Grab Bag

A recent article at the Wall Street Journal looks at the downside of “Free Trade”, this a huge step for the WSJ since they have been cheerleading the disastrous trade deals from the start. The Nation has a nice opinion piece about it here. I would link to the article itself but WSJ is subscription only.


The Bush administration is at it again, trying to find the next “Brownie” that will do “a heckuva job” for us. Public Citizen has a letter to try and stop the Easter recess appointments of Susan Dudley (her last nomination in 2006 wasn’t even allowed to come to the floor of the Republican controlled congress). You can send the letter here. Another nomination that the Bushies will try and sneak through is of Michael Baroody, he is a lobbyist for National Association of Manufactures. While that is no crime it hardly qualifies him to oversee the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Again Public Citizen has a letter pre-written for you here.


Along with the new 110th congress came the power of Democrats to hold congressional hearings. On Wed. hearings on the effects of trade both Lou Dobbs and Thea Lee gave some very interesting testimony read about it here. While at first glance I was disgusted with both Charles Rangel and our own Sander Levin I suppose I have to digest this proposal that they brought out, I will have to do more reading on it before I throw them both under the bus…. stay tuned on this issue!

A reader sent me a link to an outstanding website: The Level Field Institute. With the barrage of commercials telling us that foreign car companies are built in the U.S. here is the truth about the content and where the money we are all spending is going.

Do you feed a "troll"?

I’m fairly new to the blogging world, but I have gone at it with great effort and tried to do the best I can. I am in need of all of your sage advice.

We at farleftfield have a “troll”! A troll is, as you might imagine, someone who rather than leave their name will post hostile comments on occasion using all the silly talking points of whatever right-wing ideologue they worship. The advice I am in search of is this; do I spend the time to respond to their talking points? Do I just continue on posting my pieces rather than take the time to address the silliness? Do I delete the comments if they are not really harmful or vulgar? Should the troll be allowed to live under the bridge tossing stones at its leisure? I am assured that having a troll is somewhat like a “badge of honor” so I guess I should be flattered. What do you think?

Watchin' paint dry

I recently heard a song that started me thinking about apathy. The song; “waiting for the world to change” by John Mayer, is a very catchy tune with some very thought provoking lyrics. But I wonder is this the time to be “waiting”? I hope Mr. Mayer’s intent is to show the absurdness of being apathetic. Here we sit in the middle of a war that is a mess, the Bush administration shredding the constitution and the Michigan GOP screwing over this and future generations by playing games with the infrastructure of the state. In a time when the resolution of these issues will have repercussions for decades, if not longer, we simply cannot afford to “wait”. I don’t mean to lay the blame at John Mayer’s feet!

The song brings a couple of interesting points to light. The lyrics state “now we see everything that's going wrong/ with the world and those who lead it/ we just feel like we don't have the means/ to rise above and beat it/ so we keep waiting/ waiting on the world to change”. I have a problem with this thought process, seeing something that is wrong and just giving up before you even try to fix it is plain and simple bulls@#%. I could dissect virtually every section of the song but I will only look at one more verse. “one day our generation/ is gonna rule the population/ so we keep on waiting/ waiting on the world to change”. If you sit on your ass and wait for the world to change it never will!! If you sit on your ass and wait for the world to change you won’t rule anything!!! Obviously this song doesn’t speak for everybody out there; Liberal Lucy wrote a great call to action the other day, read it here. There are millions of examples of people doing what they can to change the world in a positive way, most of us probably do little things everyday that we don’t even think about (recycle, carpool, blog, etc.). Again I don’t want to blame John Mayer for the ills of society but this type of thought process bothers me. Idly sitting by, while so many things are going wrong in the world and “waiting” for them to rectify themselves is not the answer.

HELP WANTED: State Senate 22nd district

I have to share the letter I received recently from my state Senator Valde Garcia. I sent this e-mail to him from this AFL-CIO activist network. As you can see it states that I am in agreement with Govenor Granhom's budget and revenue proposal.

So I received this response from his office:

Thank you for your recent correspondence indicating your position on expanding
the sales tax base to include sales tax on services. I appreciate hearing your
perspective.

The only reason the legislature was even considering
a sales tax increase was to broaden the base, but only in conjunction with
lowering the sales tax percentage. It is my understanding that extending sales
taxes on services, even if combined with a lower rate, has been beaten back in
several other states that tried that approach, not because of the general
opposition to raising taxes, but because any sales tax on services would be
extremely complicated to implement. I, along with the majority of my Republican
colleagues in the Senate, do not believe tax increases are the right path.

The question also becomes who would we tax? Would we tax people
who don’t know if they will have a job next year or who don’t have a job now?
Would we tax families who are struggling to make ends meet? I have looked at the
sales tax on services issue and while it sounds appealing to lower the sales tax
rate and broaden the base, it would be difficult to fairly administer.

The Senate majority leader and House minority leader both agree
that it is not the time to raise taxes on families and businesses. If you read
the papers you see record high foreclosures and unemployment; it is now time to
reevaluate once again our government duties and performance in all areas of
service delivery.

Again, thank you for contacting me and sharing
your opposition to expanding the sales tax to services. If I can be of further
service to you in this or any other matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me
once again.

Sincerely,

VALDE GARCIA

State Senator

OK seriously, did they bother to read my letter? What the hell? If you read the last paragraph again it states that I am in “opposition to expanding the sales tax to services”. I understand that most of the responses are form letters or position statements sent out to constituents but shouldn’t form letters be written for constituents who disagree with your opinion instead of sending a response that assumes I am on his side? I have lived in Garcia’s district long enough to know NOT to expect an opinion of his own to leave his lips, he has long been a pawn for the state ME-publicans and I would venture a guess that he has grown accustomed to other people making his mind up for him. As for me, I will form my own opinions thank you!

Potpourri

Our friends at Michigan Liberal have a great summation of the disastrous cuts that the Me-publicans want to make to our state. Check it out. Liberal Lucy gives us her promise that she wont shy away from what is sure to be an issue for years to come in this state.


It is shocking to me that one of Michigan’s biggest newspapers is still giving a guy like Frank Beckman a soapbox to spew from! Here he tells us that global warming isn’t real. We saw what happened to James Inhofe when he acted the fool recently at a congressional hearing featuring Al Gore, lets hope someone gives Beckman the same smack down. On that note hear is a pre-written letter from the League of Conservation Voters, urging your Rep. to co-sponsor the safe climate act.


Want to see Karl Rove in the hot seat? Act For Change has a petition going that will be delivered to Rove at the end of next week.


Its time for the Employee Free Choice Act to go to the Senate, please send your senators this letter from American Rights at Work asking them to be co-sponsors.


We have some great resources in the mid Michigan area, namely our progressive activists who are spending a lot time and effort to blog and write about elected officials who are acting AGAINST your best interests! The link list already includes “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood“ and they are doing great work! If you live in the 8th congressional district I urge you to keep tabs on Mike Rogers while he consistently votes against working peoples interests. If you live in the 7th congressional district you too have a wonderful resource called “Walberg Watch” if you think Mike Rogers is slimy you should check out Tim Walberg! I think they do such a good job that I am adding them to the link list!


Like ice cream? Disgusted with Alberto Gonzales behavior? True majority is offering a year supply of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to whomever can guess the exact date and time the Attorney General will resign. Sign up now!

Carrying the load

While reading a recent post on Michlib I noticed a very subtle, cheap jab at the big three. Implying that a company was suggesting that consumers buy 2 trucks is VERY misleading. The commercial was lauding the towing capacity of one of its trucks and was making the comparison that the competitors towing capacity was half (thus the 2 trucks). Mind you I loved the post and think the blogger does outstanding work. However, the comments following the post were very disturbing to me. One comment praised a foreign vehicle and suggested that the big three didn’t produce a vehicle with similar MPG, it took about 10 seconds for me to find a Chevy that did and another 10 to find a Ford. The comment went on to suggest that their allegiance was changed as some sort of punishment to the companies who refuse to change to higher mileage vehicles in the face of global warming, oil dependency and consumer demand. I wonder what this comment is based on. To imply that Honda, Toyota and Nissan are increasing the overall MPG of its product lines would be to ignore the fact that the companies are desperate to move in on the territory of the big 3; big trucks. In case you haven’t seen the advertising blitzes on TV, Toyota has launched a few new names with very low MPG. The Tundra (15 MPG), sequoia (15/18), and the land cruiser (13/17). I won’t only pick on Toyota because Honda and Nissan are moving in this direction as well! Why aren’t you punishing them for steering in this direction? If your logic holds then you should be punishing them for starting to build LESS fuel efficient vehicles. I am sick of people fitting the facts to their case, if you want an American car that gets good gas mileage all you had to do was look!



Something else I would like to add about the lack of coverage that the big three get when they make positive steps. I wonder why it is in a town where a very large portion of people are affected by the auto industry that there isn’t a little more light shone on the positive steps that the big three are taking. I have already written a comment about this very thing before here. I mean seriously has anyone read about these awards before? Why did these comments by Rick Wagoner only merit the back page of section C in the LSJ? Which automaker brought an electric car to the auto shows recently? Obviously not enough has been done and the big three have been dragged to the party kicking and screaming but how about some credit where credit is due!


It is also disturbing for me to read comments like the Toyota lover previously mentioned coming from a liberal blogger. I remember not so long ago the pride I felt walking in to the Lansing Democratic coordinated campaign and seeing the walls full of names from UAW members that I knew taking on the precincts door to door duties. It was the same at the Marcinkowski campaign and I could name a dozen others. In case you didn’t notice labor kicked ass on the ’06 campaign trail, just like it always does! We maneuvered the parking lot full of Hyundai’s and Kia’s and walked in with our teeth clenched and carried the load for the Dem’s like we always do! I even remember driving to Detroit in my Saturn to get 1,000 Granholm yard signs that sat in a warehouse waiting to be picked up; I guess all of the VW’s in the coordinated campaign parking lot couldn’t make it. Even as we were watching our brothers and sisters being laid off and taking concessions on health care we walked in, amongst the same people who are teaching the big three a lesson, and did the dirty work.

Gone Fishin'

Congrats to the MSU Spartans on what most experts thought would be a "rebuilding" year. A top 5 recruiting class for next year and the intro. of 7 ft. center (Herzog) should build the teams depth and make for exciting games.

Many of you who know me also know my bizarre obsession with college basketball; which takes me out of the mix for most of March. For the rest of you I apologize for not being the most responsible blogger over the last few days and will try to get back in the mix post-haste!

The Real Republican Agenda in Iraq

Thinking back to the 2004 presidential election cycle, it occurred to me that military service did play an important role. Senator John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was attacked by Bush, a mostly AWOL National Guardsman. As I reflected on this bizarre notion (after a clue in the morning crossword referenced former VP Dan Quayle) one of the ulterior motives of invading Iraq became apparent. Bush wants to help future GOP presidential candidates by lending more street cred to those who serve in the National Guard. And why shouldn't he want to do this given the "hawkish" stance of most GOP politicians who have never served in the armed forces, yet are willing to send them off to die in the name of no-bid contracts for their largest political backers?

Presently, there are approximately 115,000 National Guard deployed around the world. This number is almost as high as during the Korean War. Many of these everyday people get shot off for a bit of combat training for a little while and then head overseas where many run into financial problems ranging from wages being slashed to having their homes foreclosed upon. The problems don't stop there; the divorce rate of those serving overseas has gone through the roof. Add to this the fact that they're being shot at and the situation goes from bad to terrible in a matter of seconds. We also need only look at hurricanes Katrina and Rita to see what effect these deployments have on our communities as well.

So, will 2008 be different? You betya. Democrats have taken heed of this sneak attack being perpetrated by the brain trust of the Republican party and have responded in kind by fielding 2 candidates who can't really tell you what their feelings are on the war in Clinton and Obama and one in Edwards who has admitted his mistake. Honesty...in politics? Watch out for that flying pig!

So, with this brilliant counter-offensive Democratic candidates have indeed neutralized this most sinister of secret political schemes. But one thing remains true- the street cred of National Guards persons has been propped up thanks to the war in Iraq and today's accountants, teachers and stock brokers who plan on launching a political career can thank Bush for allowing them to run without the fear of their credentials being challenged.

MMMMM...Montana

Montana, where men are men and sheep are nervous. I remember seeing this T-shirt on a friend of my brothers after a hunting trip out west. Fast forward to present day and maybe we should replace the word sheep with Senator Baucus.

In a story that broke today , it turns out that a group called " They Work for Us " started running radio ads in Montana urging Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus to oppose fast track renewal for the Bush Administration. Oops, too late, Baucus is already on record saying he wants to renew fast track with some changes. Yes Senator, it needs changes. BIG ONES. Furthermore, Senator Baucus's record on trade issues leaves a lot to be desired. He's basically one hair to the left of Lieberman on trade (GAWD I can't believe I voted for him).

What makes this interesting is the election of Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) in 2006. Tester ran on a populist agenda and beat an entrenched Republican in a Western state and trade issues played a key role. Even more interesting is the fact that the Montana legislature recently urged Senator Baucus to oppose fast track as well.

I'm going to go buy a sheep for our friend David Sirota out in Montana and ask him to take pictures of the sheep on a daily basis and then compare those pictures with those of Baucus on the campaign trail in 2008 and see for myself who is more nervous. Bah.

Cheney, Bush and Halliburton Hatred of America

The Halliburton corporation, which was once headed by VP Cheney, announced plans to move it's headquarters and CEO to Dubai which is right next door to Oman in the Middle East. With this move, Halliburton has basically given America the big middle finger and announced to the world that profits trump patriotism and the American way of life. So, what's the big deal?

If we remember back to the fight against the Oman free trade agreement, Oman is a country that sells human beings into slavery and the Sultan could care less. People are abducted from the Sudan and surrounding areas to do who knows what. Maybe the CEO of Halliburton has some sick fetish that couldn't be satisfied with Thai children; hence the move toward Oman.

The Halliburton corporation stole taxpayer money, screwed our troops and is now leaving. Really, we should say good riddance and be happy about it. Before we do though, we should demand that Congress take away all contracts from Halliburton, freeze their assets and use eminent domain law to confiscate all their U.S. holdings. This may seem a bit over the top, but this move should be viewed as the first of such moves and not the last or an anomaly. Taking strong and swift action immediately will send the signal to corporations that the American taxpayer, voter and worker is not to be messed with.

The implication of this whole story is that Cheney and Bush have hung a big "for sale" sign on America and the White House. For the low low price of a few hundred grand and a couple million for inaugural parties for Bush, Halliburton was able to bilk us out of billions of dollars while leaving our troops for dead. I don't agree with the Iraq war, never have; but that doesn't mean that I don't care what happens to them. Take the money from Halliburton, go fix Walter Reed hospital, give the troops' families some help and for Pete's sake- can we talk about health care seriously now?

Hodge Podge

1. 
   

1.) Crowds gathered in Columbia to celebrate President Bush’s visit. Columbians celebrated with a local custom of tossing sections of fence because free trade has done so much for the working people of Columbia. Hoping to practice his version of spreading CAFTA love the president will visit Guatemala where, as you can read here, they are overjoyed over the working conditions that trade agreements bring with them.



2.) In all seriousness, as though reading my mind Standard & Poor’s has issued a warning to the Michigan legislature and a strong rebuke to Me-publicans for eliminating a quarter of the states budget without ANY plan to replace the lost revenue. Read the story here and here. As you will no doubt also notice there is a statement of endorsement of the Gov.’s service tax proposal. The report mentions that by broadening the state’s revenue base it will become more stable.


3.) Ok, so I am getting really tired of having to explain to freinds and family outside of Michigan why it is that our Rep.'s get all the BAD national press! In most cases a legislator would be excited to be listed as a top 18 anything; well here is the exception! CONGRATS to Rep.'s Vernon Ehlers (MI-3)and Mike Rogers (MI-8), we wouldn't expect anything else! Liberal Lucy has a nice post on this item here.

One Piece at a Time.

Front and center in today’s LSJ is a story about the Michigan state police budget and the possible effects of having a $13.6 million deficit. I hope this type of story will continue to garner front page headlines instead of Anna Nicole Smith or American Idol stories. Faced with increasing revenues or slashing off $2 Billion out of services to the state many in Michigan are starting to side with slicing off programs. Here, in plain black and white, is the result! In the coming months there will be headline after headline outlining the ill affects of not funding the states infrastructure. Of course the obvious right wing rhetoric will be; “We can’t attract new business if we increase taxes”. Do you think that companies are likely to invest in a state that won’t support its own infrastructure? If that’s the case why are companies still leaving after republicans cut $2billion in business taxes? If cutting taxes attracts business shouldn’t the state be doing better after 15 straight years of cutting taxes?

How much and which services will be cut will be an interesting argument that will have to take place in the near future. I believe that by actually seeing first hand the services the citizens of Michigan will no longer have or are going to cut on the front page everyday we may see some folks come around. I imagine that the people of this state don’t have the stomach for telling grandma “sorry, no heart medicine today, you’ll just have to pick yourself up by your bootstraps” or calling India to get your local policeman dispatched(as Mike Bouchard suggests). I plan on living in this state for the rest of my life and I am willing to invest in it by way of paying my fair share for the upkeep and improvement of the infrastructure. Closing prisons, bigger class room sizes, deteriorating roads and fewer police and firemen are just the tip of the iceberg!

More From Republican Leadership- Senator Lott; Same Old Same Old...

Senator Lott(R-Mississippi) is the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate. He has once again proved that the Republican party has no idea how to relate to the everyday lives of "ordinary" Americans.

Lott testified before the Senate Judicairy Committee which is chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) regarding the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Lott, who owns 3 houses testified to the "pain" he had endured due to the fact that one of his 3 homes was demolished by Katrina and Rita.

"The good lord made sure I lost my house so I could feel the pain of everybody else", Lott said during his testimony which he voluntarily offered up. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in America. The fact that Senator Lott owns 3 homes and equates that with pain of everyone else is testament to the fact that Lott has no idea what ordinary Americans go through on a day-to-day basis.

Lott feels no pain. He is undoubtedly worth millions of dollars because of his former position as Republican Leader in the Senate and can cash out at will and move to the K street world in Washington D.C. where former Members of Congress sell their souls for untold sums of money and are no longer burdened with doing what is right for Americans, just their wallets. Patriotism anybody? This is the same guy who supported Dixiecrats and former slavery supporters which led to him being ousted from his leadership position. Now he's back as second ranking. The Republican party is unable to change and adapt to the will of Americans who face real pain.

By the way Senator, water vapor and seasonal changes cause hurricanes.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Following up on the post "Alien Ant Farm", our Friend Ann Coulter is coming to Livingston county. Cleary University is sponsoring a speaking engagement on Oct. 1st. Care to contact them? contact them at lec@cleary.edu or call them at the #'s on the link above. Under the guise of the "Livingston Economic Club" Cleary University holds luncheons promoting Right-wing ideology and giving its mouth pieces a forum. Hopefully you noticed the list of "sponsors" at the bottom of their website, I wonder how irritated their sponsors would become if they kept receiving complaints about this speaking engagement. I also couldn't help but notice that my Rep.'s name is on that sponsor list, surprise, surprise, Mike Rogers behind spreading the hate and fear mongering words of Ann Coulter!

Mike Roger's; looking out for the big guy since 2000

Well the Employee Free Choice Act passed with no help from my Rep. Mike "rubberstamp" Rogers. how did your Rep. vote? check it out! this legislation will likely face HUGE opposition from the business community and groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce weighing in heavily against it. Dubya also promised his billionaire buddies that he would stand up for the Paris Hilton's of the world and veto this legislation, should it make it through the senate. God forbid that corporations have to give their workers a better, safer more productive work environment and how dare they try to enrich their lives with health benefits and pension plans. Can you hear the oil exec's suffering?

Alien Ant Farm.....

At the risk of making this place a little gossipy, I had to chime in with the latest in the seemingly never ceasing saga of what stupid crap can Ann Coulter spit out today. Seems that at Friday night gathering of conservatives at the their annual CPAC convention in DC. Ann had the following to say about Presidential candidate and working persons advocate John Edwards

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions,"

While talk like this a particularly irritating to people with even some shred of human conscience, it should not suprise us coming from this source, but what should really worry us about this incident are a couple of things that occurred vis-a-vis this her remarks.

According to CNN, " The mostly Republican audience cheered"

Isnt that just great, a full 1/3 of the general public subscribes to the political party that can't even bring itself to humanize the portion of our population that happens to (or want to) sleep next to a person of the same gender.

Interestlingly enough, Coulter chose to speak these words on a Friday night... perhaps to give her friends in the right wing blabbershere a couple of days to determine whether will: 1) Ignore it and/or claim its not news 2) Claim that its evidence of how persecuted conservatives are and how the "free speech left" is shouting her down, blah blah blah, 3) Drawing some parallel to JOhn Kerry's botched joke, or 4) Actually take issue with the fact that Coulter chose to use an antiquated term of disdain to describe someone for whom she obviously has no affinity and has chosen to further pollute mainstream political dialogue with 2nd grade level name calling.

"The mostly Republican audience cheered"........ anyone placing their $ on #4?????

just an update......locally the Oakland Press has decided to drop Coulters columns!!

Wal Mart to Make Pitch on Trade to Democratic Leadership

As a follow up to Farlefts' post, I found this on Sirotablog. Corporate America will get access to Democratic Senate Leaders to make their case. What needs to happen is an honest, real, fact-based debate on trade. There really is no debate as we have all seen and felt the effects while those who benefit (uber-rich) say whatever they want without fear of getting called out on it. Here is the email that was sent out to corporate "leaders" like Wal Mart and the Chamber of Commerce who offers untold sums of money to help break unions and destroy the voice of working America.

Debbie is walking the walk, tell her to make Democratic Leadership in all of Congress to stop the insanity. Call her, write her and email her.