PUAD -- Ponies United Against Dianne Feinstein.
The thundering herd of ponies, pooties, and kossacks and the rest of our brothers and sisters in the netroots are passing Dianne Feinstein by. She is a relic of another time in California politics -- a time when California was solidly red and we were glad to take any Democrat that we could get for the Senate. But now, the times have passed her by and she has failed to adapt or change with the times. Now is the time to find someone to replace her with in 2012.
And here is just one more instance of Dianne Feinstein ignoring the interests of her constituents. The current farm bill contains extraordinarily weak provisions as far as California is concerned. Yet, Feinstein and Boxer are both silent on this issue:
Ignored are the real entrepreneurs - the small crop experimenters and organic operations - who typify a nimble side of the sector that is changing the look of supermarket aisles and dining tables. These growers, who are pressing for research and marketing help but not subsidies, are getting left out.
The bill, which may be considered Wednesday in the Senate, dodges serious questions. Can it help ease obesity and poor nutrition by cutting subsidies for oil and starch laden crops? Do the billions in government aid violate free-trade agreements and invite retaliation? What can be done to slow trends in rural America that lead small farmers to sell to far-bigger producers who collect subsidies?
Do you hear the herd thundering? Times are passing her by.
Dan Quixote campaigns for Barbara Lee.
- She is awesome.
2.She is tremendously popular in her very politically active and ethnically diverse home district.
- She is well connected and well respected in the congress.
- She is not high enough in the House Leadership to garner blame for Pelosi's éclair imitation (and in fact has pushed very hard for Pelosi to find a backbone).
It will take Lee or someone else to get 50% before I throw my weight behind that person.
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The case against Dianne Feinstein
The Senators who caved in on FISA
Eliminated:
John Chiang
Ron Dellums John Garamendi
Sheila Kuehl
Bill Lockyer
Jerry McNerney
Rob Reiner
Frank Russo
Loretta Sanchez
Hilda Solis
Antonio Villaraigosa
Diane Watson
Steve Westly
Lynn Woolsey
This week:
Leonardo DiCaprio
New Nominee:
She is more progressive than her older Blue Dog sister. She has an advantage over Loretta in that she lives in a more progressive district and thus will not have to walk on eggshells so much in the event that she were to challenge DiFi. In addition to promoting solar energy in her district, she has this to say about the SCHIP veto:
"It’s shameful that a president and handful of Republican Congressmen -- who all enjoy government provided healthcare -- are preventing low income children from receiving their own healthcare coverage," Congresswoman Linda Sánchez said. "Conservatives, who rubber-stamped half a trillion dollars in war spending, fail their own compassion test by opposing this children's healthcare program."
The bipartisan State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has been endorsed by 43 state governors from both parties and more than 270 organizations, representing millions of Americans, including the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and Families USA. The program would provide healthcare coverage for 10 million children of low-income, working families with incomes too high to qualify for Medi-Cal, but too low to afford private insurance.
And while DiFi voted to override the veto, the fact of the matter is that she has enabled the right-wing machine that opposed the SCHIP expansion over the years on an ongoing basis, including making noises of support for Michael Mukasey recently.
The candidates:
This editorial characterizes her actions against ES&S as "overkill:"
While Ms. Bowen's attention to the state's electronic elections equipment is commendable, she needs to keep her focus on the most important point: Does it accurately record votes?
If the A100 and A200 AutoMark systems do that - and no one has claimed otherwise - there is no reason not to use them.
Ms. Bowen may wish to add some restrictions to ensure that accuracy, just as she did for other systems after last summer's review, including recounting votes by hand. And, if she still believes ES&S did not notify the state of the A200 changes, she might legitimately impose a modest fine.
But we would echo Monday's observation by Steve Weir, who presides over the state association of registrar of voters: This seems to be a technical violation that deserves "a measured response."
But whoever wrote this editorial has it all backwards. The burden of proof should be on the election machine companies to prove that their machines are tamper-proof, not the other way around. We all agree on the need to find ways to count votes faster. But that does not mean that we should take shortcuts on safety and security. Bowen is properly placing the burden of proof on ES&S to prove that they count votes. Her approach is proactive. The Vacaville Reporter editorial board's approach is reactive. We should not wait for the next Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004 in order to protect our elections from fraud and hacking.
Why we need Universal Healthcare:
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the arrest of four suspects involved in a $1.5 million "fake healthcare clinic" scam. The suspects created a health clinic and recruited people to undergo unnecessary medical tests, with the sole purpose of filing false claims with Medi-Cal and Medicare.
Commenting on the arrests, Attorney General Brown said, "The suspects create a fake healthcare clinic to line their own pockets rather than help the sick and elderly. These arrests send a strong message that this kind of rip-off will not be tolerated."
The 4 defendants, arrested yesterday morning at various locations in Los Angeles County, are: Richard Melkonyan, Akop Melkonian, Lilit Baghdasaryan, and Dr. Rito Castanon-Hill. Dr. Neil Hollander has agreed to surrender next week. David James Garrison remains at large.
The suspects operated Scott Medical Center in Burbank and hired two physicians, Dr. Hollander and Dr. Castanon-Hill, to create a front for a physician assistant who falsified records and billed for procedures not actually performed. The suspects recruited patients to undergo unnecessary exams and then the clinic operators and medical supply company billed Medi-Cal and Medicare.
The more that our healthcare costs spiral out of control, the more people will bilk people and taxpayers out of money to line their own pockets. If this problem is not addressed, we could see cases like this skyrocket.
Preventing lead poisoning in our children:
The Lead Program at the Mayor’s Office of Housing has cleaned up lead hazards in thousands of units occupied by low-income families with children, at no or very low cost to property owners. In 2005, the Lead Program at MOH received the award for excellence from the US Conference of Mayors, and has been successful in raising millions of dollars from the federal government in competitive grants due in large part to its high performance.
In addition to responding to cases of elevated blood lead levels, the Public Health Department and the Mayor’s Office of Housing conduct intensive public outreach and education to parents, pre-school teachers, property owners, painting contractors and construction workers, particularly in poor neighborhoods where lead poisoning rates are highest. Families who are low income, and have children under 6 years old who live or visit the home regularly can apply for free lead abatement services by calling the Mayor’s Office of Housing at 701-5500; both homeowners and renters can apply.
The Department of Building Inspection’s lead program enforces the lead safe work practices ordinances, which carry stiff fines for property owners or contractors who disturb lead-based paint without the proper precautions.
Attacking special rights for CEO's:
Lee’s legislation would limit the amount of executive compensation corporations can deduct as a legitimate business expense to 25 times the pay of a company’s lowest paid worker. If the legislation were in place, companies whose lowest paid employees earned the national average would be able to deduct $738,000 in executive compensation. For companies where the lowest paid employee earns minimum wage, the deductible compensation would be $304,200. Companies that wanted to pay their executives more could still do so by raising the pay of their lowest paid worker, and preserving the tax deduction on executive pay, or by paying taxes on the compensation above 25 times the lowest paid workers wages.
According to the Financial Times, a study released earlier this week by the National Association of Corporate Directors found that executives themselves believe that they are overpaid and blamed the lack of objective measures for evaluating executives’ performance. Almost two thirds of those surveyed said executives are paid too much.
In January, Lee joined with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Representative Mike Honda (D-CA) of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Representative Joe Baca of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to form the Congressional Out-of-Poverty Caucus.
When the CEO's themselves admit that they are overpaid, then that means that it is time for a change. Do you hear the sounds of the thundering herd?
Waters gets it:
Mr. Speaker and Members, I'm bothered by this request. I'm bothered by it because the President is playing politics with the issue. The President of the United States is saying, "I want this $46 billion and I want it now, and I want to use it for very necessary armor and equipment," because he knows that the Members of Congress do not like to be seen in a bad light, having folks believe that somehow they're not providing support for the soldiers. And he keeps testing the will of this Congress with these kinds of antics.
We know that the American public wants us out of Iraq. We also know the American public wants to indicate its support for the soldiers who are not there because they've decided that we would go to war, but rather, they answered the President's call because they are patriotic, many of them needed jobs, they needed resources, they needed money, so they're there.
Everybody supports the soldiers, but the President is trying to set us up. He is trying to set us up so that if we don't immediately vote on this $46 billion it will look as if we are not giving the soldiers the necessary equipment in order to wage the war. This is absolutely ridiculous.
Do you hear the sound of hooves yet?
Waxman on the uranium contamination in Navajo lands:
Today’s hearing is a variation of that theme. This morning we are looking at an instance where the government has never worked effectively. It’s been a bipartisan failure for over 40 years.
It’s also a modern American tragedy. For decades the Navajo Nation has been dealing with the deadly consequences of radioactive pollution from uranium mining and milling. Last year a superb series of articles in the Los Angeles Times described the impacts of the pervasive contamination. It has been devastating for the Navajo people and their lands.
The primary responsibility for this tragedy rests with the federal government, which holds the Navajo lands in trust for the Tribe. Our government leased the lands for uranium mining, purchased the uranium yellowcake produced from the mines to supply our nuclear weapons stockpile, and then allowed the operators of the mines and mills to walk away without cleaning up the resulting contamination.
The federal government’s responsibility dates back to the late 1940s when mining began under the Truman Administration. The contamination continued and remained largely unaddressed through the next ten Administrations, Republican and Democratic alike.
As we will hear today, the federal government has, over the past 30 years, taken some important steps to help the Navajo reclaim some of their lands. But, as we will also hear today, much contamination remains, both on the surface and in the groundwater. It is the federal government’s responsibility to see that this contamination is fully remediated.
The sound of the thundering hooves is that of time passing people like Dianne Feinstein and others like her by. Age is a state of mind, not a matter of physical characteristics. People like John Conyers, who is almost 80, and Robert Byrd, at almost 90, are still sharp in their minds and still powerful voices against the abuses of power of the Bush administration. But Bush, who is younger than DiFi is as old as one can get -- he does not adapt, or change, or grow.