us house

The U.S. House of Representatives could vote as early as this evening on funding for new nuclear weapons and missile defense.

Cross posted with dKos, Daily Kingfish

I am Gilda Reed and I am running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Louisiana’s 1st District to give my people the representation they deserve. All of us are Katrina survivors. We must have a Democrat who feels the pulse of the people. Republicans have held the seat for 30 years and it is time for a change. Government is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people—not a government created by the rich to protect their own interests. Over 90% of our Congress members are millionaires. I have no ill will for rich folks and can properly represent them. However, I do not know too many who have walked a mile in the shoes of my constituents. How can a person empathize when he/she is so far removed from our wants, needs and desires? A few courtesy visits, handshakes and empty rhetoric are not what we need. My people need me, one of their own, to fight for them.

Am I up to the task? You bet I am.

Does anyone see the irony in this?

US Rep Myrick is going to pull her account at Bank of America because of its credit card that illegals could use.... Myrick has typically been an advocate of the city's big banks,and her campaign reaps donations from their workers
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/115/story/57176.html

Myrick is going to move her accounts to Wachovia Bank.

Wachovia is in the process right now of offshoring 80% of its processing work to India. http://www.greensboro101.com/newswire/display/17418/index.php

I wonder if Myrick will be getting her donations from India?

Onslow County Commissioner and Republican Joe McLaughlin has come out frequently and harsh against North Carolina 3rd Congressional District's Walter B. Jones, Jr on his war stance. Commissioner McLaughlin was quoted in an article speaking against Mr. Jones' positions.

From the article.

Onslow County commissioner Joe McLaughlin said he is not surprised at the reaction, adding that many local Republicans are retired or former military and "know in their hearts that Jones' continued opposition" is "harmful to the troops."

"The action by Jones to sponsor the anti-surge resolution merely culminates his history of votes against the war on terror," he said, adding later that Jones is "kind of a Democrat in Republicans' clothing."

I know that the election for US House of Representatives isn’t for another two years, but people in the 5th District are already mobilizing and organizing for victory. Virginia Foxx is a disaster for our district, seen especially in her antagonizing votes against a minimum wage increase and the recommendations of the 9/11 committee, among others. In this district, it is never too soon to start to campaign against her, for her name recognition and fundraising abilities are formidable. Among several potential candidates (more on this shortly), I am writing to introduce the blogosphere to Ryan Eller.

It is important to begin with Ryan’s youth and vitality. It would be shortsighted, however, to think his young age brings inexperience. He was brought up in a politically active family in Ashe County. His father participated in the cabinet for the Governor of Kentucky, and Ryan himself was a page for the Kentucky House and interned in the Governor’s office. He has spent the last eight years trying working in campaigns against Foxx, even participating in Roger Sharpe’s campaign against her this last fall. Ryan’s love for and connection to Northwest North Carolina are apparent, as he has advocated and worked for the economic development of the region.

Looking at this gives this Charlotte Dem one other reason to hate Sue Myrick.

A Republican staff member warned congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page.

Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor in the House Clerk's office.

Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said the pages were told "don't get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff."

Based on this, it's a pretty safe bet that similar warnings about Foley were issued at the start of every Congress until now. Now, who in our delegation has been a member of the House leadership in that time frame? Yep, Sue Myrick--she's been a deputy whip since 2003.

Hello again, folks.

A couple of evenings ago I was BCCed on an e-mail that was sent to Rep. Charles Taylor's campaign headquarters. I asked him if he would mind my sharing it with the online community, and this morning he agreed, on the stipulation that his name be withheld. The following is quoted verbatim; I added superscript for footnoting purposes:

To whom it may concern:

My wife and I are helping take care of my nephew, and he was awakened by our telephone at approximately 9:03 PM this evening.¹ The "caller" was, in fact, an automated message from your campaign. This is upsetting because not only is it extremely difficult for my nephew to get back to sleep, but this call came up "Unknown" on my Caller ID. This is ironic, because if I recall correctly earlier this year, in June, Congressman Taylor was opposed to these exact kinds of phone calls, according to his "Capitol Connection" e-mail newsletter.²

To paraphrase Taylor's own advertising, "Oh boy. Here we go again."

These two ads aired today on WLOS, within ten minutes of each other during Jeopardy! The first one is a "scary brown people ad", and goes further toward Taylor's attempt at defining Shuler as being in cahoots with Pelosi, Dean and Hillary!:

This one's a "hooray for me!" ad, with lots of stuff that I hope people with more time than I have right now can either outright dispute or poke holes in...

If you are against Universal Healthcare/Single Payer Healthcare, your biggest enemy is Medicare. Medicare is an excellent single-payer system that covers a huge number of people with lots of serious medical conditions for a reasonable price and with low low overhead (2% versus 30%). So, if you are a Republican in the White House and in the Legislative Branch, what do you do?

You starve the program into submission. You don't come right out and say you are going to kill off Medicare, because no one will support that. But, you start trimming benefits here, making more paperwork there, donut-holes for you, and then you slowly undercut the whole program by making it unattractive to doctors. That is the secret plan if you will of the Republican Congress. Undercut medicare so that less doctors accept it, talk about what a lousy plan it is, and suggest privatization.
crossposted at CountryCrats

Well, the Republicans have decided to continue to fail at running this country. Faced with a health care crisis that threatens our economy, a Supreme court and presidential mandate of finding a way to lock up terrorists, and growing problems in Iraq; Congress has decided to cut and run from responsibility.
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