Alan Grayson on the ancient One Per Centers

As we lurch uncontrollably toward Election Day, choosing our next set of lawmakers, I've been looking for a way to cast some light on what is at stake. I think that I've found it in the oldest legal code, the Code of Hammurabi, from 1772 B.C. 

In general, the Code of Hammurabi established the law as a force much like William Blake's "tyger" in "Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright": it has a "fearful symmetry." How many times have you heard the phrase, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"? That is shorthand for these sections of the Code of Hammurabi: 

196. If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be knocked out. . . .

200. If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal, his tooth shall be knocked out. 

I think that I can hear you say, "Whoa! I never heard that bit about 'patrician' or 'equal' before. What's that all about?" 

Well, I'll tell you. 

The Code of Hammurabi explicitly set separate laws for patricians, a/k/a the 1%, and plebians, a/k/a the 99%. Patricians enjoyed the full protection of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Plebians did not. Here is what they got: 

198. If [a man] has knocked out the eye of a plebian . . . he shall pay one mina of silver.

199. If he has knocked out the eye of a patrician's servant . . . he shall pay half [of the servant's] value [to the patrician]. . . .

201. If [a patrician] has knocked out the tooth of a plebian, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver. 

(Today, a mina of silver would be worth about $600.) 

Here is another example: 

202-204. If a man has smitten the privates [ouch!!] of a man higher in rank than he, he shall be scourged with sixty blows of an ox-hide scourge, in the assembly. If a [patrician] has smitten the privates of a patrician of his own rank, he shall pay one mina of silver. If a plebian has smitten the privates of a plebian, he shall pay ten shekels of silver. 

(A shekel of silver today would be worth about $10.) 

And another one: 

209-213. If a man has struck a free woman with child, and has caused her to miscarry, he shall pay ten shekels for her miscarriage . . . . If it be the daughter of a plebian that has miscarried through his blows, he shall pay five shekels of silver. . . . If he has struck a man's maid and caused her to miscarry, he shall pay two shekels of silver. 

So here is the point: in the wrong hands, the law itself becomes a means - a very powerful means - of discrimination. And in many respects, it already is. Look at the tax code. Look at banking law. Look at abortion laws. Look at the laws on marriage equality. And look at the system itself: most people have the same access to the so-called "justice system" as they do to the Ritz-Carlton. 

And whose hands are "the wrong hands"? How about the hands of a gentleman who has never had to dirty his hands at any time during his entire life? A gentleman "to the manor born"? The spiritual heir to Thurston Howell, III? 

We already have reached a point where inequality is so extreme that the median wealth of whites is seven times higher than that of African-Americans, and African-Americans are seven times more likely to be incarcerated. 

When we choose our legislators in a few days, let's remember this: the laws that they pass can be a force for equality, or a force against it. That's not only a big difference, it's the biggest difference of all. 

Courage, 

Alan Grayson

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Alan Grayson: … And the Poor Get Poorer

The Federal Reserve just released its Survey of Consumer Finances, the only government survey of wealth in America. The Survey is conducted every three years. This survey, conducted in 2010, is the first one to reflect the effects of the Wall Street Meltdown in 2008. 

How does it look? Bad. Really, really bad. 

The median wealth of American families (meaning half above and half below) dropped from $126,400 in 2007 all the way down to $77,300 in 2010. That's a 39% slide. It puts the median net worth of American families at its lowest level since 1995, fifteen years earlier. 

About 12% of American families have a negative net worth. Meaning that they're broke. 

Among Americans with no high school diploma (15 percent of the adult population), median wealth plunged from $34,800 in 2007 to $16,100 in 2010, a 54% drop. That is the lowest level since at least the Fed's 1983 survey, maybe earlier. So three decades of progress have been wiped out. 

Among minorities, median wealth plunged from $29,700 to $20,400. That is the lowest level since 1992. White median wealth is now 540% higher than minority median wealth. 

The median value of American homes dove from $209,500 in 2007 to $170,000 in 2010. But the median mortgage was almost completely unchanged: $74,700 in 2007, $74,100 in 2010. So debt payments increased from 7% of income to 11% of income. 

In 2007, the bottom 25% had a net worth of $14,800 or less. In 2010, the bottom 25% had a net worth of $8,300 or less, a 44% decline. 

In 2007, the top 10% had a net worth of $955,600 or more. In 2010, the top 10% had a net worth of $952,500, a decline of less than 1%. 

Let me sum it up for you: In the greatest economic crisis that the United States has faced since the Great Depression, the rich barely lost a nickel. But the poor definitely got poorer. And people in the middle were crushed. 

If this continues any longer, then we can invite a priest to administer last rites to the American Middle Class. 

Courage, 

Alan Grayson

Note: the drop in net worth was primarily caused by the the Bush Ownership Society and the crash of the real estate market. About 3/4ths of the net worth loss has been attributed to the drop in home values. 


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Alan Grayson's peculiar House opponent

Mark Oxner's first ad suggests some Disney animators have run amok

Alan Grayson's  deliriously dippy opponent, Mark Oxner, appears to be upset that the public has tagged Oxner as a bigot for running an ad depicting President Barack Obama as the evil captain of a slave ship, holding young white girls in chains. So now Oxner has a new ad out, arguing that I’m the real bigot. This is what psychiatrists refer to as “projection.”

Here is Mad Mark’s argument:

1. The million members of the national organization Democracy of America chose me at their "Progressive Hero" last month. (By a margin of about 4-to-1, actually.)
2. If DFA says that I’m a “Progressive Hero," then Grayson must be a progressive.
3. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood (“oooooooh, Planned Parenthood!!"), also was a progressive.
4. Margaret Sanger advocated "eugenics and abortion," says Oxner, "to prevent the wrong kind of people from having children."
5. "Therefore" (and this seems like assault and battery on the very concept of "therefore") Grayson also must be an advocate of “eugenics and abortion." At this point in Oxner’s new ad, several cute little babies are obliterated by a big red circle with a line through it.
6. And then Oxner scolds me, saying, "there’s no such thing as the 'wrong kind of people.'"

Sometimes, a syllogism becomes a silly-gism. This is one of those times.

To recap, in Oxner’s first ad, he accused our first African-American President of being captain of a slave ship full of white girls. And now, in Oxner's second ad, he accuses a Jewish person, with relatives who died in the Holocaust, of being a believer in Nazi eugenics. How . . . sensitive. Or, nutty as a fruitcake. A fruitcake with extra nuts in it.

That really is a heaping helping of bonkers. I didn’t realize that you could buy that many tickets on the Crazy Train.

Seeing as how Oxner thinks that Grayson so obsessed with racial purity, he must think that it was utterly hypocritical of me to marry a woman who is not white, and then for us to have five beautiful children together.

Here is a multiple choice question. Is Mark Oxner: 

(a) Unbalanced;
(b) Unglued;
(c) Unhinged; or
(d) Unzipped?

Answer: there is no way – NO WAY – that a crazy bigot like Mark Oxner belongs in Congress. 

If that’s how you see it, too, then please toss a few drachmas into our "Beat the Bigot" fund.Because as Dan Quayle said, a mind is a terrible thing to lose. Just ask Mark Oxner.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

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Alan Grayson on the 99 per cent

Uploaded by RepAlanGrayson on Jan 19, 2012

These are most of the real problems facing America, not tax cuts for the affluent or for corporations.

Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to the congressional Government Accountability Office.

Nearly 7 in 10 businesses are exempt form corporate tax because they are organized as a "pass through" S-corporations or LLC's .

In addition, 99 percent of all independent enterprises in the country employ fewer than 500 people. This is the upper threshold that he Small Business Administration uses to define  a "small business."

According the the SBA, small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ half of all private sector employees.

Likewise, the affluent can hire excellent accountants and lawyers to handle a myriad of issues facing them, an option that is not available to most middle class Americans. 

In addition, the affluent often do not work. They invest their fortunes in stocks and bonds and clip coupons when they need cash. The short term capital gains tax is 15 per cent which is more than half of the income tax rate that the top income tax earners pay. 

This is why men like Rick Scott don't take their government salaries. They don't want to be bothered with paying income tax. However, Scott did take his government health care that is not taxable.

We know that corporate taxes are primarily paid by the large Fortune 500 corporations and that the affluent don't directly hire Americans, businesses do. 

Many corporations such as GE, the largest American corporation, pay no corporate tax at all because of tax loopholes. Federal revenues from corporate taxes has declined significantly since 1962.

Yet one in three Americans votes for a political party that advocates tickle-down economics. According to Wikipedia,  he idea that tax breaks or other economic benefits provided by government to businesses and the wealthy will benefit poorer members of society by improving the economy as a whole. 

C'mon america. Wake-up.  What  kind of conservative wacky tobacky have you been smoking? 

Businesses become successful by increasing their customer base, not through tax breaks. You employer is far morel likely to be a small business than a large corporation or the millionaire next door.

poster source:  http://www.allposters.com
 sources:

http://economics.about.com/od/smallbigbusiness/a/us_business.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/economy/03rates.html

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/10/10094176-companies-that-pay-no-federal-income-tax-on-the-rise

http://web.sba.gov/faqs/faqIndexAll.cfm?areaid=24

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~auerbach/AJA_CESifo_revised.pdf
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Alan Grayson: who are the 1 per cent?

One of the first creations of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been the phrase “We Are the 99%.”

This is, of course, a reference to the fact that the top 1% in America own 37% of all the wealth.

That the top 1% enjoy more than 20% of all the income.

That since 1979, the average income of the top 1% increased by $700,000, while the average income for the bottom 90% actually decreased by $900.

And that this has given America the fifth most unequal distribution of wealth in the entire world.

So – who made it this way? The nurses, fast-food workers, teachers, cashiers, police officers and secretaries? Or the 1 percent at the top?

And just who are the 1 percent?

Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films, the documentary makers, are conducting a novel crowd-sourcing effort to identify the 1 percent, and put a spotlight on them. This will be like their outstanding films Rethink Afghanistan, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost and Iraq for Sale.

With one exception: you can be involved.and help to identify the 1 percent.  When Brave New Films is done, we’ll know who they are.  And they’ll know who we are.

So please go to this website: http://www.bravenewfoundation.org/whoarethe1percent/

Courage,

Alan Grayson

Is the one per cent is really the problem? It is a actually a portion of the one per cent who fund the GOP that is the problem. These are people like the Koch Brothers and Richard Mellon Scaife

Recently the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength told a congressional hearing yesterday that the affluent should be taxed more.

The Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength said that any deal struck by the Super Committee on the budget deficit should not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The Super Committee should instead levy higher taxes on the wealthy and let the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire.

There are affluent people who have done well in America and want to give back to the country. It is misleading to stereotype all affluent Americans as the problem.

There is a dangerous part of the one per cent that bankrolls the GOP and wants America to be an aggressive  Christo-fascist nation like Nazi Germany.  

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Florida needs Alan Grayson back in Congress

Alan Grayson was one of the few Democrats in congress willing to call out the GOP corporatists in Congress. Alan has cojones, unlike some of fellow corporocrats, republicrats and Blue Dog Democrats.

Maybe you’ve seen it already. 500,000 people have.

The week before last, Alan Grayson appeared on HBO, onReal Time with Bill Maher. The subject was Occupy Wall Street. Some of Bill’s guests mocked the Occupy Wall Street protesters, complaining they didn’t know what the protest was all about.

Grayson had a different point of view:

Grayson: Let me tell what they're talking about. They're complaining about the fact that Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago, and nobody's been held responsible for that. Not a single person has been indicted or convicted, for destroying twenty percent of our national net worth, accumulated over two centuries. They're upset about the fact that Wall Street has iron control over the economic policies of this country, and that one party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and the other party caters to them as well. That's the truth of the matter, as you [Bill] have said before. And . . . .

P.J. O'Rourke: Get the man a bongo drum, they've found their spokesman!

Grayson: If I . . .

P.J. O'Rourke: Get your shoes off, get a bongo drum, forget where to go to the bathroom, and it's yours.

Grayson: If I am the spokesman for all the people who think we should NOT have 24 million people in this country who can't find a full-time job; that we should NOT have 50 million people who can't see a doctor when they're sick; that we should NOT have 47 million people of this country who need government help to feed themselves; and that we should NOT have 15 million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of home, OK, I'll be that spokesman.

In less than a minute, Alan Grayson articulated what so many observers had been groping for, since the Occupy Wall Street movement started: the sense of what’s gone wrong, and the urgent need to do something about it.

1. Wall Street has created and perpetuated a system of enormous inequality.
2. That system caused The Crash, and no one has been punished for it.
3. Wall Street perpetuates that system through iron control of our political process.
4. The result is pervasive suffering: joblessness, homelessness, illness, poverty and even hunger.

That’s why it’s Occupy Wall Street, not Occupy Grant’s Tomb.

And Alan Grayson has the insight and the courage to say that.

Which is why it is so important that we help Alan Grayson return to Congress. And why we need your support today. The whole world is watching.

And that’s why that short video clip from Bill Maher’s show has been passed round and round. Last week, it was the fifth most-watched news video in the world. All the different versions that have been posted on YouTube are approaching 500,000 views, with more on Facebook.

The breakdown is 4098 “likes,” and 68 “dislikes.” Which proves that we really are “the 99%.” Or at least 98.4%.

And the first small step is to take back the House from the special interests who bought it in 2010, and give Alan Grayson the chance to make a difference for all of us. Click here, help our campaign, and you’ll make a difference, too.

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Medicare cuts unpoular in swing states

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of progressive groups is warning swing state Democrats to think twice before embracing parts of the Republican budget plan that would privatize Medicare and cut Medicaid.

Armed with a stark set of polls they plan to release this week, the groups -- Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org and Credo Action -- are telling Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) to stand tall on the popular social safety net programs.

"Democrats need to say firmly that any tampering whatsoever with Medicare and Medicaid benefits is off the table," said Charles Chamberlain, Democracy for America's political director.

Senior citizens and other Congressional District 8 constituents donned zombie makeup on April 28th, 2011 to protest cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid outside of Rep. Dan Webster's office in Winter Garden, Florida.

Webster beat Alan Grayson in the last congressional election. Floridians are starting to have some buyer's remorse on that election.

See the video below on the senior citizen zombie demonstration. 



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Alan Grayson: Is Sarah Palin is “profoundly stupid?”

2011 GOP Demolition Derby

Yesterday Chris Matthews said, on the air, that Sarah Palin is “profoundly stupid.”
Well that’s a little, I don’t know, kind of, maybe, a bit blunt.

Matthews was trying to explain why Sarah Palin will never be President. The answer is obvious, I think. Everyone would rather have Tina Fey as President. Sarah Palin and Tina Fey are both very funny. The difference is that Tina Fey is intentionally funny.

I have to say, though, Chris, that you could have made the point with a little more subtlety. For instance, you could have shown a drawing of Palin wearing a t-shirt saying “I’M WITH STUPID,” and an arrow pointing up.

Or, Chris, if your show were as clever as Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life, you could have offered these ten additional reasons why Sarah Palin will never be President:

(1) Palin doesn’t know who is buried in Grant’s Tomb.

(2) Palin couldn’t tell you when the War of 1812 was fought.

(3) Palin has no clue about the color of George Washington’s white horse.

(4) Palin wonders on what day Latinos celebrate the Cinco de Mayo.

(5) Palin isn’t sure what weighs more, a pound of bricks or a pound of feathers.

(6) Palin has no idea in what month the October Revolution took place.

(7) Palin is baffled by the question of who came up with the Monroe Doctrine.

(8) Palin would very much like to know who fought in the French and Indian War.

(9) Palin is puzzled as to who wrote “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”

(10) Palin is at a loss regarding what were JFK’s initials.

Well, one thing is for sure. Sarah Palin will never figure out how to get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I’m not saying that Sarah Palin is dumb. But I’m not saying that she’s not.

When Palin came to my district ten days before the 2010 election to inform Central Florida that I am a “jackwagon” (video here, with 11 views as I write this) – I thought to myself: “Wow, I didn’t realize that you could fit nine letters onto one palm.”

Jonathan Swift once wrote: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.” Sarah Palin, you’ll never be President of the United States. But at least you are the natural-born leader of that confederacy, now and forevermore.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

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Alan Grayson: Republican budget cuts would kill 70,000 children.

 In Washington, DC, the leaders of both parties are celebrating. “Woo-hoo, we made a deal! Isn’t that great?!”

Well, it depends on the deal.

There is one particular part of the federal budget that I’ve been following closely for the past couple of weeks. Since March 30th. When Rajiv Shah, the head of the US Agency for International Development, testified that Republican budget cuts would kill 70,000 children. 

“We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1 [the original Republican budget proposal] would lead to 70,000 kids dying,” He said:

Of that 70,000, 30,000 would come from malaria control programs that would have to be scaled back specifically. The other 40,000 is broken out as [follows:] 24,000 would die because of a lack of support for immunizations and other investments, and 16,000 would [die] because of a lack of skilled attendants at birth.

Now, admittedly, all these children deliberately chose to be born outside the United States. To make things worse, they selected parents living in poverty. And, of course, most of them have brown skin.

Notwithstanding all that, I would very much prefer to see these children alive. Maybe it’s just me, but it disturbs me to think that 70,000 innocent children will die in pain from malaria or some other horrible disease, or die at birth because no one in the neighborhood happens to know how to perform an episiotomy.

Not to mention the mothers. Among women, at the time when my mother was born, the second leading cause of death was birth. Childbirth, specifically. That’s still true in some other parts of the world.

After I heard about Shah’s testimony, I looked up the bill he was referring to, H.R. 1. It’s true. In Title XI of the bill, the section on the State Department and Foreign Operations appropriations, there are big cuts.

Then yesterday, when the Republicans posted their new budget bill H.R. 1473 online,

I looked that up, too. And, starting on Page 364, I saw big cuts in the State Department and Foreign Operations appropriations. Not quite as big as H.R. 1. But still big.

Personally, I’d like to know how many children H.R. 1473 is going to kill. But no one in Washington, DC is likely to provide that figure, because the leaders of both parties are so busy celebrating the “compromise.”

But there is no compromise, there is no middle ground, between life and death.

The record for human sacrifice was established in 1487, by the Aztecs. Aztec priests slaughtered 80,000 prisoners of war, to celebrate their new temple. (The event was loosely portrayed in Mel Gibson’s 2006 movie Apocalypto.)

So no matter how many children H.R. 1473 may kill, it won’t set a record. At most, it will earn the silver medal for cruelty.

I just wish that someone, in either paOf that 70,000, 30,000 would come from malaria control programs that would have to be scaled back specifically. The other 40,000 is broken out as [follows:] 24,000 would die because of a lack of support for immunizations and other investments, and 16,000 would [die] because of a lack of skilled attendants at birth.rty, would make the case that the federal budget is not simply 500 pages of large numbers. It also represents our collective effort to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and heal the sick.

To help people accomplish whatever it is that they can accomplish in life, unburdened and undefeated by poverty, bigotry, hunger, unemployment, disease, racism, sexism and ignorance. Our collective effort to fulfill the last four words of the Pledge of Allegiance: “and justice for all.”
Ain’t that America?

Courage,

Alan Grayson
 
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Alan Grayson on Gov. Scott: "We'll all have to bend over... and cough."

CENK UYGUR: Joining me now is former Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson to answer some of those questions.

That conflict of interest blows me away. He's got a company making millions of dollars from drug tests and he's pushing the drug tests all over Florida? I mean, should they investigate that? What should they do about that? 

ALAN GRAYSON: Well, look, he spent $70 million to buy the office of governor in Florida. He wants a return on his money. He promised us that he would run state government like a business. What we didn't realize is he was going to run it like HIS business, like it's all his. And that's exactly what he has been doing. It's not only what you said. In addition to that, he wants to cut all state funding for health care clinics. There are 4 million people in Florida who can't afford to see a doctor when they're sick. They have to go to health care clinics. He's going to shut them all down so that they will be forced to go to Rick Scott's clinics. 

CENK: I mean, it's beyond absurd. So, again, you know, let me turn to the prescription problem because that's a whole, another thing. Why does he not want to track these prescription drugs? 

AG: Well you said it. Florida has nine times as much as the rest of the country combined. I think eight times as much is Rush Limbaugh alone. It's exactly what you said. I don't think he wants to take the heat from Rush Limbaugh. 

CENK: You think it's just that simple? On Rush Limbaugh alone, he's like, let's leave these guys alone. 

AG: Well look, all the right-wing leaders have catered to Rush Limbaugh for years and years. He says jump and they say how high. You're seeing that now with the governor of Florida. 

CENK: Let's go back to the election for a second. There's a new poll out that says if the elections were held today, Rick Scott would actually lose by 19 points. That's a huge swing. So obviously the people of Florida, once that he got into power, and it didn't take long, we're like, whoa, that is not what we expected. So what did they expect and what did they get? 

AG: Listen, this is somebody who made his fortune by cheating sick people. And the only reason why he got in in the first place is because Democrats in Florida, like Democrats all across the country, simply didn't vote in 2010. And it's like Ed Koch said in his last election.

He said, “The voters have spoken, and now they will be punished for it.” And that's exactly what you are seeing in Florida. We're being punished for it. This is someone unfit to be governor; this is someone who is unfit for any job. My thinking was that he would get elected, he'd assume office and then he'd pardon himself and quit, but unfortunately he's doing far worse than that.

He's using the state of Florida to stuff money in his own pocket, because he thinks the real problems facing Florida today, with 4 million people without health insurance, with 13% unemployment, the real problem in Florida is that Rick Scott doesn't have enough money, and he's dead set on doing something to correct that problem. 

CENK: So final question for you. What can the people of Florida do about this? Now that they realize the scam he ran on them and you've seen they don't like him anymore, and they're like, whoa, I didn't know he would funnel all this business to his own companies, now run by his wife, what can they do about it? 

AG: Look, it's a fundamental problem. The government is being run by a corrupt clique called the Republican Party of Florida. The last person in charge of the Republican Party of Florida was led away in chains and has been indicted.

It's as if the state has been taken over by the mafia, that's how bad the Republican Party of Florida is. Unfortunately the governor himself appoints five of the nine members of the Florida's Ethics Commission. So you can be sure that all those republicans are going to do nothing about this. The only recourse we may have in the end is to storm the Bastille. 

CENK: What if he says, hey you know what? Look, I'm going to make more money; this money is going to get funneled to my companies because I'm going to drug test everybody? I'm going to drug test you and your dog and all that money is going to get funneled to me. What are you going to do about it? What can we do about it? 

AG: I'm just glad that Rick Scott's company doesn't do proctological examinations, because then we would all have to bend over and cough. 

CENK: Congressman Grayson, you are definitely clear on the topic. We appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.

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50 Ways to rile a Republican

1. Mention Alan Grayson's name.
2. Say the US is a secular nation according to Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli.
3. Explain that the Founders were the first liberal elite in the US.
4. Tell them that George W. Bush ranks in the bottom 10 per cent of presidents according to several surveys.
5. Explain how Ronald Reagan fractured the Middle Class.
6. Say that supply side economic is Trojan Horse designed to give tax breaks to the affluent.
7. Quote the Mark Zandi's Moody Analytics study that food stamps and unemployment compensation are more stimulative to the economy than tax cuts.
8. Explain how the the Bush Ownership Society caused the Great Recession which started in 2007.
9. Say that Republicans were responsible for the Great Depression, too, because the depression was proceeded by three GOP presidents.
10. Show that the public doesn't trust the GOP in a crises. We have always had Democratic presidents during World Wars.
11. Quote FDR: That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group,”.
12. Mention that one of the first things Hitler did when he came to power was to eliminate trade unions.
13. Point out that the Nazis were Christians. That's why they painted Teutonic crosses on their aircraft and tanks,
14. Say that the top 400 Americans now have a combined income that is almost as much as the bottom 50 per cent of Americans.
15. Ask why the Republicans changed the Estate Tax so it did not effect 40,000 US millionaires?
16. Point out that Civil War was not caused by state's rights or slavery. The main issue was the expansion of the institution of slavery into new US territories.
17. Mention that Ben Franklin said that light houses were more useful than churches,
18. Explain that millionaires and billionaires who own stocks and bonds pay a smaller tax rate in capital gains than the average American pays for their income tax.
19. Explain that flat and fair taxes are the fairest to millionaires and billionaires.
20. Tell this joke. A working man voting Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Saunders.
21. Say that the biggest supporter of a Sarah Palin presidential run is the Democratic Party.
22. Mention that GOP 212^th Congress has an 18 per cent favorability rating.
23. Ask if Mitt Romney is the first political cyborg.
24. Ask a wingnut to explain Newt Gingrich's patriotic adultery.
25. Ask a wingnut how Glen Beck lost 300 of his Fox News advertisers.

I need 25 more from the Rightardia viewers. Help!

 

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Alan Grayson: Did They Die in Vain?

He's back . . .

On May 4, 1886, in Haymarket Square in Chicago, the public rallied peacefully in support of 40,000 workers in Chicago who had gone on strike, to win the right to organize. The police attacked, and eight died.

On July 6, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 3800 workers went on strike, to win the right to organize. Three hundred hired and armed goons attacked them. Five people died.

On April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, 1200 coal miners went on strike, to win the right to organize. The Colorado National Guard attacked their shantytown, and burned it to the ground. Nineteen people died. Two women and 11 children were asphyxiated, and they burned to death.

Here and around the world, many people have fought and died, so that you and I would have the right to organize.

And so that 250,000 public workers in Wisconsin would have that right, too.

This is not exactly a new idea. Six months after the Ludlow Massacre, President Wilson signed the Clayton Act, prohibiting the prosecution of union members under Antitrust Law. That was almost a century ago.

Two decades later, during the Franklin Roosevelt's first term as President, he signed the National Labor Relations Act into law. It protects the right to organize. That was over 75 years ago.

The right to organize also is a fundamental principle of international law. Over 150 countries have ratified the "Right to Organize" Convention, an international treaty. It was adopted in 1949, over 60 years ago.

So why are we even talking about this, 11 years into the 21st Century?

Because the teabaggers want to "take back America." They want to take it back, all right – take it all the way back to the 19th century. When there was no right to organize. When people worked for a dollar a day. When grown men competed against children for jobs. When women were barred from most jobs entirely. When you worked until you died.

Not to mention slavery.

I want to see an America that is healthy and wealthy.

They want an America that provides cheap labor to our corporate overlords. An America where the middle class is chained by debt.

We didn't ask for this fight. But we have no choice except to fight back. For the survival of the middle class in America. For us, for our children, and for our grandchildren. And so that the victims in Haymarket, in Homestead and in Ludlow did not die in vain.

As Cardinal Spellman said 45 years ago, "it is a war thrust upon us, and we cannot yield to tyranny."

I'm ready to fight for what's right. What about you?

Courage,

Alan Grayson

South Florida Business Journal: Florida grand jury issues report on public corruption |

Date: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 11:06am EST

After 10 months of hearing testimony, a Florida grand jury looking released a report that outlines a series of changes designed to crack down on politicians and government employees who commit crimes.

The grand jury, presided over by Broward County Chief Judge Victor Tobin, was created in February at the request of Gov. Charlie Crist after numerous arrests of politicians. It recommends, among other things:

• Expanding the definition of public employees to include private employees contracted by government entities that perform government services.
• Creating sentencing enhancements for offenses committed by officials who use their public position to facilitate their crimes.
• Creating an independent State Office of Inspector General, responsible for hiring and firing agency Inspectors General.
• Expanding definition of criminal bid tampering to include bid-rigging schemes.
• Authorizing the Ethics Commission to initiate investigations with a super majority vote of commission members.
  

The grand jury asked that lawmakers address its concerns during the 2011 legislative session.

The problem is that the GOP has been running Florida for 12 consecutive years and a new Republican governor is about to be inaugurated.

Why didn't the cleueless Democrats run an anti-incumbency of anti-corruption campaign in the 2010 election cycle?

The chairman of the Florida Democratic party, Karen Thurman,  is now gone. We need some one with Cojones grandes or Cuca grandas.

Alan Grayson comes to mind because Florida Democrats need to be inspired perhaps with a swift kick in the ass!

To read the rest of the story: see http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2010/12/30/florida-grand-jury-issues-report-on.html

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Florida Grifter-elect Rick Scott can't even get his own staff hired

By Michael C. Bender and Marc Caputo, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau In Print: Saturday, December 18, 2010

Rick Scott was endorsed by Mr Burns as "excellent." Could they be related? 

TALLAHASSEE — Lacking a single hire to staff Florida's government, incoming Gov. Rick Scott on Friday asked most of Gov. Charlie Crist's administration to stay on board for up to three months.

This leaves in place agency heads and mid-level managers from an administration Scott repeatedly criticized from the campaign trail . . . Scott's transition team initially asked for hundreds of resignations . . .

It's the first public indication from Scott's secretive  transition team is stymied under the leadership of Enu Mainigi, his personal attorney and most important hire to date . . .

Mainigi, a Washington, D.C.-based corporate defense lawyer, disputes there is any slow down. She challenges accusations that she is being overly protective of Scott. She says the criticism is  backbiting inherent in the sport of Tallahassee politics.

Friendly and exceedingly bright, Mainigi also inspires fear. Despite discontent among transition committee members and staff, all declined to speak on the record for fear of retribution.

Mainigi, 40, advised Scott on the campaign and was quickly hired to run his transition.

She acknowledges Scott's administration is well behind the pace set by the previous two governors.

"Maybe that's true," Mainigi said.

Scott's team asked for resignations from the top 10 people in each agency. Resignations are traditional in a transition, but the number exceeded Crist's team, which limited it to the top six.

Mainigi, who was on the hiring committee of her law firm, Williams & Connolly, said she has created a rigorous process that requires finding multiple candidates for each job to be compared to each other.

This is an inauspicious start for a governor-elect who promised to create 700,000 new jobs and seems to be unable to hire his own staff in a timely manner. In the Tampa Bay area, one in eight Floridians is now unemployed.

Scott blamed the Florida downturn on Obama which is false. The downturn started when as gas prices skyrocketed during the GW Bush administration which had a very negative effect on tourism.

Republicans also changed the law so that Canadians had to provide their own health insurance when they visited in the winter months.This had a negative effect on Canadian tourism.

Florida has approximately 200,000 to 300,000 available empty housing units. This was caused by over-construction. Real estate speculators drove up housing prices by one third or more. 

When the hosing bubble burst, housing prices dropped like a rock. Many new Florida home buyers walked away form their homes because they were paying on unsustainable mortgages that didn't reflect the new low home value after the bust. 


The AP Stress Index was developed in October 2007, two months before the recession began. Florida surpassed California for the second-worst stress score: 16.56. Though its unemployment rate didn't change from September, its foreclosure rate rose.

The October date the recession started is interesting because the Bush administration did not admit a recession had started until after the 2008 elections. All the Republicans would say was the Democrats were taking down the economy when  the R-word was mentioned.

Florida's economy lacks a substantial manufacturing base and depends on tourists . . .

Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida said:

Manufacturing is having a bit of a resurgence, and with Florida lacking a large manufacturing sector, we're not really participating in that particular uptick.  

We were certainly impacted by the Gulf oil spill, and we still have high unemployment. All of these things kind of swirl into this misery stew that keeps stress high in Florida.

Rightardia had staffers involved in the 2008 Florida campaign. The candidates should have been running an anti-incumbent campaign after 12 years of GOP rule in Tallahassee, but they were timid. The Democrats let Rick Scott blame the Florida downturn on Obama after 12-years of GOP control in Tallahassee.


In 2005 Thurman was elected Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP). Thurman resigned on November 12, 2010 in the wake of a disastrous 2010 midterm election for Democrats.

We hope a new Florida chairperson will lead the Democrats to victory in 2010. The Republicans now have a super-majority in Tallahassee. Rick Scott is ready to privatize the public school system, although he barely defeated Alex Sink and was not elected with a mandate. 

Who would Rightardia like to see as the new Florida Democratic chairman:? That would be Alan Grayson. He is the kind of  kick ass Democrat our blog appreciates. 

Florida needs someone like him to shake up the party.

sources:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/lacking-any-hires-and-facing-criticism-gov-elect-rick-scott-asks-crist/1140732

http://www.yumasun.com/articles/stress-66117-county-percent.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Thurman

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Rep. Alan Grayson says he is getting the bum's rush

Alan Grayson talks about the Obama tax compromise. The Estate tax threshold of $5 million threshold will let 50,000 millionaires off the hook for the estate tax.

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Taliban Dan Webster

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) uncovers that Republican opponent Daniel Webster's family values are almost identical to that of the Taliban.

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POLITICO 44: Alan Grayson outs a chicken hawk, Daniel Webster

Vets group, Grayson battle over ad - Alex Isenstadt - POLITICO.com

In a one-page letter to Grayson, Bill Backes, the Florida commandant of the Marine Corps League, excoriates the congressman for featuring a still shot of a smiling Grayson alongside a veteran wearing Marine Corps League attire – an image, Backes argues, that wrongfully suggests the group has endorsed Grayson.

“What the Marine Corps League finds offensive is that you, Congressman Grayson, used these pictures in political and TV ads to further your campaign for reelection, thereby subconsciously saying to the public that the Marine Corps League supports Alan Grayson,” writes Backes. “This is what the Marines of the Marine Corps League find inexcusable and despicable.”

Backes also notes that, as a 501c organization, the group cannot legally endorse any candidate or party, and concludes: “The Marine Corps League strongly insists that this ad be removed from further showing.”

Grayson spokesman Sam Dryzmala shrugged off the accusation, writing in an e-mail message that, “Our ad doesn’t insinuate that the Marine Corps League has endorsed either Alan Grayson or Dan Webster.”

Grayson, who has a $1.3 million campaign war chest, has aired a handful of ads since the start of the general election. The veterans spot his most aggressive to date. Gryson stated:

Daniel Webster was called to serve our country six times during the Vietnam War. Each time, Daniel Webster refused the call to service,” says the ad’s narrator, as “Taps” plays in the background. “It breaks an old soldier’s heart to think that Webster could ever be elected to Congress. He doesn’t love this country the way I do. Daniel Webster doesn’t care about us.

Webster’s campaign has called the Grayson ad inaccurate. Webster campaign manager Brian Graham said in a statement last week that after graduating from college in the early 1970s, he was turned down for service as a result of his physical evaluation.

While attending Georgia Tech between 1967 and 1971, Graham noted, Webster served in the Army ROTC program.

Rightrdia comment: If Webster served four years in ROTC, he would have been called to active duty as a reserve officer. You have to sign a contract with ROTC in the third year to stay in the program. If you dropped out of college once you signed this contract , the Armed Service would call you up as an enlisted person.

Grayson should hammer this 'chicken hawk' on dodging his military service.


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A Democrat with Balls and a Weiner

Actually there is more than one. Rep. Alan Grayson is another Democrat who is not afraid to speak up. 

Anthony Weiner recently married Huma Abedin, a Hillary Clinton staffer. Bill Clinton attended the wedding. 

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Rep. Alan Grayson: How Much Does a Congressman Cost?

You probably heard that a Republican tool in Washington, DC offered $100 last week for someone to punch me in the nose. But you may not have noticed to whom Dan Gainor extended that kind offer. Here is what he said:

"I'll give $100 to first Rep. who punches smary [sic] idiot Alan Grayson in the nose."

"Rep." means Representative, or Congressman. Gainor wanted to motivate a Congressman to hit me. And he thought that offering $100 was the way to do it.

We can't offer you a chance to punch Alan Grayson in the nose, but we can offer you a chance to support our campaign.

Now Gainor is not just any crank. He is the Director of the Business and Media Institute, a Big Business-funded Republican lie-tank in Washington, D.C. He meets with Republican Members of Congress all the time.

And he seems to have an uncanny understanding of what motivates them. Dan Gainor thinks that if you give a Republican elected official money, and he'll do anything you want. Even punch someone in the nose.

The amazing thing is not that Republican Members of Congress are for sale. The amazing thing is that you can buy one for $100, at least according to Dan Gainor. And he ought to know.

For modest amounts of money, people like Dan Gainor think that they can buy a tax break. Or a lucrative government contract. Or exemption from regulations. Or a bailout.

This is why the House Financial Services Committee passed the Shareholder Protection Act yesterday, based on legislation that I introduced months ago - to end the buying and selling of elected officials after the Citizens United decision.

Now we have had almost 50,000 people contribute to our reelection campaign. And here's the thing. None of you has ever asked for a tax break, or a government contract, or a regulatory exemption, or a bailout. In fact, all you've asked us for is good government.

Dan Gainor probably thinks that that makes you a sucker.

I see it differently. I think it makes you an American that I'm proud of.

No punches in the nose for sale here. But if you'd like to make a contribution to government of the people, by the people, and for the people, then click here.

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