Democrats Unite! The age of real progress is at hand if we will only stay our course and diligently encourage others to join us in that giant leap forward for mankind.
In this thing the pundits call class warfare, the middle class is not the aggressor, we are the victim, we are the oppressed, and we lose more power with every Republican victory.
It is a mystery to me why so many everyday folks can be convinced, despite their own struggles, to vote for the party of "NO". Usually the victim knows they are a victim, but in this case, the right uses social issues to cloud the policy debate with emotion and real progress gets stifled.
If I may paraphrase, "What's the Matter With the Middle Class?" Why do so many of us vote against our own best interests?
Anyone who wonders why the uber wealthy are so intent on managing the media and owning our government, need only look to the profit those global corporations might lose if they are held responsible for the havoc they wreak on our environment and our health.
Every time a new regulation demands cleaner production methods for their products, the Koch brothers lose millions. They are the best example of Bush era beneficiaries, from the time they cozied up to the Bush administration to avoid hefty fines in 2000, until NOW, THEY HAVE MOVED UP THE FORTUNE 500 RICHEST BILLIONAIRE'S LIST faster than any other long term list members.
There is hardly a better example of a corporate entity that so efficiently converts political influence into cold, hard cash. For every dollar they spend on their pseudo-institutes and political astroturf , they get thousands in return, as the laws that could and should constrict their pollution are deferred to another day as a result of their pernicious anti-philanthropy in the guise of elitist think-tanks inhabited by well-paid pseudo-intellectual liars and cheats.
But, while they have their high-paid think-tankers, we have our grassroots events and our netroots blogs, like this one, from which to formulate our strategies and create and share our talking points.,
we must use these tools to the very best of our native abilities, to counter the unprecedented onslaught of special interest money being thrown at the political campaign machine, much to the delight and profit of our long-defunct 4th Estate.
It is up to all of us to overcome their money advantage with smart networking and diligent outreach. It is up to all of us to offer intelligent voters the reasonable alternative to the status quo. It is up to us to pose the truth that might overcome their lies.
Lets work together towards that end, and hopefully, our work will come to fruition very soon. There is no time to waste. Read More »
"Tennessee voters got the shaft today by a shameless group of Republican politicians bent on winning at all costs," Forrester said. "They evidently could care less about trampling on democracy. I hope voters understand they have been had by a group of politicians who cooked up an elaborate scheme to steal elections here in Tennessee.
"Their claim that this was only about saving taxpayer money is a bogus one. We have $35 million already set aside in federal funds to buy this equipment and train workers on it. To knowingly mislead the public about this issue is wrong and a disservice to the state."
State lawmakers overwhelmingly passed in 2008 the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, which requires all county election commissions to make the switch to optical scan machines and paper ballots before the November 2010 elections.
Last year, Secretary of State Tre Hargett spearheaded efforts to delay implementation of the law, claiming he could not find properly certified machines in time for the 2010 elections. The Senate failed to pass the delaying tactic, but Republican state Sens. Ron Ramsey and Bill Ketron vowed to delay the law at the beginning of this year's session, which began on Tuesday (Jan. 12).
"Some of the Republicans in the state Legislature's leadership were emboldened by what happened in 2008 when they gained majorities in both chambers," Forrester said. "So they figured the best way to maintain their majorities was to control who and how the ballots are counted."
The nonpartisan group Common Cause Tennessee even sued the secretary of state, state Election Coordinator Mark Goins and the state Election Commission for failing to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act. A Davidson County judge agreed with TVCA proponents and ruled in November "that the State is obligated to take prompt, effective steps to meet the statutory deadline using compliant voting systems."
"Yesterday's action by the Senate's Republican leadership just goes to show you how some of them think," Forrester said. "If you don't like the rules, change them."
Republicans now control all 95 county election commissions where many local election administrators have been replaced. A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the ousted election administrators, contending Republicans violated their constitutional rights by conspiring to treat their jobs as political patronage. The federal suit coincides with several other pending lawsuits filed in state chancery courts by individual county election administrators who were fired.
"I believe that the Republican leadership in the General Assembly is involved in a conspiracy to steal elections through intimidation, fraud and denying basic constitutional rights," Forrester said. "Mr. Hargett, Mr. Ketron and Mr. Ramsey should be ashamed of what they have done."
###
Contact: Keith Talley
TNDP Communications Director
615-327-9779 (office)
keith@tndp.org
Talk about losing ALL claim to "Fair and Balanced."
I certainly do do see them offering Al Gore or Howard Dean the same kind of deal. FOX NEWS looks like a way to finance Republican hacks to spew Republican talking points 24/7 and call that BS news.
Everyone should publicly denounce the deal unless Fox News gets either Howard Dean, Al Gore or someone of their status from the Democratic side a show on the network.
One of the villains was an easy and obvious choice. Fox News commentator and author Glenn Beck wins a Democratic Talk Radio Villain of 2009 Award for unashamedly spreading lies, myths and innuendos with no conscience.
The Editor of Buzzflash.com Mark Karlin wins a Democratic Talk Radio Hero of 2009 Award for unselfishly devoting all his time and energies to debunking them. The role the Internet played in counteracting the corporate dominance and bias in the realm of political news in 2009 cannot be overstated.
Paul Krugman wins a Hero Award for his role of speaking truth to power in his multiple roles as economist, New York Times columnist and Book author. Congress and the Obama Administration should be listening to him in dealing with the current economic crisis. Every American citizen should read his recent book The Conscience of a Liberal. It will help you understand the current economic crisis, healthcare reform and much more.
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) wins a Villain Award for politicizing national security and putting every American flying on a commercial airline at risk by placing a hold on the confirmation of the head of the TSA. His rationale for this action is nearly as outrageous as the action. He does not want TSA employees to have the right to unionize and bargain collectively for better pay, benefits and working conditions. DeMint claims that TSA would not be as effective with a unionized workforce. Exactly why having demoralized, underpaid workers doing security screening at airports will make us safer escapes all of us here at Democratic Talk Radio. Union haters abound in Republican Right circles but DeMint has taken his bias to dangerous extremes.
The entire Republican Party power structure and the few corporate Democrats undermining healthcare insurance reform in America collectively win a Democratic Talk Radio Villain of 2009 award for their outrageous public behavior, serving corporate interests instead of the public good and lying to the American public. Single-payer, government provided healthcare should have been seriously considered as a policy option but was not because of these villains. The final bills passed by both houses of Congress are much weaker than they should have been (although the House version does have a better funding mechanism and a weak public option provision). Americans will suffer and die as a result of the actions of these villains by the millions in coming decades! Jobs will be lost because American businesses will still be paying for health insurance while foreign competitors will not.
Former Vermont Governor and DNC Chair Howard Dean wins a Hero Award for publicly speaking the truth during the healthcare insurance debate. Unlike the Republican medical doctors serving in Congress, Dr. Dean understands and lives by the medical ethical slogan “do not harm.” This ethical standard should be applied in both the medical and political fields.
For more information, please contact Democratic Talk Radio at demlabor@aol.com or by phone at 443-907-2367.Our website is http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com .
The current healthcare insurance reform debate has highlighted for everyone how much the balance of power has shifted in terms of public debate against the interests of American workers and towards the interests of giant corporations. Corporate media has not given a real voice to labor leaders who represent the millions of American workers most heavily impacted by this issue. Right Wing talk radio has distorted elements of the issue, the process and relevant facts beyond all recognition. Most of the opposition to real change from the American public comes from not hearing the truth. Lack of balance in this debate reveals the one-sided nature of corporate media.
Why was single-payer, universal healthcare deemed “off the table” when it is the norm in nearly every other industrialized nation in the world? It was corporate power! The corporate media deemed it “radical” and working Americans had no effective voice in framing the debate. We will all suffer as a result.
Corporate power killed the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. This means that the public airwaves are solely being used even in political terms for private profit. Since corporations have huge spending advantages over their workers’ organizations (labor unions), workers have been effectively shut out of the public debate. It has impacted politics, government policy and American working family living standards for decades.
The relative lack of effective working families-oriented media has resulted in awful government policies that have ruined American manufacturing, killed Americans in unjustified wars and by denying healthcare, gutted pensions, legalized predatory lending, polluted our environment, weakened civil liberties, curtailed voting rights and given the wealthiest of the wealthy near veto rights over government policy. Instead of government acting as a check and balance to international corporations it far too often has become a tool of them. The ruination of the American economy has assisted the excessive concentration of wealth in our nation and weakened American democracy.
We cannot reverse this anti-working family, anti-American democracy course without getting our message to the American people. We must create a media network to help offset one-sided corporate media. Labor radio certainly will play a key role if it survives!
Progressive organizations and individuals inside and outside organized labor must find a way to help struggling labor radio programs survive the current economic crisis. Will they? I do not know the answer. Read More »
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Please Join.
ALL NIGHT LONG THERE WERE SACRED PRAYERS AND SONG FOR MY GRANDPA'S HEALTH AND WELL BEING. HE WAS ADMINISTERED THE MOTHER SEED PEYOTE AS THE PRAYERS AND SACRED SONGS WENT ON ALL NIGHT LONG. HIGH UP IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE SANTA ISABEL RESERVATION.
Through the night until morning he took many teaspoons full of powdered mother seed and washed down with peyote tea. He was up all night on his ironwheeled horse. The experience for me was a highly memorable one. The sacred fire in the circle was kept going all night by the fireman, and the Roadman blessed him and I many times with Eagle feathers. As the Roadman prayed to Grandfather Spirit to cleanse the cancer from my Grandpa's body. The Roadman Glen Justky came all the way from a rez north of Casa Grande Arizona and he brought with him family members to assist with the entirety of the sacred ceremony.
I felt blessed just from being as one with our people and to have been under a beautiful starlit night on a mountain top as the coyotes serenaded us with their song, to have heard the crow of the roosters and see the birth of a new wonderful sunrise which became the first day of the rest of my Grandpa's life. He will live longer because the mother seed will cure him from his cancer, and Grandfather Spirit Creator of all will not allow my Grandpa to go home to Grandfather Spirit before his time.
I feel as if I have become one with all of our people and happy to be home.
If you have any family members going to Vail elementry School, of Temcula Unified School District, you should be aware that there is a breakout of th swine flue and that it has been kept under wraps as far back as early June.
The first cases should have been reported to the CDC in Washington D.C. and Bethesda Maryland CDC.
It was not for obvious reasons. However since my little brother was exposed at the school and contracted the disease we are now all under order and guide lines from the CDC to stay Quarantined for the next 10 days. Two people have died from the disease in the County of Sandiego in the past month.
The Swine Flue is lethal if not treated.
The school district was not particularly in a hurry to make the report. Their main concern is to avoid a money loss from the federal subsidy they recieve for each child. My grandfather Dine' Warrior made a call to the CDC office in Washington DC and henceforth was passed on to the direction of the Bethesda Maryland office.
The School District of Temecula has not made it public to the parents of all the other students in the school.
Many of those children have brothers and sisters that go to middle School and Great Oaks Highschool. The disease can become a major epidemic if not properly handled. The sad part is that not all people have proper medical coverage and can not afford to take their children to the hopital emergency room to get treatment. The latter are the ones that may end up dead, and all because some money hungry school districts only care about the money and not the health of the students.
The Native American communities donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school districts in their areas every year, from Gaming on the Rez. I ask myself is it right for our people to be forking out money to the school districts if this is going to be their attitude. I do not think so. My grandfather Dine' Warrior will be going on a crusade to stop this practice, and to make it known to the shool districts that all children go there to recieve an education and not to be put in harms way by money grubbers, who do not care what happens to the children in their trust. No child should be exposed, Native American or other. I am writing this blog under guidance and direction of Grandpa Dine' Warrior.
The CDC is now aware and making sure that guide lines are being followed and will be watching closely that this type of behavior does not repeat, Grandpa Dine' Warrior is going to stay on top of this situation along with the CDC.
Under-age future voters should have the chance to learn about the parties and their platforms. However there is little interest from the adult voters when it comes to seeing what we think about regarding politics. It seems that the only time we are taken into consideration is on election years and major campaigns. When it comes to canvassing areas for adults in local state and national campaigns we are asked to participate. We end up doing a lot of the dirty work along with the footwork. After the election is over it is as if we no longer exist.
I ask the enlightened here, if you have any ideas or suggestions on the matter, to come forward and make your views heard.
I say please give us a fair taste of the mainstream politics and better educate us on the matter so that those among us whom are apathetic can become genuinly interested and do our civic duty gladly as we progress and mature. We are mostly affected because we technically have no say.
We work gladly doing what is called the dirty work in the hope of having our needs met through proper representation. Sadly after the elactions we are not taken into any consideration at all.
It is the hope of a majority of youths that we are given a true taste of politics, so that the apathetic become more engaged and interested enough to cast real ballots when they turn 18. What do you think?
If I am wrong please correct me?
Respectfully
Little Dine' Warrior
indnslist.org was founded by Kaylyn Free of the Shoshone Nation for the soul purpose of assisting Native Americans in reaching their goals to become public servants. If you believe you are made of the right material to become an honest public servant get in touch with Kaylyn. Her foundation is strictly to help and asist Native Americans recieve the support and preparation to be launched to public service after taking part of the internship offered by the indnslist.org.
I myself will become an intern with indnslist upon graduating from highschool and turning 17 years of age. Internship is for a minimum of two years at the Morongo Nation Rez.
The organization is not limited to youths, but also adults that are running for office at whichever level, from among Native America.
Todd Gloria from the Alaskan Tribes is now a public servant in the City of San Diego. He is one of the alumni from indnslist, and truly a success story. He is not the only one.
Take care all and may the Great Spirit shower you with blessings.
Sincerely your friend.
Respectfully Little Dine' Warrior
I do ask that all elders and adults on this site blog on this group as often as possible.
As the future leaders of America, we can not achieve our goals without the advice of the well versed and enlightened on this site.
I pray the Great Spirit Bless you all.
Very Rerspetfully
Little Dine' Warrior.
http://www.democrats.org/page/group/NationalDemYouthCaucas
http://www.democrats.org/page/group/NationalDemYouthCaucas
When I become 17 I will be going for my Political Science internship with the Morongo Nation and upon completion I will be launched for my first Public Servant job by indnzlist.org.
I pray the Great Spirit illuminate me and guide me so that I can become a good public servant and a dedicated servant to my fellowman, Native American as well as All citizens of our great nation.
I have joined just about as many groups as possible on this site. It is part of my political science major course of study. I hope that I am not removed from the groups, for not being an immediate local. However I have many family members all over our nation and specially among Native America all over. reason for which I joined these groups. We keep in contact and urge our fellow Native Americans in the areas to support fully the Dem candidates in your states and districts. May the Great Spirit Creator Bless you all.
Special greetings to grandma Spirited Donna, Vydia, Maryanne and all the mutual friends of my mentor and myself, Grandpa Dine' Warrior. Your friend always.
Sincerely Little D.
The Head Pow Wow Woman Mrs Arnita Swanson will be one of the Honored guests at the Pow Wow.
Arnita is better known as Grandma Sioux.
I hope that those of you that live in Southern California will honor us with your presence. I also extend the invitation to those of you that happen to be visiting Southern Calif to come join us.
I am very proud of my grandson Little Dine' Warrior, he has grown considerably and is a very patriotic and respectful young warrior. He is a long time member of the JRAFROTC and is quite active in the community visiting hospitalized veterans at the local VA hospital.
He has also recieved recognition from the VA Volunteer Services Director and staff for his unselfish involvement bringing a smile to many Hospitalized Vets that are in the Community Living Section of the Va, whom for the most part have no family left to care for them.
I hope that you can all attend the Pow Wow At the Sycuan Rez 11 th through the 14th of September 2009..
May the Great Spirit Bless you all Highly.
I am still in fasting and preparation for my Peyote Cleansing Ceremony coming up on the weekend of the 21st of this month. I have faith the mother seed Peyote will cure me of my terminal Cancer.
My Little Dine' sends his regards to all here, the best people that ever graced our mother Earth. The Democrats and their leadership.
Dine' Warrior.
To many of you here at this point I may be a stranger, however there are still many here whom remember me. I am the Grandfather of Little Dine' warrior.. I still have stage four cancer and will soon be cleansed through the Native American Church of my cancer with the mother seed Peyote.
This event will take place on the third weekend of August at the Santa Isabel Reservation. I invite all of my Native American friends here to join me for my ceremony. If you are from afar and will be in the area at that time I will be highly honored if you can attend. If you are from near the area and are able to attend I will also be highly honored.
Regardfless of the situation whether you are able to attend or not due to previous engagements or the imposibility of attending, I will still be praying for all of you as I will be for all my family and close friends so that they can recieve blessings from the Great White Spirit Creator and always walk with beauty before you, to the back of you, above you and below you to the right of you as well as your left.
I will be praying that all your troubles go away and the great Spirit shower you all with health, love, happiness and that you have all your needs met. This invitation is not only for the Native Americans whom I have befriended here on this site, it is also for all non natives whom are here. I extend welcome and wish blessings and all good tidings to the new mwmbers of the Party Builder.
I pray that those of you that remember me drop me a note or comment on this invitation, and I offer my humble friendship to all the new people here. Little Dine Warrior is at my side now and he sends his best regards to all here and wants to make it known to all new members of the party builder he would enjoy their friendship in his humble friendship network.
MAY THE GREAT WHITE SPIRIT CREATOR OF ALL BLESS YOU.
SINCERELY YOUR FRIEND, DINE' WARRIOR.
Post Data
For directions to Santa Isabel Reservation drop me a note. I will give you all the necessary info, or call me at cell 619 399-6626
Sickened at the prospect that a victory for reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the Iranian presidential election might have led to better relations with the United States, neoconservatives here and their fellow war hawks in Israel are celebrating the dubious victory of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yes, this is true: Right-wingers in America and Israel don't want peace with Iran, nor do they want anyone to get the impression that President Obama's efforts at engagement with Iran might actually work, nor do they give a damn about the Iranian people. Mad Mahmoud is the man neocons love to hate, and they're as happy as clams that their guy found a way to steal the election.
Had Mousavi won the Iranian election as many in Iran and around the world hoped, it would likely have signalled a new and more positive direction for U.S.-Iranian relations as well as providing support for the "Obama Doctrine" of engagement with Iran and others in the Muslim world with which America's relations have been troubled. Such a development would at the same time have undercut the neocon attitude of hostility and suspicion toward Iran, as well as undercutting the right-wing Israeli government's aggressive stance toward Iran. As we know, neocons can tolerate peace only when it is imposed with an iron fist or the heel of a jackboot, and the prospect of peace through diplomacy in the Greater Middle East must surely have given them nightmares the rest of us could scarcely imagine.
In the run-up to the Iranian election last week, Daniel Pipes of the right-wing Middle East Forum came right out and admitted in a speech at the right-wing Heritage Foundation that he would actually vote for Ahmadinejad if he were allowed to vote in Iran (video). This speech was followed by a June 12 blog post by Pipes in which he reiterated that he was "rooting for Ahmadinejad" based on the twisted logic that the fundamentalist clerics who really rule Iran will always be our enemies and it's better to have an Iranian president we can really hate than "a sweet-talking Mousavi" who lulls us into thinking we can be friends. Never mind the aspirations or even basic human rights of the Iranian people; never mind anyone's desire for peace in the Greater Middle East. I've long had a pretty strong distaste for Daniel Pipes, but following this admission I'm more convinced of his utter vileness than ever. This is, after all, a man who has publicly advocated for the profiling and internment of Muslims in America, and who considers Israeli and Palestinian existence mutually exclusive (see Sourcewatch). As we leave the age of the neocons behind, I look forward to watching Pipes and others like him slide into the bitter, drooling irrelevance and oblivion they deserve.
The American Enterprise Institute's equally malignant Michael Rubin likewise told Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review that it might be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a Mousavi win might give Obama and the rest of us the impression that diplomacy was actually working. Painting Iran as inherently and hopelessly evil, Rubin said of the Iranian election that should Mousavi win "it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger." James Taranto strikes a similar tone in the Wall Street Journal, warning against the "eagerness to see Obama's feel-good foreign-policy approach succeed."
Now that the Iranian election appears to be over, right-wingers will be tripping over themselves in the rush to use Ahmadinejad's victory against Obama. In fact, once and future Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney has already piped up, saying that Ahmadinejad's win is proof that Obama's "policy of going around the world and apologizing for America is not working." These losers obviously have nothing left but the hope that Obama will fail, or can at least be said to have failed. I look forward to watching Romney and his party lose again in 2012.
Right-wingers in Israel, meanwhile, have been making noises very similar to their American bedfellows, and appear to see nothing good for themselves in any warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran, as observed by M.J. Rosenberg at TPM. From Israel in the run-up to the Iranian election Yaakov Katz wrote in the Jerusalem Post that members of the Israeli defense establishment were "silently praying" for an Ahmadinejad victory, fearing that a Mousavi win would result in decreased pressure on Iran and its nuclear program. Now that Ahmadinejad appears to have successfully stolen the election, Israeli officials and their allies in America are calling for renewed pressure on Iran. Meanwhile, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff write in Haaretz that an Ahmadinejad victory is actually preferable for Israel because a Mousavi win would only "paste an attractive mask on the face of Iranian nuclear ambitions."
I suspect we'll hear more of this in days to come from eager neocons on both sides of the Atlantic. Obama's policy of engagement will work, however, and is working, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to his Cairo speech, by the Lebanese election results, by the reform movement in Iran, and by the likelihood that Ahmadinejad kept his office only through vote-rigging, suppression, and intimidation. Obama will succeed, and once he has neocons like Daniel Pipes can take up residence in the dustbin of history where they belong.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
As Iranians go to the polls to elect a president, American neoconservatives are openly rooting not for moderate reform candidate and former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi but for anti-U.S. hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This is an obvious sign both of the neocons' preference for conflict over peace between the U.S. and Iran and of the generally bankrupt state of conservatism in America, reduced now to banking on failure for the Obama administration (see Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow).
Should the reformist Mousavi win the Iranian election and become president, it would likely signal a new and more positive direction for U.S.-Iranian relations as well as providing support for the "Obama Doctrine" of engagement with Iran and other adversaries. Such a development would at the same time undercut the neocon attitude of hostility and suspicion toward Iran, as well as undercutting the right-wing Israeli government's aggressive stance toward Iran. Indeed right-wingers in Israel like those in America appear to see nothing good for themselves in any warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran, as observed by M.J. Rosenberg at TPM and Yaakov Katz at the Jerusalem Post.
The unpleasant fellow you see pictured here is Daniel Pipes of the right-wing Middle East Forum, a raging neocon who said in a speech this week at the Heritage Foundation that he would vote for Ahmadinejad if he were allowed to vote in Iran (video). The American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin likewise told Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review that it could be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a Mousavi win might give Obama the impression that diplomacy was working. Painting Iran as inherently and hopelessly evil, Rubin said of the Iranian election that "should someone more soft-spoken and less defiant -- someone like former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi -- win, it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger."
Without so openly rooting for Ahmadinejad, other neocons are playing down the significance of a possible Mousavi victory, obviously worried that a shift in power will signal a fresh start for U.S.-Iranian relations that could leave American and Israeli hawks out in the cold. The same right-wing pundits who constantly point out Ahmadinejad's bad behavior as reasons to confront Iran now argue that it doesn't matter who the president of Iran is. Martin Peretz wrote at the New New Republic: "We've known for a long time that elected leaders do not carry the weight of those who have been anointed." Ilan Berman likewise wrote at the American Spectator: "Whoever ends up becoming president will have little real power -- and even less influence over Iran's geostrategic direction."
The prospect of peace in the Greater Middle East must give sociopaths like these nightmares the rest of us could scarcely imagine.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
Shawna Forde, leader of Minutemen American Defense, is one of three individuals arrested June 12 by sheriff's detectives in Pima County, Arizona, for the murder of a Mexican American man and his nine-year-old daughter.
Based in Washington State, Forde's group is one of several border militia groups nationwide that refer to themselves as "Minutemen," including also the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, of which Forde is also a former leader. Profiles on Forde and her anti-immigrant activities are available from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
According to authorities, Forde and her two accomplices, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola, broke into the home of Raul Flores and his family in Arivaca AZ on May 30th, apparently in the commission of a robbery. The invaders reportedly shot all three members of the Flores family who were present at the time, killing the father and daughter and leaving the mother wounded. While Bush is the suspected gunman in the shootings, investigators say Forde was the mastermind of the operation. Nine-year-old murder victim Brisenia Flores is pictured here from the local Green Valley News:
Forde is listed as the National Executive Director of Minuteman American Defense on the group's website, and the Arizona Daily Star reports that Bush, nicknamed "Gunny," is the group's Operations Director. The three are charged with two counts of first-degree murder in addition to burglary and aggravated assault charges.
The Minuteman American Defense website and blog contains numerous photos of Forde and friends at Minuteman and "Tea Party" events, including an Apr. 15 event in Phoenix at which Forde's favorite protest sign was one reading "Stop the Obama-Nation of America." The site also includes descriptions of immigrants as violent criminals, drug addicts, and "Subhuman Mexicans." Here is a photo of Forde in full border vigilante gear from the Anti-Defamation League:
Forde's mother tells the Everett WA Herald that she was not surprised to hear of her daughter's arrest since she had previously talked of staging home invasions: "She sat here and said that she was going to start a group where they went down and start taking things away from the Mexican mafia...," Forde's mother recalled, "...She was going to kick in their doors and take away the money and the drugs." Forde's mother also says that her daughter called her a few hours after the shootings May 30 and reported that she was taking refuge in a "safe house" in Arivaca: "I'm in hiding," Forde told her mother, "You won't believe what is going down here.... The mafia, they are kicking down doors and they are shooting people and they are looking for me."
Pima County sheriff's lieutenant Michael O'Connor told the local Sahuarita Sun that the killings were an "assassination," and said the killers were also looking for Flores' other daughter, who was not at home at time of the killings. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, meanwhile, said that Forde as "at best a pyschopath" (KOLD, KOMO, KVOA, Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
Under pressure from the private medical industry Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has flip-flopped on the public health care option she once supported. In a letter to Health Care for America Now (HCAN) dated April 11, 2009, Landrieu clearly stated her support for a public insurance option. This week, however, Landrieu withdrew her support for the public option, saying "I don't think it's the right way to go."
Landrieu's reversal on the public option can only be the result of pressure from the medical industry, including the American Medical Association (AMA), insurance, and pharmaceutical interests dedicated to keeping health care in for-profit hands. As the Huffington Post observes based on figures from the Center for Responsive Politics, Landrieu has collected a career total of $1,668,693 in campaign contributions from private health insurance and health care interests. This total includes $607,616 from "health professionals" (i.e., the AMA), $401,731 from insurance interests, $269,645 from hospitals and nursing homes, $224,696 from the pharmaceutical and health products industry, and $165,005 from health services/HMOs (see also Think Progress, Blue Herald).
Tell Senator Landrieu what you think of Democrats who act like Republicans, betraying the people they are sworn to serve in favor of big-money special interests. Louisiana residents can use a contact form at Landrieu's official website. Residents of other states and/or those who don't want to mess with the form can e-mail Landrieu directly at: senator@landrieu.senate.gov.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
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