Boehner and the Republicans Didn't Win a Majority to Deny Our Care

By Ethan Rome,Executive Director, Health Care for America Now!
Huffington Post
Posted: November 3, 2010 11:22 AM

Here's a crucial fact that should not be obscured by the ballyhoo surrounding the shift in control of the House: Most of the Republicans who won last night got a lower percentage at the ballot box than the percentage of Americans who support the new health care law's requirement that insurance companies cover people regardless of pre-existing medical conditions.

That's why yesterday was hardly a repudiation of the health care law.

Furthermore, this election was clearly dominated by voter worries about the economy and jobs. Only 19 percent of voters named health care as their top concern, a distant second to the 61 percent most focused on the economy, according to CNN. There were winners and losers among both supporters and opponents of health reform. For example, more than half of the 34 Democrats who voted against the health care legislation still lost their races.

After a wildly toxic political debate over the issue, people are split over the larger question of "reform" and key components of the law enjoy overwhelming public support. Specifically, over the last several months, even as the public has been divided on reform, two-thirds of Americans have supported the outlawing of pre-existing condition exclusions (Anzalone Liszt Research poll conducted for the Herndon Alliance of 1,000 2010 likely voters, conducted April 19-25, 2010. Margin of error +/-3%). For example, while a recent New York Times/CBS poll showed the public split over on the new law, only one-quarter of repeal supporters stuck with their position when told repeal would mean that insurance companies would no longer be required to cover people with medical conditions or prior illnesses.


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Jimmy Carter: Fox News is ‘totally biased,’ implants ‘completely false images’

By David Edwards and Eric Dolan
Rawstory
Monday, November 1st, 2010 -- 10:00 am
   
Former President Jimmy Carter slammed Fox News Channel for their coverage of President Barack Obama and said the Tea Party does not realize it is financed by oligarchs.

"With the discussion groups, for instance, on Fox News, that are totally biased, and they implant completely false images not only of the facts about legislation that's passed, or doesn't get passed, but also about the character of President Obama," Carter told CNN's Howard Kurtz on Sunday.

Fox News' opinion shows cater almost exclusively to conservative audiences and the network has been a vocal critic of Obama since he won the election in 2008.

"When conservatives such as myself and others pointed out that we felt Barack Obama had radical ties and socialist, radical views, we were laughed at, made fun of, people thought we were too harsh on the president," Fox News' host Sean Hannity said in October. "Now a full, you know, 60 percent of the American people view him as socialist."

In July of 2009, another Fox News' host, Glenn Beck, claimed that the president had "a deep-seated hatred of white people or white culture."

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State Press TV Interviews Terry Goddard: VOTE "The Most Important Election of our Lifetime"

President Obama: "Don't Sit This One Out."

I am not voting Republican On Nov. 2; I Remember

Arizona in crisis, needs Democratic leadership

by Don Bivens -
Arizona Democratic Party chairman
The Arizona Republic

Oct. 31, 2010 12:00 AM

If you're an angry voter, you have every right to be. Arizonans continue to lose their jobs, their homes and even their hope. Our state's future is in the balance.

More than ever, we need strong, qualified leaders to get Arizona through this crisis. But we won't get those leaders without a thoughtful, race-by-race consideration of candidates up and down the ballot.

The state Republican Party, however, is hoping for your anger vote by default. They look at the same research we do, and they know, just like we do, that when independent-minded voters learn more about both sides of the ballot, these voters favor many of the Democratic candidates.

Because of this, they've tried to capitalize on voter anger by blaming the president and Congress for all of Arizona's problems. You've probably seen their national-themed attacks in TV ads and direct-mail literature. It's become almost absurd. I'm still trying to figure out what the president has to do with Arizona's mine-inspector race.

But there's a gaping hole in their logic: Republicans are the ones in power here in Arizona. We have a Republican governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature. In fact, the state Legislature has been in Republican hands for most of the past 40 years.

Arizona Democrats are outnumbered by Republicans, but our candidates often win because independents and moderates agree we represent the sensible center. Republicans know this, too, so they're trying to paint Arizona Democrats as something we are not.

I'm asking voters to reject Republican attempts to distort statewide races like attorney general or treasurer into referendums on national anger. I'm also asking voters to reject Republican attempts to nationalize our legislative races. These state and local races are about Arizona - about our schools, jobs and public safety. These are the priorities of Arizona Democrats.

Frankly, the Republican slate has done nothing to earn the tidal wave of support that it's predicting. Gov. Jan Brewer is managed by powerful lobbyists, and her "leadership" entails hiding from local media, fearmongering about Arizona, and passing off stimulus jobs as her own creation.

Tom Horne wants to be attorney general, yet he has a lifetime SEC trading ban and hid a past bankruptcy from the Corporation Commission. And Doug Ducey wants to be treasurer, yet he skipped tax payments on his Paradise Valley home, paying them back only after launching his candidacy. This is hardly the kind of leadership Arizona needs, especially during a crisis.

And then there's the Legislature. Having a Republican majority at our state Capitol comes at a price:

- Education: Arizona Democrats repeatedly fought against drastic, unnecessary school cuts that hurt our children's future and Arizona's economic recovery. But the Republicans in power approved more than $1 billion in cuts to our kids' classrooms.

- Jobs: Arizona Democrats want to create good jobs that can't be shipped across the border or to China or India. We demand accountability. If you're a corporation that gets a tax giveaway but you fail to create good Arizona jobs, you lose the tax break, and that money goes to our schools. But the Republicans in power have handed out millions in tax loopholes for big corporations without any accountability to create jobs.


- Public safety: Arizona Democrats oppose giving more control of state prisons to unregulated private corporations. But the Republicans in power continue to protect the private-prison lobbyists and their industry, which put our families at risk, as seen in the Kingman prison tragedy.

It's time for leaders who work for "We the People" - not for special interests. Arizona deserves better than a default vote in one direction.

So, learn a little more about the Democrat and the Republican in each race. And then practice a little anger management: Vote.

Don Bivens is chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. He is a partner at Snell & Wilmer LLP in Phoenix.

Read more:

Jessie Kelly claims Democrats are busing Mexicans in from across the border to vote.

Olbermann: Is Jesse Kelly High on Peyote?



Even GOP Secretary of State Ken Bennett says there is no evidence of voter fraud.
See AZ SOS: No Evidence Of Voter Fraud In Yuma County
TPM Muckraker

By Rachel Slajda | October 29, 2010, 1:37PM

     
The Arizona secretary of state this week shot down claims that a Hispanic get-out-the-vote group had committed voter fraud in Yuma County, in the race for the seat held by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D).

As we reported earlier this week, right-wing blogs were claiming that the SEIU-affiliated Mi Familia Vota had committed voter fraud by submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms to the county. But the group hadn't submitted new voter registrations -- instead, they were signing up already registered voters to the permanent early voting list, meaning they'd get an early ballot mailed to them every year. The top county elections official said that there was no evidence of fraud.

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Huppenthal Attacks U of A Ethnic Studies

The Arizona Capitol Times reported this morning that if elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Sen. John Huppenthal will use his seat on the State Board of Regents to fight against the U of A ethnic studies program.

Democratic candidate Penny Kotterman says that the Board of Regents should not be involved in curriculum. Regent Ernest Calderon agrees the Board is a policy-making body.

Huppenthal, who believes that the U of A ethnic studies program fosters “hateful attitudes toward America," also attacked the U of A Department of Education for being substandard.

Kotterman says that the U of A College of Education does not have a low rank as Huppenthal claims.

The article by Gary Grado  is subscription only at Arizona Capitol Times.

The Skinny: JESSE KELLY BULL**IT ARTIST

The Skinny by Jim Nintzel
Tucson Weekly
10/28/2010


Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Republican challenger Jesse Kelly finally met head-on in three debates last week, giving Congressional District 8 voters a chance to see the candidates face off ahead of the election this Tuesday, Nov. 2.

The Sierra Vista debate, where Libertarian Steve Stoltz was not onstage, showed off the starkest contrast between the two candidates, particularly when the future of Fort Huachuca came up. Giffords showed that she understood details about the fort’s needs, including the importance of protecting the San Pedro River, which is one of Southern Arizona’s vital waterways.

Kelly, on the other hand, said that the fort needed to be protected “at all costs,” but he didn’t get into the details—because he just doesn’t know them.

And that’s Kelly in a nutshell: Most of the time, he has no idea what he’s talking about, but the man can spew more bullshit than all of the cattle in Cochise County.

For a political rookie, Kelly has run one hell of a campaign. He won a tough primary fight, and he just might come out on top next week, if enough voters swallow his one-liners about freedom and liberty and the evils of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and how big-government liberalism and out-of-control spending is destroying the country.

He swears he won’t ask for earmarks for Southern Arizona’s military bases, universities or domestic-violence shelters—yet he cashes paychecks that come from a family business that takes tens of millions of dollars from government contracts that are funded with federal dollars, including earmarks and stimulus spending.

We sure wish we could get little bit of that tyranny in our lives.



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Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

Glenn Nichols, city manager of Benson, Ariz., last year two men came to the city "talking about building a facility to hold women and children that were illegals."

by LAURA SULLIVAN
npr.org
October 28, 2010

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.

Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.

"The gentleman that's the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger," Nichols said. "He's a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car   salesman."

What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.

"They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community," Nichols said, "the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate."

But Nichols wasn't buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?

"They talked like they didn't have any doubt they could fill it," Nichols said.




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HELP Nancy Young-Wright Fight Williams' SHOCKING, DECEITFUL TACTICS

October 27, 2010

My opponent, Vic Williams just sent voters in Legislative District 26 an incredibly misleading piece of campaign mail.  In this mail piece, Vic implies that University of Arizona President Robert Shelton has endorsed his campaign.  I have learned from President Shelton that this usage by Vic's campaign was not authorized.  ( Read Shelton's statement in the Arizona Daily Star here.  )

By using President Shelton’s good name, Vic cynically endangered Shelton's position as a nonpartisan community leader and treated the University of Arizona as nothing more than a prop for his reelection.

I recognize it is a bit unusual for a candidate to display their opponent's campaign materials, but you have to see this for yourself.  Click here for a copy of this dishonest campaign mail.

In this mail piece, Vic also falsely asserts that he is a supporter of education, the Science Foundation Arizona and First Things First.  These are just further examples of Vic's willingness to say one thing in Tucson while voting the opposite way in Phoenix.

I will not stand for this dishonesty, and I hope you will not either.

Consider these other specific examples of how Vic misleads voters:

Vic says he protected Science Foundation Arizona, but he caved to his Phoenix Political Bosses and voted repeatedly to defund it in the Appropriations Committee and on the House Floor. (HB 2001, 1/29/09; SB 1002, 1/31/09; HB 2005, 3/9/10)

It took a court ruling to get Vic and his Political Bosses to restore any of Science Foundation’s funding last year. The Foundation has received no state funding this year. (Arizona Republic, 11/18/09; Arizona Daily Star, 7/1/10)

While Vic brags about protecting First Things First – a voter-approved Childrens' Health Care and Early Education program, he could have single-handedly killed the effort to repeal this program.  Instead he chose to go along with his Phoenix political bosses.

Vic voted to repeal First Things First when it came before the House Appropriations Committee, while voting against repealing it on the House floor. There was no change in the language between the committee version and the floor version.

The bottom-line is that if Vic Williams would have voted against the legislation in Committee, it would have been a 6-6 vote and thus the repeal of First Things First would have died in Committee.  (HCR 2001, Appropriations vote, 3/9/10, HCR 2001, House floor vote, 3/11/10)

Vic calls himself a supporter of public education, but voted against our kids 68% of the time according to the nonpartisan Arizona Education Network. (Arizona Education Network)
He claims he was the “go-to-legislator” for the U of A, but in Phoenix he was the Political Bosses’ go-to-guy for $1.2 billion in cuts to universities and public schools. (HB2633 5/4/09, HB2001, 3/11/10, SB1002, 11/23/09, SB1006, 1/31/09)
I believe you will be as outraged as I am at Vic's deceitful and dishonest tactics.

If you are disturbed by this behavior and lack of ethics, I need your help NOW.  We are campaigning hard down to the wire and still need contributions to fight these shocking tactics.  If you contribute online, your donation will be available for voter contact these final days of the campaign.

Also, we need volunteers.  If you able to volunteer during the last days of the campaign, we need your help.  Send us an e-mail

Finally, and most importantly, tell your friends and neighbors registered to vote in LD 26 that I am the only candidate with a proven track record of standing up for our schools and kids.

Sincerely,

Nancy



PS: The Star just posted an article about this.And here is the rest of it.

Giffords Stands Against Kelly, One of Salon's 10 Most Terrifying Would Be Congressmen

The 10 most terrifying would-be congressmen

Slide show: One may have dry-fired a gun near his ex-wife, another may have gotten away with murder

 

By Justin Elliott and Mark Benjamin
Salon.com
10/25/2010 

• Next
• Previous
• 1 of 10

Jesse Kelly (Arizona, 8th District

In March, John McCain's spokesman declared that the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is "backed by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites." Evidently, that view is not shared by Jesse Kelly, the GOP hopeful who is now running neck and neck with Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 8th District. Kelly has embraced ALIPAC's endorsement and signed the ALIPAC pledge to "use the full power of my office, including impeachment if necessary" to secure the U.S. border.

The Anti-Defamation League agrees with McCain. "White supremacists and racist skinheads have encouraged their followers to engage in activity on behalf of ALIPAC," the ADL charged last year. The ADL has shown how ALIPAC President William Gheen portrays illegal immigrants as criminals who carry infectious diseases.

Message from Gabrielle Giffords

Yesterday Salon.com named my opponent as the #1 Most Terrifying Would-Be Congressman of the 2010 election cycle.  Trust me...it's not because of what he's planning to wear on Halloween.

Here's what we know about Jesse Kelly: he has repeatedly called for privatizing and eliminating Social Security; he promises that if elected he will eliminate the Department of Education, cutting over $1 billion from Arizona public schools; and now he states that  "it's our job to protect ourselves" from food contamination like the recent salmonella outbreak.   These are serious times for our country and we need leaders with logical solutions to the problems that we face.  The dangerous rhetoric presented by my opponent is truly scary.
 

Can you give $250, $100 or $50 now to ensure that the nightmare of an extreme right-wing agenda representing us doesn’t become a reality?
There is less than one week left until Election Day and I need you today.  This is our last chance to knock on doors, make phone calls, and remind our supporters to get out and vote.  We need to give it our all and your help is more important than ever.  Why? Because the alternative is too frightening to consider.

Thank you again!

Sincerely yours,
Gabrielle

P.S.  There is nothing scarier this fall than the prospect of my opponent's dangerous agenda representing us in Congress.  Your contribution of $50, $100 or $250 today will make all the difference in ensuring we are successful next Tuesday!