Censored Whig Letters

Jobs Bill = 1 Million Jobs. Tell Congress, Pass It Now!

by Mike Hall

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/05/26/jobs-bill-1-million-jobs-tell-congress-pass-it-now/

While the U.S. House is still hammering out a timetable for a vote on the Promoting American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213), lawmakers might move a little faster if they take a look at the latest report on the jobs bill. There are 1 million jobs at stake.

Call 877-442-6801 and tell Congress to pass it now!

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that the bill’s package of aid to states, infrastructure projects, extension of unemployment insurance (UI) and COBRA benefits, creation of summer jobs, loan guarantees for small business and other provisions

will help save or create well over a million critically needed jobs.

The EPI report notes that not only will the UI and COBRA extensions benefit “the nearly 10 million Americans who have lost their jobs and are receiving unemployment compensation while they look for work,” but the safety net spending also will benefit “the economy as a whole by circulating cash into local communities and helping businesses avert further job cuts.”

Each $1 billion of unemployment compensation generates an estimated $1.63 billion to $2.15 billion of additional gross domestic product. If the unemployed did not receive insurance benefits, then their reduced consumption would be a serious drag on the economy, reducing demand for businesses’ goods and services, in turn leading businesses to reduce investments and lay off additional workers.

The jobs bill also will start the process of making Wall Street finally pay to restore the millions of jobs the Big Banks and financial institutions destroyed with their reckless and risky practices. EPI says the bill

closes a host of tax loopholes that have allowed many of the wealthiest Americans to pay a lower income tax rate than the average steel worker, encouraged businesses to move their operations overseas to escape U.S. taxes, and allowed some professionals to forgo paying their share of Medicare and Social Security taxes. These provisions will raise well over $40 billion, helping to pay for the bill’s job creation provisions and to make the tax code much fairer.

Those representatives who criticize government spending on job creation as ineffective or inefficient should read another new report. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that in the first quarter of this year, the Obama administration’s stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, created as many as 2.8 million jobs.

In addition, the recovery package lowered the unemployment by as much as 1.5 percent and

increased the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs by 1.8 million to 4.1 million compared with what those amounts would have been otherwise. (Increases in FTE jobs include shifts from part-time to full-time work or overtime and are thus generally larger than increases in the number of employed workers.)

That sure seems like a good use of taxpayer dollars. Click here for the full CBO report.

If you haven’t called your representative to urge him or her to vote in support of the jobs bill, there is still time. Call 877-442-6801 and urge your representative to vote for H.R. 4213 to create and save jobs and make Wall Street pay. Tell your representative a vote against the bill is a vote against jobs.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Click on the AFL-CIO Blog link to find several important embedded links in this article like the CBO report.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201005240038

Media misleadingly claim Obama is the “single largest recipient of BP’s cash”

Media outlets have misleadingly claimed that President Obama is “the single largest recipient of BP’s cash” to back up Sarah Palin’s baseless suggestion that contributions from oil companies have affected Obama’s response to the Gulf oil spill. In fact, the money comes almost entirely from individuals employed by BP, not the corporation itself, and represents a minuscule fraction of Obama’s total campaign contributions.

Palin suggests connection between Obama’s response to oil spill and contributions to him by oil companies

Palin suggests connection between “contributions made to President Obama” by oil companies and administration’s response to oil spill. From the May 23 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday:

PALIN: Well, I think that there is, perhaps, a hesitancy to — I don’t really know how to put this, Chris [Wallace], except to say that the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now, I don’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others if there’s any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration — if there’s any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn’t received as much support even as President Obama has from BP and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case in terms of asking questions, why the administration didn’t ge t in there — didn’t get in there and make sure that the regulatory agencies were doing what they were doing with the oversight to make sure that things like this don’t happen.

Media cite campaign contributions “from BP” to back up Palin’s claim

AFP notes Palin’s comments, says BP’s “single largest donation” during past 20 years went to Obama. In a May 23 article about Palin’s comments, Agence France-Presse reported: “More than 3.5 million dollars has been given to candidates by BP over the last 20 years, with the largest single donation, 77,051 dollars, going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics [CRP].” From the AFP article:

“I don’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others if there’s any connection with the contributions made to president Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration,” she told Fox News Sunday.

More than 3.5 million dollars has been given to candidates by BP over the last 20 years, with the largest single donation, 77,051 dollars, going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Palin suggested this close relationship explained why Obama was, “taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Drudge hypes AFP article about Palin’s accusation. On May 24, the Drudge Report linked to the AFP article with the headline, “Day 34: Palin accuses Obama of being in bed with big oil”:

Citing CRP’s data, Doocy claims Palin was “absolutely right.” On the May 24 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, after airing Palin’s comments, co-host Gretchen Carlson said, “According to the Center for Responsive Politics, President Obama received more than … $71,000 from BP, and I guess that was more than any other candidate among the 3.5 million that BP has donated over the last 20 years.” Co-host Steve Doocy later said that “when it comes down to the single largest recipient of BP cash, [Palin is] absolutely right … it was Barack Obama.”

Hoft cites AFP article, Palin to attack Obama “for his lax response to the Gulf oil spill crisis.” In a May 23 post, Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft wrote: “Sarah Palin slammed President Obama today for his lax response to the Gulf oil spill crisis. (Obama went golfing again yesterday.) Palin pointed out Big Oil’s record donations to Obama in 2008.” Hoft also linked to the AFP article on Palin’s claims.

In fact, money “from BP” to Obama has come almost entirely from BP employees, including all BP-related donations during presidential campaign

CRP: Money donated “from BP” to Obama in 2008 election was entirely from BP employees. Contrary to the suggestion that Obama received donations “from BP” during the 2008 presidential campaign, the money came exclusively from BP employees — not the corporation itself. In an email exchange with Media Matters for America, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics confirmed that “the $71,051 that Obama received during the 2008 election cycle was entirely from BP employees. … Obama did not accept contributions from political action committees, so none of this money is from BP’s PAC.”

CRP data shows BP’s PAC contributed $1,000 to Obama’s Senate campaign in 2004. According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org database, BP’s political action committee has made one contribution to an Obama campaign — $1,000 in 2004, when Obama was running for U.S. Senate in Illinois. CRP reports that Obama received a total of $6,000 in contributions from BP’s PAC and BP employees prior to 2008.

Donations from BP or its employees represents just .01 percent of Obama’s total fundraising. As Media Matters senior fellow Jamison Foser has noted, Obama has raised more than $799 million for his campaigns. The $77,051 he has received from BP’s PAC and employees accounts for less than .01 percent of Obama’s total campaign contributions.

Scherer: “People who run for Presi dent raise much more money, and received much more money from BP interests — and just about every other interest.” In a May 5 Swampland post, Time’s Michael Scherer cited CRP’s data and noted that “[i]t is true that … Obama received slightly more money from BP’s PAC and employees since 1990 than anyone else.” Scherer went on to explain:

But there is a major a reason for that, which the story fails to mention: People who run for President raise much more money, and received much more money from BP interests — and just about every other interest. The fourth highest recipient of BP money in the same time period is George W. Bush. The fifth highest recipient is John McCain. In the 2000 and 2004 cycles, Bush got the most money, albeit less than Obama received in 2008. But then one could adjust these numbers for campaign inflation: campaigns overall raised much less money in the 2000 and 2004 cycles than the record-smashing 2008 cycle.

WSJ: 75 percent of oil and gas industry’s donations since 1990 have gone to Republicans. In a May 23 article about Palin’s comments, The Wall Street Journal noted that, according to CRP, “Since 1990, oil and gas companies have donated $238.7 million to candidates and parties, with 75% of the money going to Republicans.” WSJ further noted:

So far in 2010, the oil and gas industries have contributed $12.8 million to all candidates, with 71% of that money going to Republicans. During the 2008 election cycle, 77% of the industry’s $35.6 million in contributions went to Republicans, and in the 2008 presidential contest, Republican candidate Sen. John McCain received more than twice as much money from the oil and gas industries as Obama: McCain collected $2.4 million; Obama, $898,000.

Moreover, contrary to Palin’s claim, Obama administration responded immediately to spill

Obama administration responded immediately to the spill. Contrary to Palin’s assertion that Obama was “doggone slow” in responding to the oil spill, as Media Matters has shown, the Obama administration initiated its response to the spill within hours of the oil rig explosion, which occurred late in the evening of April 20.

Scherer: “[T]here is no evidence … that the boot-on-the-neck White House has been going soft on BP.” Writing on Palin’s remarks in a May 24 Swampland post, Scherer wrote: “More importantly, however, there is no evidence (so far) that the boot-on-the-neck White House has been going soft on BP, even as everyone collectively fails to stop the oil from spouting.”

Obama issued an executive order establishing an independent commission to investigate BP’s oil spill. On May 22, Obama issued an executive order which created an independent commission to investigate the spill. The commission will “examine the relevant facts and circumstances concerning the root causes of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster”; “develop options for guarding against, and mitigating the impact of, oil spills associated with offshore drilling, taking into consideration the environmental, public health, and economic effects of such options”; and “submit a final public report to the President with its findings and options for consideration within 6 months of the date of the Commission’s first meeting,” among other things.

I would like to attend this event but cannot afford all the costs. I applied for one of the scholarships.

Would you be willing to vote for me online to receive one of these scholarships? Would you ask some of your friends to join in this effort?

I am hoping that this event will help expand and improve our show.

You can vote at http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/ or
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Thanks for your time and consideration.

In solidarity,

Stephen Crockett

Host, Democratic Talk Radio
Editor, Mid-Atlantic Labor.com

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The Great Divide

by LORENZO A. CANIZARES FOR BUZZFLASH

http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/3194

Several weeks ago, Paul Krugman, in an article entitled “Senator Bunning’s Universe,” said that “Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.” I wholeheartedly agree with him. This statement, on the face of it, should shape how we view our future as a nation.

In this article, Krugman states that Republicans are unable to feel the pain of those that are suffering economically. It has been my opinion, from the time of the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2000, that the combinations of greed and racism have been intertwined by the Republicans into a political view that have received the veneer of mainstream acceptance. This magic combo has provided Republicans the ideological cover for all the pain that they have inflicted on the middle/working class. That the majority of the recipients of this economic pain are white people is of no consequence for these Republicans. They have been able to create a mantra of themselves as protectors of white peoples’ interests in defense against the inordinate attacks to their livelihood by systemic demands coming from entitlement programs directed to keep lazy minorities happy. They also call their posture fighting encroaching socialism in their attempt to eliminate any possible empathy. They rationalize their anti-worker stand, which, again, affects mostly white people, by posing to be concerned with negative behavior from those they claim are amongst the unemployed and lack incentive to find jobs — the welfare queen syndrome. Republican Party leaders no longer seem to be inclined to take racism seriously, unless they can twist it around as “reverse racism.”

The legend says, “A wounded beast is the fiercest.” Now, those ideologically guided by Greed and Racism have received a big blow with the victory of Obama and Pelosi in the Healthcare Reform Bill. In spite of the fact that the Bill has glaring weaknesses, the national perception is that the forces of fairness and inclusion has won a major battle; that the social movement that is behind Obama and Pelosi is very much alive and well and empowered to tackle other major reforms that are needed to sustain our democratic system. Republican plans for a cake-walk electoral victory in November are turning sour. Consequently, gun shops are selling weapons and ammunition briskly. A recent Harris poll shows that as many as one in four Republicans believe that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ!

Charles M. Blow in a NYT op-ed article “A Mighty Pale Tea” (4/17/10) does a survey of Tea Party members, and as the title of the article reveals, what he saw at a Tea Party rally in Dallas conforms to a NYT/CBS News poll released on 4/14/10, that Tea-Party affiliation is 1% Afro-American and 1% Hispanic. Unless your level of gullibility has risen to become a risk to your daily living, you will agree that the Tea Party is the militant street component of the Republican Party (I recognize that there are many Republicans still left in the Party that do not share these views, but in the main, the party has been taken by those of the Cheney/Rove ilk). Also, it is important to point out that the extreme views of the Tea Party members are not shared by the majority of whites, including many white Republicans. The Tea Party has been crafted to give it semblances of populism to fool regular, common folks about where their allegiances lie. Let’s not forget the Nazis real name was National Socialist Party.

When the Tea Party movement talks about the threat of socialism, and call for “a new revolution,” and vow to “take our country back” or cheer loudly when Sarah Palin says “reload,” it is time for regular, common folks to be concerned. After all, what we have seen of the Tea Party Movement membership is that they are capable of taking all those slogans literally. The good thing in all this is that we have seen the Democrats have been able to muster the courage to fight back. Kudos to Obama and Pelosi for steering the Party away from the perfect storm! Obama’s strategy of relying in Congressional leadership has been vindicated. Progressive Democrats that had supported Obama enjoyed a victory that could give strength to other necessary changes in the nation as we are beginning to see with the Financial Reform Bill. Of course, it remains to be seen how long this entente will last. Let’s not forget House Minority leader John Boehner’s rhetoric after the passage of the healthcare bill referring to its passage as “Armageddon.” And the picture of Nancy Pelosi in a fundraising appeal by the Republican National Committee surrounded by flames with the Committee’s chairman comment that it was time to put Pelosi on the firing line. They hide behind the first amendment to mouth all their poison, but we can never allow again their thugs to walk away from criminal behavior without severe penalty for their actions. Liberals tend to be nice people, but the biggest mistake that can be made with thugs is being perceived as weak.

Nonetheless, the healthcare victory and student financial-aid victory has provided Obama the opportunity to start seriously working on creating jobs. This past week it was announced that 290,000 jobs were created. But we need millions more! The Obama Administration needs to force those banks that have received public monies to behave responsibly and start lending their government-backed loan monies, especially to small businesses. President Obama, put on the call, and the American people will make sure that they comply!

Gene Lyons reports in an article in the 4/7/10 edition of Liberal Opinion that Bruce Bartlett, a conservative thinker, cites a survey of Tea Partiers at a recent Washington demonstration that shows most know nothing about the policies they so noisily abhor. Bartlett cites as an example that almost none of the Tea Partiers realize that Obama job stimulus plan gave “90 percent of all taxpayers…a tax cut last year and almost 100 percent to those in the $50,000 income range.” Our great divide is being defined as a war against the racism-fueled ignorance masterminded by Unbridled Greed’s Greed Machine. We can win, but we can’t let our guard down, and least of all believe for a second that these people are of the same ilk as we are.

LORENZO A. CANIZARES FOR BUZZFLASH