fight back

NBC Chicago reported Judicial Watch and Drudge’s lies word for word on the Michelle Obama/Africa story, and none of the facts in the post below.

You can contact them – and ask that they report the truth – at:

Twitter

Facebook

Website contact form

tweet, email, call….

What is Working – see this link too at the site

get to work ;-)

Have you contacted Congress yet?

Contact details

Pass. The. Bill.

😉

Gallup

‘call to action’

You all know what brilliant work Linda has been doing at her What Is Working blog- she just left this message in the comments here:

Here is my CALL TO ACTION

1. Contact your elected officials and tell them you support the bill. Each day that goes by, it is easier to forget our focus, they expected calls Friday, they don’t expect them today. Tell Dems you expect their support, and tell Republicans it’s time to stop protecting the rich and help middle class families.

When you make a call or send an email, let us know here at the blog, just add it to the discussion so we can all be encouraged.

Contact details for members of Congress here

This will be a long fight, just like the election in 2012 is a long fight, we need to practice keeping our focus and doing the same things over and over.

****

I’ve added a link (just click that pic of the phone!) in the right sidebar to Linda’s contact info for members of Congress at What Is Working – you’re a gem Linda 😉

‘the devil is in the details’

Edited for Clarity: Congress finally has a deal on the table that may pass …. So, who won? Who lost? Is it a massive cave by the President and Democrats? Or is there something more to it?

In looking at the deal, folks on the left are acting outraged. Medicare takes some cuts, there’s no revenue component, it looks like the Republicans got everything they wanted. Indeed, Speaker of the House John Boehner says he “got 98 percent of what I wanted”. But did he? Here’s some of the details that say he might have some ‘splaining to do later:

Revenues: Democrats are upset that the deal does not include increasing revenues. But that’s not accurate. In fact, it virtually guarantees a revenue increase by the end of 2012. And Boehner knows it…..

See here for details

…. An interesting battle will start next year. It will begin to pit the military industrial complex against the bankers and million/billionaires. If the rich guys want to keep their tax cuts, 50% of it will come from military spending – contractors. That’s a big lobby to fight against. It will be fascinating to see how the spin starts to work there, as Republicans find their corporate benefactors are suddenly pitted against each other, and the American people get to see where the loyalties really lie.

Medicare and Social Programs: …. The area touched here has nothing to do with individuals. It’s all on the provider side. To be sure, this could have an effect on individuals, as providers may decide they don’t want to deal with Medicare if reimbursements are reduced, and this could reduce choice. But on the subscriber side, nothing changes. More importantly, the subscriber side is sequestered from further cuts, as are Medicaid and Social Security in their entirety.

Again, this is really a trap for the Republicans. With all of those areas off the table, where will they find cuts? And remember, they still need to cut an equal amount from defense as they do for anything else. Social programs are a large part of the budget. When you take them off the table, you remove major sources of budget reduction. Which means that cuts to other areas will have to be massive to have a chance at making a difference. So Republicans will have to sell Draconian slashes to areas such as education to be able to find enough budget to cut.

…. So, What Did It Accomplish?

A whole bunch. Pell Grants have actually been increased. The default scenario has been averted until at least 2013 with a debt ceiling raise. It did not require the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment. And the cuts that are included are backloaded, meaning that they come further down the line, when the economy is (hopefully) on a better footing.

Sure the President is taking heat on this now. But the focus can now be on jobs (on which there has not been a single piece of legislation), and Republicans who are gloating now may not be so cheerful when it comes time to make the cuts they demanded.

Full post here

Thank you Starmm

good grief, gop (part 7,273)

TPM: Wisconsin’s Republican Senate hopeful Ron Johnson got tripped up on a point of policy during a recent interview: Asked what the Department of Veteran’s Affairs’ responsibility is to homeless veterans, Johnson declared that his election fight against Sen. Russ Feingold is not “about details.”

The moderator pressed Johnson — a government skeptic — to explain exactly how the government should respond to the issue of homeless vets. “Are there specific things that you think need to happen within that galaxy of services, perhaps, that the VA has some responsibility for or other organizations that would help homeless veterans?”

Johnson responded, flummoxed. “Specifically I can’t really — I haven’t been there, I don’t have all the details. One thing I will point out: I don’t believe this election really is about details. It just isn’t. I mean as I’ve gone through the state of Wisconsin I’ve viewed this pretty much as a job interview…. I’ll have to get there. I’ll have to start performing the job.”

Remember, the election is not about details. It’s about……um……