Reid endorses Ellison for DNC chief

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he supports making Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

“My friend Keith Ellison is a terrific leader and a strong progressive who knows how to get things done,” he said Sunday, according to NBC News.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/other-races/305801-reid-endorses-ellison-for-dnc-chief

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Senior House Judiciary Democrats, Quad Caucus Chairs Question Impact of New Restrictive Voting Laws Learn more: BEVERLY TRAN: Senior House Judiciary Democrats, Quad Caucus Chairs Question Impact of New Restrictive Voting Laws

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

WASHINGTON- Today, senior Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and the chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) issued a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking the Department of Justice to review the impact of recently implemented voting restrictions across the country.

On March 22, Arizonians in Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, experienced abnormally longer lines at polling stations.  Several allegations have also been made that there were disproportionate waiting times for minority voters. Department of Justice officials have opened an investigation into whether civil rights were violated.

In the letter, the Members request, “…that the Civil Rights Division review the impact of recently implemented voting restrictions on primary elections to determine whether the Department should implement additional monitoring programs in preparation for the November general election.”

The number of polling stations in Maricopa County, which is more than 40 percent minority, has been reduced by seventy percent, from 200 to 60 locations since the last presidential election in 2012.

“During the North Carolina primary election on March 15, voters waited for up to four hours at inner-city polling places to cast their votes. The number of provisional ballots cast last month in the North Carolina presidential primary was almost double the number of provisional ballots cast in 2012,” said the lawmakers. “These are warning signs that we cannot, and should not, ignore. These incidents raise serious constitutional concerns under both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment.”

After the Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder removed the preclearance requirement of Section V of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, there has been an increase in the number of restrictive voting laws. The Brennan Center for Justice reports that, since 2010, twenty-one states have passed restrictive voting laws. The enforcement of many of these laws disproportionately impacts low-income, minority, student, and elderly voters.

The letter, spearheaded by House Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), is signed by Ranking Member on the Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee Steve Cohen (D-TN); Ranking Member on the Crime Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX); Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus; Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Rep. Linda Sánchez(D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; and Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

U.S. House Congressional Letter to DOJ Regarding Impact of New Restrictive Voter Laws Nationwide Elections

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Obama, Biden endorse Murphy in Florida Dem Senate primary

Getty Images

President Obama and Vice President Biden are throwing their considerable weight into Florida’s contentious Democratic Senate primary, endorsing Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), his campaign announced Wednesday.

Obama and Biden’s involvement amounts to a full-court press by the Democratic Party establishment on behalf of Murphy, who is running against liberal firebrand Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/271455-obama-biden-endorse-murphy-for-fla-senate

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

ALAN GRAYSON IS CAUGHT IN A WEIRD PLACE BETWEEN HILLARY CLINTON AND BERNIE SANDERS

Rep. Alan Grayson may be Florida's bluntest politician. He's never short of words and always says what he means — unless you ask him whom he supports in the Democratic presidential primary. Grayson, who is running for U.S. Senate, accepted a spot on the Hillary Clinton campaign's Florida Leadership Council, but he doesn't want you to think that actually means he supports Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders. He likes Sanders too and isn't shy about throwing around the Vermont Democratic socialist's name in fundraising emails. 

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/alan-grayson-is-caught-in-a-weird-place-between-hillary-clinton-and-bernie-sanders-8205555

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Progressive Caucus Leaders Introduce The “Prioritize Emergency Job Creation Act” to Allow for Emergency Job Creation Funding

Progressive Caucus Leaders Introduce The “Prioritize Emergency Job Creation Act” to Allow for Emergency Job Creation Funding

Sep. 13, 2011

The recently passed Budget Control Act (BCA) established caps on how much money can be spent through the annual appropriations process, but exempts military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Prioritize Emergency Job Creation Act amends the BCA to exempt appropriations for emergency job creation.The three members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) have been outspoken critics of our seemingly never-ending military actions, which have now cost more than $1.2 trillion. They and other CPC members spent all summer traveling the country listening to American people speak about the needs for jobs as part of the Speakout for Good Jobs Now Tour. The CPC introduced its jobs platform and several pieces of legislation today at a

“It’s incomprehensible that the spending caps in the recently passed debt deal provide a broad exemption for new war funding, but would prevent Congress from passing an emergency jobs package to put America back to work,” Rep. Conyers said. “The Prioritize Emergency Job Creation Act will remedy this injustice and ensure that short-sighted spending caps won’t keep us from creating good jobs in hard-hit communities like Detroit. The American people want jobs now and this bill will help President Obama and Congress deliver them.”

“Progressives have been saying all year that our number one priority has to be job creation, and this common-sense bill makes sure Congress can make that happen without delay,” Rep. Grijalva said. “For too long the House majority has talked about cuts, austerity, pain and what we can’t accomplish. They’ve overlooked the best way to address the deficit: putting 14 million Americans back to work. A true economic recovery means creating desperately needed jobs to fuel demand. We need to get rid of artificial job creation restrictions at a time of historic unemployment, and that’s what this bill is about.

“Our job crisis is a national emergency and requires an immediate and bold response,” Rep. Lee said. “There is a level of despair and struggle that I have never seen before.  Leaders in Washington have spent too much time and energy focused on deficit reduction and playing political games, and now is the time to create jobs.  We should end the wars and cut back on bloated Pentagon spending – and invest that savings in a robust jobs plans to get our nation back to work.”

House Progressive Caucus Launches Tour For Jobs

WASHINGTON -- Progressive Democrats are launching a tour to call for good jobs for the working and middle classes, putting pressure on House Republicans and President Barack Obama to push for more job measures.

"Let's get mad," Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said at a press conference. "Let's tell the man that we love in the White House to get off of his butt and start supporting some legislature for jobs. ... He's the best speaker in the world, and now we want some action."

But the Democrats saved their harshest words for House Republicans, whom Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) called "spineless" in their support for tax cuts and subsidies.

Balwin, Conyers and other members of the House Progressive Caucus will participate in a 12-city tour this summer to discuss jobs and how to get the middle class back to work. The tour will launch on Saturday at Netroots Nation in Minneapolis.

In Washington, Republicans and Democrats are engaged in negotiations with the White House over raising the debt ceiling, which the Treasury Department said must be done by Aug. 2 to prevent the government from defaulting on its loans. While many Democrats called for a "clean" debt ceiling increase, Republicans have said they will only approve raising the debt ceiling if it is paired to major cuts to shrink the deficit.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who is representing House Republicans in debt talks with Vice President Joe Biden, said Monday that his conference will not support tax changes as part of a final deal.

The tour will push for job measures for the middle class as a means of deficit reduction, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said at the press conference.

Morning Quote: Rep. John Conyers Calls Michigan Martial Law Unconstitutional

Morning Quote: Rep. John Conyers Calls Michigan Martial Law Unconstitutional

In response to the anti-Democratic martial law being enacted in Michigan, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) fired back, calling the bill unconstitutional, emphasis mine:

Worse yet, this bill raises serious constitutional concerns. Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits any State from impairing a contract, which is exactly what this legislation does. As the Supreme Court has held in Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell (1934), the sanctity of contracts cannot be impaired by a state law “which renders them invalid, or releases or extinguishes them . . . . Not only are existing laws read into contracts in order to fix obligations as between the parties, but the reservation of essential attributes of sovereign power is also read into contracts as a postulate of the legal order.”

Rep. Conyers also inferred that some parts of this bill may be racially motivated, something Karoli at Crooks and Liars has also suggested:

The takeover provision of the legislation – allowing the dissolution of locally elected bodies — implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity.

Finally, Conyers also pointed out that by forcing a community in to bankruptcy (which will likely be done to force union consessions for public sector workers or just to break the collective bargaining contracts which the EMF also has the legal authority to do), the financial situation of the community will actually become worse.

Further, the bill empowers this financial czar with the Governor’s approval to force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public sector workers. And, by making the risk of bankruptcy a reality, the bill will make it more not less expensive for municipalities to obtain financing given this risk, which will make the financial circumstances of municipalities even worse.

Taking it through the courts could take years. In the meantime, thanks to the Republican controlled House and Senate in Michigan, along with our new Dictator Republican Governor Rick Snyder, the people of Michigan will suffer, because this bill is the most draconian, the most un-Democratic piece of legislation in this country right now.

Progressives Launch 'One Nation' Coalition to Counter Tea Party

Progressives Launch 'One Nation' Coalition to Counter Tea Party
Source: The Washington Post

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the "tea party" movement must be honored.

In an effort to replicate the tea party's success, 170 liberal and civil rights groups are forming a coalition that they hope will match the movement's political energy and influence. They promise to "counter the tea party narrative" and help the progressive movement find its voice again after 18 months of floundering.

The large-scale attempt at liberal unity, dubbed "One Nation," will try to revive themes that energized the progressive grassroots two years ago. In a repurposing of Barack Obama's old campaign slogan, organizers are demanding "all the change" they voted for -- a poke at the White House.

But the liberal groups have long had a kind of sibling rivalry, jostling over competing agendas and seeking to influence some of the same lawmakers. In forming the coalition, the groups struggled to settle on a name. Even now, two of the major players disagree about who came up with the idea of holding a march this fall.

In this respect, at least, the liberal effort already resembles the fractious tea party movement. In February, some tea party groups skipped a long-planned gathering in Nashville in protest of alleged profiteering by convention organizers. Tea partiers have also argued about which candidates represent the movement.

Despite the friction among liberal groups, the effort behind "One Nation" was born of a certain necessity: At one of the first meetings, Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, said, "Raise your hand if you can push your part of the agenda all by yourself."

No hands shot up.

Indeed, a promised overhaul of immigration law is virtually dead this year. Legislation that labor unions say would make it easier for them to grow their membership are stalled in Congress. The jobless rate is 15.4 percent for blacks and 12.4 percent for Hispanics, compared with 8.6 percent for whites.

"Having been confronted with the specter of the tea party...we felt it urgent to organize the majority of this country, which voted in 2008 and has gone back to the couch," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP. "We've been split off in different directions."

The groups involved represent the core of the first-time voters who backed President Obama -- including the National Council of La Raza, NAACP, AFL-CIO, SEIU and the United States Student Association. (The effort is separate from the Democratic Party's plan to spend $50 million trying to reach those same voters.)

Congressional Staffers Complain About Double Standard in Health Care Law

Congressional Staffers Complain About Double Standard in Health Care Law

By Jana Winter

- FOXNews.com

Select congressional leadership staffers -- some of whom wrote the health insurance act -- are not governed by new rules governing millions of Americans and the rest of their colleagues on how they buy insurance -- and the special exemption has the Hill hopping mad...more

Now, here is my question: Why didn't they site the source of this information?

I suppose they were too hopping mad.

You said it...

[22:00]audio here

THOM HARTMANN: Welcome back. There's a — an amazing piece of this whole health-care drama, really the Republican/Democratic drama, the Hard Right vs. the rest of America drama, the racists vs. the rest of us drama, that's being played out beneath the radar. And I want to lay it out for you. Because I think it's just a cryin' shame that America is not talking about this...more

We are not talking about this, we are posting it.

Tea bags and coffee grounds

Tea Bags And Coffee Grounds

by digby

I came across this post I wrote some years ago and it seemed to me that it would be a good time to run it again. I'm sure most of you know this stuff, but it's worth thinking about anyway in this age of teabaggers and coffee parties and populist progressivism (or progressive populism)...more