Actually since there were 105,480,101 households in America in 2000 there are actually--by my calculations--about 97,041,692 reasons (or should I say households) to oppose the Fair Tax; or any sort of consumption tax.

Don't follow what I mean? I know, unfortunately at least a few supporters probably hope you don't.  I'll turn to the tax policy center and their online issue brief: National Retail Sales Tax: Who would bear the burden?

Under a national retail sales tax, the wealthiest households in the country would receive stunningly large tax cuts. Households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution have an average income of about $475,000. Their average tax cut would be $79,000, or more than the incomes of all but about 8 percent of households. Put another way, the roughly 1.1 million taxpayers in this top 1 percent would save a total of $87 billion on their taxes each year. This cut would be financed by tax increases on the bottom 92 percent of households. Households with income between $5,000 and $50,000 would face an average tax increase of over $1,000.

If someone turns to you and asks why you don't want the Fair Tax... "cause like its Fair" and "who would be against that."  Just smile and respectfully say...

"Speaking as just one of the 92% of us in this country who would actually get a tax hike from it... I'd have to say no its not, and no it wouldn't be."

crossposted at Speculative Fiction

UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? is a seven-part documentary produced by California Newsreel and aired nationally on PBS in late March and early April 2008.  This is a story about health, but it's not about doctors or drugs. It's about why some of us get sicker more often and die sooner in the first place. UNNATURAL CAUSES sheds light on mounting evidence of how inequities in our lives - the jobs we do, the wealth we enjoy, the neighborhoods we lives in - can get under the skin and disrupt our biology as surely as germs and viruses.  

Head on over to the NYTimes and check it out. Then leave a comment so they know how important this is to you.

http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/condoleezza-rice-teflon-no-more

Thanks! 

-Charles

Condi Must Go Campaign:

National Journal

Washington Post

The New York Times

Ed Fallon for Congress:

The Politico

Jimmy Dahroug for New York State Senate:

New York Daily News

Mark Leno for California State Senate:

The San Mateo Daily Journal

Enjoy.

Danny
Communications Director

Not in literacy,  not in standard of living, not in life expectancy, but in throwing people into jail.  The United States has more people in prison than any other country on the planet.  The New York Times reports:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Danny
Communications Director

 What a piece of work is man... the paragon of animals. The paragon of animals? Six thousand years of brutality, murder, and slavery. An animal does not do this to its own kind. Byron: [Hamlet]

This article is a rather harsh critique of deeper Failed Conservative Values.  In interviews, Richard Wagner told me he thinks thuggery is a failed conservative value and Herman Blackmon mentioned the lynch mob. I didn't think that either the lynch mob or thuggery were actually values. They seem more like manifestations of a value or perhaps of multiple values.

Sometime it's hard to know what is a value and what isn't.  The largest listing of values that I have found is the Union of International Associations - Human Values online.  They have a database of around 5,000 values. I checked and neither thuggery or the lynch mob are listed.

However, the dictionary definition of thuggery mentions both violence and brutality and they are listed as values.  Violence and brutality seem to work as the values behind the lynch mob as well.  We do see Failed Conservative Values of violence and brutality continuing to be  manifest in domestic violence, school yard bullies,  the beatings and killings of gays, the starting of an unnecessary war in Iraq and the ongoing conservatives support of torture.

Herman also talked about growing up in Texas and fighting against  violence backed segregation and working for the progressive value of justice. 

  Failed Conservative Values: Richard J Wagner on Thuggery

 Richard Wagner: Conservative values go back to the Romans, especially thuggery.  Those who are strong and can take what they want because they have the strength to do it.  This is a struggle going on for thousands of years. 

GOP challenges appraisers' grip on property tax -- OrlandoSentinel.com

Johnny Be Good Pew Research

CenterGrover Norquist says no to TBRC tax swap

Tax swap picks up more critics by Aaron Deslatte Orlando Sentinel

-GAO Says Bush Administration Violated Law on SCHIP ProgramAFL-CIO Weblog |

CSX deal evolving in the Senate by Aaron Deslatte Orlando Sentinel - Orlando Sentinel -

Lakeland residents rally against commuter rail plan by Mark Skoneki

CSX to invest $40M in local rail infrastructure - Jacksonville Business Journal

:Removing Mountains to Power DC « The Pump Handle

DFA-Endorsed candidate Joe Garcia (http://www.dfalink.com/campaign.php?id=2699) is running for Congress against Republican reactionary Mario Diaz-Balart in South Florida. Joe is running a people-powered campaign and has really engaged local DFA members.

Up on the Miami Herald blog is a video made by a volunteer for the Garcia campaign:

Go over to the Miami Herald blog and fill up the comments with words of support for Joe Garcia. Mario Diaz-Balart has never had a serious challenger and, with your help, we can put Joe Garcia over the top.

Danny
Communications Director

To restore native rain forests and offset the effects of climate change, earlier this month The Nature Conservancy initiated an ambitious fundraising campaign to plant 1 billion trees in the Atlantic Forest on the coast of Brazil.  Through years of accelerating deforestation, the Atlantic Forest has been reduced to only 7% of its former size.  It takes the Conservancy just one dollar to plant one tree.  In the three weeks since the campaign was launched, the Conservancy has raised over $252,000 - enough to plant an impressive 252,000 new trees.  Restoring the Atlantic Forest with 2 billion trees over the next several years will reestablish a crucial carbon sink.  Won’t you join me in celebrating Earth Day by supporting The Nature Conservancy’s Plant A Billion campaign?  As little as $10 or $20 will plant a small grove of trees that will create a lifetime of carbon sequestration.  Please donate whatever  you can to this worthy and necessary cause.  It's quick.  It's easy.  Just click the picture below:

For more information on The Nature Conservancy's Plant A Billion project, or to create a fundraising campaign for them of your own, go to:

http://www.plantabillion.org/ 

It doesn't sit well with me, on Earth Day in particular, that those who carry the mindset of entrenched authoritarian perspectives fashion themselves "Conservative" and Progressives politely adopt their vernacular.  We have done so thoughtlessly, like the television anchors who started to use the Republican party moniker for it's opponents even in the possessive (i.e. the Democrat platform rather than the Democratic platform).  Democratic sounds too,,,well, Democratic.  This isn't correct.  The only thing they wish to conserve is the status quo.  I'm leaping off of the double speak bandwagon.

Perhaps "Rightist" would be more proper.  Or "Traditionalist."  Or "Reactionary."  I'll have to keep working on it, though, Rightist rings pretty well true.

I do not object to conservative notions in a wholesale manner; not by a long shot.  I want to maintain and nurture the earth my children will inherit, for example.  I want it's vitality preserved and strengthened.  Rightists often don't, which means, of course, they aren't truly conservative.

I want to eliminate the glut with which we have all been deluded in this wealthy nation.  I want responsible behavior to guide my use of the abundance available to me.  That's conservative, but not rightist.

Words count and we CAN change those that roll out without reflection.  I know it's important, and I know this vocabulary ought be altered.  When I was very little, people didn't catch tigers by the toe.  It is significant that that will not even be understood by young posters.  For older readers my point is made; for younger ones...some things change for the better when there is a co-operative shift in what is reasonable to accept. 

My dad pointed out that the recent press release on McCain's gas-tax holiday for the Henry County Democratic party was a possibly antagonistic.

Jim Nichols, Chair of the Democratic Party in Henry County, responded today to John McCain's political pandering in a recent economic speech by the Republican nominee. In the speech, McCain called for a gas tax holiday.

For more on the issue you can go to a post I did on the Henry County Democrats site. Republican nominee. In the speech, McCain called for a gas tax holiday.

My dads comments were:

The opening sentence of the Release referred to John McCain's "political pandering". Right off the bat that puts off those that may not yet have formed an opinion on McCain - whether they be Dems or Repubs. To me, use of that phrase - outside of your quote - immediately discounts the rest of the Release - it's clearly one-sided and shrill. Can I really glean anything useful from it? (that's my reaction).

I think it's more powerful for that phrase to be in your quote. Something like: "This is simply political pandering by John McCain" That's legit for you to say that - but not for the text of the release to say that. The text of the Release should set you up, in a neutral way - not do your work.

For what it's worth...

Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

In my recent post DFA Training Works I said something that still sits with me as not quite accurate and fair.

Conservatives don’t care if the lady down the street has health care or not. Conservatives don’t care if our economy doesn’t work for working people. Conservatives want us to stay demoralized, sitting all alone in our houses, angry at the world. Conservatives want to tell people it’s a dog eat dog world, that people can’t trust the government. Every time we show up we challenge those conceptions to the very core of its vacuousness.

I can't really decide if I said it wrong, should have used other words, or kept it out all together. I know a number of Conservatives who do care about health care, about poverty, about all the things I speak about. They just disagree with me on the methods and approaches. I feel that they haven't looked very closely at the evidence and policy ideas surrounding those issues. And I feel they do not put up a great deal of effort in responding to my questions and challenges, aside from putting trust in Conservative leaders on TV and the radio.

On May 8, we have Ron Ennis who is Editor of the Lehigh Valley (PA) Labor Council, AFL-CIO newsletter and an American Postal Workers Union activist on the show. He is a great writer on union and political topics. Tentatively have Cindy Sheehan scheduled for May 1 at 8:35am. About her Congressional run against Pelosi. We have Steve Raysely , who is the Steelworkers (and PACE) Rapid Response Coordinator for eastern Pennsylvania, in the studio for the entire show.  April 24th in studio whole show: Dennis Hower, VP of Teamsters Local 773 http://www.teamster773.org/hower.html & Allentown City Council President Michael D’Amore.

April 17th we had Pennsylvania State Representative and candidate for Pennsylvania Treasurer Jennifer Mann on the first half of the show. Brad Friedman from Brad Blog http://www.bradblog.com/ was on at 8:40am.  April 10th- Sam Bennett http://www.bennett2008.com/ , Democratic Congressional candidate in the 15th District (Lehigh Valley) and Joe Long, Chair of the Northampton Democratic Party, Chair of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Democratic Caucus and retired UAW organizer were are guests on this show.  April 3rd- Joe Long (see April 10th for bio) was in the studio for the whole show. We were joined by IBEW National Rep. Paul Simon at 8:35 for the end of the show.

Democratic Talk Radio will have Jack Wagner, Pennsylvania State Auditor; Gregg Potter, President of the Greater Lehigh Valley Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America and Paul Tucker, Editor & Publisher of the Union News newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania on future shows.  We hope to soon announce the appearances of several talk radio show hosts (Rick Smith and Jerry Pippin have agreed to appear) and at least two other Presidents of very large international unions. Keep checking back for details!

I forgot to mention that Sam Lathem, President of the Delaware AFL-CIO and Senator Joe Biden have both agreed to be future guests. We are still working on a schedule for them.

Sincerely,

Stephen Crockett

Host, Democratic Talk Radio

http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com

After all these years and all this money, you would think the Bush administration would put some sort of priority on bringing regular water and power to  Baghdad.  If you thought that, you'd be wrong.  The New York Times reports:

Even as American and Iraqi troops are fighting to establish control of the Sadr City section of this capital, the Iraqi government’s program to restore basic services like electricity, sewage and trash collection is lagging, jeopardizing the effort to win over the area’s wary residents.

Danny
Communications Director

Karl Rove could only dream of a 61-year lock on power, but that is exactly what the Colorado Party had been able to do in Paraguay...until now.  McClatchy reports:

A former Roman Catholic bishop scored a historic win Sunday in this country's presidential election, ending the 61-year reign of what had been the world's longest ruling party.

...

Sunday's election ends a Colorado lock on power in this 6.8 million-person country that began in 1947, when the party seized control after a bloody civil war. The Colorado period also included the 35-year regime of dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who was ousted in a 1989 coup.

Danny
Communications Director

I'm starting a new series of articles on how Conservative Values have Failed.   It's obvious that conservative ideas and policies have failed, but the failures go even deeper to the very heart and essence of the conservative movement, to their Failed Conservative Values. In this series, we will pull back the mask of Conservative Family Values, Conservative Traditional Values,  individual freedom, individual responsibility, individual liberty, Compassionate Conservativism, etc. to reveal the underlying Failed Conservative Values of fear, authoritarianism, secrecy, dogmatism, greed, indifference, self-righteousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, etc.

I ask for your assistance to systematically build the arguments and tell the stories that reveal how Conservative Values have Failed. Join in our effort to create a documentary and book on the subject by contributing  articles, posts, chapters for the book and video clips. Check our website for more information and a growing outline of tasks that need to be done on this project.  http://progressivespirit.com/Projects/FailedConservativeValues
 

The first failed conservative value we will look at is dogmatism. I interviewed Barbara, Carole and Nina at a conference of Democratic Clubs in Los Angeles. When I asked them to contrast conservative and progressive values, they all talked about conservative dogmatism and rigidity. Conservative dogmatism starts with the beliefs first and fit the facts to support them. The war and occupation of Iraq is a case in point. If the facts don't fit the dogma, they are ignored.

 Failed Conservative Values: Barbara Levin on Dogmatism

This past Sunday, the venerable New York Times published a lengthy screed in which it was revealed that some twenty-two high ranking retired military men and one still on active duty in the Pentagon had been suborned to give false evidence, about the conduct and progress of the aggression against Iraq, to the electronic and print media.

To those of us who have been attentive to foreign press reporting, as well as a few unembedded independents like Dahr Jamail, that the truth wasn't getting through the major media filters is not news. Neither does the suborning of the pensioners come as much of a surprise. After all, the Bush Administration has made an art out of circumventing Constitutional limitations on the federal government by suborning private corporations to do its dirty work; of course for a hetfy price that we the people pay.

Nevertheless, that men who have sworn to honor the Constitution and serve the United States have lied to the public, not to protect the nation but to cover up malfeasance, comes as a bit of a shock. As does the fact that fully twenty-two are identified by name and rank.

One really has to ask, "Have you, at last, no shame, sirs?"

 America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.  Walter Cronkite

Patricia Player volunteers for  OneCareNow.org, the California single payer health insurance initiative.   I interviewed her at a street fair in El Cerrito, California where she was staffing the One Care Now booth. She didn't identify as being progressive because she doesn't like labels. She did talk about the value and importance of security and from her talk, I realized the relationship between security and caring. When people don't have health care and are feeling anxious and insecure, it causes them to become more concerned about themselves. When they feel secure, knowing they don't have to worry about having health care, it's easier for them to care about others. If progressives want to create a caring society, we need Single Payer Health Care.

Progressive Values Stories: Patricia Player on Security
 

National security is the fig leaf against freedom of information. 
Ralph Nader