk about the economy.

Congress is back in Session for about a month and while there is so much on the table it is going to be very interesting to see what the Senate will consider as important to work on and what they will set aside before going on to campaign for the November elections.

The Senate convenes at 2:30pmET will debate and vote confirmation of a circuit judge for Tennessee then the Democratic Party will continue its efforts to help the Middle and Lower class create jobs with HR5297 …the Jobs Bill/small biz jobs bill.

Don’t let conservadem Members of Congress vote against the people !!! Ask Them will they pay for the continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the Wealthy?

This last weekend was full of News, anniversaries and celebrations. We finally decided to watch Spike Lees movie when the levees broke,” after avoiding it for a couple of weeks this weekend seemed like an appropriate time to view and confirm the time-line of events, see the interviews of the people who lived, live, work there and those that came to help but who have all felt the slap of reality. I know and admit that people of all races, ages, class, religion and educational background felt the wrath of Katrina. The ugly overwhelming fact remains that the huge percentage of the people were African Americans who not only felt the wrath of Katrina but were and now almost 10years later are still shut down told to shut up and are locked out of the loop of progress.

Though we really did not have to watch Spikes movie to know that the injustices that occurred in Katrina have yet to be resolved that the flooding viewed by some as just a storm compared to the BP disaster which is not only an outrageous comment but was made by a Public Servant who is suppose to be someone who works for all the people all Americans. The officials of the Gulf Coast in my opinion made obvious choices against the people. We may never know who first saw the potential use of such a disaster to get rid of project housing, social services for the poor and hope they decided not to come back. It is with great sadness to know anyone would be treated this way and to be honest this is how folks in Haiti were treated but come on the United States too! The possibilities of profits became the deal breaker for rebuilding housing on the Gulf Coast. The dollar signs in the eyes of officials every time they were interviewed was beyond offensive and when they showed the devastation each year the plan to rebuild started to sound like separating dark people from their land was definitely the final result. plain and simple

If you watch Spikes movie and everyone should because it serves as reminder, a documentation on how discrimination is handled not just in this 21st Century but on the down low. I was offended, surprised and outraged at how many groups had to come in to make local and or state Gulf Coast officials do the right thing. It would be stupid to say there has been no progress but that is a subjective comment when you find out that over 80% of the folks that have not come back are people of colour, disabled, and older definitely displaced folks with having had to leave homes built a hundred years ago. They were neighborhoods and yes communities located near beautiful land now empty of what was middle class, moderate, low income and some were project housing now unavailable or priced to keep folks out. If you look at the film you see how a group of people had a secret development plan of building resorts type housing but at the cost of lives, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and rights of those who used to live there.

Again, the various affected areas had what i believe as Republican Politicians with resorts on the brain instead of doing the right thing. There were folks like Gove Jindal who closed down and shut out social services. In my opinion it was a kind of ethnic cleansing done on the down low in the name of previous plans to knock down project housing anyway. The movie in my opinion shows the viewer how viable these housing apartment buildings were but were demolished anyway and what followed was a green light to stop offering social services. It is discrimination by local government entities done without much notice by reporters. I watched the News and as the days months passed by, there was less and less News about the actual reasons or truth for why LA has given up rebuilding and now seem to be waiting out victims of Katrina. The idea that people with families ties of a hundred years plus could not come back unless they are willing to pay the new sum value of the land and area which now had a value of 3 times as much as it did is disturbing news to anyone with a lick of common sense. The interviews of people who were paying 300-450 dollars for apartments are now listed at 800dollars are not only outrageous it is an issue of civil rights, housing and human rights legalities.

The movie, “When the levees broke,” by Spike Lee should be a reminder of what discrimination in the 21^st Century looks like. I was shocked at what happened without much TV coverage. I was upset that while so many people were yelling, screaming for help they were ignored and amazed at how and why folks engaged in complicit relationships were able to keep the truth away from the country. It is obvious that some relationships have come apart to an extent some people were more comfortable talking to Spike lee other relationships seem to be intact and a little dirty for me but even a child can see the truth has yet to be addressed.

The decisions made since the Katrina disaster have been by Republicans and the BP oil disaster decisions are being made by Republicans. When will people right of center get it. We are in trouble due to this Political Party and what better way to show the problems … watch “When the levees broke” and see separate and now becoming more and more unequal in this 21st Century.

Other News …

**Reports are that Boehner is backing down from trying to use the Lower/ Middle Class to pay for the Bush tax cuts for the Wealthy…aren’t people listening? even Greenspan said they were wrong…

**Obama marks the beginning of this week as a celebration of Black Colleges

*The hiker is supposed to be released sometime this week with a 500thousand…something

**Imam is now considering options -possibly moving the islamic community center

**Clinton heads to Mideast

**Today starts the last season for the Oprah show

**US and Saudis near a deal on arms

**Congress is back in session -The Senate on Monday -The House on Tuesday

CSPAN …

Pres. Obama Remarks at Historically Black Colleges Reception

Colorado Senate Debate with Sen. Micheal Bennet (D) & Ken Buck (R)

Weekly Address

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Be Heard -On Fox Prime Time

09/13/2010 Nativegrl77

Next Tuesday, Media Matters for America is going on the air to let Fox viewers know about a story the network has largely kept them in the dark about: the $1 million donation to a Republican campaign arm by Fox’s parent company, News Corp.

We can’t let Fox continue to pose as a news network while functioning as a political operation. It starts by letting Fox viewers know just how much money the network they’re watching has dumped into campaigns to elect Republicans and defeat Democrats.

Fox News rejected the ad three times. Only after it was confronted by another news outlet did Fox agree to run it. You can help us put it on the air and offer 30 seconds of truth in the midst of Fox’s 24/7 propaganda machine.

It will cost approximately $35,000 to air the ad on The O’Reilly Factor next week. Hundreds like you have helped us raise the funds to air it. Will you put us over the top?