Motley Moose – Archive

Are you ready? …

Voter Turnout in Four Charts

A recent Pew study finds that non-voters are far more likely to oppose repealing Obamacare and support government “doing more things.” While likely voters were split between Obama and Romney, each with 47 percent of the vote, non-voters supported Obama by a whopping 35 points (59 percent to 24 percent). […]

All of this suggests that more turnout, particularly among low-income voters, would shift our political system to the left. The Median Voter Theorem postulates that democratic systems will produce policy outcomes that align with the preferences of the median voter suggests that turnout gaps as a source of policy bias toward more affluent households. Because non-voters are more economically liberal than voters, the median voter is more conservative than the electorate at large. If more low-income people voted, politicians would become more economically liberal to court the new voters. […]

Politicians respond to voters, not non-voters.

Don’t leave your lives in the hands of those who, quite literally, do not give a darn about your life. Your vote will not only elect people who believe in the value of government but it will put pressure on those politicians who think they can get away with ignoring you. Turn out and tell them NO.

The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster

Extremist Republicans turned their government into a lab experiment of tax cuts and privatization. And now they may be losing control of one of the reddest states in the nation

“Tea Party Disaster” – my new favorite phrase. May the receding tide from the 2010 wave wash away the GOP governors who put their national party above their constituents needs.

More …

This issue will not go away simply because Republicans are “tired of hearing about it”.

#RaiseTheWage

Raising the minimum wage nationwide will increase earnings for millions of workers, and boost the bottom lines of businesses across the country. While Republicans in Congress continue to block the President’s proposal, a number of state legislatures and governors, mayors and city councils, and business owners have answered the President’s call and raised wages for their residents and employees. Read a report on the progress that’s been made so far across the country.

The Disgust Election

Timothy Egan on Citizens United:

   Justice Anthony Kennedy doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy I’d want to share a beer and a brat with, or be stuck next to on a long flight. But I would like for the most influential swing voter on the Supreme Court to step away from his legal aerie, and wade through some of the muck that he and four fellow justices have given us with the 2014 campaign.

   How did we lose our democracy? Slowly at first, and then all at once. This fall, voters are more disgusted, more bored and more cynical about the midterm elections than at any time in at least two decades.

Don’t let a clueless out-of-touch rich white guy decide this election. Don’t get disgusted, get angry and vote in people who can change the rules in favor of democracy.

POLLS: Sam Wang’s analysis shows that a swing in the polls of as little as 0.4% would create a 50/50 tie in the Senate. That means that EVERY VOTE COUNTS and we should not concentrate on the polls but on the votes.

Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

PROGRAMMING NOTE – I will be publishing “Odds & Ends” next Sunday, but as I will be going away for the weekend: it may be a bit truncated (and the poll may well be cut-off too early for some late entries).

ART NOTES – an exhibition entitled In Living Color: Andy Warhol and Contemporary Printmaking is at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska through January 11th.

IN AN ESSAY on the BBC website, Melanie Chisholm (“Sporty” of the Spice Girls) pays tribute to an all-female big band during the WW-II era led by Ivy Benson – who endured rampant sexism – and yet isn’t well-known in Britain today, unlike (her contemporary) singer Dame Vera Lynn.

YUK for today – one of those omnipresent Buzzfeed surveys lets you know if your first name tends to be populated by liberals or conservatives – and or which “Ed” was slightly more conservative than “Edward”, I was surprised to see – with this money quote:

The liberal names generally sound like a group of women in their late 20’s; the conservative names sound like the members of a large bluegrass band from the 1930’s.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Flash the Cat – part of the ‘staff’ at London’s first cat café in Bethnal Green who was hit by a car  …. and while a donation campaign raised enough to pay for his surgery, it will leave him blind … and thus he will need a forever home.

DUE TO LAWS granting passports to those whose families were forced out of Germany, a number of Israelis have emigrated to cities such as Berlin (in part due to a lower cost of living) … and the trend is expected to grow if the Spanish Parliament grants nationality to Sephardi Jews (whose families were expelled from Spain in 1492).

HAIL and FAREWELL to a co-founder of the popular vocal group Manhattan Transfer, Tim Hauser – who has died at the age of 72.

FRIDAY’s CHILD is Garfi the Cat – a Turkish kitteh trying to horn-in on Grumpy Cat’s turf.

IN A STUDY by the National Bureau of Economic Research, those with more years of education are likely to be less religious – due to more rigorous math/science classes and increased exposure to analytical thinking – and less apt to use superstitious practices (such as horoscopes and good luck charms).

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

LAST NIGHT was the annual Keene PumpkinFest – a wonderful street fest here in New Hampshire with good weather and – in downtown – all was well. It did not set a record (which was last year’s total number of pumpkins) but was a festive atmosphere for all.

Except, alas, for some troublemakers at Keene State College – which is what you may (possibly) have seen on your television. Far from a majority of students and did not enter the downtown area …. but a troublesome situation that I hope doesn’t dash this event.

SEPARATED at BIRTH – publisher Steve Forbes and Senator Mitch McConnell.

   

…… and finally, for a song of the week ………………………… someone who began as a folksinger, dabbled in the blues and eventually became known as a country singer was Hoyt Axton – whose deep baritone/bass voice came to be heard on commercials, film and television. Yet his most enduring legacy was as a songwriter, whose works were covered by performers in a wide variety of genres. Record companies were unsure how to categorize his music. One catalog listed his music as unclassified – which his friends thought was an appropriate label.

The Oklahoma native was the son of a naval officer and an English teacher mother (who co-wrote the #1 hit Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis Presley). The family moved to Florida when Hoyt was age eleven where he studied music and began writing songs at age 15. He attended Oklahoma State briefly before dropping out to enlist in the Navy (as his father did) … which he realized was not his calling, saying “I was a terrible sailor, too. I couldn’t even tie a bow knot.”

After his discharge he moved to San Francisco and began playing at their coffeehouses in the folk revival of the early 1960’s, where early reviews described his style as being intense (compared to the clean-cut college kid performers he shared a bill with). He recorded a 1962 live album at The Troubadour (with the future Byrds star Roger McGuinn as a sideman) featuring such folk standards as “John Henry” and “500 Miles” … and also an original song Greenback Dollar – which the Kingston Trio soon had a hit with. Around the same time he made a guest appearance on the TV show Bonanza – beginning his career as a character actor.

In 1963 he released more recordings, then lost one of his best friends to a fatal drug overdose (and for which Hoyt had a battle with cocaine himself) … which led to his writing several songs about the subject that others have recorded, including “Snowblind Friend” (recorded by Steppenwolf) and also the No-No Song – a #3 US hit for Ringo Starr in 1974.

He continued with club appearances (including Hootenanny on television) through 1965, when he lost his recording contract for several years. He did receive a deal for a 1969 album on Columbia and became an opening act in the early 70’s for Three Dog Night, who heard him perform an original song he had written for a children’s television special (but was never used). Joy to the World became a #1 smash hit for Three Dog Night and helped revive his career. It is believed that he and his mother were the first mother/son combination to have each written songs that reached #1.

From the 1970’s until the early 1980’s he had a reasonably successful recording and touring career, with his most successful songs being “Boney Fingers”, When the Morning Comes (a duet with Linda Ronstadt) and his own highest-charting tune, 1979’s “Della and the Dealer” – yet another song about substance abuse.

His own music career began to fade in the early 80’s, and he became a more prolific actor – appearing in a number of good-old-boy guest roles on TV (such as Different Strokes, the Dukes of Hazard and WKRP in Cincinnati). Later he became in-demand for films, including 1979’s The Black Stallion and the father in the hit film Gremlins in 1984. One could hear him on television commercials, including Head for the Mountains for Busch beer and also for McDonald’s. And one saw him frequently on Johnny Carson (both as a singer as well as an actor).

He had one final comeback album in 1990 and then suffered a stroke in 1995, which he never recovered from enough to tour again. It surprised many (knowing of his anti-drug songs) to hear in 1997 that he and his wife were arrested at his Montana ranch for possession of about a pound of marijuana – both were given deferred sentences after his wife explained she bought it to help Hoyt relieve the pain and stress from his stroke (which eventually necessitated the use of a wheelchair).

Hoyt Axton died in late October of 1999 (nearly fifteen years ago) of a heart attack, and since he always maintained his ties to the Sooner State: was inducted (along with his mother) into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

Yet his true legacy are the songs he wrote that others performed (and often made famous). Besides the songs previously noted, others include “Never Been To Spain” (covered by Three Dog Night, Waylon Jennings, and Elvis Presley), “Sweet Misery” (covered by John Denver), “Lightning Bar Blues” (covered by Brownsville Station and Arlo Guthrie) and others who have covered his songs include Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings and Anne Murray.

   

The first time I saw the name Hoyt Axton was on the writer’s credits of the first Steppenwolf album. The Pusher became a big hit for Steppenwolf and was featured in the classic film Easy Rider in 1969. The lyrics purport to distinguish between a ‘dealer’ (for drugs such as marijuana) who “will sell you lots of fine dreams” … and a ‘pusher’ of hard drugs (such as heroin). The use of the word ‘Goddamn’ in the refrain apparently gave Steppenwolf some trouble in certain cities of the Bible Belt.

Interestingly, although Axton wrote the song in the early 60’s (following the fatal overdose taken by his friend) and performed the song on-stage – which is how Steppenwolf’s lead singer John Kay came to hear it – Hoyt Axton never recorded the song until after it became a hit for Steppenwolf. You can hear the Steppenwolf version at this link – and below is how Hoyt Axton recorded it, in a rock-oriented sound (unlike the solo, acoustic guitar style as he originally performed it) … with an even more sinister singing of the refrain than John Kay. Intense, to be sure.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), snuck around in the early morning hours Saturday to decree that stopping a Texas law which discriminates on racial grounds would be unfair to Republicans in Texas who have worked so hard to disenfranchise those who might vote against them.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote (another) scathing dissent which was also signed by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan.

Sadly, three votes to protect the right to vote  is as meaningful as zero votes on a court intent upon disenfranchising those who would vote against their preferred political party. It is not enough to be right, we need to win these, especially the obvious ones.

Justice Ginsburg harkens back to the mindnumbing disconnect from reality present in the majority’s Shelby v Holder ruling last year that struck preclearance from the Voting Rights Act. Chief Justice Roberts declared that we are now post-racial and there is no need to consider history, blahblah, pesky facts, blahblah. But, as Justice Ginsburg notes in her dissent “racial discrimination in elections in Texas is no mere historical artifact. To the contrary, Texas has been found in violation of the Voting Rights Act in every redistricting cycle from and after 1970.”

An estimated 600,000 citizens in Texas have not paid the 2014 version of the poll tax and will not have the required ids needed to vote this year.

THAT is how Republicans win: by denying the right to vote to those who are likely to vote against them. They can’t win on their ideas and this is the last desperate gasp of a party soon to become a minoritea. That moment will likely be delayed unless we can convince two more justices that the right to vote is a fundamental right under our constitution and that artificial barriers to voting should be stricken.

Really, how can they let this stand? Justice Ginsburg:

The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully dis­criminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitu­tional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hun­dreds of thousands of eligible voters.

Stop hurting America, SCOTUS. Give us back our democracy.

democracy [dih-mok-ruh-see]

noun

1. government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

The six page opinion is here: PDF. Transcript:

JUSTICE GINSBURG, with whom JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR and JUSTICE KAGAN join, dissenting.

I would vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the DistrictCourt’s final judgment enjoining the enforcement of Sen­ate Bill 14.

This case is unlike the Ohio and North Carolina applica­tions recently before the Court concerning those States’ election procedures.  Neither application involved, as this case does, a permanent injunction following a full trial and resting on an extensive record from which the District Court found ballot-access discrimination by the State. I would not upset the District Court’s reasoned, record based judgment, which the Fifth Circuit accorded little, if any, deference. Cf. Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U. S. 1, 5 (2006) (per curiam) (Court of Appeals erred in failing to accord deference to “the ruling and findings of the District Court”). The fact-intensive nature of this case does not justify the Court of Appeals’ stay order; to the contrary, the Fifth Circuit’s refusal to home in on the facts found by the district court is precisely why this Court should vacate the stay.

Refusing to evaluate defendants’ likelihood of success on the merits and, instead, relying exclusively on the poten­tial disruption of Texas’ electoral processes, the Fifth Circuit showed little respect for this Court’s established stay standards.  See Nken v. Holder, 556 U. S. 418, 434 (2009) (“most critical” factors in evaluating request for a stay are applicant’s likelihood of success on the merits and whether applicant would suffer irreparable injury absent a stay). Purcell held only that courts must take careful account of considerations specific to election cases, 549 U. S., at 4, not that election cases are exempt from tradi­tional stay standards.

In any event, there is little risk that the District Court’s injunction will in fact disrupt Texas’ electoral processes. Texas need only reinstate the voter identification proce­dures it employed for ten years (from 2003 to 2013) and in five federal general elections.  To date, the new regime, Senate Bill 14, has been applied in only three low­ participation elections-namely, two statewide primaries and one statewide constitutional referendum, in which voter turnout ranged from 1.48% to 9.98%.  The November 2014 election would be the very first federal general elec­tion conducted under Senate Bill 14’s regime. In all like­lihood, then, Texas’ poll workers are at least as familiar with Texas’ pre-Senate Bill 14 procedures as they are with the new law’s requirements.

True, in Purcell and in recent rulings on applications involving voting procedures, this Court declined to upset a State’s electoral apparatus close to an election. Since November 2013, however, when the District Court estab­lished an expedited schedule for resolution of this case,Texas knew full well that the court would issue its ruling only weeks away from the election.  The State thus had time to prepare for the prospect of an order barring the enforcement of Senate Bill 14.  Of greater significance, the District Court found “woefully lacking” and “grossly” underfunded the State’s efforts to familiarize the public and poll workers regarding the new identification re­quirements.  No. 13-cv-00193 (SD Tex., Oct. 9, 2014), pp.20, 31-32, 91, n. 398 (Op.). Furthermore, after the Dis­trict Court’s injunction issued and despite the State’s application to the Court of Appeals for a stay, Texas stopped issuing alternative “election identification certifi­cates” and completely removed mention of Senate Bill 14’s requirements from government Web sites.  See Emergency Application to Vacate Fifth Circuit Stay of Permanent Injunction 11 and App. H.  In short, any voter confusion or lack of public confidence in Texas’ electoral processes is in this case largely attributable to the State itself.

Senate Bill 14 replaced the previously existing voter identification requirements with the strictest regime in the country.  Op. 20-21.  The Bill requires in-person vot­ers to present one of a limited number of government ­issued photo identification documents. Ibid. Texas will not accept several forms of photo ID permitted under the Wisconsin law the Court considered last week.* (*Footnote: The District Court enjoined Wisconsin from implementing the law,the Seventh Circuit stayed the District Court’s injunction, and in turn this Court vacated the Seventh Circuit’s stay.  See Frank v. Walker, ante, p. 1.)  For ex­ample, Wisconsin’s law permits a photo ID from an in­state four-year college and one from a federally recognized Indian tribe. Texas, under Senate Bill 14, accepts neither. Nor will Texas accept photo ID cards issued by the U. S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Those who lack the approved forms of identification may obtain an “election identification certificate” from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), but more than 400,000 eligible voters face round-trip travel times of three hours or more to the nearest DPS office. Op. 18, 76. Moreover, applicants for an election identification certificate ordinarily must pre­sent a certified birth certificate. Id., at 70. A birth certifi­cate, however, can be obtained only at significant cost-at least $22 for a standard certificate sent by mail. Id., at 22. And although reduced-fee birth certificates may be ob­tained for $2 to $3, the State did not publicize that option on DPS’s Web site or on Department of Health and Hu­man Services forms for requesting birth certificates.  Id., at 70.

On an extensive factual record developed in the course of a nine-day trial, the District Court found Senate Bill 14 irreconcilable with §2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it was enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose and would yield a prohibited discriminatory result. The District Court emphasized the “virtually unchallenged” evidence that Senate Bill 14 “bear[s] more heavily on” minority voters.  Id., at 133. In light of the “seismic demographic shift” in Texas between 2000 and 2010, making Texas a “majority-minority state,” the Dis­trict Court observed that the Texas Legislature and Gov­ernor had an evident incentive to “gain partisan ad­vantage by suppressing” the “votes of African-Americans and Latinos.”  Id., at 40, 48, 128.  Cf. League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U. S. 399, 438-442

(2006) (Texas Legislature acted with a “troubling blend ofpolitics and race” in response to “growing” minority partic­ipation). The District Court also found a tenuous connec­tion between the harms Senate Bill 14 aimed to ward off, and the means adopted by the State to that end.  Between 2002 and 2011, there were only two in-person voter fraud cases prosecuted to conviction in Texas.  Op. 13-14. De­spite awareness of the Bill’s adverse effect on eligible-to ­vote minorities, the Texas Legislature rejected a “litany of ameliorative amendments” designed to lessen the Bill’s impact on minority voters-for example, amendments permitting additional forms of identification, eliminating fees, providing indigence exceptions, and increasing voter education and funding-without undermining the Bill’s purported policy justifications.  Id., at 35-37, 132 144-147. Texas did not begin to demonstrate that the Bill’s discrim­inatory features were necessary to prevent fraud or to increase public confidence in the electoral process.  Id., at 133; see also Id., at 113 (proponents of Bill unable to “articulate any reason that a more expansive list of photo IDs would sabotage” their efforts at detecting and deter­ring voter fraud). On this plain evidence, the District Court concluded that the Bill would not have been enacted absent its racially disparate effects. Id., at 133.  

The District Court further found that Senate Bill 14 operates as an unconstitutional poll tax-an issue neither presented by any of the recent applications nor before the Court in Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 553 U. S. 181 (2008) (upholding Indiana voter identification law against facial constitutional challenge).  See Id., at 186, and n. 4.  Under Senate Bill 14, a cost attends every form of qualified identification available to the general public. Op. 140.  Texas tells the Court that any number of incidental costs are associated with voting.  But the cost at issue here is one deliberately imposed by the State.  Even at $2, the toll is at odds with this Court’s precedent.  See Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections, 383 U. S. 663 (1966).And for some voters, the imposition is not small.  A voter whose birth certificate lists her maiden name or misstates her date of birth may be charged $37 for the amended certificate she needs to obtain a qualifying ID.  Texas voters born in other States may be required to pay sub­stantially more than that. Op. 71-74.

The potential magnitude of racially discriminatory voter disenfranchisement counseled hesitation before disturbing the District Court’s findings and final judgment.  Senate Bill 14 may prevent more than 600,000 registered Texas voters (about 4.5% of all registered voters) from voting in person for lack of compliant identification. Id., at 50-51, 54. A sharply disproportionate percentage of those voters are African-American or Hispanic. Ibid.

Unsurprisingly, Senate Bill 14 did not survive federal preclearance under §5 of the Voting Rights Act.  A three­ judge District Court unanimously determined that the law would have a prohibited discriminatory effect on minority voters. See Texas v. Holder, 888 F. Supp. 2d 113, 115, 138 (DC 2012) (Tatel, J.). Although this Court vacated the preclearance denial in light of Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U. S. ___ (2013), racial discrimination in elections in Texas is no mere historical artifact.  To the contrary,Texas has been found in violation of the Voting Rights Act in every redistricting cycle from and after 1970.  Op. 7. See, e.g., Texas v. United States, 887 F. Supp. 2d 133 (DC 2012) (Griffith, J.). The District Court noted particularly plaintiffs’ evidence-largely unchallenged by Texas- regarding the State’s long history of official discrimination in voting, the statewide existence of racially polarized voting, the incidence of overtly racial political campaigns,the disproportionate lack of minority elected officials, and the failure of elected officials to respond to the concerns of minority voters. Op. 3-13, 122-126, 144-147.

The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully dis­criminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitu­tional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hun­dreds of thousands of eligible voters.  To prevent that disenfranchisement, I would vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the permanent injunction ordered by the District Court.

Bolding mine.

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diaries give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

In lieu of daily check-ins, which have gone on hiatus, Welcomings diaries will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning) and then, if necessary due to a large number of comments, again on Wednesday or Thursday to close out the week. To find the diaries, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

…

When patent-lawyer and ex-Deputy Assistant Secretary at Obama’s Commerce Department, Ro Khanna, announced his intentions to run against incumbent Democrat Mike Honda, the national media was a buzz – a liberal with a high-tech sparkle running to represent Silicon Valley.  And with him, he brought some of Obama’s OFA team whose high-tech approach to GOTV was credited in Obama’s victory. The shiny new tech-savvy candidate who promised, “change”, dazzled many of the local progressives. The message and OFA-esque graphics were exactly what you would expect from Khanna’s campaign consultant, OFA hero Jeremy Bird.

Khanna got a quick fundraising boost from many high-tech corporate elites, no doubt they liked his pro high-tech talk and Commerce Dept. credentials. Of the approximately 1200 people running for congress in America, he is number 2 with big money donors.

Problems started when he found most of the Democratic voters in district 17 were not ready to let go of Mike Honda. Honda has devoted his life to the people of Silicon Valley. From his humble beginning as a high-school teacher, Honda was promoted to the school board before he was selected as a county, state, and finally congressional representative. Mike Honda has always been on the side of the working-class, fighting for the inclusion of all in the American dream. The affable Honda stood up against bullying and discrimination of all types. Why would we want to lose somebody about whom Rep. Barbara Lee recently proclaimed:

Mike’s progressive credentials are stellar. […] He’s introduced bill after bill promoting science education, including efforts to broaden the public’s knowledge of climate change. In 2010 he pushed for including a public option in the ACA, and has fought to expand the law ever since.

Rep. Barbara Lee CA13

Unable to build the Democratic support needed to unseat Honda, Khanna looked to fill the void. He eyed the 19% of Republican voters and made a sharp right turn in his outreach efforts, even willing to accept the help of the Tea Party Express and doing an “exclusive” interview for the far right website, Breitbart News. Neither he nor his staffers have shared the interview using their high-tech social media tools. Some might even think he was hiding it from his Democratic supporters.

Not only is Khanna willing to reach out to conservatives, he is also willing to use the dirty tactics of Republican strategist Karl Rove – throw out lots of accusations – even if they get refuted, just keep blasting them out because this puts the accused on the defensive, left to either ignore or defend against, neither are winning choices. The #CA17 twitter stream has become a sewer, clogged with Ro Khanna staffers tweeting out and retweeting each other’s exaggerated and discredited claims, which the Honda campaign wisely ignores.

Ro Khanna’s turn to the right has not gone unnoticed. In an effort to protect the federal seat, the state’s Democratic Party has paid to air Honda’s commercial for a week. Progressive groups like Howard Dean’s Democracy for America have taken to questioning Khanna’s new direction. Howard Dean himself recently got involved after seeing Khanna’s flyer calling Honda an “Old-School Liberal”, attacking Honda’s desire to repeal the “Bush tax cuts.”

Why would someone running as a Democrat attack a fellow Democrat for wanting to repeal the reckless Bush tax cuts? That’s the question I had after seeing Ro Khanna’s latest attack against Rep. Mike Honda.



George W. Bush’s tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible. At a time when the nation was at war — and when we had important investments to make here at home — President Bush pushed Congress to pass a huge and unprecedented tax cut that favored the rich and caused our national debt to soar.

Yet Ro Khanna is now attacking Mike Honda for opposing Bush’s disastrous tax cut. His congressional campaign is sending mailers to voters in California’s 17th District calling Honda an “old-school liberal” and criticizing him for wanting to do the right thing in repealing Bush’s tax cuts.

Being a “liberal” isn’t an insult, it’s a badge of honor — one shared by Senators like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. But there’s nothing good about supporting reckless tax cuts that benefited the super rich and exploded our nation’s deficit. Mike Honda showed true leadership and fiscal responsibility in pushing to repeal Bush’s tax cuts. It’s just one big reason why I endorsed Mike Honda.



As the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, it’s obvious to me that Ro Khanna is campaigning like a Republican. Real Democrats don’t use “liberal” as an epithet or attack fellow Democrats for standing up for progressive values like making sure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.



This race is a battle for the future of the Democratic Party. Don’t let Ro Khanna get away with moving our party to the right by attacking Democrats for standing up for our values.

Gov. Howard Dean, Founder

Democracy for America

If there is any doubt left in the minds of district 17 voters of who would really represent the working people of Silicon Valley, look to the many big money donors to which Ro Khanna will be beholden. Over a month ago I reported on a Super Pac that was created exclusively for Ro Khanna by millionaire donor Ash Chopra, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch. The Super Pac, Californians for Innovation, remained dormant until a few days after the October 1 FEC filling deadline, which meant the donors would remain hidden until the next filling deadline on October 15. The Super Pac has already spent over $150,000 and now we know where the money is coming from: $250,000 of the $390,000 raised by Californians for Innovation came from John Arnold, Texas billionaire, and natural gas trader of the defunct Enron Corporation.

According to the Mercury News, this is not Arnold’s first incursion into California politics. He spent $200,000 on San Jose mayor, Chuck Reed’s failed effort to get a pension reform measure on the ballot. And if you read Khanna’s recent comments on pension reform, blaming public workers for the crimes of Wall Street, Arnold’s reason for supporting Khanna becomes obvious. For any voter that lived through the rolling blackouts of 2000 and remember being blackmailed by Enron, this should be lights out for the Khanna campaign.

Howard Dean said, this is, “a battle for the future of” the Democratic Party; I would say this is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. The “hope” many had of Jeremy Bird bringing a progressive and modern campaign to CA17 was lost after reading his recent spin on Ro Khanna’s polling where he spent more time bashing fellow Democrat and local progressive hero Mike Honda than promoting Khanna. When Jeremy Bird and 270 Strategies analyze the results of this campaign, they may learn that it’s the candidate, not the campaign that wins elections. Ro is no Obama*.

* President Obama endorsed Mike Honda over Khanna early in the primary.  

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The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President discussed what the United States is doing to respond to Ebola, both here at home and abroad, and the key facts Americans need to know. There is no country better prepared to confront the challenge Ebola poses than the U.S. and although even one case here at home is too many, the country is not facing an outbreak of the disease. Our medical professionals tell us Ebola is difficult to catch, and is only transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is showing symptoms.

The President made clear that he and his entire administration will continue to do everything possible to prevent further transmission of the disease domestically, and to contain and end the Ebola epidemic at its source in West Africa.

Transcript: Weekly Address: What You Need To Know About Ebola

Today, I want to take a few minutes to speak with you-directly and clearly-about Ebola: what we’re doing about it, and what you need to know.  Because meeting a public health challenge like this isn’t just a job for government.  All of us-citizens, leaders, the media-have a responsibility and a role to play.  This is a serious disease, but we can’t give in to hysteria or fear-because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need. We have to be guided by the science.  We have to remember the basic facts.

First, what we’re seeing now is not an “outbreak” or an “epidemic” of Ebola in America.  We’re a nation of more than 300 million people.  To date, we’ve seen three cases of Ebola diagnosed here-the man who contracted the disease in Liberia, came here and sadly died; the two courageous nurses who were infected while they were treating him.  Our thoughts and our prayers are with them, and we’re doing everything we can to give them the best care possible.  Now, even one infection is too many.  At the same time, we have to keep this in perspective.  As our public health experts point out, every year thousands of Americans die from the flu.

Second, Ebola is actually a difficult disease to catch.  It’s not transmitted through the air like the flu.  You cannot get it from just riding on a plane or a bus.  The only way that a person can contract the disease is by coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of somebody who is already showing symptoms.  I’ve met and hugged some of the doctors and nurses who’ve treated Ebola patients.  I’ve met with an Ebola patient who recovered, right in the Oval Office.  And I’m fine.

Third, we know how to fight this disease.  We know the protocols.  And we know that when they’re followed, they work.  So far, five Americans who got infected with Ebola in West Africa have been brought back to the United States-and all five have been treated safely, without infecting healthcare workers.

And this week, at my direction, we’re stepping up our efforts.  Additional CDC personnel are on the scene in Dallas and Cleveland.  We’re working quickly to track and monitor anyone who may have been in close contact with someone showing symptoms.  We’re sharing lessons learned so other hospitals don’t repeat the mistakes that happened in Dallas.  The CDC’s new Ebola rapid response teams will deploy quickly to help hospitals implement the right protocols.  New screening measures are now in place at airports that receive nearly all passengers arriving from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.  And we’ll continue to constantly review our measures, and update them as needed, to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep Americans safe.

Finally, we can’t just cut ourselves off from West Africa, where this disease is raging.  Our medical experts tell us that the best way to stop this disease is to stop it at its source-before it spreads even wider and becomes even more difficult to contain.  Trying to seal off an entire region of the world-if that were even possible-could actually make the situation worse.  It would make it harder to move health workers and supplies back and forth.  Experience shows that it could also cause people in the affected region to change their travel, to evade screening, and make the disease even harder to track.

So the United States will continue to help lead the global response in West Africa.  Because if we want to protect Americans from Ebola here at home, we have to end it over there. And as our civilian and military personnel serve in the region, their safety and health will remain a top priority.

As I’ve said before, fighting this disease will take time.  Before this is over, we may see more isolated cases here in America.  But we know how to wage this fight.  And if we take the steps that are necessary, if we’re guided by the science-the facts, not fear-then I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak here in the United States, and we can continue to lead the world in this urgent effort.

Bolding added.

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From the White House Blog – Here’s What You Need to Know About Our Response to Ebola Right Now

Today, a health care worker from Dallas was transferred to Emory University Hospital for treatment after contracting the Ebola virus while helping to treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to have the disease in the U.S.

After meeting with his Cabinet officials and Dr. Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the President updated the country on our comprehensive strategy to contain the disease, prevent its spread in the U.S., and combat it at its source in West Africa.

“The dangers of a serious outbreak are extraordinarily low” in the U.S., the President said. “But we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government.”

The purpose of the meeting was to review exactly what happened in Dallas and how we can make sure it is not repeated.

Transcript: Remarks by the President After Meeting on the Government’s Response to Ebola

THE PRESIDENT: Well, obviously the news has been dominated by the diagnosis of a second health care worker in Dallas with Ebola. And in light of this second case, I thought it was very important for me to bring together our team, including our CDC Director, Tom Frieden, to hear directly from them in terms of how we are ramping up our efforts here.

Obviously, initially, we want to express concern for the two health workers who have been affected. Our nurses and our health care workers are absolutely vital to the health and wellbeing of our families. They sacrifice for us all the time, not just in this case but in the case of other illnesses that affect us. They are selfless, they work hard, they’re often underpaid. And so our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we have to make sure that we are doing everything we can to take care of them, even as they take care of us.

As a consequence, what we’ve been doing here today is reviewing exactly what we know about what’s happened in Dallas and how we’re going to make sure that something like this is not repeated and that we are monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what has taken place in Dallas initially and making sure that the lessons learned are then transmitted to hospitals and clinics all across the country.

First of all, what I’ve directed the CDC to do is that as soon as somebody is diagnosed with Ebola, we want a rapid response team, a SWAT team, essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible — hopefully within 24 hours — so that they are taking the local hospital step by step through exactly what needs to be done and making sure that all the protocols are properly observed; that the use of protective equipment is done effectively; that disposal of that protective equipment is done properly.

The key thing to understand about this disease is that these protocols work. We know that because they’ve been used for decades now in Ebola cases around the world, including the cases that were treated in Emory and in Nebraska. So if they’re done properly, they work. But we have to make sure that, understandably, certain local hospitals that may not have that experience are walked through that process as carefully as possible and we’re going to make sure that this rapid response team can do that.

In addition, we are reviewing every step of what’s happened since Mr. Duncan was initially brought in to the hospital in Dallas so that we understand exactly where some of the problems may have occurred, and doing a thorough canvass and inventory of all the workers who had contact with Mr. Duncan, including those who engaged in some of the testing that took place. We are now communicating all these various lessons to hospitals, clinics, first-responders around the country. And obviously given all the attention that this has received, we’re going to make sure that that provision of information is constant, ongoing, and being updated on a real-time basis.

In addition, we are working very carefully with the Mayor of Dallas, the Governor of Texas and others to make sure that in the event any other cases arise from these health workers, that they are properly cared for in a way that is consistent with public safety.

I know that people are concerned about the fact that the second health care worker had traveled. Here’s what we know about Ebola: That it is not like the flu. It is not airborne. The only way that a person can contract Ebola is by coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of somebody who is showing symptoms. In other words, if they don’t have symptoms, they’re not contagious.

What we are able to do, however, is to do what’s called contact tracing, so that anybody who may have had contact with someone — even if it was incidental contact, even if they weren’t showing symptoms — being able to identify who those individuals are and make sure that they are then being monitored in a way that allows us to make certain that the disease does not spread further. And that’s currently taking place in a very aggressive process conducted by the CDC, HHS, and the rest of our teams.

I want to use myself as an example just so that people have a sense of the science here. I shook hands with, hugged, and kissed not the doctors, but a couple of the nurses at Emory because of the valiant work that they did in treating one of the patients. They followed the protocols, they knew what they were doing, and I felt perfectly safe doing so.

And so this is not a situation in which, like a flu, the risks of a rapid spread of the disease are imminent. If we do these protocols properly, if we follow the steps, if we get the information out, then the likelihood of widespread Ebola outbreaks in this country are very, very low.

But I think what we’ve all learned over the last several weeks is that folks here in this country, and a lot of non-specialized hospitals and clinics, don’t have that much experience dealing with these issues. And so we’re going to have to push out this information as aggressively as possible, and that’s the instructions that I’ve provided to my team.

Just a couple other points. We are going to be monitoring carefully the health status of the other health care workers in Dallas. And obviously they’re concerned. We understand that many of them are scared. And we are going to make sure that we’re on the ground 24/7 to provide them the kind of support, information, and assurances that they need to get through this particular challenge.

And finally, we’re also going to be continually examining screening processes at airports. We’re making sure that in the event that we have additional cases that involve the need for transporting those patients to specialized hospitals, that those teams are in place and those facilities are in place. And we will make sure that on a day-to-day basis we provide the public with all the information they need and any updates about what has happened not just in Dallas but what has been done across the country.

I’ll end with this point: We are going to have to make sure that we do not lose sight of the importance of the international response to what is taking place in West Africa. I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak of the disease here in the United States, but it becomes more difficult to do so if this epidemic of Ebola rages out of control in West Africa. If it does, then it will spread globally in an age of frequent travel and the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders.

And so it is very important for us to understand that the investment we make in helping Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea deal with this problem is an investment in our own public health. This is not simply charity — although obviously it’s important that America takes the lead in the humanitarian crisis that’s taking place there — but it is also probably the single most important thing that we can do to prevent a more serious Ebola outbreak in this country is making sure that we get what is a raging epidemic right now in West Africa under control.

So for that reason last night I had a call with Prime Minister Abe of Japan to solicit greater support for the international effort. This morning I spoke with Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Renzi of Italy, President Hollande of France, as well as David Cameron, the Prime Minister of Great Britain to make sure that we are coordinating our efforts and that we are putting in a lot more resources than, so far at least, the international community has put into this process.

So bottom line in terms of the public: I want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting Ebola, the dangers of a serious outbreak are extraordinarily low. But we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government. And we are going to be able to manage this particular situation, but we have to look towards the future. And if we are not responding internationally in an effective way, and if we do not set up the kind of preparedness and training in our public health infrastructure here in the United States, not just for this outbreak, but for future outbreaks, then we could have problems.

So, in the meantime, I want everybody to be thinking about and praying for the two health workers that have gotten sick. Those who also treated this patient with compassion and care, we just want to say thank you to them. And we are going to be doing everything we can to make sure that they’re properly cared for.

Okay, thank you very much.

Bolding added.

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