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Read This: Mr. Walz goes to Washington

Rep. Tim Walz, like other newly-elected Freshman Congressmen and women, is in Washington now at orientation sessions. Before the elections last Tuesday, the Winona Daily News followed Walz as he “knocked on doors, rallied supporters, listened to voters’ gripes, and ultimately convinced voters to let him represent more than 615,000 Minnesotans.”

Read the piece here.

An excerpt:

Walz estimates he averaged 90 hours a week on the campaign and drove more than 130,000 miles. He says he is driven by the people he met along the way.

At the 101 Main Restaurant in Mankato, hostess Glenda Williams was seating Sunday breakfast customers. “There’s a frightening widening gap between the people that have and those who do not,” said Williams, a single mother of two. “And the tax policies in place now are making things worse.”

ch: Read This!

Military Times: Fire Rumsfeld

Military Times, which is carried in bases across the United States and overseas, calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s firing in a strongly-worded editorial today:

It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation’s current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads.

These officers have been loyal public promoters of a war policy many privately feared would fail. They have kept their counsel private, adhering to more than two centuries of American tradition of subordination of the military to civilian authority.

And although that tradition, and the officers’ deep sense of honor, prevent them from saying this publicly, more and more of them believe it.

President Bush has rebuked calls to fire Rumsfeld. The Defense Secretary’s popularity is so low that some (vulnerable) Republicans are actually calling for him to resign as well.

ch: Read This!

"In Montana, visit by Bush has lost its magic"

Read this: In Montana, visit by Bush has lost its magic

Red states are turning purple as Montana is set to elect Democrat Jon Tester, bringing the Senate delegation in Montana to 2 (out of 2!).

ch: Read This!

Read This: Top Twenty Iraq Oversight Outrages Uncovered

A report released by the Democratic Policy Committee, which examines contracting fraud in Iraq (which shouldn’t be a partisan issue).

Still, Republicans have refused to investigate these matters in the House and Senate.

Oversight—a big reason why Democrats need to win on November 7.

ch: Read This!

MN-Senate: Strib Endorses Klobuchar Over Kennedy

Read this: Amy Klobuchar for U.S. Senate; She brings a strong combination of competence, energy, focus

Klobuchar’s drive, poise and ability to make a personal connection with Minnesota voters would have made her a strong contender against any opponent. But Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy’s insistence on hewing closely to the White House line on Iraq and other critical issues of the day has sharpened the choice for Minnesotans: Stick with President Bush or carve a new path?

Had Kennedy been campaigning from the private sector or a state-level post, it would be easier to listen to him argue, as he did recently on “Meet the Press,” that we can’t “TiVo and play replays” on Iraq, that the focus should only be forward. But Kennedy and his fellow members of Congress have yet to be held accountable for their credulous backing of the president, even in light of ever-emerging evidence that the White House misread the situation and misled the public from day one of this shameful war. Kennedy’s recent acknowledgment that mistakes have been made seems more a desperate campaign move than evidence of serious rethinking, given that he still supports current administration policy.

ch: Read This!

Did Your Congressperson Help our Troops?

Rhetoric is easy. Any politician with a high-priced team of speechwriters and consultants can fashion speeches, ads and fliers that disguise his or her record on issues of the day. Rather, when looking at members of Congress, it’s important to examine how they voted on legislation and whether their rhetoric matches actions.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a non-partisan group “dedicated to pushing for solutions to the Troops’ issues and concerns through issue advocacy,” just released its 2006 Congressional Scorecard.

Find out how your member voted here.

For example, here in Minnesota I’m represented by retiring Representative Martin Olav Sabo, retiring Senator Mark Dayton, and Senator Norm Coleman. Rep. Sabo got a B+, Senator Dayton an A-, and Coleman a D.

Why the D for Coleman? A record of not supporting military funding on key troop issues.

Here are two key votes:

Coleman voted against “Dorgan Amdt. No. 4292; To establish a special committee of the Senate to investigate the awarding and carrying out of contracts to conduct activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fight the war on terrorism.”

Because of Senators like Norm Coleman, the amendment to look into contracting fraud failed.

Coleman voted to table the “Durbin Modified Amendment No. 4781, to appropriate, with an offset, an additional $2,000,000 for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Army for the improvement of imaging for traumatic brain injuries. (By 54 yeas to 43 nays (Vote No. 222).”

Because of Senators like Norm Coleman, the amendment to help treat traumatic brain injuries failed.

ch: Read This!

Read This: Why Klobuchar Entered Public Service

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (Strib!) ran a lengthy biography of Amy Klobuchar examining why the prosecutor became involved in public service. Read it here.

Part of her commitment:

Within hours of Abigail’s birth, her parents knew the baby had a serious problem. She couldn’t swallow. Every time she nursed, the milk bubbled up through her nose. Klobuchar had to leave the hospital; the baby stayed behind. She rented a room nearby and shuttled back and forth. Eventually, doctors put a tube in the infant’s stomach and sent her home.

The next legislative session, Klobuchar was the primary witness for a proposed law to force health plans to allow new mothers to stay in the hospital for 48 hours. When insurance lobbyists tried to delay the law, she packed the hearing with pregnant women and their children.

“It was clear to the insurance companies that … they were up against a more powerful force,” said former DFL legislator Joe Opatz, who sponsored the bill. It passed easily.

ch: Read This!

Read This: Coleen Rowley and Retired Major General Jerald Albrecht on Commander and Chief Bush

MVP-endorsed candidate Coleen Rowley and Jerald Albrecht, a retired major general of the Army Reserve, have a great editorial in this morning’s Star Tribune about President Bush’s failures as commander and chief. An excerpt:

And when veterans return from Iraq, they learn the harsh reality of how their government has cut and run from its responsibilities to them. They return to fewer health care benefits, pitiful job prospects—except possibly as private military contractors for more duty in Iraq—and shattered lives and families.

Despite overwhelming evidence that Iraq’s stability has been steadily eroding, Bush has made his intentions clear: He expects our troops to “stay the course” until he leaves office—nearly three more years.

Hundreds of thousands of our soldiers went to Iraq because of their belief in “Duty, honor, country,” and almost 2,700 have given their lives for it. To demand that they remain on an increasingly chaotic and deadly course to serve the political ends of the GOP is a shabby way to honor their sacrifice.

Read the full piece here.

ch: Read This!

Unfinished Job of Safety

After the terrible attacks on 9/11, the government convened a bi-partisan commission to examine what went wrong on 9/11, and how the government can best respond in order to prevent future attacks. The result? The 2004 9/11 commission report, which made 41 recommendations to improve the country’s security. Members of the commission followed-up one and a half years later with a 9/11 commission report card, which gave the administration and Congress “10 C’s, 12 D’s, and four F’s. What we argued then is still true now: Americans are safer, but we are not yet safe.”

What’s still left to be done? Read 9/11 Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton’s op-ed in The Boston Globe.

ch: Read This!

Sherrod Brown: "Time for a new direction"

MVP-endorsed candidate Sherrod Brown delievered the Democratic National Radio Address this week. You can listen to the address here, or read it here. Excerpt:

The most glaring example is what’s happened to the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. Two years ago, this commission – with equal numbers of respected Republicans and respected Democrats – announced a number of common-sense steps the government could take to protect Americans from another attack. Some were haphazardly implemented by Republicans in Congress. Many others were completely ignored.

It’s unacceptable that this Republican government hasn’t done at all it can to protect Americans in the five years since the September 11th attacks. That’s why Democrats are pushing for a new direction. We have a plan to give Americans the real security they deserve… And it starts by charting a new course in Iraq.

While Iraq was not part of the war on terror before we invaded, it’s now a training ground for terrorists and a recruiting tool for the leaders of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Our military readiness has plummeted to levels not seen since Vietnam…diverted resources from the War on Terror… and made America less safe.

ch: Read This!

Listen to This: Tim Walz's First Ad

Tim Walz, a MVP-endorsed candidate running against Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota’s First District, has released his first radio ad. Listen to it here.

ch: Read This!

Read This: The war on workers

David Sirota has a must-read op-ed in the SF Chronicle about the Republican party’s war on workers. A must-read for Labor Day. Excerpt:

Bashing organized labor is a Republican pathology, to the point where unions are referenced with terms reserved for military targets. In his 1996 article, headlined “GOP Readies for War With Big Labor,” conservative columnist Robert Novak cheered the creation of a “GOP committee task force on the labor movement” that would pursue a “major assault” on unions. As one Republican lawmaker told Novak, GOP leaders champion an “anti-union attitude that appeals to the mentality of hillbillies at revival meetings.”

The hostility, while disgusting, is unsurprising. Unions wield power for workers, meaning they present an obstacle to Republican corporate donors, who want to put profit-making over other societal priorities.

ch: Read This!

St. Paul Pioneer Press on Mark "Happy Feet" Kennedy

Read this: Mark Kennedy’s ‘happy feet’ are troubling

A voter who makes the mistake of watching televised political ads would come to the conclusion that the Republican congressman from Minnesota’s 6th Congressional district is a moderate, middle-of-the-road fellow who sings kumbaya as he bear-hugs his political foes.

We suspect he’s got happy feet.

U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy has been, by most measures, a stout-hearted defender of his party, the Republican president and the war in Iraq. Nothing wrong with that. A lot of voters count that as a point in his favor, and he has been re-elected to Congress twice by healthy margins. [...]

An analysis of voting records by a respected Washington publication, Congressional Quarterly, shows Kennedy has been a reliable vote for the Republican president. Kennedy’s “presidential support’’ measure in the critical years of 2003 and 2004 — think Iraq and Bush v. Kerry — was an earth-shattering 98 and 97 percent. Only in 2005, after he had become a statewide candidate, did his numbers fall off. But even then, his support for Bush was stronger than that of the average House Republican.

I’ll admit it—Mark Kennedy’s campaign ads are very good, but only if the viewer doesn’t know the truth about his voting record (including that he’s a Republican Congressman, something he rarely mentions these days). And oddly enough, that seems to be Kennedy’s strategy: reaching people who don’t know anything about him.

ch: Read This!

Ideas: Klobuchar on Protecting America

MVP-endorsed US Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar, running against Rep. Mark Kennedy, just released her plan to help protect Minnesota and the rest of the country against threats. From the local Strib:

DFL U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar on Thursday proposed spending as much as $8 billion to improve homeland security and further protect the country’s ports, borders and infrastructure. [...]

Klobuchar said she would push to inspect every container that passes through U.S. ports, just as luggage is inspected at airports around the county. Currently, she said, only about 6 percent of the 9 million containers that pass through U.S. ports each year are inspected.

Klobuchar also said she would urge increased inspections and regulation at agricultural and chemical plants around the country. She said special attention should be paid to the roughly 3,000 chemical plants in the United States that are near populations of 10,000 or more.

Klobuchar’s plan has drawn praise, and she was recently endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the International Association of Fire Fighters—the two largest police and firefighters organizations in the state.

ch: Read This!

When It Rains on George Allen ...

Not only is Senator George Allen taking hits for his racist comments against a James Webb staffer, one of his former companies is facing several class-action suits and an SEC insiders probe.

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Read This: Iraq War Could Drag Down DeWine

Cleveland Plain-Dealer: War fatigue could give Democrats an edge

ch: 2006

Former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R): Corrupted GOP needs to lose the House, for now

Read this: Former Rep. Pete McCloskey, who opposed corrupt Congressman Richard Pombo last June in a Republican primary, on why Republicans need to be defeated in the Fall elections:

As a lifelong Republican, I have found it difficult to conclude that the nation will benefit by transferring control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats in November. However, I see no other way to put the country back on a reasonable course.

I regret that we Republicans have lost, as Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said recently, the moral right to lead. [...]

Money from rich, powerful corporations and their lobbyists has become the No. 1 Republican priority. Too often votes and/or earmarks have followed the money, with horrendous budget deficits and bad legislation the result.

Pombo’s opponent is Jerry McNerney, a renewable energy consultant who couldn’t contrast with anti-environmental advocate Richard Pombo more.

ch: Read This!

Read This: AP on Walz Campaign

The AP has a feature on MVP-endorsed candidate Tim Walz, running in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District:

In his first bid for elected office, the Democrat is turning heads as he tries to unseat an entrenched incumbent who came to power with the wave of Newt Gingrich Republicans in 1994. He combines a coach’s beefy enthusiasm with a resolute gaze that shows how this command sergeant major climbed to the top of the ranks for enlisted men.

Republican strategist Tom Horner calls Walz the Democrats’ best hope to pick up a House seat in Minnesota. [...]

Walz, 42, who served in the Army National Guard from 1981-2005, has criticized Gutknecht on Iraq, saying the incumbent has ignored the war and has rarely spoken about it on the House floor.

Walz said 300 to 400 National Guard soldiers he helped train are now serving in Iraq, along with about half a dozen of his former students at Mankato West High School. He said he wants a national discussion about what to do in Iraq, and favors moving U.S. troops to Kuwait so a regional security force can take over in Iraq.

Read more.

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Republicans Use 'Context Fabrication' to Attack Klobuchar

Here’s part of a National Republican Senatorial Committee research release on our Minnesota candidate for Senate Amy Klobuchar:

Unfortunately For Her, Those In The Know Don’t Think Klobuchar Has An Impressive Record Holding “People Accountable”

Hennepin County Sheriff Pat McGowan Says Talking “Tough” About “Accountability” Doesn’t Help When You “Don’t Have The Courage To Enforce The Laws That We Pass.” “I’ll be very blunt with people as I tell them, we have, look, rather than hold people accountable because no one wants to blame a victim, we all look for some extraneous cause to blame, rather than wanting to hold people accountable. And we have got to go back and start holding people accountable for their actions. . . . I use the expression, ‘we don’t have the courage to enforce the laws that we pass.’ We want to talk tough, and we want to talk about accountability, but I think exactly what the caller was referring to it.” (MPR, Midmorning, May 2, 2006)

Klobuchar’s Predecessor And Former DFL Candidate For Governor, Mike Freeman, Also Says Klobuchar Hasn’t Held “Repeat Offenders” And “Violent Offenders” Accountable. “I do think we need to target better some of the more violent offenders and some more of the repeat offenders because they’re the people who cause the most problems on the street and I think we need to target that better.” (MPR, Midmorning, May 4, 2006)

The problem? None of the quotes were about Amy Klobuchar. As The Minneaoplis Star Tribune notes, the release is a textbook case of “context fabrication”:

In all cases, the quotes that were attributed to the office holders and candidates were accurate, taken from TV and radio interviews. But Klobuchar’s name doesn’t appear in or near any of the quotes.

Yet the NRSC asserted that the sheriff, mayor and candidates were ripping Klobuchar for crime problems in Minneapolis. They were not, they all said this week. All four denounced the NRSC’s false characterization of their views.

In fact, the NRSC quoted three DFLers and one Republican. The Republican told the Star-Tribune that the NRSC has “completely taken past comments I’ve made out of context” and “demanded that the NRSC issue a clarification.”

Is this how Republicans are going to run against Klobuchar?

ch: Read This!

Ideas: On Medical Malpractice

How should government deal with rising healthcare costs? Part of the Republican plan is attacking the ‘problem’ of medical malpractice. Ezra Klein in Slate does a nice job of tackling the ‘malpractice myth’ and examines a countering idea from Senators Clinton and Obama that would “cut the number of medical malpractice cases by reducing medical errors.”

The difference between Republicans and Democrats on this issue, Klein notes, is Republicans generally favor tort reform (“suits and payouts are the ill”) while Democrats believe the problem is “a slew of medical injuries of which the suits are a symptom.” And studies show Democrats are right.

Read the Slate piece here.

Interesting side-note, Republican Senator Rick Santorum, himself a proponent of tort reform, has some experience with medical malpractice. Back in 1999, Santorum’s wife filed a malpractice lawsuit for half-a-million dollars – “twice the amount allowed in her husband’s own legislation five years earlier.”

ch: Read This!

Why the Minimum Wage Matters

It speaks to the values of the nation, writes Robert Reich in The American Prospect:

But the minimum wage is also a moral statement about the minimum value of work in our society. And it’s been dropping. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the minimum wage stayed about half the wage of the average non-supervisory worker. Now, it’s down to 31 percent, its lowest portion since World War II. After adjusting for inflation, today’s minimum of $5.15 is at its lowest level since 1955. In todays dollars, it was $7.71 in 1968. The last time it was increased was ten years ago, and that increase has been eliminated by inflation.

The basic question is what a decent society can afford to pay its lowest-paid workers. Between 2002 and 2005, American productivity grew 10 percent yet workers in the bottom tenth of the income range still lost ground, with average wages dropping 3 percent in real terms.

Exactly. And that’s why Democratic candidates across the country are running on raising the minimum wage; even vulnerable Republicans, with an eye toward re-election, are supporting minimum wage increases.

ch: Read This!

Ideas: Homeland Security

The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, convened over a dozen national security experts such as Rand Beers (formerly with the NSA) and Richard Clarke to address America’s security vulnerabilities, and offer ideas to strengthen the country against a future terrorist attack. Here are some of their ideas:

Metropolitan areas should become the primary unit for planning, funding, and training for homeland security. Every metropolitan area must complete vulnerability and mitigation assessments for every major component of security: First responders must be supplied with and trained in the use of personal protective equipment; interoperable communications must be established for all major metropolitan areas; realistic training and preparedness exercises must be conducted; evacuation routes and shelter-in-place plans must be developed and tested.

Congress must pass regulations to prevent a terrorist Bhopal. According to DHS planning scenarios, a truck bomb detonated at a chlorine plant could cause 17,500 deaths. Preventing such an outcome has relied largely on voluntary measures that are inadequate to deny terrorists these prime targets. Congress must mandate security, going beyond the industry’s preference for loose standards and minimal enforcement. Regulating the industry should force the most dangerous facilities to either maintain security measures equivalent to those at nuclear power plants or switch processes to inherently safer technologies.

Our disaster management system must be rebuilt starting with the reestablishment of FEMA as an independent cabinetlevel agency.

Cyber security must be made a national priority, and the federal government must use its convening power to standardize and coordinate private sector efforts.

You can read more of the report, and the recommendations, here.

ch: Read This!

Coleman v. Dayton: Who Voted for the Middle-Class?

Part of what we’re pushing for here at MVP is accountability—holding members of Congress responsible for their votes, and making sure people go to the polls knowing how their delegation voted. The Drum Major Institute, a non-partisan organization founded by civil rights activists, has released a mid-term scorecard for Congress, examining votes that are especially relevant on economic justice issues.

How did your Congressperson vote? Here in Minnesota, for example, you’ll see a contrast of priorities: one for the middle-class, the other for rich Americans.

Retiring Senator Mark Dayton received a score of 88%, while Republican Senator Norm Coleman received a 13%. Three examples where they differed:

Lowering Drug Prices: Coleman voted against an amendment that “would have authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers to get the best possible bulk prices for drugs purchased under the new Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.” Dayton, perhaps noting that studies show negotiation would substantially lower the cost of drugs for elderly citizens but result in less profits for drug companies, supported the measure.

Helping Americans Become Debt-Free: Mark Dayton voted against, and Coleman voted for The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. As Paul Krugman of the NY Times noted, “The bankruptcy bill was written by and for credit card companies” and “bill would make it much harder for families in distress to write off their debts and make a fresh start. Instead, many debtors would find themselves on an endless treadmill of payments.”

The bill was passed even though a Harvard study noted at least 90% or more of bankruptcies are filed by people who get sick, get laid off, or get divorced, not by abusers.

Protecting Social Security: Dayton and Coleman once again differed, this time on Social Security. Coleman refused to support a non-binding resolution that would reject any deep cuts in Social Security benefits.

ch: Read This!

Ideas: On Corporate Welfare

Matt Singer, communications director for the Progressive States Network, in TomPaine.com: on the problem of “Overpaying For Jobs”

When states across the country eye strategies for economic development, too many of them turn to an old idea: tax breaks for big companies who bring in a couple hundred jobs.

These companies literally receive billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Who are the targets of this largesse? As a Good Jobs First study noted recently, one of the biggest recipients is Wal-Mart—the company famous for its ability to undercut wages and local businesses has received well over $1 billion in financial assistance. [...] The implications of these shifts are clear.Citizens for Tax Justice reports that corporations manage to shield as much as two-thirds of their profits from state corporate income taxes. The result: money that could be spent on real economic development opportunities flows instead into the pockets of executives and the bill gets passed along to small taxpayers—local businesses and workers.

And possible solutions to make sure taxpayers get their money’s worth:

Illinois now has a public website where any member of the public can track which companies are receiving tax breaks, what promises were made in return and whether the firm is delivering on its end of the bargain. This accountability has had a huge impact. One of the discoveries: 60 percent of the jobs created with public money pay too little for families to live on.

Oversight is obviously a good place to start. Connecticut recently passed a comprehensive bill establishing a commission to review tax expenditures, measure the effects and audit individual companies to prevent abuse. Other states are considering sunset measures that would require regular reconsideration of tax expenditures to ensure that these hidden costs are fully considered regularly by policymakers.

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Ideas: Reform FOIA

In the midst of the debate over whether newspapers like the New York Times should publish national secrets, former President Jimmy Carter proposes this idea in The Washington Post: reform FOIA. The problem:

[T]he response to FOIA requests often does not satisfy the transparency objectives or provisions of the law, which, for example, mandates an answer to information requests within 20 working days. According to the National Security Archives 2003 report, median response times may be as long as 905 working days at the Department of Agriculture and 1,113 working days at the Environmental Protection Agency.

And part of the solution (which has worked in other countries):

In the United States, we must seek amendments to FOIA to be more in line with emerging international standards, such as covering all branches of government; providing an oversight body to monitor compliance; including sanctions for failure to adhere to the law; and establishing an appeal mechanism that is easy to access, speedy and affordable. We cannot take freedom of information for granted. Our democracy depends on it.

You can read the rest of the op-ed piece here.