What's Wrong With America?

I know this is a couple of weeks late, but it's still the most powerful segment of the AFL-CIO debate.

Lt. Gov. Jari Askins

Over the past few weeks I've had a chance to see and hear Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins at several different events. I haven't known much about her except from her resume on the Legislature website. She ran a good effective campaign for Lt. Gov. and won a primary and general election. She's smart and intelligent plus a good listener. I watched her "work a room," and came away believing she is a strong consensus builder.

Lt. Gov. Askins predicted the upcoming legislative session will be more contentious than last. The session begins in January '08 and goes through May'08. She predicted the Republicans will push hard to restrict civil redress in the state courts and to reduce workers rights on the job and especially workers rights about job related injuries.

Askins also wondered out loud if some Democratic legislators voted against reality-based issues claiming they were representing their constituents when actually their votes were motivated by fear of Republican reprisals.

I am impressed by Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.


"You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." -- Molly Ivins

George Bush and Poor Children

President Bush has chosen political ideology and the corporate health insurance industry over the health and well-being of America's most needy and vulnerable people, our children. In a stealth and cowardly move to avoid the news cycle, at 7:30 PM last Friday the Bush Administration sent states new restrictions for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP); restrictions that will decimate state efforts to ensure children have access to health care.

The administration has repeatedly voiced concerns that some states were expanding their Children's Health Insurance Programs to the point that families were dropping private coverage for public coverage. Its latest directive is designed to prevent such crowding out from occurring.

This includes Oklahoma.

Under Bush's unilateral decree, any state that has already expanded or plans to expand SCHIP beyond 250% of the poverty level, a meager $51,625 for a family of four, will have to meet new guidelines that SCHIP experts and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office say are impossible to meet. States must:

• show they've enrolled 95% of children below 200% of poverty who are eligible for either Medicaid or SCHIP,

• charge premiums that approximate private coverage and impose a one-year waiting period, during which children are uninsured, in order to prevent children from leaving private coverage, and

• show that children's coverage by the private market has not decreased by more than 2% over the past five years.

Thanks to Stateside Dispatch for showing America how George Bush feels about poor children and their families.


"It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." -- Fredrick Douglas

Mainstream or Homogenized

I've usually had a good opinion of Reuters News Service. I rank them second to McClatchy. This Reuters article, "Democratic Split on Iraq May Hurt '08 Chances," published today and written by David Alexander changes all that. Here's the lede paragraph:

"Failure to end the Iraq war has so divided Democrats it could jeopardize their chances of consolidating power in U.S. elections in November 2008, analysts said."

And this is the third paragraph:

"Centrists, concerned about alienating conservative voters in swing districts, are wary of moving too precipitously, the analysts say."

Who are the analysts, you ask? Well, one is Ethan Siegal, who works for The Washington Exchange. The Washington Exchange monitors Congress for institutional investors.

This from Matthew Woessner, a political expert at Pennsylvania State University:

"It will be the Democratic left, which is probably immune to any news of success in Iraq, against the middle-of-the-road America"

Mr. Woessner goes on to claim:

"A nightmare scenario for any party is when the pressure, the sum total of the pressures from their constituency groups, are out of step with mainstream America. That's a prescription for electoral disaster."

First, Democrats have never been united. You put five Democrats in a room and you'll get six opinions. It's just not in our genes. What the chattering class sees as a 'split,' is the every-day ebb and flow of opinions in an open and inclusive party. Furthermore, new progressives have become more relevant because their principles resonate with more and more Americans.

These people miss the point that there is no center anymore. Using the phrase, "middle-of-the-road America," or "mainstream America," is like saying "homogenized America." I have NEVER met an adult citizen who had no opinion on anything political.

Demonizing progressives in the Democratic Party may make good copy in DC, but is almost irrelevant everywhere else. Sure there are plenty of "Bush-dog Democrats" in Congress, but in many parts of the country, their constituents are way ahead of them. In other cases like Oklahoma's second district, the incumbent sometimes appeals to the prejudices found among his rural supporters.

IMO, the people of the United States are not on a political horizontal axis. They're all over a political compass; the full 360 degrees and with and infinite range of passion on each slice of the circle.


"Human progress is neither automatic or inevitable." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Who's Got the Matches?

What am I missing here? The United States has 160,000 military personnel and another 100,000 'contractors' occupying Iraq and the military is bitching about Iran, who lives next door, sending 50 or so soldiers into Iraq to work with the insurgents! From McClatchy:

"BAGHDAD - For the first time, the U.S. military said on Sunday that Iranian soldiers are in Iraq training insurgents to attack American forces.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a top U.S. commander who is in charge of a large swath of Iraq south of Baghdad, believes there are about 50 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in his battlefield area, military spokeswoman Maj. Alayne Conway said.

Conway said that U.S.-led forces have not caught any of the Iranians, but she said military intelligence and recently discovered caches of weapons with Iranian markings on them indicate that the Iranians are there."

I guess if we invaded and occupied Nicaragua, our current leaders would get all in a tizzy if Hugo Chavez sent some of his troops, too.

To reduce this to its lowest common denominator, here's my read on this. If my next door neighbor had a bunch of Rottweilers and Pit Bulls, you can count on me to do something to protect and secure my property.

I'm not saying the Iranian regime is a shining example of "lie and let live." Far from it. But why can't we understand basic human nature. If you set my neighbor's house on fire, I'll do my best to keep matches out of your hands.

"War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace." -- Thomas Mann

Hillary's TV Spot

Her first TV ad in Iowa. Really good.

A Real American Speaks Truth

A real American speaks truth to the Democratic candidates and the nation.




"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

How Ironic

Last night I went to see and hear Frosty Troy, the publisher of the Oklahoma Observer. Frosty was his usual self; ebullient, sarcastic and sticking political stilettos into elected Democrats and Republicans. He had come to speak about Oklahoma history, though.

Frosty said that when Oklahoma was granted statehood, it held the dubious honor have having the largest KKK in the country...who's posterity were now in the state legislature where HB 1804 was passed and signed by our part time governor. HB 1804 should be known as the "Oklahoma Latino Eradication" bill, for it's mean and hateful language and draconian mandates.

Here's the irony from a story in the McClatchy newspapers earlier this week:

"FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines:

"US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!"

It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."

Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west of Baqouba, Iraqis — including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops — must use segregated bathrooms.

Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country nationals" that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.

It's been nearly 60 years since President Harry Truman ended racial segregation in the U.S. military. But at Forward Operating Base Warhorse it's alive and well, perhaps the only U.S. military facility with such rules, Iraqi interpreters here say.

It's unclear precisely who ordered the rules. "The rule separating local national latrines from soldiers was enacted about two to three rotations ago," Maj. Raul Marquez, a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, wrote in an e-mail. That was before his brigade or the 3rd Stryker Combat Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., the other major combat force here, was based at Warhorse."

So our racial segregation mentality has metastasised all the way to Iraq; where, at the same time, our president is spreading democracy at the end of a gun barrel.

Priceless.

O'Reilly on John Edwards

Fair and balanced as usual. Go John, go.

Askins Speaks in Tulsa

Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins spoke at the Democratic Luncheon Club in Tulsa today, to a capacity crowd. Among other things, Askins predicted the next legislative session will be contentious with Workers Compensation Reform and Tort Reform being the hot buttons.

She also warned about rosy forecasts about the state's revenue and told the audience that those revenues are leveling out while state outflows are increasing.

Tulsa Needs New Media

Talk about evidence we need new or alternative media, just check out page two in the Tulsa World today. Of course the paper is full of PGA stuff and I don't blame them. But, are they so hard up for news that the spend almost 20 column inches of text on Smores?

I'm talking about those desserts that you put a square of chocolate along with a marshmallow on a graham cracker and heat it up! The TW spent almost a half page on this tempting dessert, but not one character on the upcoming appearance of the former first lady Senator Hillary Clinton, who by the way is the leading contender for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2008 elections. Cinton will be in Tulsa Saturday afternoon at the Jazz Hall of Fame for a fundraiser.

Yes, her schedule is very strict and synchronized -- no press for one. Yes, you do have to jump through some hoops to donate and attend the function but consider this; yesterday, I met a young woman who wanted to buy a Hillary bumper sticker and was shocked to find out that she was going to be in Tulsa in three days. Finding out she could get in with a $50 donation, the young woman got the web address to make a donation and get an admission ticket. She left with a smile on her face...... and her bumper sticker.

Yeah, I'm guilty, too. I could have said something earlier, even though I'm not a Clinton supporter.

Run Andrew Run

Freshman Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice has announced his intention to oust incumbent US Senator Jim Inhofe in the 2008 general election.

Andrew moved to Oklahoma City in 2003, where he founded the Progressive Alliance Foundation. The foundation works throughout the state of Oklahoma advancing progressive, fair-minded and constitutional solutions to our public policy problems. Andrew also launched the RED RIVER DEMOCRACY PROJECT (RRDP) in 2003, which used Chautauqua style community festivals to inform Oklahoma citizens about the failures of our political system to live up to our nation’s democratic ideals. The RRDP is now a 527 political organization. He was elected State Senator in 2006.

In 1999, Rice moved to New York City and worked as a freelance documentary producer and editor. He worked on programs for the BBC and PBS, including segments for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

On September 11th, Andrew’s older brother, David Rice, was killed in the World Trade Center, where he worked for the investment firm Sandler O'Neill. David was a graduate of Bishop McGuiness High school and former Fullbright Scholar in South Africa. He was 31-years-old when he was killed.

Due to this tragedy, Andrew decided to re-dedicate his career to social justice work and moved to Austin, Texas in February 2002 to work for the advocacy organization the Texas Freedom Network, which counters the influence of religious extremism in politics. In Austin, Rice launched a state-wide public education initiative entitled the Fundamentalism Education Project, which organized progressive Texas religious leaders to openly challenge the myth that fundamentalism represents the essential values of our faith traditions.

After college, Rice spent a year to working and traveling in Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. In Sri Lanka he worked with the largest Buddhist Grassroots NGO in Asia, helping with rural development in Village life and in the conflict zone. In Thailand, Rice worked for the country's largest private AIDS Hospice. In India, Rice studied local addiction problems and treatment.

In 1997, Andrew enrolled in Harvard University Divinity School and pursued a Masters in Theological Studies. His area of focus was the role of religion in social justice movements, and the origination of anti-Semitism in the early Christian Church. He graduated from Harvard in 1999.

Andrew is just what Oklahoma needs. He is a man with John Kennedy's vision, Woody Guthrie's realism and a Barry Switzer's attitude.

Support and elect Andrew Rice for US Senator from Oklahoma.

"There is no passion to be found in playing small-- in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." -- Nelson Mandela

It's about time

Democrats.org has a post called "Democrats Launch Nationwide Campaign Calling on Bush to Change Direction in Iraq" that's worth checking out...

As Democrats in Congress pass legislation fulfilling their promises to the American people, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee have joined forces to launch a Month of Action on Iraq that...